Why is strength important for skiers?
By Andy Newell
As athletes age and mature and as the level of competition grows we see less discrepancy in strength among competitors. When everyone is strong, and everyone can hold together decent technique, now aerobic capacity becomes a bigger indicator of race day performance. I think athletes and coaches sometimes under estimate the importance of focused strength building as a way to ski faster. It is often the lowest hanging fruit for a lot of athletes trying to make it to an elite level of skiing. Because of general anatomy, women tend to carry a larger percentage of their overall strength in the lower body, making upper body strength an area where substatial performance gains can be made. Even at the World Cup level!
The image below shows data from a study of elite skiers who participated in a 12-week heavy lifting protocol. Strength gains were shows to increase performance in double poling tests of various duration.
Dr. Stephen Seiler does a great job explaining the data HERE:
Also: Here is a PDF of the full Losnegard study:
If a skier has substantial muscle mass is strength training still important?
My answer would be yes. Even top level World Cup athletes who have adequate muscle mass can still make adaptations in their strength and improve how their strength is transferred to skis. First of all, core strength development is crucial for everyone. Core stability and an athlete's ability to maintain powerful body positions on skies (even under fatigue) is key to racing fast. Futhermore, muscle recruitment and activation can always be improved through gym training. This means, even the best skaters and the best double poles can still train their bodies to recruit more muscle fibers for these given movements through periodized strength training.
As xc athletes increase their overall training volume and begin training 750+ hours per year, regular strength sessions can help athletes avoid shedding muscle mass due to high volume training. Heavy lifting is also good for the skeletal system and has been proven to improve bone density; an important indicator in athletic longevity. Simply put; heavy lifting typically does not lead to substantial weight gain for skiers.
Typicaly we see great strength improvements from developing athletes when we have some essence of linear periodization built into the strength plans. Meaning: in the spring and summer we try to build GENERAL strength and make small gains in muscle mass development. Then transfer to MAX strength in the mid summer and as we begin to train more ski specific intensity in the fall we work on POWER and VELOCITY development in the gym.
GENERAL - MAX - POWER - VELOCITY
Top tier athletes, who already have a high level of strength, might implement shorter bouts of max, power, and velocity training and spend less time working on pure 'general' muscle building.
The NTS plans implement various linear strength phases but also use weekly plyometric and power exercises in the gym and on skis to build power and velocity. This means the NTS strength plans are a linear and non-linear hybrid strength plan. If you have any questions about your personal strength training please feel free to reach out directly.
