Wednesday Workout: Finding Balance with Team Soldier Hollow

This week’s workout comes from Team Soldier Hollow coach Morgan Smyth, a former World Cup racer and Alaska Pacific University skier, and caters to cross-training needs. Team Soldier Hollow trains out of Midway, Utah.

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Many high school skiers are multi-sport athletes. This can be a challenge for athletes who have spent most of the summer ski training and working on their upper-body and ski-specific muscles. How do you participate in fall sports and not lose all those big summer gains?!

Note: Most of the Team Soldier Hollow athletes run cross-country, but this is a great ski workout to balance with most fall sports.

Since it is race season for cross-country running, most of the speed and interval workouts are done with the running team. We then add two easy rollerski workouts that focus on technique and maintaining ski specific strength.

One of our key workouts is a combo classic rollerski and a mini general-strength session in the gym.

Rollerski Workout:

• Easy 20 min double pole warm up
• 3 x 3 minute easy single pole
• Technique drills

Rollerski Total: 45-60 min

The rollerski workout ends at the gym.

For the general strength portion, the goal is to maintain the general upper-body strength gained during the spring and summer. The running team does a plyos workout once a week so we don’t do much lower-body strength. However, depending on your sport, some could be added especially to prevent muscle imbalances.

Strength Workout:

• Dynamic stretching – 10m each.
• Butt Kicks
• High Knees
• Side Lunges
• Front Lunge
• Alligator Crawl
• Inch Worm

Strength:

• Pull Ups 2×10
• Balance Clock Touch (this is a balance drill that can be done on the ground or an inflatable disc or other unstable surface)
• Push Ups 2×20
• Classic Arm/Leg Swing (this is a technique/balance drill that can be done on the ground or an inflatable disc or other unstable surface)
• Back Ups 2×12
• Dips 2×12
• Hanging Leg Raise Up to Bar 2×5

Total time: 90 minutes