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#1
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using more muscles to help climb
For lots of years I never thought there was any special "techniques" for
climbing up on skis with skins. I thought it was just a matter of developing strong quadriceps and gluteus muscles, and training them with lots of ski-climbing or similar-to-climbing exercises. This year I started thinking there might be some "tricks" to using more muscles to help take some of the load off my main leg muscles to make climbing easier. (Or racer could add new sources of power to climb overall faster). Below are the tricks I've found so far -- what are some others? * Arms + poles: This is the obvious thing to add -- consciously push harder with the arms -- using the tricep and shoulder muscles. Extra "wrinkle" I've tried adding: I "wing" my elbow out to the side, so I can also use my inward-shoulder-rotator muscles help drive my pole-push. * Forward-Hip-rotation move: Instead of just stepping the next foot forward, rotate the pelvis about the vertical axis so that the next hip moves forward up the hill. This means that the hips+pelvis will turn to "face" toward the side of the current leg-push. Another way to think of this is to make the "step" as if the leg were attached high to the rib-cage. (This move enables taking just a long a stride without requiring so much range-of-motion and load on the gluteus hip-extensor muscles. It engages some abdominal + lower back rotator muscles, like the obliques?, to contribute to forward-upward-propulsion power). * Knee-drive Ankle-flex move: Flex the ankle more forward by driving the knee down and forward. (This brings the hips forward, so the same stride-length can be taken with less load on the hip-extensor muscles. It engages the shin muscle to contribute more to forward-propulsion power). * Torso-twist move: If I twist my torso toward the side I am currently poling on, then resulting move of my shoulders backward (and somewhat downward?) helps drive the pole-push -- using some upper-abdominal / chest muscles which otherwise have nothing to do. (Note that this torso-shoulder rotation is opposite to the hip-pelvis rotation -- so I cannot maximize both at the same time. My strategy is to give priority to the legs and the forward-hip-rotation move -- the pole-push and torso-twist get only the left-over of the rotational range-of-motion) My experience was that I didn't get much benefit from using these new muscles during the first month or so. I think I was still learning to coordinate it all. And I think it took a while for the new muscles to develop enough endurance and strength to keep on sustaining significant extra power for a long enough time. But after a couple of months I found that I could do three big touring days in a row, where before I would have needed a rest day after each big touring day -- so I think the strategy of taking load off my main leg muscles at normal speed is working. (Then I had a chance for a shorter day, so it felt good to try using the extra muscles to climb at much higher speed, and it felt like I was zooming up the hill for a while.) Ken |
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#2
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Ken Roberts wrote:
* Arms + poles: This is the obvious thing to add -- consciously push harder with the arms -- using the tricep and shoulder muscles. Extra "wrinkle" I've tried adding: I "wing" my elbow out to the side, so I can also use my inward-shoulder-rotator muscles help drive my pole-push. I quite often push off the tops of the poles directly with the heels of my hands once I've passed the shaft on a steep ascent as I find loading the strap with your arm behind you is a bit less effective. It also saves faffing about lengthening the poles, or if you're using single piece poles and don't have the option anyway. Pete. -- Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/ |
#3
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Peter Clinch wrote
I quite often push off the tops of the poles directly with the heels of my hands Good point. I do the exactly same thing lots of times -- especially on my downhill pole when making a rising traverse. And then there's various tricks for grabbing the uphill pole lower than the obvious handle area. Ken _____________________________________________ Peter Clinch" wrote I quite often push off the tops of the poles directly with the heels of my hands once I've passed the shaft on a steep ascent as I find loading the strap with your arm behind you is a bit less effective. It also saves faffing about lengthening the poles, or if you're using single piece poles and don't have the option anyway. |
#4
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In message
"Ken Roberts" wrote: Peter Clinch wrote I quite often push off the tops of the poles directly with the heels of my hands Good point. I do the exactly same thing lots of times -- especially on my downhill pole when making a rising traverse. And then there's various tricks for grabbing the uphill pole lower than the obvious handle area. You can buy touring poles with a longer rubber grip down the shaft, however it is a simple matter to put some tape on the shaft to increase the friction and enable you to hold it at a lower point. Two modifications to this basic taping work quite well in my experience, the one I use is to buy plastic handlebar grip tape from a cycling shop. One of my friends adopted a different approach, which was to wrap a spiral of electrical flex down the pole and then to cover it with a layer of insulating tape. This second approach seems to make quite a good grip if you have a narrow carbon fibre pole. Mike URL:http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/~mrc7/ -- o/ \\ // |\ ,_ o Mike Clark \__,\\ // __o | \ / /\, "A mountain climbing, cycling, skiing, " || _`\,_ |__\ \ | immunology lecturer, antibody engineer and ` || (_)/ (_) | \corn computer user" |
#5
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Mike Clark wrote:
Two modifications to this basic taping work quite well in my experience, the one I use is to buy plastic handlebar grip tape from a cycling shop. One of my friends adopted a different approach, which was to wrap a spiral of electrical flex down the pole and then to cover it with a layer of insulating tape. Recently I saw someone with some excess cutoff from a climbing skin used as a lower grip. Quite neat, as it gives you an emergency kicker skin in case of Major Disaster with your skins. Pete. -- Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/ |
#6
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Peter Clinch wrote:
Recently I saw someone with some excess cutoff from a climbing skin used as a lower grip. Quite neat, as it gives you an emergency kicker skin in case of Major Disaster with your skins. You can also wrap the section below the grip with some 6 or 7 mm cord which makes a nice grip, can be used as a skin in an emergency, make a rescue sled, etc. probably moire versatile than a climbing skin. -klaus |
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