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WATERSKI MagazineBarefooting is the lumberjack event – from ice out to first frost. The essence of footing is taking off your sandals and outlasting the gas gauge. You can start building endurance and strength from the get-go, just like going through those two-a-days when high school football practice started every August.
It's still best not to go out cold for your first barefoot run of 1999. One routine to consider is the super-slow workout, the basement equivalent of footing to collapse.
“The days of who can lift the most weight a bunch of times are over,” says trainer Tony Spratt, whose clients include Peter Fleck, Bruce and Toni Neville, and Andrea Alessi. “It's better to use lighter weight and take five or 10 times longer to do each rep. That way, you load the muscle to the max and take momentum out of each rep.”
A super-slow sit-up is five seconds up, five seconds down. A leg press? Five seconds out, five seconds in. At first, you might not get past three reps. Does it work? Fleck is undefeated in figure-8 tournaments since starting a super-slow regimen three years ago.
Here are some other considerations for building your endurance:
Concentrated Muscles:
Quads, glutes and back.
Most common problems after a long layoff:
P Hot feet. Don't push it. If your feet start to fry, get off the coals. Recovering from blisters is a long process.
P Forearm and hand burnout. Endurance world-record holder Billy Nichols does short pull-ups on the boom during his early-season runs. Otherwise, the best advice is to foot a little longer than you want to build strength.
P Not stretching enough. You've taken a nap from skiing. Even dogs stretch after a nap. Take a minimum of 15 minutes to loosen up.
Off-water exercises:
P Slow chin-ups might be the best skiing exercise of all. They work the forearms, shoulders and gripping muscles in a position similar to what you'll use while barefooting.
P Super-slow squats will best simulate the inferno you'll feel in the legs and butt early in the season. Take a minimum of five seconds down to a squatting position and five seconds back up.
P Work your pushing muscles in the upper body (triceps) to prevent a strength imbalance. While barefooting, your pulling muscles (biceps) are working but the pushing muscles are neglected. In the lower body it's the pulling muscles (hamstrings) that are underworked. Light triceps extensions and hamstring curls can wake up those neglected muscle groups, as will backward barefooting.
First week back:
P Think of barefooting as doing pushups. You don't stop when you hear yourself breathing after seven reps. Pick a landmark that seems out of reach (the yacht docked across the lake, for instance) and barefoot to it.
For tournament skiers:
P Don't start tricks until you've been on the water for a couple of weeks. And never try a new trick in a drysuit (great warmth, awful mobility). Remember, the biggest tournaments aren't until midsummer.
