fr6 tips for getting in shape for cross-country skiing
To prepare for specific, seasonal sports such as cross-country skiing, it is necessary to prepare your body well in advance. Since you cannot ski cross-country regularly all year round, your body must be well prepared before resuming physical activity that it is no longer used to. Cross-country skiing uses muscles that are rarely used in everyday life and puts specific demands on the joints and heart. Physical preparation is a crucial aspect of cross-country skiing. It allows you to prepare for the demands of the sport, but also to prevent injuries, improve your skills, and enjoy yourself from the very first outing.
Here are WORDEN's 6 tips for effective physical preparation before hitting the cross-country ski trails!
1. Build endurance
Cross-country skiing is an endurance sport that heavily challenges the cardiorespiratory system!
To prepare, include aerobic activities such as running, cycling, swimming, or even rowing in your training routine. These activities help develop your lung capacity and strengthen your heart, thereby increasing your endurance over long distances.
2. Improve your anaerobic performance
If you want to take your performance further, you can add specific sessions aimed at improving your anaerobic threshold to your endurance training. Anaerobic exercise is a type of exercise that breaks down glucose in the body without using oxygen (anaerobic meaning “without oxygen”). This can include more dynamic and intense workouts such as interval training or threshold sessions.
3. Strengthen your muscles
Cross-country skiing engages many muscles that are not usually used. The muscles of the legs, core, arms, shoulders, and back—which are often underused in daily life—are put under significant strain in cross-country skiing. It is therefore important to strengthen them in order to fully enjoy this sport. This will help improve your speed, power, explosiveness, and endurance. To do this, you can perform a variety of bodyweight exercises at home without equipment, such as push-ups, core exercises (front or side planks, superman, etc.), back exercises, lunges, squats, wall sits, and more.
4. Improve your proprioception
In Nordic skiing, most movements are performed on one leg on a very narrow ski. It is therefore important to work on proprioception. Proprioception refers to the perception of the different parts of your body in space thanks to numerous receptors located in your muscles, tendons, and joints. Proprioceptive exercises help improve balance, agility, stability, and support, which are essential elements in cross-country skiing. To improve it, you can simply practice maintaining balance on one leg while staying stable and maintaining good posture. You can add variations such as closing your eyes, balancing on a more challenging surface like a mattress or cushion, or passing an object from one hand to the other while keeping your eyes closed.
5. Try roller skiing
If you want to work on both your technique and physical fitness, roller skiing is the best off-season option. It involves using the same techniques as cross-country skiing—both skating and classic—but on roller skis on asphalt. This allows you to train your muscles, endurance, and balance while reproducing the same movements as on snow, all year round.
6. Nutrition and hydration
Don’t forget to hydrate properly before, during, and after training, and to adopt a balanced diet to provide your body with the nutrients it needs for physical effort. When working on your preparation, having appropriate nutrition is essential to give your body what it needs. So don’t hesitate to ask our experts what would suit you best from our wide range of sports nutrition products.