Cry In The Dojo
A Winter Prep Pep Talk, Mainly For Myself
About five years into my pro skiing career, I found myself at a sponsor event talking amongst a group of pro skiers including Scot Schmidt.
If you don’t know who Scot Schmidt is, he’s basically the original action sports athlete. He was one of the first sponsored professional skiers (or action sports athletes, period), starring in the seminal ski movie “Blizzard of Ahhs,” among many other films. I’ve known him for about 23 years now and over those years I’ve routinely seen grown men turn into babbling, googly-eyed fanboys in his presence. Once, I posted a picture of myself with Scot on a day I got to ski with him at the Yellowstone Club, and an older male friend of mine posted a comment that said, “Of all the things you’ve done, this might be the coolest.” As if nothing I’d done in skiing compared with getting my picture taken with this man. This is how strongly people feel about him. Scot is a legend. You get the point. Also, I clearly haven’t forgiven my “friend” about his rude comment. Anyhow, back to my story.
During our little late night skier chat, Scot was talking about his plans for the upcoming winter and I worked up the courage to ask him about his fall training program. I had skied with him the previous winter when he had been in his mid-40s, and the guy was absolutely unstoppable. It had been all I could do to keep him in my sights, and I wanted to know his training program and his secrets.
“You want to know what I do to train every fall?”
Everyone in the group leaned closer to glean enlightenment from the guru.
“I go to a bunch of ski movie premieres all fall, and travel and drink and party. Then when it starts snowing, I get on snow and I don’t stop. I ski myself into shape.”
Huh. Now, many years later, he is in his 60s and skis for work over 100 days a season. Basically, the guy is genetically gifted and he knows what works for him, but I realized that it did not work for me. There’s a certain point where skiing myself into shape is necessary, but if I start that process cold off the couch with my summer muscles, I’m going to get some really bad calf cramps, among other things. Also, I might make it into ski shape by, say, mid-February, which is not going to cut it.
That same fall, I trained for and ran the Seattle marathon (it was rainy, I cried at mile 25, but I finished), and that season I noticed that when I started on snow it felt remarkably better the season prior. The dedicated, regular training—plus the downhill running which builds similar muscles to skiing—made a big difference. That was a revelation, and I admitted that it might be time to take my training more seriously. I’ve done different programs over the years (I talk about my most recent one more here), but there a few basic principles that I believe make a difference for me, so I want to share them here.
High intensity and some weights. My friend Kam, who I teach avalanche classes with, uses the phrase “Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield” to talk about why doing the annoying, sucky practice and training ahead of time—even when you don’t always feel like it—is worth it. While I don’t try to make myself literally cry like I did during the marathon and I’m not one of those Olympic lifters who is going for my PR or max, I do try to do stuff that gets me into max heart rate on occasion, and leaves me sore the next day. If I only did the fun, easy stuff, it wouldn’t really be training.
Downhill is my friend. I am convinced that downhill running and hiking helps prep my quads and knees for skiing. Obviously if it hurts, don’t do it, but even walking down a trail can help build strength, bone density, and proprioceptor muscle strength. In my purely anecdotal opinion.
Train the big muscles. Quads often get overused and easily tired during skiing. So, using my big muscles like my glutes, hips, core, and hamstrings is key to strong, pain-free skiing for me. Learning to hinge at the hips rather than gripping with my quads , as well as staying forward to lessen the pull on my quads all help when skiing. These are things that I can train for in the gym with repetition, not only for strength but also for teaching my body how I want it to move. As requested (yay, a request!!) here are a few key hamstring exercises that I use and recommend, in order of more beginner to more advanced. Please, check with a doctor, PT or trainer first if you are new to these moves or to the gym in general.
Single Leg Hamstring Bridge —this one shows a foam roller, which is advanced. I recommend doing it without the foam roller first while working up.
Hamstring Curl on Ball This is SO good. And hard—go easy at first!
Hip Thrust Once you get stronger, add weight by holding a kettlebell or dumbbell on your pelvis. Then move to single leg hip thrusts, then weighted single leg.
Single Leg RDL You can use no weight, a single kettlebell or dumbbell in the opposite hand of your standing leg, or a barbell like in the video.
Deadlift This one is tricky. You may want a trainer or partner to watch and make sure you’re doing it properly before adding too much weight. But it’s very effective.
Balance is the goal Although I’ve yet to figure out exactly how to balance indoor workouts (necessary but not always what I jump towards) with the stuff I love like running and biking and hiking with rest (which I don’t love), I’m trying to get better at it. For now, if I can work up to doing strength workouts 3x/week leading up to the ski season, with a few runs and maybe a bike ride each week, plus walking/hiking on the days I do a workout, that seems to be manageable. I’ll keep working on it, and of course always want to hear any other experiences and opinions and insight!
Listen to my body above all Regardless of what I have in my mind to be the goal or the desired schedule, I try to pay attention to how I’m feeling more than anything. Somedays I start out with the intention to run and I just know I need to walk, so I do—no shame. And if I’m still super sore from a workout two days ago, I may need to readjust my plan. I set aside the time to train most days, but I don’t set a specific weekly schedule. I keep it loose on purpose so I don’t get locked in and inadvertently lose sight of numbers 4 & 5.
Stay focused on myself This goes along with number 4, but I don’t need to compare myself to others—instead, I want to to focus on what’s right for me, not what’s right for other pros putting their workouts on instagram, or what’s right for Scot Schmidt. He may not cry in the dojo, preferring to party instead, but that’s his program, not mine.
As always, I would love to hear from you, comments, questions, concerns or any experiences with training.
Some links for the week:
I had a driveway moment earlier today when I heard this new Florence + the Machine song for the first time—I stayed in the car to listen to the whole thing. It makes me want to run along a ridge top as fast as I can, or at least walk purposefully and smugly through an airport, passing people with my headphones on. We are still going strong on the latest Taylor Swift album over here (nonstop for the last three weeks), but perhaps in a few weeks the kids and I will be ready to put something else on during our morning drive to school. Either this or Lily Allen’s new album, woe be to her ex! (Link to the official video on Youtube for Florence + The Machine, Sympathy Magic. Warning, there’s a little nudity in the video.)
Last night I watched the movie Butterfly in a Blizzard about professional snowboarder Kimmy Fasani, and I recommend it so much. I know Kimmy and I knew every single layer of this story prior to watching the film and it still gobsmacked me. If you are at all interested in professional snowboarding, working mothers, and the resilience of the human spirit, this is a very difficult, powerful, and beautifully told story. It’s available on AppleTV, Amazon Prime Video, and other streaming services.
Two women rowed across the entire Pacific Ocean, self-supported, in 165 days. No words!! (Link to NYT unlocked article).
A delicious cilantro chutney chicken recipe that friends brought us years ago for a meal train and I still think about and make from time to time. Maybe next week! Hint: I use more chutney than the recipe calls for. (Link to The Splendid Table website).
Thanks for reading!
Ingrid
Thank you so much for the exercises for hamstrings and glutes! (I requested that).
Glad I read through to get that Florence + The Machine rec!