Posted on December 19, 2014 by Jenny Cromack
With a week to go before Christmas what can you be doing to maximise your core for the new year ski season? Core strength is important to maximise your skiing performance. A strong transverse abdominis and obliques helps stability in the spine which is important when changing direction during skiing.
I’m hoping that you are a frequent motive8 North blog reader and will have read about how lifting weights is one of the best things you can do for overall fitness and are fantastic to build a strong stable core. Many people spend far too much time crunching and planking, don’t get me wrong they certainly have their place and can be used at the end of a hard weights session to maximise the workout. Olympic movements really use the core with research showing that a deadlift creates 2x more muscle activation than a plank so work on that core strength whilst working the back and legs, Perfect!
Squats
Squats are a great exercise for your abdominal muscles and greater core strength means better sports performance. A recent study of Division 1 college football players showed that maximal lower body strength and power as measured by the 1RM back squat was associated most directly with strength in the core muscles (rectus abdominis, pelvic and hip girdle, obliques, and paraspinals).
Researchers in this study point to the uselessness of the plank exercise to train the core for athletes and the general population. The plank (and side plank) is performed in a non-functional static position that is rarely replicated in sports or in daily life, making it useless as a primary component of training.
Deadlifts
Deadlifts are essential, compared to the exercises typically used to train the core and lower back, properly trained deadlifts are superior because they activate all the muscles in the trunk, including the rectus abdominis, the obliques, and the lower back.
An analysis of muscle activity in the core found that the deadlift was far better for training the musculature of the lower back than all other exercises tested, including the back extension and lunge.
Typical “core” exercises such as a bridge exercise on a BOSU didn’t effectively activate back muscles, making them largely useless for preventing back pain.
Now, what you might now know is that as good as the deadlift is for strengthening the lower back, it’s not the BEST exercise.
The squat actually requires greater activity of the lower lumbar region of the back than the deadlift.
For example, when a heavy squat (80 percent of maximal load) was compared to a heavy deadlift, the squat required about 34 percent greater activity of the lower lumbar region than the deadlifts. Deadlifts produced greater activation of the upper region of the lower back.
So, train both squats and deads, and if you’re training both in the same workout, do squats first, when your lower back is fresh. This will warm it up for pulling heavy loads.
Chin-ups and Push Ups
Chin-ups are ideal for abdominal endurance because you must stabilize the body throughout the motion if you do them properly.
Push-ups provide adequate static horizontal abdominal training, and glute-ham raises can help strengthen the posterior chain if you have imbalances in the lower back, or hamstrings.
Clean & Jerk
It’s no big surprise to anyone who has done heavy Olympic lifting that it builds the abdominals. Researchers point to the strenuous overload of fast-twitch abdominal fibers required from the snatch and clean and jerk as the reason for greater size and strength in the subjects’ lateral abdominals. Additionally, they point to the role of the internal oblique as part of the muscular system that transfers the load between the pelvis and thorax, as well as the stress of repeated rapid lifts required from the snatch and clean.
So from last weeks blogs you learnt how to train your legs to be get the most out of your skiing. All the above exercises are fantastic to help strengthen your whole body including your core so don’t be afraid to lift heavy!
Enjoy your Skiing!