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.