Author: Andrew Hooge, CSCS
As a strength and conditioning coach I meet lots of great trainers and coaches. Unfortunately even the best of us can get caught up in the latest and greatest "exercise myths". I've listed a few of the most common myths to watch out for below.
Read more →
Author: Andrew Hooge
Every year I work with skiers who are losing confidence in their ability to react quickly enough to get out of harms way (trees, ruts, another snow sports enthusiast, you name it). Being able to move quickly and explosively while having a keen awareness of the space around you can have a huge impact on your skiing performance. In a nut shell, mproving your explosive power and proprioception off the slopes can help you improve your performance on the mountain.
Read more →
I encourage you to pick up a pen and a piece of paper and jot down the goals you want to reach. Look at each goal and evaluate it. Use the S.M.A.R.T. acronym (see below) to help guide you through the process. Do this 3 or 4 times a year and watch your skiing improve and dreams come to fruition. For a more detailed goal-setting guide, see chapter three in the book,Fitskiing.
Read more →
Do you feel exhausted even after a good nights’ sleep? Are your muscles more fatigued than normal after a day on the slopes? If so you might be overtraining.
According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), overtraining can be described as “excessive frequency, volume, or intensity of training, resulting in fatigue.” They explain that overtraining is progressive and occurs in four stages:
Read more →
In a recent tip of the day I mentioned the importance and effectiveness of wearing a heart rate monitor. Since I received so many emails regarding how to properly use a monitor I decided to discuss it here.
Think of a heart rate monitor as a gauge, a tachometer for your body so to speak. The speedometer in your vehicle tells you how fast you are moving but does not explain how hard the engine is running.
Read more →
For most of us, hitting the slopes more than 15 days per year is a bit challenging. For the rest of the season, however, we should keep our bodies primed for fresh powder. Try the following 30-minute based workout to help maintain your reaction time and quickness.
Read more →
What's a nice guy like Andrew Hooge doing in a place like Chapel Hill? Not that there's anything wrong with Chapel Hill. It's just that when you're one of the country's top experts on ski and snowboard fitness, you might be expected to live somewhere more ... alpine.
Read more →
It's a cold powder day, and you're rushing out the door to grab first chair. You snag your gear, hop in your car, start it up and...ugh, it shudders out of the driveway. Sound like your first run on the slopes? Not surprising: Just like any piece of high-performance machinery, your body has to warm up before you can expect it to fire on all cylinders.
Read more →
To many, maximizing overtraining may sound a bit like an oxymoron. In the late 1960’s Russian exercise scientists discovered that after 3 weeks of “very hard” strength and conditioning work the athletes needed to back off a little on their training. They found that applying 60 percent of the workload in the fourth week allowed the body to recover and perform better the following 3 weeks.
Read more →