The followingis the first in a series of weekly articles by the "infamous" David Zylberberg, one of the original members
of XC Ottawa. He is the writer of numerous amusing and sometimes controversial articles which have been
the subject of much discussion within the Canadian cross-country racing community over the last 8 months.
While David does not possess an advanced degree in physiology or sports science, hopefully the articles will
be the source of much entertainment while you are putting off work, school, or chores. David's articles
will be candid and will not be censored by the editors of XC Ottawa. (At least not usually) Please address
your comments and questions directly to David.
Training has been going very well for the month of June. At the beginning of
the month, I knew I was in fairly good shape but lacking a little bit to
achieve my normal late summer fitness. I have just completed 2 high volume
weeks of training and have gotten fitter every day to the point where I am
in the best shape I have ever been in before July 15. The high volume
training increased my blood volume and now my aerobic system is functioning
well. I notice this with lower training heart rates, faster training paces
at these lower heart rates and better heart rate recovery. I normally feel
fit like this in late July and August but this is early to be receiving
these benefits.
One interesting thing in this whole period has been my improved upper body
strength. I have been double poling really well this spring. Also, on Friday
I did a few chinups after my workout and hit a personal best of 20. This is
suggesting that my upper body strength is improving from previous years.
This is particularly interesting because I have been doing a fair bit less
strength training than in other years. Previously, I felt I needed more
strength to compete and spent close to 3.25 hours/week doing strength
workouts in June and July. I was strong in general strength last year and
decided to do less gym work and more specific upper body workouts on
rollerskiis. I am currently doing one circuit strength session/week
consisting of mainly body weight exercises with a few light weights and long
sets of each exercise. Also, I am doing one distance workout a week that
focusses on double poling and uses some longer versions of the workout
mentioned a few weeks back in my guide to rollerskiing. The only other upper
body training is paddling once a week for about 1.5 hours, a little use of
arms while skate rollerskiing and doing some body weight exercises (situps,
backups, pushups, chinups, dips) after some workouts. The reason I mention
this is that I did a little less double poling, no paddling, the same body
weight exercises but more circuits and other hard weight workouts in the
years where I had less strength. I also did about half as much weight
training in May than in previous years.
The lesson I am learning from this is that the best way to build
ski-specific strength is by doing ski specific activities and using ski
muscles in other activities. The paddling seems to be helping and has given
aerobic benefits that gym work does not. I also read this week that
world-sprint Champion Thobias Fredrickson claims to only use strength
training to prevent injuries. I mention this in addition to my observations
because often skiers feel that they need a lot of weight training in order
to compete. Weight training can have some benefits, particularly when
strength is seriously lacking but it does not replace muscular endurance and
power built by isolating muscles on rollerskiis. A lot of the benefits of
weight training come in strengthining non-ski muscles to prevent imbalances
and injuries but this does not require 3 sessions/week.
Another benefit of doing fewer general strength workouts is that it has
allowed me to focus more time on other aspects of ski training and to work
on larger weaknesses. Hopefully, these workouts that have become available
will allow for greater improvement in all areas.
I mention these observations because I found them interesting and hopefully
informative for you. Also, it reminds me that skiers do not get fast inside
but by training specificly in the outdoors.
