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August 7-13, 2008
buzz@boulderweekly.com
• Flying high
by Dana Logan
• Upcoming Events
Not training for snow? You’re late!
by Wina Sturgeon
If you ski or snowboard, especially if you race or go for air in the pipe, you should have started training a month ago!
Brian Frost, a personal trainer in Park City, Utah, says “Skiers should have been concentrating on cardio and muscle endurance for at least the past month. You need to start setting up your base now, so you can lift heavier as the season approaches. Work on flexibility, as well.
But if you have not yet begun training for snow season, don’t make the mistake of trying to make up for it all at once, Frost advises. He says that is the quickest way to inflict dreaded “microtrauma” on your tendons and ligaments, setting yourself up for an injury, either now or during the season.
To prepare your base, Frosts suggests power lifting. Squats, deadlifts and overhead squats with a bar will increase core strength. Whether on skis or a snowboard, core strength is essential to ride the snow fast and smooth, and get back in balance if you start to fall.
Overhead squats are done holding a bar overhead with arms straight up. If the 45-pound bar is too heavy, use a broomstick. It’s not the weight, but the position that gives the desired results, that’s why a bar is used instead of dumbbells.
“You don’t get increased flexibility from dumbbells, because you can hold them separately in any direction. To hold a bar or broomstick overhead and squat takes a great deal of flexibility in your shoulders and back,” Frost says.
But if you have to make up for lost time, he suggests doing multi-joint exercises rather than going for heavy weights. Do lunges with bicep curls, or lunges with dumbbell overhead presses. Do a step-up on a bench or platform while lifting a dumbbell up and out to the side with a straight arm. Use free weights rather than machines, because free weights require using your core for balance; an element that is missing when using a machine.
Frost, a Masters racer who usually makes the top 10 “Superseed,” used his own training advice to rise from a middle-of-the-pack racer to a competitive class winner.
He says, “The main thing to remember is that lifting weights is a progression. You can’t just jump into it without progressing from a base.”
For those already in weightlifting shape, Frost says that the biggest thing to concentrate on right now is cycling. “Road biking helps with endurance because you go longer, mountain biking helps with balance. You are best off doing both.”
When you can’t bike, run. But instead of running on hard pavement, which shocks the joints, go trail running. The softer surface acts like a joint cushion. Frost tells his clients, 90 percent of whom are skiers and about half of whom are racers, that running up hills and striding down them is the best thing a skier can do on days when they don’t get to the gym, it increases agility and balance.
Finally, do some stretching after every activity, when the muscles are warmed up and pliable. Both skiers and snowboarders have to be super flexible to get into the expert’s position, and don’t we all want to be experts on the snow?
—MCT
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
 Book shows dangers of poison ivy
By Pete Zimowsky
I saw a whitewater rafter walk through a whole patch of poison ivy on the banks of a river, but before I could warn him, he was in it knee deep. I hate to think of the state he is in right now — the big, blistering itch.
Anyway, this outdoors book probably has more information on poison ivy than you really want to know. It might be good to read and then pass on to friends who don’t have a clue. It would be a great gag gift for someone who has had a serious case of poison ivy.
A Field Guide to Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac — Prevention and Remedies, by Susan Carol Hauser, features tips on preventing exposure, tells how the rash can spread and gives useful home remedies.
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press; www.globepequot.com
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-7627-4741-2
—MCT
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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 Web Adventure
The Walking Site
by Sally Dadisman
Walk it off. Walking is a great way to continue your exercise routine when running or even jogging is too much in the suffocating heat. The Walking Site (www.thewalkingsite.com) is a database of helpful information, including gear, tips to get motivated, nutrition information and a lot more.
It also offers a listing of events nationwide that can get you walking for more than your health — causes such as breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and various others have fundraising walks ever year. If regular walking is too boring or just not doing it for you physically, the site also offers information on different walking techniques, including racewalking.
—MCT
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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