Pilates for skiers

As the last of the sad, abandoned Christmas trees on the pavements of Tooting are finally picked up for chipping (I'm still feeling guilty about ours - sorry, lovely Christmas tree) and January gets underway, there's only one logical way to fill the void left by the overindulgence and consumerist frenzy of Christmas: book a ski trip. 

This makes sense on so many levels: dry January will be over by then, so overpriced beer and Glühwein will be back on the agenda. All that New Years Resolution fitness training will also having you skiing almost as well as an Austrian five-year old. The sky will be blue, the snow will be crisp and perfect, the Euro will be cripplingly expensive, but nevermind: the time is now!

But before you head down to TK Maxx to buy some garish new salopettes, it's time to get ski-fit.

Pilates exercises can help you build the strength (both in your core and legs), endurance and agility necessary for skiing. They are particularly effective in developing the muscles necessary to reduce the risk of injury, particularly in your knees, shoulders and lower back. Pilates can also be helpful in working on your balance, concentration and coordination, which will also help you stay in control on the slopes, especially when transferring your weight over the skis.

  

Focus of the exercises:

• Increase strength in the legs, particularly working on the muscles in the front of the thighs (quadriceps), which will help keep your knee caps in place and protect the knees from injuries to the medial and anterior cruciate ligaments.
• Increase strength in the core, particularly to protect the lower back.
• Increase strength and movement in the shoulders (rotator cuff muscles) to reduce risk of shoulder dislocation.
• Increase endurance, to reduce the risk of fatigue-related injuries and accidents.

Thirteen ski-tastic exercises for you to try: 

For your core, to stabilise you while you’re moving:

•  Hundred – lying on your back with legs straight out at a 45 degree angle, or with knees bent at a 90 degree angle. Pump the arms up and down as you inhale for 5 counts and exhale for 5 counts until you reach 100. Concentrate on pulling your belly button into your spine, keeping your lower back imprinted on the mat and tucking your chin down to your chest. Stay relaxed through the shoulders.
  
  
•  Single Leg Stretch – starting lying on your back with an imprinted spine (see video for explanation), chin tucked in and knees at 90 degrees, bring your head and shoulders off the mat, and then extend your legs away from you in turn. Exhale as you stretch the leg away, pointing the toe, straightening the leg and pulling up on the kneecap with the quads. Inhale as your knees pass each other. Pull your belly button in and reach your hands to the bend knee. The closer you bring the bent knee to your chest, the easier the exercise is. 

• Scissors – lying on your back, chin tucked in, pelvis imprinted, bring your head and shoulders off the mat. Knees bent to 90 degrees, then straighten legs to ceiling. Drop one leg down to the floor and draw the other towards you for two pulses, exhaling with pulses and inhaling and your knees pass each other when you switch legs. Belly button pulls in towards spine, gaze towards knees. Toes should be pointed and legs reaching away. Draw up on kneecaps to engage quads. 

To stretch and strengthen your lower back:

•  Breaststroke - Lie on your front and reach your arms out in front of you. Lift your arms, head and torso a few centimeters in a low hover, then circle your arms around to your sides with an inhale. With the exhale, bend your elbows and dive your arms forwards, back into the start position, with arms and torso hovering above the mat. Gaze stays down towards the mat so you don't overextend your neck, and feet stay on the mat. Think about contracting your abs and glutes as you lift your chest, to support the lower back. 

•  Swimming – lying on your front, with your arms stretched out in front of you, lift your arms and legs off the mat. Lift one arm and the opposite leg higher off the mat, then switch sides. Keep glutes and abs working to prevent strain in the lower back. Gaze stays directly down at the mat. Try to stay balance – no wobbling! 

Rotation – for perfect turns:

• Spine twist – get some rotation into your spine by sitting with legs crossed, or legs bent or straight out in front of you (whatever’s most comfortable and allows you to sit up really straight), and twist from one side to the other, keeping you back straight, reaching the crown of your head up to the sky. The rotation should be coming from your torso, your lower body doesn’t move. 

• Obliques – modified version of single leg stretch (see above) – bring your fingertips to your ears and draw your armpit towards the opposite hip when drawing the knee in. Stay flat through the abs and concentrate on the twisting of the torso, rather than elbow and knee touching.

Legs – to stretch and strengthen your calves, hamstrings, quadriceps and other muscles around your hips:

• Side leg lift series – lying on your side with one arm folded under your head and the other out in front of you for stability, lift your top leg to the ceiling. Point the toe as you raise the leg and flex the foot as you lower it. After a few repetitions, raise the top leg, then bring the bottom leg up to meet it, and squeezing them together, lower them down. Then raise both legs up together, and lower down. Finally, with just the top leg, draw some circles one way, then the other, with your toes while your leg is raised. Repeat on the other side. Keep your hips and shoulders stable, and lift your lower waist up off the mat – don’t relax down into the floor!

•  Shoulder bridge - lie on your back with your knees bent. Lift your hips off the mat and then raise one leg to the ceiling. Raise and lower the leg, keeping this hips lifted and stable. 
 

• Wall slide – Stand with your back to a wall, and slide your back down it, bending your knee. Check that your knee is tracking over your middle toe, and slide up again.
   
• Single leg circle - lying on your back, raise one leg towards the ceiling and draw circles with your raised foot – the aim of the exercise is for your hips not to move at all, the movement is just the ball of the hip joint moving in its socket.

Shoulders and wrists – for perfect pole planting:

• Push up – Start from standing, roll down through your spine until your hands reach the floor (bending your knees if you need to). Walk your hands forwards until you’re in a plank position. Lower down into the push up, and exhale to lift back into the plank position. Lower and lift twice more, then walk your hands back towards your feet, and roll up back up standing. If you’d like more of a balance challenge, try this standing on one leg!
   
• Leg pull front – on your front, push up through your hands to come into a flat-backed push up position. Lift on of your legs off the mat and point the toes away from you. Rock backwards and forwards on the foot that’s on the mat, then swap legs.  

 

Enjoy!

PS - apologies to snowboarders - these exercises will also work for you, and will think up a few specific ones for the next post!

Day 12: Name that muscle

Most people, when thinking about the amazing abs they’re going to get from Pilates think of this:

But what they really should be thinking about is this:

Yes, it’s time for the science. I am unapologetically nerdy when it comes to anatomy and Pilates. Learning the names of the muscles, their functions, origins and insertions was initially the source of much terror for me (apologies to anyone on the Northern Line who I frightened with my soft incessant chanting of jargon over images of what could only have looked like flayed bodies – I wasn’t planning anything sinister and voodoo-ish for the good people of Tooting, just making use of the delays for a quiet flashcard revision sesh). But once you get it – wow, it all makes so much sense! 

Here’s a crash course in the important core Pilates muscles. Bonus points to anyone who manages to drop one of these into conversation in the next 24 hours.

Abdominals – as indicated by the pictures above, Pilates is not all about your ‘six pack’ muscles – this is your Rectus Abdominis, and actually a pretty superficial muscle that doesn’t do a lot for you in terms of posture. The muscle you want to be targeting with your ab work is the second one, the Transversus Abdominis. This is a deeper muscle, and wraps all the way around you like a corset. By strengthening it you get a lot more reward for the effort – make sure you’re working it by pulling your belly button in towards your spine when exercising the abs. You also have internal and external obliques in this group – you particularly use these for rotational movements.

 

Spine – there are several different muscles that work together to control the flexion, extension and rotation of your spine. These are known collectively as the Erector Spinae group.

 

Other muscle attaching to the pelvis – the abs and some of the spinal muscles attach to the pelvis, pulling it up. The pull of these is balance out by your quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteals pulling down on your pelvis. For ‘neutral’ alignment and good posture, you need all these to be working together with the right strengths so that your pelvis isn’t tipped forwards or backwards. The gluteals, hamstrings and quadriceps are all actually groups of muscles too, not single muscles.

And while we’re talking about the pelvis – there is of course the pelvic floor – more of which later in the month, but for now, it’s the muscle that you squeeze to stop the flow of urine. In men, the sensation is apparently like that of ‘stepping into cold water’…

So if you’re going to work on strengthening one group of muscle (e.g. your abs of steel), it’s important to also exercise the opposing muscle, to stay balanced. Pilates is great for this, especially if you’re doing a lot of training for a specific sport (such as cycling, running, weightlifting) where you are always focussing on the same muscles, and using them repeatedly in the same way. By getting more balanced muscle strength you not only improve your posture, but also minimise the risk of injury.

Right, that’s the anatomy lesson over for now – go forth and tell everyone how your iliocostalis is feeling today…

Day 11: The glutes

So yesterday you iron-ified your abs. But Pilates is all about balancing your muscles for good posture and alignment, so today we’re going to focus on another group of muscles essential for good alignment – the gluteals. 

The ‘glutes’ or ‘bum muscles’ (as they are technically known) are the gluteus minimus, gluteus medius and gluteus maximus. The first two are in the side of your hip, and are used to pull your leg out to the side (‘abductors’). The best exercise for these is the Side Leg Lift series, which I covered on Day 5 (Pilates for Runners) – take a look. 

The gluteus maximus is the big muscle in the cheek of your bottom. Apologies if this image is a little much so early in the morning. 

Great exercises for strengthening this muscles are the shoulder bridge (also Day 5), and any exercise where you lie on your front and lift your arms and legs off the mat. You should always squeeze with the glutes when you’re in this position, as it helps protect your lower back by stopping you over-arching through the bottom few vertebra. Try the breaststoke (see Day 6) with a focus on the glutes. 

The other exercise that’s great for the glutes is affectionately known as the ‘J-Lo Butt exercise’ (or Heel Squeeze Prone if you’re being all technical) – lie on your front with your hands under your head. Bring your knees slightly apart, lift your feet off the mat and squeeze your heels together. Concentrate on squeezing with your glutes, and pushing your pubic bone down into the mat. Hold for 5 seconds and release. Repeat 10 times. 

Tomorrow is going to be a proper anatomy lesson to explain the importance of strengthening various muscle groups, but for now, let’s just take a moment to look at pelvic alignment. The abs and the glutes both attach to the pelvis, so have an impact on how it is positioned. 

There are two main positions we use in Pilates – ‘neutral’ and ‘imprint’. I’ve used these terms in previous posts, so now it’s time to explain them. 

A neutral pelvic position is the most shock-absorbent position for the body, as the spine is holding its natural curves. This position can be found by lying on your back with your knees bent. Put the heels of your hands on your hip bones, and your fingers towards your pubic bone. Rock your pelvis backwards and forwards until you find a position where your hands are level with the mat – you should be able to balance an imaginary glass of water between your hands without it spilling. There should be a slight arch under your lower back, and it should also be a comfortable position. This is the position you should hold your pelvis in whenever your feet are on the mat. 

An imprinted pelvic position is used when you take your feet off the mat. Having your legs in the air increases the work put through the lower back, and this can be done more safely in imprint. You can stabilise the lower spine by rocking your pelvis towards your belly button, using your abs to decrease the distance between your hip bones and your lower ribs. Your lower back should come down towards the mat, but you’re not jamming it down, just softening it into the mat. 

The rest of the science is coming tomorrow – with pictures of muscles and everything.