Summer Cyclists to Winter Warriors: Part 1

Boulder Nordic & Cycle Sport Staff

By Ned Dowling

The unfortunate reality for skiers is that winter is short, and summer is long. Lacking an abundance of safe places to rollerski or ski tunnels, most of us turn to cycling in the summer for exercise and a dose of the outdoors. Even our favorite ski shops pack up the skis and roll out the bikes every spring. While cycling can be great training for Nordic skiing (the engine is the same, after all), hours of hard work on the bike still fail to train some of the fundamentals of skiing.

This three-part series aims to help turn Summer Cyclists (and runners and hikers) into Winter Warriors through a batch of targeted exercises beginning with single-leg balance and stability for efficient glide. Part II will focus on upper body strength for powerful poling. Part III will help you transfer that capacity with a solid core.

This series is a collaboration between Boulder Nordic Sport and Ned Dowling, PT. Ned is a physical therapist at the University of Utah and with the Stifel US Cross Country Ski Team. He is a frequent contributor to fasterskier.com, where he presents articles similar to this series in an attempt to blend biomechanics, strength, and coordination to facilitate efficient ski technique for both performance and injury prevention.

 

Part I - Ski Stance and Single Leg Stability

What is Ski Stance? It is the foundation of Nordic skiing, both Skate and Classic. It is the stable, balanced position on the glide ski that facilitates both optimal glide and a stable platform as the glide ski becomes the kick ski. Stable glide begets more power, and more power begets more stable glide.

Checklist:

  • Balance on one leg.
  • Equal pressure between the inside and outside of the foot, especially across the metatarsal heads between the ball of the foot on the big toe side and the pinky toe equivalent.
  • Weight is biased towards the front of the foot, but the heel stays down. Distribution is in the neighborhood of 70:30, forefoot to rearfoot.
  • Toes are relaxed. This doesn’t mean the toes are hovering off the ground, but it very much means they are not clawing at the floor. Have a look at the insoles of your ski boots: if there is a lot of wear under the toes, you are likely using them too much. This is either a bad habit or a compensatory strategy, or both.
  • The ankle is flexed enough to put the kneecap in line vertically over the toes.
  • Slight bend at the knee and hip.
  • Forward lean at the trunk. This is accomplished with a hinge at the hips, not a flex through the spine. “Nose-knee-toes” is the old cue. If you’re dripping snot out of your nose, it should land on your foot, not down the front of your shirt.
  • High hips. This is a very common cue, but conceptually, it doesn’t make sense to me. Our checklist just listed flexion at the ankle, knee, and hip, so how can we keep the hips high but flexed simultaneously? “Forward hips” might be a little more intuitive. The pelvis is pushed forward without losing the bend at the hips. It will initially feel like you are falling forward, but that’s a good thing. We want the center of gravity shifted forward to push us down the trail. A different cue is “front seat, not back seat.” The back seat is like starting to sit on the toilet: ankle, knee, and hip are flexed, and the trunk is leaning forward; however, the butt is reaching backward. Aim to shift the hips forward like someone is pulling at the front of your belt.
  • Stability from the hip, not leaning to the side. When we stand on two feet, the center of gravity is between the two feet. If we are to stand on one foot, we can’t just pick up the opposite foot—our center of gravity has to shift to the stance side. That can be accomplished by leaning the trunk to the side, but this is not an active position and doesn’t facilitate the generation of power. The weight shift ideally comes via a lateral movement of the pelvis over the top of the stance leg. Note: this shift is very applicable to diagonal stride as we move from the kick ski to the glide ski. The direct application to skate varies a bit with the sub-discipline—V1 has a more distinct weight shift from ski to ski, while the transition during V2 is more of a “swapping” of skis underneath the body than a lateral movement from one to the other.

 

Exercises

These exercises intend to reinforce the Ski Stance. Each one has a movement component to challenge both balance and maintenance of the Ski Stance position. The quality of movement and balance are paramount. In order to be beneficial, the exercise should be challenging but doable. If you are falling all over the place or cannot control the movement, the exercise is likely too difficult for your current level. The exercises are listed in ascending order of difficulty.

Band Assist

  • This is an assisted version of the Ski Stance if you are having difficulty with balance on one leg
  • With each hand, pull some tension on a two-tailed band or two separate bands anchored at head height or higher. The more tension you pull, the greater the assistance.
  • Aim to hold this position for up to 30 seconds. If you can get past 30 seconds maintaining good form, you're ready to ditch the bands.

 

Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

  • Ski Stance.
  • Bend forward, aiming your fingers at the sides of your knee. The movement is a hinging motion at the hip. The joint angles at the ankle and knee should not change. The spine stays in a neutral position without bending.
  • The pelvis stays level as you bend forward (no twisting).
  • Finish with a push forward of the hips/pelvis—front seat, not back seat.
  • You can add weight (a single dumbbell or kettlebell in the opposite hand or one in each hand) for glute and hamstring strengthening, but it doesn't necessarily make balance/stability any more difficult.

 

Hip Twist

  • Ski Stance.
  • Twist your upper body in the opposite direction of the stance leg (standing on the right leg = rotation to the left).
  • Shoulders, belly button, and pelvis move together.
  • The kneecap stays pointing straight ahead.

 

Paloff Press with Resistance Band

  • Ski Stance.
  • The band is anchored at chest height from the stance leg's opposite side.
  • Holding the band in both hands, push your arms straight out and back.
  • Keep knuckles pointed straight ahead—don't let the band twist you.