what's here
- - How fast or hard should I do it?
- - Do I need advanced striding techniques?
- - How many calories does classic striding burn?
- - How can I get my exercise when the snow is too icy?
- - What about indoor cross-country ski machines?
[ under construction ]
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There's two main goals of fitness and training on cross country
skis:
- - burn calories
- - long-term health of heart and cardio-vascular system
For most people, cross country skiing is excellent for both
goals.
The two goals pretty much go together -- what's good for one is good
for the other.
There's another possible goal:
- - training for racing
But that's a whole other game
with it's own special training requirements, and we're not getting into
those here.
- unlike running: skiing normally has low impacts on muscles,
joints, and connective tissues in the knees, ankles, feet, hips --
repetitive impacts which cause running injuries and cause many
runners to give up the sport after a few years.
- unlike sports on wheels: falling onto snow is typically
softer and less abrasive than falling on pavement or dirt.
- it's at its best in the season of the year when most other sports
are at their worst.
- unlike downhill skiing: it focuses on aerobic exercise that
burns calories, and it doesn't cost as much.
- it can exercise more muscle groups than other aerobic
activities
- it has a range of interesting techniques to play with
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There are basic requirements for getting the fitness benefits of
skiing:
- You're not going to get much fitness benefit if you get
hurt.
Make sure you first get solid on the basics -- see Get
Comfortable on Skis -- with the help of an instructor or
coach. And make sure you understand the hazards and risks of cross
country skiing, and the mostly straightforward strategies for managing
them.
- You're not going to keep on getting fitness benefit unless you
stay motivated.
Learn about techniques for having fun on
classic skis. And for best motivation over the long haul, play
with a game of two -- see games
with classic skis.
- You're not going to get much fitness or training with your legs if
you're not getting good grip.
So learn the key basics of how to get good grip for your leg
push. Some key tricks are on these pages:
- - Start some glide and
weight transfer
- - Exploiting the
wax pocket "secret"
- You only get fitness benefit while you're skiing, not while you're
fiddling with your equipment.
If your main goal is burning calories or cardio-vascular fitness,
get waxless skis. Waxable skis can deliver a very fun
long glide, but they take more preparation before starting to
ski. And you only burn calories and train your heart when you push,
so the longer glide doesn't help your goal.
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- First you need to get solid on the basics -- see Get
Comfortable on Skis -- with the help of an instructor or
coach.
And make sure this includes understand the hazards and risks of cross
country skiing, and the mostly straightforward strategies for managing
them. You're not going to improve fitness if you get hurt.
While shuffling (walking on skis) does burn calories and works the
heart, its intensity range is very limited. A few people may be
able to achieve their fitness goals within that limit of
technique. But most will find that their fitness quickly
improves to the level where they can take on a little more.
Learning basic weight transfer and glide greatly expands the
limit. And it's not hard to learn, and fun. Take a lesson or
tow, and see the page
Start some glide and weight
transfer
is whether it's important to learn Stable
Balance on one ski for the goal of fitness and burning
calories.
I think most people will find that they can burn lots of calories
and get lots of aerobic exercise without it.
It is true that committed weight transfer is a more efficient
way to get better grip for leg push, but you can also get better grip
by using extra down-force -- by "stomping" down with leg (or
even hopping up a little into the air). The work of stomping
does not push you forward any faster, but it does burn calories and it
does put an additional demand for blood and oxygen from the heart and
lungs.
The main fitness reason I can see for "stable balance
on one ski" is that it enables more effective use of the arms
-- see below.
So most "fitness" skiers could achieve their goals by
stopping with the "stomp and glide" version of classic
striding. For concepts and learning of that, see the page
Learn to Stomp and Glide
The big problem with focusing on "stomp
and glide" is that you develop instincts and practice habits
that can turn out to be counter-productive for later learning advanced
techniques.
So if you know that you're never going to care about advanced
techniques, or you just don't have time for anything more than maximum
calorie-burning now, then go ahead and "stomp" with vigor
and conviction. Otherwise I think it's better to . . .
- Keep expanding your range
I think it's better to take 15 minutes or so at least once every
couple of skiing sessions to practice one or two of the exercises
for learning balance on a single ski.
You can still use as much "stomp" to get extra down-force
as you need to get grip during your main fitness exercise workouts --
but even during those workout periods, try sometimes to play with the
tricks for getting away with less.
One advantage of the balance exercises is that the more balance you
have, the more options you have for dealing with the little unexpected
things that come up while you're out exercising on skis. You
don't have to learn the "whole thing" to get that
benefit: even a little balance on one ski helps, and more helps
more.
And working on new techniques can help you stay motivated rather
than bored, and it gives you something else to talk about with other
skiers.
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One of the advantages of cross country skiing for fitness is that you
can use your arms for exercise as well as your legs. It makes
sense that the more muscles you use, the more calories you can burn and
the more aerobic training load you can put on your cardio-vascular
system.
But using only legs for skiing, you can work hard enough to get
plenty of fitness. Most skiers do not use their arms much for
serious forward push in their striding, and they do just fine with
burning calories and keeping healthy.
Indeed it's possible that by trying to use too many
different muscles, you might get distracted and use the big ones less
intensely -- and end up with overall lower total exercise
intensity.
is to keep the leg focus and the arm focus separate. When
your legs start getting tired from striding, give them a rest -- but
keep on exercising -- by switching to "double poling" for a
minute or two. Then go back to your regular striding. For
how to do it, see the page on
Double Pole
technique
That page also mentions some ways to use additional muscle groups,
beyond the arms. For fitness, an interesting "next
stage" of double pole technique is to add "crunch" with
the abdominal muscles: more calories burned, and more aerobic
training load on the heart.
It turns out that the arms and abdominals working
together can be trained to deliver amazing levels of
performance. One year when I focused seriously on double pole
training, I got to the point where I could go faster double poling
than I could run on foot. Double pole training is a key part of
increasing speed and endurance for Classic-ski-technique races.
These are muscles that most of us do not use for moving our bodies
around during the rest of the year. The sudden thrill of using
them for forward push in skiing can result in strain injuries.
So go easy with them in the first few sessions: less
intensity than you think they can handle, for less time than you think
you can handle. Stop before those muscles start sending you
warning messages.
- When striding, using your poles as the main support for your
balance gets in the way of using them for forward pushing
The best position of the pole for balance (see pole
angle diagram 1) is completely different from its position for
best forward push (see pole
angle diagram 4).
So learning other balance techniques and practicing them a lot to
get confident with them is a pre-requisite to using arm fitness in
striding. For how to learn it, see these pages:
- - Start some Glide and
Weight Transfer
- - Learn Committed Balance
- For better grip when striding, plant your pole tip behind
your foot
The reason is that when you push down on your pole, there is a
"reactive" force back up on your body. And that
up-force works against the down-force on the ski needed for good grip
for leg push. So try to plant your pole tip more like pole
angle diagram 3 or diagram
4 (and much less like pole
angle diagram 2).
This pole tip move is especially valuable when using your pole to
help you climb up a hill.
- Separate the arm focus from leg focus even in striding ?
This separation is possible, and it is desirable for several
reasons -- including getting maximum fitness benefit from both -- but
it is an advanced technique.
The amazingly clever objective for fitness would be to make each
pole-push with arm in between the leg-push moves by the two
legs. Each leg needs some time to get brought back forward its
next push, and the other leg cannot start its push until the previous
push leg is back forward enough so it's ready to be landed upon.
So there is a natural "dead spot" after each leg push.
What better strategy for fitness than to fill in that spot with a push
by one of the arms?
Well it turns out that this works great. And it's fun.
And it's powerful. And it has two other non-fitness
advantages. For lots more detail, see the page
Offset Pole Timing
"secret"
It has only one single disadvantage:
First you have to learn Stable
Balance on one ski.
That's not so easy to learn. But if you want to go for the
maximum fitness benefit in classic striding, that's the way.
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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
How fast or hard should I do it?
[ to be added ]
Do I need advanced striding techniques?
I think most people will find that they can burn lots of calories and
aerobic exercise without getting more "advanced" than what's
on the Start some glide and weight
transfer page.
Folks who stay motivated will usually find their fitness and
endurance improving. And their speed may improve, too. As
speed rises, it requires more glide. And more glide will be more
fun and more effective with more balance. So you might later find
yourself wanting to learn the Balance
and Weight Transfer "secret" -- the breakthrough move to
the advanced techniques. But you don't have to learn the whole
thing: even a little balance on one ski helps, and more helps
more.
If you want to use your arms to help burn calories, it helps to
develop enough balance so that you can use your pole and arm muscles to
help push you forward -- and not always focused on poking them down into
the snow just to keep you up on top of your skis. And for maximum
fitness use of both legs and arms, there is a wonderful coordination
rhythm called "offset pole timing" -- definitely an
"advanced" technique, but the process of learning it has other
benefits too.
Other than that, most of the "advanced" techniques have the
goal of making your stride more efficient -- so you can go
further or faster with less muscular work. But the whole idea of
skiing for fitness and burning calories to do more muscular
work.
But learning advanced techniques can have an important role in
your long-term fitness strategy: It's another game for staying
motivated.
How many calories does classic striding burn?
It's not easy to say how many calories per hour you're burning while
cross country skiing. The reason is that there are so many
different motions, and mixes of motions, and styles of motions, and
varying snow conditions -- that no simple formula could possibly cover
them all with even rough accuracy.
But here's some guidelines that could help:
- If you're purely shuffling (walking on skis), then you're likely
burning calories at a rate somewhere around the rate that you burn
them when you're out walking on dry land.
- If you can assess how hard you're breathing, then you're likely
burning calories at a rate somewhere around the rate that you burn
them when you're breathing about that hard in your usual fitness
exercise on dry land.
- If you can measure your heart rate while skiing (a special heart
monitor works best for this), then you're likely burning calories at
a rate somewhere around the rate that you burn them when your heart
is beating at that rate in your usual fitness exercise on dry
land.
But what if you don't know your calorie-burning rate in your usual
fitness exercise on dry land.
- If your dry land exercise is walking or running . . .
Look up rate from some other source whose expertise is in measuring
calorie-burning -- not this website.
In the mean time, here's a very rough formula that might
help:
Multiply
0.7 (the number), times
your body weight in pounds, times
your speed in miles per hour
Example:
A person who weighs 140 pounds and is running at 6 miles per
hour:
0.7 x (140 pounds) x (6 mph)
= 590 calories per hour
- If your dry land exercise is something else . . .
then the calorie-burning rate is completely different from the
walking and running formula.
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How can I get my exercise when the snow is too icy?
[ to be added ]
What about indoor cross-country ski machines?
Good for burning calories and aerobic fitness. And good for training arm and leg muscles
for Classic striding on skis.
At most little value for learning Classic striding techniques
-- but then few non-snow activities are.
Key problem with any indoor exercise equipment is staying
motivated. If you're using it at home, it helps to face the
machine straight toward a TV display with VCR / DVD player
attached. Many people find it more motivating to go to a fitness
center or health club, and use a cross-country ski machine there with
other people around who are also exercising.
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[ to be added ]
see also
Racing: see on the Resources
page under Advanced.
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