Trunk Excersises Needed

I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well. Rather
than work on just one part, I want to work on the whole Trunk.But I
don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

pigo wrote:
I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well. Rather
than work on just one part, I want to work on the whole Trunk.But I
don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Ski more and wiseguy less.

pigo wrote:
I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well. Rather
than work on just one part, I want to work on the whole Trunk.But I
don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Add crunches to whatever exercise regimen you
are currently doing.

Also there is a leg stretch with resistance
which is designed to strengthen your soaz
muscles which are the upper leg (femur)
flexors. Glutes are the femur extensors.
The soaz is the long muscle that runs up
inside your rib cage in back. In a beef it's
the loin or rib-eye.

This from my osteopath:
Lie on the edge of the bed or better a massage
table with your legs hanging off and the edge
just about at your hip joint. You need to be
high enough off the floor so that you feet don't
touch. Allow your leg to dangle. Have someone
apply resistance just at the point where it
won't "straighten" any more. Push against the
resistance with hopefully 50% muscle power for
8 seconds. Relax. 3 reps. At each rep the resistance
point will be further down (closer to the floor).
The above is mainly for flexibility. Bicycle,
real or stationary is great for glutes and soaz
groups as well as hams and quads.

Much beyond this you are into upper body work,
which can be of help, but skiing IS a leg sport.

On this subject, I once skied a "powder day" here
in Vermont (yeah, I know) where the powder was
fairly wind packed. Had on a pair of Snow Rangers
which let me get down the wind scoured (read
icy) headwall at the top to where the pow was
heavy but fairly decent.

After some few fairly good turns, I over rotated
a turn, applied too much turning force to the
skis, got crosswise to the slope, fell forward
and stretched every muscle in my abdomen.

I was black, blue and purple from my sternum to
my crotch and in quite a bit of pain the next day.

If I had been in better shape, I believe the injury
wouldn't have been so severe. Do I do crunches
religiously? No. And I'm not in much better shape
now than I was then (7 or 8 years ago).

VtSkier

On 2005-02-03, pigo penned:
I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well. Rather than
work on just one part, I want to work on the whole Trunk.But I don't know
what to do. Any suggestions?

I hate ab exercises, but have been exposed to a wide variety of them in all
sorts of martial arts classes. I guess core strength is important for martial
arts, too, except when I started, they didn't call it "core strength."

Crunches are obvious. You can work your obliques somewhat by doing modified
crunches in which you twist on the way up.

Leg lifts on your back. There are all sorts of variations. Straight leg
lifts in which your legs never touch the ground, or circles with your feet
about 6" off the ground. You may find it easier to do these with your hands
under your butt for balance.

Or, lie down on your side with your feet wedged under something, or being held
by a willing partner. Then simply lift upper body so that it stays sideways.

I did a neat one the other day where I was hanging from two loops on exercise
equipment. My upper arms were pressed against the loop, so no grip strength
required. While hanging, lift your legs to your chest as many times as you
can. It's better if you don't touch the ground in between.

You can also work your abs while doing other things. For example, you can do
a bench press with dumbells (one in each hand, lifting evenly), but instead of
using a bench, you have your lower back on one of those big rubber exercise
balls. I found this one really cool, so naturally I never remember to do it
=/ Or do squats against the wall, with an exercise ball between you and the
wall, so that you have to use your ab muscles to steady yourself.


--
monique
Longmont, CO

Bad, bad, bad. NORTY.

However, this strong core thing is very interesting, pilates is growing.
years ago, when my back was stuffed and the doctor was suggesting a spinal
fusion was the next step (in my 20s), my physio (after stabilising it with
traction and other mobilisation work and drug therapy) got me doing long,
hard, heavy sessions in the gym, with my guts crunched tight the whole time.
I had to do teh full range of work: lots of weights work on all body bits,
lots of trampoline balance work, beating up the heavy bag, all with my guts
clenched. well, it worked. I believe they are more crafty and targetted
nowadays, doing things with swiss balls (mine is a computer seat at the
moment) to increase the core working with every bit of the body, rather than
being just another isolated bit.

ant

"VtSkier" wrote in message
...
pigo wrote:
I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well.
Rather than work on just one part, I want to work on the whole
Trunk.But I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Add crunches to whatever exercise regimen you
are currently doing.

Also there is a leg stretch with resistance
which is designed to strengthen your soaz
muscles which are the upper leg (femur)
flexors. Glutes are the femur extensors.
The soaz is the long muscle that runs up
inside your rib cage in back. In a beef it's
the loin or rib-eye.

This from my osteopath:
Lie on the edge of the bed or better a massage
table with your legs hanging off and the edge
just about at your hip joint. You need to be
high enough off the floor so that you feet don't
touch. Allow your leg to dangle. Have someone
apply resistance just at the point where it
won't "straighten" any more. Push against the
resistance with hopefully 50% muscle power for
8 seconds. Relax. 3 reps. At each rep the resistance
point will be further down (closer to the floor).
The above is mainly for flexibility. Bicycle,
real or stationary is great for glutes and soaz
groups as well as hams and quads.

Much beyond this you are into upper body work,
which can be of help, but skiing IS a leg sport.

On this subject, I once skied a "powder day" here
in Vermont (yeah, I know) where the powder was
fairly wind packed. Had on a pair of Snow Rangers
which let me get down the wind scoured (read
icy) headwall at the top to where the pow was
heavy but fairly decent.

How do you expect me to take anything you say seriously when you
through in an obviously fabricated yarn like the paragraph above?

After some few fairly good turns, I over rotated
a turn, applied too much turning force to the
skis, got crosswise to the slope, fell forward
and stretched every muscle in my abdomen.

I was black, blue and purple from my sternum to
my crotch and in quite a bit of pain the next day.

I got bent over backwards on a high speed (50 mph?) water ski crash
one time with the same result. What really sucked was that it was the
first full day of a 5 day Lake Powell Houseboat trip. For most of the
trip I needed assistance to get up out of a chair. And I couldn't
"take care of business" for about 4 days!

If I had been in better shape, I believe the injury
wouldn't have been so severe. Do I do crunches
religiously? No. And I'm not in much better shape
now than I was then (7 or 8 years ago).

VtSkier

I always skied myself into shape. That doesn't work anymore. I'll be
much more into hangin' with the group this time.

pigo.

Sure.

Pack a trunk with everything you will need to ski for a week. Boots, skis,
thermals, backpack, etc. Including a change of clothes for everyday. Maybe
throw a couple of books in to read if it starts raining. Pick this up and
carry down the stairs and around the block.

Repeat by carrying it around the block with the other hand. You can call
that 'the wife's trunk' if it helps.

Carry it back upstairs. Repeat 10 times.

Make sure you use a trunk that doesn't have wheels.

For added realism, throw the trunk in the middle of the street and kick it
to the other side of the street and back. Call this the "airline bagage
handler" exercise. It really helps to get the heart rate up just like
looking out the window of the airplane and seeing your trunk dropped of the
bag cart and shoved onto the plane.


Sorry - I couldn't resist.


"pigo" wrote in message
...
I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well. Rather
than work on just one part, I want to work on the whole Trunk.But I
don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

"lal_truckee" wrote in message
...
pigo wrote:
I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well.
Rather than work on just one part, I want to work on the whole
Trunk.But I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Ski more and wiseguy less.

I haven't found that to strengthen either abs or lower back. I
thought you knew about that stuff?

pigo wrote:
"VtSkier" wrote in message
...

pigo wrote:

I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well.
Rather than work on just one part, I want to work on the whole
Trunk.But I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?


Add crunches to whatever exercise regimen you
are currently doing.

Also there is a leg stretch with resistance
which is designed to strengthen your soaz
muscles which are the upper leg (femur)
flexors. Glutes are the femur extensors.
The soaz is the long muscle that runs up
inside your rib cage in back. In a beef it's
the loin or rib-eye.

This from my osteopath:
Lie on the edge of the bed or better a massage
table with your legs hanging off and the edge
just about at your hip joint. You need to be
high enough off the floor so that you feet don't
touch. Allow your leg to dangle. Have someone
apply resistance just at the point where it
won't "straighten" any more. Push against the
resistance with hopefully 50% muscle power for
8 seconds. Relax. 3 reps. At each rep the resistance
point will be further down (closer to the floor).
The above is mainly for flexibility. Bicycle,
real or stationary is great for glutes and soaz
groups as well as hams and quads.

Much beyond this you are into upper body work,
which can be of help, but skiing IS a leg sport.

On this subject, I once skied a "powder day" here
in Vermont (yeah, I know) where the powder was
fairly wind packed. Had on a pair of Snow Rangers
which let me get down the wind scoured (read
icy) headwall at the top to where the pow was
heavy but fairly decent.


How do you expect me to take anything you say seriously when you
through in an obviously fabricated yarn like the paragraph above?

Yeah, I know. It does snow around here from time
to time and you'll note that I did not compare our
"powder" to anything Ootah might produce.

After some few fairly good turns, I over rotated
a turn, applied too much turning force to the
skis, got crosswise to the slope, fell forward
and stretched every muscle in my abdomen.

I was black, blue and purple from my sternum to
my crotch and in quite a bit of pain the next day.


I got bent over backwards on a high speed (50 mph?) water ski crash
one time with the same result. What really sucked was that it was the
first full day of a 5 day Lake Powell Houseboat trip. For most of the
trip I needed assistance to get up out of a chair. And I couldn't
"take care of business" for about 4 days!

I hear that. I expect the water skis dragging behind
you with the rope in front of you was almost exactly
the experience I had.

If I had been in better shape, I believe the injury
wouldn't have been so severe. Do I do crunches
religiously? No. And I'm not in much better shape
now than I was then (7 or 8 years ago).

Oh, and that 7 or 8 years ago is a clue as to how
often we get powder.

VtSkier


I always skied myself into shape. That doesn't work anymore. I'll be
much more into hangin' with the group this time.

I've found that as long as I'm in cardio-vascular-
pulmonary reasonable shape so that I'm not puffing
at the end of a blue run, I can fake the skiing until
the muscles get strong. The CVP condition I try to
maintain with a bicycle in the off-season.

VtSkier

pigo wrote:
I've heard that a strong abdomen is essential for skiing well. Rather

than work on just one part, I want to work on the whole Trunk.But I
don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Add strength training to your routine.

Ab work is great as well. Crunches are good, as are push ups, weighted
squats, lunges, wall sits, and a variety of choices at your
neighborhood gym. I can't do any of it now, so I'm feeling my muscles
turning into fat as we speak. Bleh.

Remember, that there is no such thing as spot reducing, so overall
fitness it what one should try to achieve.

Martha