It may still be some time before the start of winter 2011/12, but Germany's best freerider Sebastian Hannemann has of course already been preparing for the coming season for several weeks. "In order to start the winter fit, regular fitness training in the summer is absolutely essential. My coach takes care of the training plan and that's how I improve my strength and endurance every year", says Basti Hannemann about his winter preparation.
For a good year now, Sebastian, 9th in the 2011 Freeride World Tour, has been working with his trainer Christian Haas, who is an independent personal trainer and life kinetics coach. Christian is a budding sports scientist and works with POWRide in the freeride sector alongside Sebastian and the up-and-coming talent Fabian Lentsch from near Innsbruck.
Freeride rookie Fabian Lentsch
Fabi is convinced by his training: "By training at POWRide, I not only improve my all-important endurance for hiking or my leg muscles to land cliffs more safely. The regular training makes me less prone to injury and I simply ride at a different level. POWRide allows me to do targeted training for freeriding, both in summer and during the winter." Fabian took his first victory for POWRide last season when he won the junior competition of the Freeride World Tour in Fieberbrunn.
His coach Christian enjoys off-piste skiing himself and is currently training to become a state ski instructor. Over the coming months, Christian Haas will be giving you lots of tips for your training and winter preparation on PowderGuide.
What is the focus of your preparation?
Who hasn't experienced it, the snow is still great and numerous powder slopes still want to be ploughed through, but your legs give out and you can no longer fully enjoy the descents. The reason for this is a lack of strength and stamina. These two conditional abilities are the two most important training components for the normal freerider. Agility, speed and coordination are also important. Summer and fall offer the opportunity to train so that you can ride longer and, above all, better when the first snow day comes around.
Before starting any systematic training, however, you should undergo a sports medical examination. I recommend such an examination to every athlete and, of course, to all my athletes before they start training. Two areas in particular should be looked at during such an examination: Firstly, your musculoskeletal system should be examined to make sure you don't have any damage in your knees, for example; because then intensive training could have a counterproductive effect. Secondly, your cardiovascular system should also be examined to rule out any pre-existing conditions that could be dangerous during training.
Ski gymnastics reloaded
As skiing and snowboarding require the whole body, the body must also be trained as a whole. In Basti's training, I make sure that he doesn't do any exercises on classic strength machines, like the ones you see in gyms. He does special exercises in which he has to stabilize his whole body as well as move. The most important thing about training is that he can also do his exercises while traveling. That's why the training plans for the athletes we support are designed so that you only need very little: Dumbbells, elastic band, sitting ball and possibly a heart rate monitor.
The foundation of good training: endurance
The foundation is just as important for successful training as it is for a good house or snow; only if we have a stable base can we successfully build on it. This basis is called "basic endurance" during training. It has several advantages: on the one hand, it ensures that we are quickly fit again for the next units after a hard training session and, on the other hand, it helps us to recover quickly for the next descents after a descent on the lift. It is important for the ski tourers among you, as basic endurance enables you to go on long tours.
The second endurance ability we need is what I call "lactate capacity". This is about staying fit on a single descent in order to be able to ride the last turn at full power. Put simply, it's about ensuring that the "burn" in the thighs sets in as late as possible.
In short: endurance training should therefore focus on the two areas of (1) basic endurance (GLA) and (2) lactate capacity.
GLA training is quite simple: you always move at the same intensity over a longer period of time. It is important that you don't stand still - not just in your training, but also in your development. This means that you must always increase your intensity, because the same intensity does not mean the same pace. So if you go cycling for 30 minutes today (this training duration is a good start for all summer couch potatoes) and manage 10 km in that time, you should cycle a little longer and a little further next time. This way you will steadily improve your performance. The goal should be to be able to cycle for an hour at a time by November.
And how intense should the training be? You can determine the intensity using your heart rate, but I recommend that you build up a certain feeling for the intensity of the exercise. The intensity should be quite low. You should be able to do well for the time you set yourself. One way to control the intensity is to only get so out of breath that you can still hold a conversation.
Which summer sports are suitable? That's an easy question to answer. My tip: do what you enjoy! If you like hiking, do it. Do you like cycling? Do it. Do you like jogging? Do it. The important thing is that you do it with consistent intensity. I recommend that my athletes use the bike rather than jogging for their GLA training. This is because I believe that, firstly, incorrect running technique puts a lot of stress on joints, ligaments and muscles (and we don't need to do that to ourselves again after winter) and, secondly, jogging makes you "slow". After all, we want to be fast on our skis or board, which means our muscles have to work fast. But if they always work slowly, like when jogging, then they also become slow.
Part II of the training series will follow shortly
This was the first part of the summer training series for freeriders. The second part will follow shortly: then it's all about stabilization training and, of course, your lactate capacity.
Have fun with your training and don't forget: Www (Winter won't wait)!
If you want to find out more about the training of the two freeriders or me as a trainer, you should visit the homepage of POWRide.
Questions to Christian Haas about training for freeriders in the PG forum
Here you can ask Christian Haas questions about fitness and training for freeriders
Text: Christian Haas