It seems to happen to a lot of us skiers every year. Just as the snow is beginning to fall in the mountains, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, we find ourselves thinking “Okay. Now it is time to get my ski legs ready for the season." We tell ourselves this with the knowledge that at this point anything we do is too little too late and our skiing will suffer for a few months due to our off-season laziness.
There are many different ways to avoid the jet-lagged legs that summertime provides us skiers but inline skating is the only exercise that mimics the movement of skiing and works the same muscle groups. In fact, inline skating at a steady comfortable rate is known to burn 400+ calories per hour and produces a heart rate of 148 beats per minute. If you skate faster these numbers increase. Inline skating is also proven to be better then cycling as an aerobic exercise. As an anaerobic exercise inline skating is found to be more beneficial then both running and cycling. This is because skating is more conducive to building hip muscle than running or cycling. If you are not sold on skating yet, consider the fact that skating causes 50% less impact shock to the body as running and this is something your knees will love you for.
Nobody knows the importance of starting the ski season with strong legs more then your local ski instructor. Dave Beckwith, Snow sports director for the Summit at Snoqualmie, is a professional skier who realized the benefits of inline skating years ago when he was skiing and living the life in Tahoe. Dave found that using the inline skates he initially bought to play hockey was an outstanding training option for getting ready for ski season. He found that inline skating can help your balance, anaerobic and aerobic capacities as they pertain to skiing, and provide a fun way to get in shape. He directly attributes inline skating to assisting him making the PSIA-W Technical Team. 10 years later Dave continues to use Skate to Ski exercises that will help any skier prepare for the upcoming season.
