It’s easy to go snowboarding when you’re in shape. So what can you do in the off-season to keep yourself sharp? One option is to go biking.
Mike Doyle says that biking produces many benefits for skiers. I suspect that snowboarders gain some of those benefits as well, which include keeping your legs strong and enhancing cardiovascular fitness.
One great thing about snowboarding is that it can provide the motivation to get fit. And if you want to get into shape, one good guide to doing so is “Open Your Heart to Winter Fitness,” by Lisa Marie Mercer.
I’m only sixty or so pages into it, but it provides both inspiration and instruction. The techno-babble can be a bit heavy in a few spots, but if you can understand that, you’ll have a better appreciation for what the exercises will do for you. If you’re not interested in understanding biomechanics, read the first few chapters and then plunge into part 2 for specific exercises.
I came across a new (to this season) blog called Snowboard Women. I’m not sure how old Erica (riding since 1999) and the rest of her Southern California-based gang are, so I’m not sure if they’d be comfortable identifying with the Grays on Trays demographic, but they do get “age points” for remembering vinyl records.
Also, I liked the post “Snowboarders Getting Older.” At least I plan to be snowboarding while getting older, as are the folks on the Grays on Trays discussion board.
The blog has a post on pre-season conditioning that comes with this twist: strengthen those triceps.
Say what?
“You heard me. Unless you have step-ins, you’re gonna spend a fair amount of time sitting at the top of the run strapping in. Once your gear’s all set, you gotta push yourself up off your seated position… over and over! Getting your arms prepped will prevent you from being too sore the next day.”
Not a bad idea to tone those arms, of course. But you could also get some Flow bindings and avoid that sitting on your bum.
Success in snowboarding depends in part on having strong abdominal, or core muscles. There are lots of exercises that you can do to develop a stronger core.
Are you pressed for time and can’t make it to the gym? Here’s one thing you can do without even leaving the office: Replace that office chair (at least temporarily) with an exercise ball.
The Wall Street Journal has the story, which you can read on its free site Career Journal.
“Devotees,” reports the Journal, “say exercise balls, whose diameter ranges from about 18 to 30 inches, help improve posture and concentration. Sitting upright on them requires using abdominal and lower back muscles.”
As an adult, you may not be as fit as when you were at a younger age. But that’s no reason for sinking into the living room furniture and becoming a couch potato. The exercise ball can be one tool for improving your fitness, and making that on-the-snow experience less of a workout, and more a sheer session of enjoyment.
If you think that snowboarding is good for your mind, you’re not just imagining it. Scientific research shows that exercise can actually make people smarter.
OK, so that’s the high-level, PR-pitch. I’m still collecting information, but what I have seen looks very interesting and encouraging. See for example some reports from 2003:
A press release from the University of Illinois:
“Interestingly, we found that fitness per se didn’t have any influence on brain density,” said Kramer, a professor of psychology and member of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois. “It is fitness as it interacts with age that has the positive effects. Older adults show a real decline in brain density in white and gray areas, but fitness actually slows that decline.”
An abstract from a gerontology journal:
“These findings extend the scope of beneficial effects of aerobic exercise beyond cardiovascular health, and they suggest a strong solid biological basis for the benefits of exercise on the brain health of older adults.”
A popular-level survey from 2006 (LA Times, registration may be required):
“Aside from genetics, four factors stood out as good predictors of how well people keep their mental edge as they age, says Marilyn Albert, a cognitive neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who sat on the panel.
The fab four, Albert says, are physical activity, mental activity, social engagement and cardiovascular health.”
And another newspaper review, from the Wall Street Journal (good for the next week or so before it goes behind a subscription firewall):
“For the first time, scientists have found something that not only halts the brain shrinkage that starts in a person’s 40s, especially in regions responsible for memory and higher cognition, but actually reverses it: aerobic exercise.”
So get out there and ride … and ride fast!
You don’t have to be in great physical shape to go riding. But it helps.
I spent most of last week indoors, 24/7. I was at a hotel for a conference, and from 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday until 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, I never left the building.
Over the last year I have gotten into an exercise routine that includes leg curls, crunches, and some upper-body workouts. In the last month I added some boxing. It’s just me and a punching bag, but it’s enough to be an aerobic workout.
This all started in October of last year, out of two objectives. One was the “it’s good for you” concern–exercise because it’s a good thing to do. But the other objective was to have more endurance while riding. I’m happy to say that both objectives have been achieved.
So it was with some concern that I gave up on getting much exercise in during the conference. When Saturday morning came around, I was ready for the 5k run/walk, even though I had not run in 30 years.
Twelve of the conference attendees met in the hotel lobby at the appointed (early) hour. I had no plan for whether I would take on the whole route, or double-back and return part-way through. I expected to walk, not run.
We gathered at the starting line, and took off. To my surprise, I started jogging near the head of the pack. And I stayed there for perhaps half a mile. Then I retreated into a walk some, jog some routine.
All was going well until the halfway point. That’s when some rubbing on my left foot really kicked in. It hurt. A lot. There was a sharp pain on my instep.
After that, I walked, with the occasional jog to get across the street. I thought of taking off my shoes and running in bare feet, or perhaps stocking feet. But the air temperature was about 50, and I figured that the pavement would be pretty cold, too. Plus, I was concerned about stubbing my toe–or doing something worse–on the occasionally uneven sidewalks.
I figured that I would be the last person back to the hotel, and that the organizer would be there waiting for me, making sure that nobody had died along the way.
Instead, I could hear the entire crowd of runners as I ran out the last two or three blocks. When I arrived near the party, they let out a bigger cheer. Someone took some photos of us all, and I sheepishly blamed my slow time on “equipment failure.” I don’t know that anyone believed me.
So what sorts of ailments did I suffer? A blister on my instep. It hasn’t popped, and if I am lucky, it won’t. Though a few people warned me of crushed knees, they feel fine. Oh, I have some soreness in the muscles on the tops of my feet, and my thighs ache the way they used to after I went on 20-mile walks. But overall, I feel fine.
For that, I can credit–or if you will, blame–snowboarding.
