How skiing fitness can help you improve and avoid injury
How skiing fitness can help you improve and avoid injury
By Rob Hodgetts, CNN
Updated 10:41 AM ET, Fri January 4, 2019
Aspen: Where the stars go skiing 03:00
(CNN)You know you're a skier when winter daydreams involve swooping down sparkling slopes on far off majestic mountains.
So when your precious ski trip does come around, it pays to have done a bit of preparation.
And for most of us, that means a little work on our fitness.
You don't have to be an Olympic athlete, or even a gym-obsessed fitness freak, but a bit of ski-specific exercise in the built up to your break will help you ski better, for longer. Even taking the stairs instead of the elevator can be a good start.
"A lot of people are regretful they weren't fitter ... but busy lives take over," says Tom Saxlund, founder of New Generation ski school which operates in the French, Swiss and Austrian Alps.
"I see a big difference in clients who are active and those who aren't."
Photos:
Big in Japan: "For me this is the classic setting for skiing in Japan. There are always these beautiful, snow covered trees and you could come back on a different day and it would look totally different. It just snows so much, even on a bad year -- which would be a great year anywhere else. For this shot we just parked by the side of the road and ski toured uphill for a bit before treading down a jump in the trees." -- Oskar Enander.(Skier Piers Solomon at Kiriri Snow World)
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Mont Blanc massif: "This is one of my favorite areas to ski and photograph in the Alps. The mountains are impressive with endless possibilities. This is Chamonix local Alex Pittin, who is an ex-alpine racer in the French team and now a fully certified mountain guide, skiing powder on the Brenva glacier near Courmayeur in Italy's Aosta valley. The peak in the background is the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey (3, 773 meters)." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Midnight sun: "We were staying on a sailboat exploring the fjords in Stjernøya, northern Norway. It was the end of May and still warm under the midnight sun. This shot is of Chad Sayers hiking up one night. We started about 9.30 p.m and reached the summit about 12.00 a.m., dropping in well after midnight. It was one of the most special trips I've been on with a very international crew from France, Sweden and Canada." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Pink powder: "This is local skier and mountaineer Micke af Ekenstam dropping in from Tredjetoppen in the backcountry above Narvik, Norway at about 9.30 p.m. We ski toured for half an hour above the top lift and then I got this shot with just a wide angle lens, with no filters or anything. The natural light is so unique up there. To me it's about being in the right place at the right time." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Debut tour: "Aksel Lund Svindal (second from left) is one of the most successful ski racers of modern times but this was his first ever ski touring trip, being filmed for a video. It was in the Lyngen Alps in the far north of Norway, on the islands to the east of Tromso. It's one of the most unique places in the world and a mecca for ski touring. Aksel was so humble and so happy to learn, and it was a really cool experience to share it with him. We walked for six-seven hours uphill with skins our skis and had amazing snow all the way back to the fjord." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Spine tingling: "Cody Townsend is one of the best big-mountain skiers in the world. This was at Terrace in northern British Columbia, a really remote spot near the Alaskan border, one of the most amazing places I've been to with those spine walls and no one around. It was during a film shoot with Matchstick Productions. This was the most productive day -- in two weeks we only skied four days because it was so stormy. The skiers would look at the lines from the helicopter as they flew up and then take a picture of it and memorize it before their run." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
On rails: "This was shot from a lift on film, before drones and before digital, in a freestyle park in Park City, Utah during a down day on a filming project. I'd seen it from the lift and tried it a couple of times before I got this. It's Swedish pro skier Henrik Winstedt and became my first cover shot for Powder magazine in 2005." --Mattias Fredriksson.
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Mica magic: "Leah Evans is a Revelstoke big mountain skier that I enjoy skiing and working with when I am in the British Columbia interior. Last winter she joined us for a trip to Mica Heli, a well-known heli-skiing operation a few hours north of Revelstoke. The conditions were amazing and Leah skied so well." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Lapland lines: "When I was about 20 and just starting out, I spent a few seasons in Riksgränsen, the most northern ski area in Swedish Lapland. The area is unique and the soft, Arctic light is a dream. I try to return at least once every winter. This photo was taken from a helicopter while filming and shooting for an all-female ski documentary called Between (by Shades of Winter). The skier is Sandra Lahnsteiner from Austria, who also produced the movie." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Powder paradise: They're two of the world's best ski photographers, but shooting elite athletes in spectacular mountains is all in a day's work for Swedes Oskar Enander and Mattias Fredriksson, whose images are showcased in this gallery. For Enander, though, it's a bit harder. He's color blind. "I work a lot with shadows, and dark and light," he tells CNN. This image is Lars Windlin in Engelberg, Switzerland, Enander's adopted home. "This is kind of a classic shot but I like it because of the dramatic clouds, the way the tracks in the background draw your eye down to the lake, the beautiful light, great snow and the shadows." -- Oskar Enander.
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Photos:
Shadow surfing: "This is one of my favorite pictures. I'd been looking for this to line up for six years. I saw the shadow and asked snowboarder Yves Husler to hit it. He jumped into the turn and made a huge cloud. We had one chance and we had to try to nail it. I like the deep blue shadows and the contrasts with light and shade. This probably defines my style and is what I'm looking for in a graphic, beautiful image." -- Oskar Enander.
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Photos:
In the barrel: "This looks like midwinter but it was November 2017 in Engelberg. It's a cool spot because the rider (Yves Husler) can come in from way above with so much speed and the cloud throws forward like a wave. I want to try it again and have him in the cloud like he's under the lip in a big-wave tube. We're working on it, but the snow needs to be right and you can't shoot there in February, March and April because it gets too warm." -- Oskar Enander.
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Photos:
Ethereal light: "This is the late Jamie Pierre in Jackson Hole. Jamie held the unofficial world record for the highest cliff jump, but died in a snowboarding accident in 2011. This was probably the smallest cliff he jumped on this day. The fog coming through the trees was in and out and wasn't there when we set up for the shot. The second he dropped in it appeared and gave the shot a magical, mystical feeling. A minute or two later it had disappeared. Nature was on our side that day." -- Oskar Enander.
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Photos:
Light show: "This was a night shoot for a ski video/commercial for a new model of TV filmed near Sentry Lodge in British Columbia. We had five huge Hollywood studio-style lights which we had to haul around the mountain. The physical workload was immense. We slept in the day and shot from about midnight to 6 a.m. for 12 days straight. Shooting in low light made it hard to set the focus and get the right settings, but it was amazing to be part of." -- Oskar Enander. (Skier Eric Hjorleifson)
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Photos:
Pink puff: "For tighter shots we could shoot from close to the ground and hide the old tracks so we didn't have to move location every time. The skier came straight towards us and the rear light hit the powder cloud from behind to give one color and the side light gave another color. Sometimes the skiers wore light suits containing hundreds of LEDs, which often broke, and the batteries burned holes in their pockets." -- Oskar Enander. (Skier Eric Hjorleifson)
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Photos:
Out of the shadow: "I was out skiing with Patrick Vuagnat in Engelberg and we came on this by chance. He had no idea how much speed he would need and as he hiked up a bit more the shadow crept in. Every 30 seconds the patch of sunlight got smaller. We had one chance but he hit it perfectly. When I packed up the camera the sun had gone. It was one of those times when everything just matches up." -- Oskar Enander.
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Photos:
Ice cool: "It was my first year shooting and I met a Swedish photographer in a lift line in Engelberg. He was working with some skiers and told me to follow him. For this shot we were shoulder to shoulder in a little cave. Luckily, I was little bit more to right so the skier was framed clearly. It was taken on slide film so for about a week I had no idea how it would turn out. I thought it was good but I had no idea if others would. I sent it to Powder, the ski magazine, and got a call a few months later to say it had won its Photo of the Year and I flew to the ceremony in Aspen to get the award." -- Oskar Enander. (Skier Kalle Eriksson)
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Photos:
Georgian sunset: "This is Johan Jonsson on a trip to Gudauri, Georgia. We had been told we could get a taxi home from the road down below but it took us a few hours and we got back way after dark. It was cool to go to a less developed location. The lifts were super run down and the locals skied on pretty old equipment. Sunrise and sunset always bring some stress because you think, 'Is it good enough now, or should we wait?' And then shadow crawls up and it's gone. You have to hustle to maximize this red light which is short but very beautiful." -- Oskar Enander.
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Photos:
Big in Japan: "For me this is the classic setting for skiing in Japan. There are always these beautiful, snow covered trees and you could come back on a different day and it would look totally different. It just snows so much, even on a bad year -- which would be a great year anywhere else. For this shot we just parked by the side of the road and ski toured uphill for a bit before treading down a jump in the trees." -- Oskar Enander.(Skier Piers Solomon at Kiriri Snow World)
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Photos:
Mont Blanc massif: "This is one of my favorite areas to ski and photograph in the Alps. The mountains are impressive with endless possibilities. This is Chamonix local Alex Pittin, who is an ex-alpine racer in the French team and now a fully certified mountain guide, skiing powder on the Brenva glacier near Courmayeur in Italy's Aosta valley. The peak in the background is the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey (3, 773 meters)." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Midnight sun: "We were staying on a sailboat exploring the fjords in Stjernøya, northern Norway. It was the end of May and still warm under the midnight sun. This shot is of Chad Sayers hiking up one night. We started about 9.30 p.m and reached the summit about 12.00 a.m., dropping in well after midnight. It was one of the most special trips I've been on with a very international crew from France, Sweden and Canada." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
Hide Caption
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Photos:
Pink powder: "This is local skier and mountaineer Micke af Ekenstam dropping in from Tredjetoppen in the backcountry above Narvik, Norway at about 9.30 p.m. We ski toured for half an hour above the top lift and then I got this shot with just a wide angle lens, with no filters or anything. The natural light is so unique up there. To me it's about being in the right place at the right time." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
Hide Caption
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Photos:
Debut tour: "Aksel Lund Svindal (second from left) is one of the most successful ski racers of modern times but this was his first ever ski touring trip, being filmed for a video. It was in the Lyngen Alps in the far north of Norway, on the islands to the east of Tromso. It's one of the most unique places in the world and a mecca for ski touring. Aksel was so humble and so happy to learn, and it was a really cool experience to share it with him. We walked for six-seven hours uphill with skins our skis and had amazing snow all the way back to the fjord." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Spine tingling: "Cody Townsend is one of the best big-mountain skiers in the world. This was at Terrace in northern British Columbia, a really remote spot near the Alaskan border, one of the most amazing places I've been to with those spine walls and no one around. It was during a film shoot with Matchstick Productions. This was the most productive day -- in two weeks we only skied four days because it was so stormy. The skiers would look at the lines from the helicopter as they flew up and then take a picture of it and memorize it before their run." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
On rails: "This was shot from a lift on film, before drones and before digital, in a freestyle park in Park City, Utah during a down day on a filming project. I'd seen it from the lift and tried it a couple of times before I got this. It's Swedish pro skier Henrik Winstedt and became my first cover shot for Powder magazine in 2005." --Mattias Fredriksson.
Hide Caption
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Photos:
Mica magic: "Leah Evans is a Revelstoke big mountain skier that I enjoy skiing and working with when I am in the British Columbia interior. Last winter she joined us for a trip to Mica Heli, a well-known heli-skiing operation a few hours north of Revelstoke. The conditions were amazing and Leah skied so well." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
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Photos:
Lapland lines: "When I was about 20 and just starting out, I spent a few seasons in Riksgränsen, the most northern ski area in Swedish Lapland. The area is unique and the soft, Arctic light is a dream. I try to return at least once every winter. This photo was taken from a helicopter while filming and shooting for an all-female ski documentary called Between (by Shades of Winter). The skier is Sandra Lahnsteiner from Austria, who also produced the movie." -- Mattias Fredriksson.
Hide Caption
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Photos:
Powder paradise: They're two of the world's best ski photographers, but shooting elite athletes in spectacular mountains is all in a day's work for Swedes Oskar Enander and Mattias Fredriksson, whose images are showcased in this gallery. For Enander, though, it's a bit harder. He's color blind. "I work a lot with shadows, and dark and light," he tells CNN. This image is Lars Windlin in Engelberg, Switzerland, Enander's adopted home. "This is kind of a classic shot but I like it because of the dramatic clouds, the way the tracks in the background draw your eye down to the lake, the beautiful light, great snow and the shadows." -- Oskar Enander.
Hide Caption
1 of 18
Photos:
Shadow surfing: "This is one of my favorite pictures. I'd been looking for this to line up for six years. I saw the shadow and asked snowboarder Yves Husler to hit it. He jumped into the turn and made a huge cloud. We had one chance and we had to try to nail it. I like the deep blue shadows and the contrasts with light and shade. This probably defines my style and is what I'm looking for in a graphic, beautiful image." -- Oskar Enander.
Hide Caption
2 of 18
Photos:
In the barrel: "This looks like midwinter but it was November 2017 in Engelberg. It's a cool spot because the rider (Yves Husler) can come in from way above with so much speed and the cloud throws forward like a wave. I want to try it again and have him in the cloud like he's under the lip in a big-wave tube. We're working on it, but the snow needs to be right and you can't shoot there in February, March and April because it gets too warm." -- Oskar Enander.
Hide Caption
3 of 18
Photos:
Ethereal light: "This is the late Jamie Pierre in Jackson Hole. Jamie held the unofficial world record for the highest cliff jump, but died in a snowboarding accident in 2011. This was probably the smallest cliff he jumped on this day. The fog coming through the trees was in and out and wasn't there when we set up for the shot. The second he dropped in it appeared and gave the shot a magical, mystical feeling. A minute or two later it had disappeared. Nature was on our side that day." -- Oskar Enander.
Hide Caption
4 of 18
Photos:
Light show: "This was a night shoot for a ski video/commercial for a new model of TV filmed near Sentry Lodge in British Columbia. We had five huge Hollywood studio-style lights which we had to haul around the mountain. The physical workload was immense. We slept in the day and shot from about midnight to 6 a.m. for 12 days straight. Shooting in low light made it hard to set the focus and get the right settings, but it was amazing to be part of." -- Oskar Enander. (Skier Eric Hjorleifson)
Hide Caption
5 of 18
Photos:
Pink puff: "For tighter shots we could shoot from close to the ground and hide the old tracks so we didn't have to move location every time. The skier came straight towards us and the rear light hit the powder cloud from behind to give one color and the side light gave another color. Sometimes the skiers wore light suits containing hundreds of LEDs, which often broke, and the batteries burned holes in their pockets." -- Oskar Enander. (Skier Eric Hjorleifson)
Hide Caption
6 of 18
Photos:
Out of the shadow: "I was out skiing with Patrick Vuagnat in Engelberg and we came on this by chance. He had no idea how much speed he would need and as he hiked up a bit more the shadow crept in. Every 30 seconds the patch of sunlight got smaller. We had one chance but he hit it perfectly. When I packed up the camera the sun had gone. It was one of those times when everything just matches up." -- Oskar Enander.
Hide Caption
7 of 18
Photos:
Ice cool: "It was my first year shooting and I met a Swedish photographer in a lift line in Engelberg. He was working with some skiers and told me to follow him. For this shot we were shoulder to shoulder in a little cave. Luckily, I was little bit more to right so the skier was framed clearly. It was taken on slide film so for about a week I had no idea how it would turn out. I thought it was good but I had no idea if others would. I sent it to Powder, the ski magazine, and got a call a few months later to say it had won its Photo of the Year and I flew to the ceremony in Aspen to get the award." -- Oskar Enander. (Skier Kalle Eriksson)
Hide Caption
8 of 18
Photos:
Georgian sunset: "This is Johan Jonsson on a trip to Gudauri, Georgia. We had been told we could get a taxi home from the road down below but it took us a few hours and we got back way after dark. It was cool to go to a less developed location. The lifts were super run down and the locals skied on pretty old equipment. Sunrise and sunset always bring some stress because you think, 'Is it good enough now, or should we wait?' And then shadow crawls up and it's gone. You have to hustle to maximize this red light which is short but very beautiful." -- Oskar Enander.
Hide Caption
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'Weekend warriors'
Some gentle "pre-hab" could also help prevent injury.
"Ultimately, it's super simple. If you don't fall over, you're not going to hurt yourself," says Chris Maher of Ski Physio, which runs chartered physiotherapy clinics in 10 resorts in the French Alps.
"Anything you can do to stop yourself falling is a good thing: so be better at skiing -- get ski instruction; use the right equipment; and be fitter for your sport.
"If you're one of those people we call a 'weekend warrior,' where they do nothing and then suddenly turn up and think they're 21 again -- they seem to have big problems. When muscles get fatigued the more chance there is of making mistakes and falling over.
"However, if people go to the gym, do a bit of running or cycling, their muscles seem to be able to cope a little bit better."
Power sport
Having a decent cardiovascular base is a good foundation, and speeds up recovery from exercise, but the more advanced you become the more it becomes about power, according to Jeff Lackie, coach to US superstar ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin.
"Even though Mikaela makes slalom look effortless, much like a figure skater or a ballerina moving gracefully across the stage, there is a huge power component to that which makes that huge bound or series of tight turns look effortless," says Lackie.
At the extreme end of the sport, John McBride, head coach for the US men's speed team, has taken his charges on Special Forces training camps to work on their physical and mental fitness.
Training for squad members is "very extensive" and incorporates an almost year-round cycle, with aerobic- and technique-driven training in spring, followed by a power block with strength and plyometric training, and then more sports-specific work closer to race season.
But for the average skier McBride says "consistency" of any kind of training is key, rather than a two-week blitz before a trip.
"Most people don't recognise the loads that are demanded. The faster you ski, the fitter you need to be to handle the forces, so you need to get some good strength in the quads and hamstrings," he says.
"If the average skier can spend a little bit of time working on core and leg strength, those are two great components that will benefit their skiing. I'm a big fan of cross training in any kind of capacity."
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