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BASI prep - early season clinics - R21 race camps - offpiste adventure weeks - spring clinics - online tech tips - useful links - fitness 1 core - fitness 2 legs - fitness 3 cardio - balance

simple fitness = better skiing

stage 3 = cardiovascular fitness

Welcome to the final part of the tdc fitness program.

How are the legs doing?  We hope the two circuits have helped so far.  Here’s the last stage in keeping fit, the cardio workout.  Getting your heart and lungs working will help your body become more efficient during exercise.  This is especially useful when you come skiing at altitude - don’t forget, at 1850 metres, Val d’Isere is over a mile above sea level. You might have noticed this on the first walk over to the lift with all your kit, so if you get your body used to processing oxygen efficiently you’ll feel the benefits out on the slopes.

Cardio workouts are all about raising your heart rate for at least 30 minutes at a time.  Try to do this every day, or at least every other day.  You need to push your body slightly beyond what it’s normally used to doing.  The more you do this, the more your body will become used to the demands you’re placing on it…and that’s when you get fitter.  Again, it’s based on not needing any particular equipment, so I’ve made a couple of suggestions of things you can do.

Firstly, all you need is a flight of stairs….

1. Stairs
10 x one flight of stairs

discovery - Walk up and walk down

development - Run up then walk down

challenges - Run up and run down

Try alternating your sets, so for one trip you are going up the stairs two at a time and coming down single stairs, then reverse the process the next time round.  This works different muscles and keeps you agile – all good news for skiing.

2. Fartlek: Walking/running
“Fartlek” – a new word for you?  It just means varying your pace when you walk or run.  So if you have a regular route that you walk or run, try these different levels of fartlek.

For example you could change pace every minute, or whenever you pass a lamppost:-

Fartlek Levels

discovery - Walk / power walk / walk

development - Jog / run at three quarter pace / jog

challenges - Run at your normal pace / sprint / run at your normal pace

Fartlek works just as well on a bike, so if that’s something you do, try varying your pace on your next ride. 

So there’s a couple of examples of things you can do for a cardio workout.  Remember, just pushing your body even slightly beyond its usual routine is all you need to do to get fitter.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy feeling the benefits of getting fitter.

See you on the slopes.