Ski Muscle of the Week #7: The Hip Adductors

We all know about upper and lower body separation as the key to advanced skiing. Those terms, however, lock us into thinking about a body divided into two parts. So bear with me for a moment as I divide our skiing body into three parts: legs, abdomen, and hips. After all, our center of mass (COM) is located in our hips, or pelvic girdle. With this model, we have an upper control (abdomen) and a lower control (legs) to keep our COM steady as we move down the slope. Our hips and COM are now independent from both our legs and our abdomen--skiing is now more than just keeping our shoulders facing one way and our feet another. Those hips become a dual actor: an anchor for our shoulders AND the pivot for our legs.

Are we ready for exercises? The hip adductors (adductor brevis, a. longus, a.magnus, pectineus, and gracilis), are located along the posterior and inner sides of the femur and move the leg closer, or in toward the body. Remember the old style of skiing where we kept our legs and feet touching each other? We really worked our adductors to squeeze our legs together to accomplish that dated technique.

With our modern stance, we strive to keep our legs a hips' width apart, but we still need our adductors to keep our legs from opening up too widely. That very wide, “desperate to stop” braking wedge that we made as a beginner doesn't make much use of our adductors, because those are the muscles we would use to close that wide wedge into a more balanced and comfortable stance. 

So here's the workout:

Hip adduction. Start with an athletic stance. Lift one leg to the side. Work up to 3 sets of 10 reps.

Side hip adduction. Lie on one side and lift the upper leg. Be sure to point your toe.  Your adductors work as you recover the leg.  After you exercise the upper leg, cross that leg over the lower leg and lift the lower leg.

Plie. A great exercise from ballet. Simply, a squat while keeping an erect spine and functional tension on all the leg muscles. Toes are pointed out.

Lunge.

Wall squat.

Leg raise. While lying our your back with your knees comfortably bent, lift your legs toward your chest. Please perform this slowly and be mindful of hyperextending your back.

Ski Muscle of the Week #6: The Gluteus Muscles

The Gluteus Maximus, along with its little sisters, the Gluteus medius and minimus, are my favorite skiing muscles because a simple squeeze of these “butt muscles” can cure a lot of skiing ills. Do you ski bent over like a gorilla? Do your arms freeze to your chest while you ski down an easy beginner slope? Are you constantly poking the snow with your poles to turn or stop? A simple squeeze of these large muscles and you automatically recenter yourself and rediscover the ability to ski with your legs.

Here's why: The Gluteus Maximus is one of largest and strongest muscles in our body. Together with its sisters, they help us maintain an erect trunk and steady our femur over our tibia. Because they are on the opposite, high side from those overused quadriceps (see Ski Muscles of the Week #3 and #4), strong glutes help distribute the forces experienced in skiing to the top of your femur, rather than just the front. At the end of a long ski day, judicious use of your glutes will mean thighs that are less strained, arms that are relaxed and ready to help you balance, and upper and lower legs that become stacked and, therefore, ready to act in unison. In short, that simple butt squeeze improves your stance and that makes you a more confident skier.

Best thing about this muscle: Stand and squeeze your butt muscles right now. You will instantly feel your hips thrust forward and move over the top of both femurs—this simple action helps keep you out of the back seat, because squating or leaning backward now becomes very awkward—try it and see for yourself!

Exercises for the glutes:

Bridge.

Deadlift.

Reverse lunge.

Sumo squat.

Hip extension.   Lie face-down with your legs straight, toes on the floor. Bend your legs at the knee. Squeeze your right glute. Lift your right thigh off the floor. Lower and repeat with your other leg. Work up to three sets of ten repetitions.

Snow should be falling in mass quantities any time now! See you next week . . .

How to Use the Muscle of the Week

First, let me give credit to the woman who gave me this idea. Last March at Loon Mountain, I took a two day "Biomechanics of Skiing" clinic from Sue Kramer, a PSIA examiner out of Bromley Mountain. On the second day of the clinic, she assigned each of her students a muscle. Our assignment was to ski with an emphasis on that muscle and report to the group about how that muscle influenced our skiing. This was the ski lesson I had been longing for, as it answered the “how do you do that” question that is so common among ski students and so often unanswerable by ski instructors. 

The Muscle of the Week concept serves two purposes:

 

1. It helps the reader target a particular muscle. You learn where that muscle is and what it does while you ski. Plus, I provide exercises to help you strengthen it. 

2. When you ski, you can now actively use your Anterior Tibialis or your Gluteus Maximus and feel the positive influence of that muscle on your skiing—and call on it when you need it. Tips of your skis coming off the snow? Contract your Anterior Tibialis and see if that helps. Skiing like a gorilla? Contract your glutes and recover your upright stance. So instead of the “keep your shin against the tongue of your boot” answer that I find so frustrating, the Muscle of the Week lays out specific actions of muscles and how they help us improve our skiing.  So next time you are on the snow, pick one of the muscles and ski with that muscle contracted--your skiing will improve, trust me. 

 

 

Ski Muscle of the Week #5: The Hamstrings

Ski Muscle of the Week #5:  The Hamstrings

Three muscles make up the hamstrings:  The Semitendinosus, Semimembraneosus, and the Biceps femoris.  These three are found on the back of your thigh.  You can feel the tendons of these muscles behind your knee.

 

As a group, they flex or bend the thigh at the knee, and extend the hip.  You can feel these muscle actions when you walk, as the hamstrings play a principal role in that activity.

How do they influence your skiing?  A skier who effectively uses their hamstrings will be able to keep their upper body stable while their legs do the up-and-down pumping action required in bumps.  Don’t do bumps?  That’s okay, you’ll still use the hamstrings when you carve because they will help you keep that inside leg the appropriate length to glide over the snow.  Remember the Rectus Femoris from last week?  The hamstrings act in conjunction with that muscle to keep the inside leg as short as it needs to be. 

Exercises for the hamstrings:

Knee curl.

Hamstring curl.

Flutter kick.  Do this one lying on your back.  Keep your legs locked and toes pointed away from your body.

One-leg kneel.

Bridge.