Functional Strength and the Pursuit of Happiness

Greetings fellow Nordic Tribe people, there's snow in the mountains and the days are getting colder in Nordic Dave's Private Idaho.

ND as of late has definitely crossed the rubicon and entered his more senior years where injuries can will happen at anytime. When they do, recovery just adds more frustration & time to hopefully being fit which can be a moving target as one gets onto his golden years. With aging comes loss of muscle mass, shrinking bone density, heart rate VO2 max declines, weight gain, blah blah blah. Want to slow down this not so wonderful process, GET STRONG!

We're not talking about body building or power lifting, it's more about reactivating muscle groups that you took for granted in your younger years of being a master blaster with a full time job, family, etc that enabled you to multi task and enjoy robust workouts before or after your work day. Retirement hits and you dream of skiing or biking all day yet you can't because the body says no :(

Rather than falling into Einstein's Theory of Insanity it's time to switch it up. Want to have one of those superlative days in the great outdoors, let's get back to basics so that ultimately you can have a go at it with elan and panache! 

Think about balance and symmetry. It kills ND to admit it but those yoga ladies are onto to something ! Back in the day Nordic Dave thought of revving it up as an elixir of pure pleasure, the idea of how many intervals per week were possible to build V02 Max coupled with long distance days that quite possibly drifted into level 3 heart rate zones meant good results on race days. These days it's the recipe for disaster.

Old Master Blaster priorities were:

1. Volume and Intensity
2. Technique
3. Diet ( Beer was the recovery drink of choice, another story for another time) 
4. Strength ( But not necessary focus on aging) 
5. Flexibility

New Priorities for an aging old race horse not ready to be put out to pasture.

1. Flexibility
2. Strength
3. Diet (Hydration before beer, who knew right ?) 
4. Volume it's still important to be be fit. 
5. Cardio intensity, some is good. Too much and something breaks. 

So regarding some ideas around strength and flexibility: 

It may take 15 or 20 minutes to stretch out, using some straps hanging from a wall or ceiling help stretch the core, back, hips, arms, legs, etc... Take some time using the straps to hang, pull, lean and stretch out teasing the muscles to activate and relax. A few yoga exercises on the floor to open up the hips. Lay on your stomach, hands on head or at sides and pull your feet and head up flexing your lower back muscles. 

Functional strength is about using your body in natural ways of movement that simulates movement in skiing. Focus on both strengths and weakness in your body otherwise an imbalance gets created, for example, if your abs are strong but lower back is weak , that's an imbalance and an injury waiting to happen. 

Some specific examples from experience in terms of getting after a weakness. Nordic Dave used to absolutely LOVE roller skiing. Nothing better in terms being prepared to ski and the intervals on hard pavement up a hill is fantastic, boom it's ON,  heart rate,  body pushing hard  , uff da! Unfortunately at age 67, balance & flexibility isn't what it used to be and catch a stone and biff ! Hitting the pavement with a body slam at 67 really hurts and slow to recover from. 

Solution: Try a large rubber band around the ankles on a flat surface preferably with a mirror in front of you. Simulate a V2 Skate sequence with arms and legs. Somewhere  around 20 to 50 reps and your going to feel those hip muscles really fire up. Try 3 sets. As far as the hip flexors are concerned you just roller skied for an hour. More importantly it's injury prevention come winter when your hips are a bit in shock from alot of skating without roller skiing.

Solution: That funny thing called a Bosu Ball, one side is flat the other is soft and squishy. Try putting squishy side down on a flat surface and stand on the flat surface.

You may immediately notice that one side of your body and balance on the Bosu ball is better than the other side. The weak side may not be firing muscles correctly for a variety of reasons. Try to simulate the diagonal stride technique standing on one leg. Then switch legs. How long can you go before you lose your balance?   

Solution: Bands, dumbbells these can be incorporated as strength exercises in the traditional weight lifting aspects of over head presses, lat pull ups and pull downs, biceps, triceps, etc..Yet what if you incorporated them as part of a multi station obstacle course with running? Speaking of which, long before there was a way to charge people money for something called "CrossFit" , Skiers have been running through the woods and bogs for centuries stopping to lift boulders, hop over dead trees, pull ups from tree limbs doing mtn climber hip exercises, etc then getting up and running again up the hill. The military calls it Boot Camp. They aren't body builders but they are quite fit.

In your yard or at a city park, get creative! 

Example: A pick up truck tail gate for a vertical jump (too high try using boxes instead) , then dumbbells overhead 10x, bound up a hill with poles, lay a canoe down jump over it back and forth down the length of it. Don't have a boat, little cones that kids use at soccer practice work just as well. then up the hill you go. 

There's an infinite number of ways to build functional strength inexpensively and of course a good gym can do it all. 

The point is getting strong isolating your weakness is mission critical to having a great ski season without season ending injuries. If your strong and flexible then everything else falls into place in terms of as my old friend Torbjorn Karlsen would say, "how to when to and why." 

You can practice strength and flexibility daily. Then you're much better prepared for hammertime when the day is right! 

From the Nordic Dave Adventure Series.