PerformancEDU in Active.com
By Fara Rosenzweig
Active.com
Ski season is around the corner, which means it’s time to get your body ready before you hit the mountain. It’s vital to learn how to train your body for the slopes and recover properly to avoid any injuries.
Marc Digesti, Founder and Director of Performance at PerformancEDU, specializes in ski-specific training. With his extensive knowledge and expertise he’s created a system, Dryland Movement Program, to get adventure loversready to hit the mountains.
The Dryland Movement Program is broken into three phases:
- Phase 1: Foundation Phase (Finding Stability)
- Phase 2: Maintain Strength and Revisit Stability
- Phase 3: Absolute Strength
Since skiing or snowboarding involves a great deal of balance and stability, working on your foundation is key to staying injury-free. Digesti says, “If your body does not move well on the training floor, the same will be visible on skis. By improving stability and mobility in your shoulders, legs and hips, this will reduce the likelihood of injury, while increasing performance.”
A Sample Workout for Stability
Movement Preparation
- Glute Activation: Mini Band Walks Lateral: do two times for 10 yards.
- Lunge to Knee Hug: Six on each leg
- Lateral Lunge: Six on each leg
- Carioca: Do two times for 10 yards.
- Drop Squat: Six on each leg
- Inverted Hamstring: Six on each leg
- Hand Walks: Six times with full arm extension
Pillar Strength
- Single Leg Glute Bridge: Two sets, 10 on each leg
- Pillar Bridge With Hip Extension: Two sets, 10 on each leg
- Lateral Bridge With Leg and holds: Two times for 20 seconds
- Prone Arm Extension: Two sets, six on each arm
Neural Activation
- Ladder Dissociation: seven minutes
“Lateral strength work is specific for edging and pressured movements,” says Digesti.
Elasticity
- Lateral Box Hops: Three sets, 15 seconds each
- MB Rotational Slams: Three sets, six on each side
Strength 1
- DB Bench Press Alternating: Three sets, 10 repetitions
- Standing Wall Slides: Three sets, 10 repetitions
- Two Arm Two Leg RDL: Three sets, 10 repetitions
Strength 2
- Half Kneeling DB OH Alternating Press: Three sets, 10 on each arm
- Active Straight Leg Raise: Three sets, 10 on each leg
- TRX Eccentric Curls Single Leg: Three sets, 10 on each leg
Don’t forget to cool down afterwards. “Recovery is a crucial, yet it is often overlooked. In fact, recovery is an essential part of rebuilding muscle,” says Digesti. Use a foam roller and stretch to maintain strong muscles. Digesti suggests, “Foam rolling can help to relieve build up fascia, which can limit the body to move properly. Static stretching helps to maintain, and even regain range of motion in joints and lengthening your muscles and fascia.”
PerformancEDU’s Marc Digesti in 32mag with Chris Fellows and Mike Hafer
The moment of ah-ha can be as elusive as a snow leopard, but when that skiing epiphany grabs you its impossible to leave it alone. The thought of loosing that “feeling” is unthinkable so you practice day and night to make it yours. Once you have practiced it, ingrained it with miles you are ready to apply it to your desired terrain. That is the moment of truth when you successfully navigate your most feared and trouble filed run with confidence and laser like concentration. It worked! Now you are hooked and you rush back to your source for more pills.
The good news is you are stoked to learn more, the bad news is that if you want to maintain what you felt and progress to higher levels pain free, you will need more than a diet of pure technique practice. It’s the same trap that a first time runner falls prey to. To get better at running you run, but to really get better you should eat better, drink electrolytes, run intervals, stretch properly, work on you running gate, rest and recover. Why should ski athletes be any different? To really improve in skiing you must go beyond the drill practice only mentality and spend some time improving your functional movement, ski specific fitness as well as your technique and tactics.
Because we are all programmed to look for the quick fix, I will present the drill first, hopefully that will grab your attention. Then I will tell you what the demonstrator has actually done to prepare himself for a injury free and high performance ski season. When you see what really goes on behind the scenes, you may have a new vision of what you should be doing to get better.
Frame 1- Lose one ski and both poles and be prepared to feel like a beginner again. If you have never skied on one ski keep all your equipment and practice the drill with one ski lifted off the snow and hold your poles mid-shaft. Rhythm and flow in the fall line will be your best ally, the goal is to gain confidence with the basic mechanics needed to edge, pressure and turn one ski. Tip- A strong core will help maintain balance and facilitate movement with the legs.
Frame 2- With an accurate downhill projection with your entire body move over your ski and release the inside edge. Now you are able to steer the ski into the fall line and begin to engage your edges. In this frame you are seeing what coaches talk about when the say, “commit to the turn”. This commitment is the true crux of any turn. Tip- notice the uphill side of the hip is high and moving forward, this is important to maintain balance and early turning movements.
Frame 3- Now the edging and pressure movement continues to increase as you guide your skis through the desired arc. Notice that the skier has quickly balanced over the ski in an athletic stance. Tip- this athletic balanced position will set the skier up for continuous and precise movements to finish the turn with control and flow.
Frame 4- The precise movements have allowed the skier to stay in line with the ski which is a much more efficient place when trying to make athletic adjustments and absorb terrain and condition changes. Tip- Maintain a perpendicular relationship with the upper body and the slope to stay balanced through the finish of the turn.
If you were looking for the quick fix, then the drill is all you are most likely only interested in, however to really get the most out of this exercise and make noticeable changes in your technique you should dig a little deeper.
Functional Mobility and stability- Dynamic stretching movements and core stability exercises will prepare you for safe and efficient ski moves. To head out on the ski slope and expect to perform a challenging exercise well, with out training for stability and mobility would be a spin of the roulette wheel. That is why the skier in the photos prepares in the gym before performing these types of exercises and demonstrations.
What does Mikey do to prepare?
Mikeys Program is based on 3 compponets.
- Phase 1: Foundation Phase (Finding Stability)
- Phase 2: Maintain Strength and Revisit Stability
- Phase 3: Absolute Strength
- Functional Movement screen-7 site movement assessment
- FMS assessment looks at an individuals fundamental movement pattern in an effort to determine the weak link in their movements.
- Strength Testing:
- Upper
- Lower
- Rotation
- Metabolic
Mike’s next session will include…
- Corrective movement breakdown from the FMS
- Breakdown of:
- Movement Prep
- Glute Activation
- Nueral Activation
- Pillar Strength
- Power/Elasticity
- Strength
After the first two sessions of testing, education and movement breakdown, we will start into program design and Phase 1: Foundation Phase (Finding Stability)
Here is a general description of Mikeys Fall Dryland Training program:
- Movement Preparation will increase proprioception and stabilization, decrease injury potential, improves focus and motor learning and balances the body prior to starting the dryland training program.
- Corrective Movements (Pillar Strength) will address movement limitations identified during the FMS screens. If your body does not move well on the training floor, the same will be visable on skis. By improving stability/mobility in your shoulders, trunk and hip, this will reduce the likelihood of injury, while increasing proformance.
- Power/Elastic Movements will emphasize increased forces through jumping, hoping and olympic movements that will relate to high speed carving, bumps and crud.
- Strength Movements will emphasize functional movements in relationship to being on-hill. The strength program includes balance of hip-dominant, knee-dominant, anterior core, posterior core, rotational, upper body pulls (vertical/horizontal), and upper body pushes (vertical/horizontal) to make sure you are stable and strong in all directions. There is a single leg emphasis to emphasize turns are strong and symmetrical. Lateral strength work is specific for edging and pressured movements.
- A combination of anaerobic and aerobic conditioning (ESD) The ESD sessions build all energy systems (Cardio Base, Leg Strength, Sport Sepcific, Endurance, Recovery) so you will have the strength-endurance to perform on all areas of the mountain.
- Foam rolling, static stretching and hydrotherapy is a necessity to help the body with recovery from on-hill training. Recovery is a crucial, yet it is often overlooked. In fact, recovery is an essential part of rebuilding muscle . Foam rolling can help to relieve build up fascia, which can limit the body to move properly. Static stretching helps to maintain, and even regain range of motion in joints and lengthening your muscles and fascia. Hydrotherapy includes warm and cold tubs. The warm water soothes tense muscles, while cool water stimulates internal activity. These these three recovery tools together can help with overuse injuries, and on-hill performance from improved mobility.
Mikey’s program by the numbers………As a busy father of two and full time ski pro Mikes work outs have to be efficient and effective. Here is a chart that shows how he fits it in.
Movement Preperation
- Glute Activation: Mini Band Walks Lateral 2X10 yards
- Lunge to Knee Hug X6 each leg
- Lateral Lunge X6 each leg
- Carioca 2X10 yards
- Drop Squat X6 each leg
- Inverted Hamstring X6 each leg
- Hand Walks X6 with full arm extension
Pillar Strength
- Single Leg Glute Bridge 2X10 each leg
- Pillar Bridge with hip ext 2X10 each leg
- Lateral Bridge with leg abd holds 2X20 sec
- Prone arm ext 2X6 each arm
Neural Activation
- Ladder Dissociation 7 minutes
Elasticity
- Lateral Box Hops 3×15 sec
- MB Rotational Slams 3X6 each side
Strength 1
- DB Bench Press Alternating 3X10
- Standing Wall Slides 3X10
- 2 arm 2 leg RDL 3X10
Strength 2
- Half Kneeling DB OH Alternating Press 3X10 each arm
- Active Straight leg raise 3X10 each leg
- TRX Eccentric Curls Single Leg 3X10 each leg
Mike Hafer
NASTC Trainer
A current member of the PSIA Alpine Team, Mike has been with NASTC since 1998. He is a first-class instructor and an excellent all-mountain skier. Mike is also the assistant ski school director at Northstar-at-Tahoe and oversees the training program for the ski school staff. He is also a contributing author to sport and skiing magazines. When not on the snow, Mike can be found logging in some serious mileage on his mountain bike, he also windsurfs like a pro, and has successfully completed 8 deep water dives in the Red Sea. Mike lives in Truckee with his wife and two daughters.
Marc Digesti
NASTC PT
Marc is the founder and the Director of Performance at PerformanceEDU Training Center in Reno, Nevada. Marc has served as the Head Strength Coach for US Disabled Ski Team, while consulting the Serbian and British Disabled Teams. Marc was a Performance Specialist with Todd Durkin Enterprise and Core Performance/Athletes Performance. He continues to work with Sky Tavern’s Alpine/Freestyle team and trains a number of professional athletes from the Tahoe area. Marc has joined the Center for Health and Sports Performance team in Truckee and helped direct the NASTC Coaches dryland training program.
Chris Fellows
NASTC Director
Co-founder and Co-director of the North American Ski Training Center (NASTC). A ski instructor and examiner for over 25 years, two-time member of the PSIA Alpine Team, Education VP for PSIA-Western Division and PSIA-W Board of Directors since 1995-2009. Chris has served as a ski school staff trainer at Squaw Valley, Mt. Rose and Heavenly; attended the prestigious Austrian Bundessporteim and again in 2008 by special invitation. Chris started NASTC in 1994 with wife Jenny and Mike Sodergren. Chris also enjoys backcountry skiing and mountaineering. Chris grew up in western MA; moved to Tahoe at age 24 and continues to live in Truckee, CA with wife Jenny, sons Colter & Heath and, daughter Monique. Chris is the author of Total Skiing and Tactics for All-Mountain Skiing.
Sky Tavern Dryland
We have now finished our fourth week of training with both the sky tavern far west athletes and also the developmental race team. We now have four days a week of training with both groups. A lot of progressions have occurred in the past 4 weeks and we are now starting into the next phase next week. What a year has made with a lot of these athletes since Performancedu had started working with them since last year.
Marc Digesti | Director of Performance at Performancedu
Why do skiers get knee injuries?
A turning, off-balance skier leaning backwards is a recipe for knee disaster, according to a new report from a panel of sports medicine and skiing experts.
The group picked apart videos of 20 World Cup skiers who had suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear – an injury that wipes the skier out for a year and can have health consequences down the road.
“Prior to this study we really had no idea how these potentially devastating injuries, the ACL injuries, actually happen in World Cup skiers,” said Dr. Roald Bahr, one of the report’s authors from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, Norway.
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“Most people probably think that they happen as the skier is crashing, tumbling down the course,” he told Reuters Health. “As the study really shows, the ligament is torn while the skier is still skiing, and then they crash.”
Coming to that conclusion wasn’t necessarily enjoyable. The experts each had to review videos of the run that led to the injury on their own to determine the exact moment of the ACL tear, then came to a consensus. After that, they recorded all the details of the moment of injury: the skier’s behaviour and situation, as well as the angles of joints and positions of limbs.
When you do that 20 times over, Bahr said, “the patterns are remarkably consistent. Once you’ve spotted what actually happens, it becomes very, very clear that there’s a consistent pattern here, the same thing happening over and over again.”
Here’s the stickiest situation: a skier is trying to make a turn on the course, but leaning too far backwards and inwards into the turn while off-balance. That causes his outer ski to lift off the snow. When the skier tries to reach out with his leg to get the ski back on the ground, the very back of the ski hits the snow, pulling the leg with it and rotating the lower leg.
The force on the knee caused by that rotation is too much for the ACL – one of four ligaments connecting the thighbone to the shinbone – to take.
ACL tears also happened when skiers were forced into a split, when their inner ski hooked on to a gate during a turn, and when they landed on the back of their skis after a jump.
Bahr and his colleagues observed the injuries in skiers in the downhill, slalom, giant slalom, and super-G events.
Bahr said that wet and slushy snow, more common late in the ski season, makes it more likely for the back of the ski to catch on the snow, upping a skier’s chance of ACL injury.
And although those injuries often heal up within a year, he explained that people who have suffered ACL tears have a much higher risk of getting arthritis in the future, regardless of the treatment they get.
The findings of the new report, published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, may have implications for preventing future ACL injuries.
“Perhaps it is possible to train the skiers to recognise that position and bail out in time,” Bahr said.
Although the study only included world-class athletes, the same injuries happen to recreational skiers, he added.
“A lot of recreational skiers believe that the equipment they rent in the ski rental…will protect them from having injuries if they fall,” he said. “But the truth is, although it does protect against other types of injuries, it doesn’t protect the knee from a ligament injury.”
The message is to “learn how to fall and weight the downhill ski, even when you are afraid,” Dr. Michael Tuggy, a physician at Swedish Medical Centre in Seattle and a former ski patroller told Reuters Health in an email.
“The natural tendency is to fall back into the hill, off the downhill ski, which is the perfect setup for an ACL tear.”
Reuters
http://www.theage.com.au/
PerformancEDU’s Photo Shoot for Stack Mag and TRX
PerformancEDU athlete Michelle Parker
Check out the video Marc Digesti put together on PerformancEDU’s youtube page for Stack Mag and TRX. Special thanks to Pro Freeride Skier Michelle Parker for helping out.
Enjoy and charge!
Marc Digesti USAW | Founder of PerformancEDU LLC
In-Season Movements to Enhance Recovery for Skiers in Stack Mag
We are now in the middle of ski season, which includes a mix of training and competition. As such, it is vital for skiers to learn how to properly mix recovery sessions into their training programs, in order to benefit their performance.
The demands placed upon the body during competition, on-hill training, powder days and hours spent on the groomers can affect the way your body recovers, which is why recovery days are vital. For Alpine racers and avid skiers, preventative movements are also a necessity.
Recovery Days
Activities on these days help the athlete physically overcome the stress of on-hill training or skiing. This is also called passive recovery.
During recovery days, we have a variety of aids to help enhance the recovery process, including:
• Rest
• Structural Massage
• Foam Rolling/Massage Stick
• Flexibility
• Hydrotherapy [Hot and Cold Tubs]
Here are some movements to help enhance recovery:
1. Foam Roll IT Band [shown below]
2. Foam Roll Quadratus Lumborum
3. Massage Stick Calf
4. Massage Stick Quad
Maintenance Days
This is a planned phase that helps the body recover from heavy training days on the hill. It is also known as active recovery.
For maintenance days, which are incorporated into in-season strength phases, we believe light movement is more beneficial than no activity. This includes aerobic activity as well as floor mobility and stability movements. Maintenance programs should be administered two to three times per week.
Here are some maintenance movements to help enhance the recovery:
1. Overhead Squat Mobility With Mini Band [shown below]
2. Full Kneeling Lat Stretch With TRX
3. 90/90 Hip Stretch With TRX
4. Quad/Hip Flexor Stretch With TRX
Recovery and maintenance days are critical for the success of recovery during in-season phases of skiing. Just keep in mind your body’s response will depend on your commitment to the recovery and maintenance phases of the program.
Photos: highschoolsports.mlive.com; exercise images courtesy of Marc Digesti
Marc Digesti is a Reno/Tahoe native. He received his bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology from Chico State University in 2004, and is certified as a USA weightlifting sports performance coach. Digesti’s professional experience in the performance field includes serving as head strength coach for the U.S. Disabled Ski Team, a performance specialist for numerous top training facilities, and trainer to pro NBA and NHL athletes. In January 2010, he founded PerformancEDU with the goal of merging performance and education.
Check out the full article at Stack Mag.
Performancedu high school Alpine athletes results
PerformancEDU athlete Nick Ward
High School Results
Damien Gopen 31st overall 6th in school
Skiing content on Coreperformance.com
PerformancEDU’s Marc Digesti contributing ski specific content to CorePerformance.com.
Great articles relating on the floor training to ever changing ski conditions.
ENJOY!
In Season Movements to Enhance Recovery
We are heading into the second month of on hill training skiing for the 10-11 seasons. It is vital for us to learn how to enhance recovery properly during in season skiing. I am going to go over two different training days for in season programs: Recovery and Maintenance Days.
Preventative movements are a necessity to incorporate into programming for Alpine racers post competition/training and also for the avid skier. The demands placed upon the body during competition, on-hill training, powder days and 8 hours spent on the groomers can affect the way your body can recover from physiological effects.
Recovery Days: Activities to help the athlete physically overcome the stress of on hill training or skiing.
Maintenance Days: A planned training phase to help the body recover from heavy training days on the hill.
During Recovery Days (passive recovery), we like to have a variety of aids to help enhance the recovery process:
- Rest
- Massage (structural)
- Foam Rolling/Massage Stick
- Flexibility
- Hydrotherapy (Hot and Cold Tubs)
Here are some Recovery Movements to help enhance the recovery of in-season skiing:
- Foam Roll IT Band:
- Foam Roll QL:
- Massage Stick Calfs:
- Massage Stick Quad:
The response to recovery to on-hill training will all depend on the amount of commitment you place toward the recovery phase of the program.
During Maintenance Days (active recovery), which are incorporated with the in-season strength phases, we believe in movement:
- Light movement is more beneficial than no activity
- Aerobic Activity
- On the floor mobility and stability movements for Upper/Lower Half
Here are some Maintenance Movements to help enhance the recovery of in-season skiing:
- Over Head Squat Mobility with Mini Band:
- Full Kneeling Lat Stretch w/TRX
- 90/90 Hip Stretch with TRX:
- Quad/Hip Flexor Stretch with TRX:
The response recovery of on-hill training will all depend on the amount of commitment you place toward the maintenance phase of the program.
Depending on the volume of your training program during the week, it is essential to initiate a recovery program after each on-hill session through self-massage and hydrotherapy. Maintenance programs should be administered 2-3 times per week.
Recovery and Maintenance Days are critical for the success of recovery during in-season phases of skiing.
Check out the In-Season Movements to Enhance Recovery HERE.
Marc Digesti USAW | Founder of PerformancEDU
Marc is the founder of PerformancEDU Training Center. Marc served as the Head Strength Coach for US Disabled Ski Team and has consulted for the Serbian and British Disabled Teams. Marc was a Performance Specialist with Todd Durkin Enterprise and Core Performance/Athletes Performance. He continues to work with Sky Tavern’s Alpine/Freestyle team and trains a number of professional athletes in the Reno/Tahoe Community.
PerformancEDU makes its way onto TRX’s blog site
PerformancEDU is excited to announce Marc Digesti will be writing ski specific programing for Fitness Anywhere. Here is the first entry: Prep for Alpine Skiing
