Lately, I have been reading about masters cross country (Nordic) skiers who are engaged in strength training for improving ski performance. What I found to be missing in their training plans is any mention of the “three planes of motion.”

The Three Planes of Motion

Unfortunately, it seems that masters athletes are focusing primarily on the sagittal plane—for perhaps as much as 70% of their training. The sagittal plane trains the left and right sides of the body—single leg lunges, bicep curls, etc.

Another plane of focus is the coronal (frontal) plane—jumping jacks, side steps, etc. The plane that is rarely trained, but in reality should be as much as 30% of training, is the transverse plane—whole body chopping motions, medicine ball throws, etc.

Neglecting the transverse plane is often responsible for many of the injuries that older skiers experience. Neglecting this plane is responsible for deteriorating agility and balance.

If a skier becomes stiff and inflexible in the upper and lower parts of transverse motion, moving smoothly through fast turns, and through the snow conditions that tend to throw a body off balance will become more difficult.

Use a Comprehensive Strength Program

Many masters skiers that I work with have been on strength programs, but their activities have mitigated against flexibility, agility, and balance in their effort to increase muscle mass. This is because they are afraid they are losing muscle development in advancing years, yet often that mass doesn’t lend itself to anything other than bulk.

In fact, muscle mass can overpower tendons and ligaments. It is a strange and confusing situation for an athlete when he or she has been working hard on strength and then while doing something relatively insignificant, pulls a tendon, tears a rotator cuff, snaps an Achilles, or develops lower back problems.

Strength training has to include all three of the planes of motion capable within the human body. Ignoring the planes of motion can exact a very high price, even while working with the best of intentions to remain healthy and strong.

I have seen many “strength focused masters athletes” who have lost flexibility, agility, balance, and even speed though they trained religiously with what they perceived as an intelligent strength program.

A comprehensive strength program focuses on balance between muscle groups. Appositional strength is another type of physical balance that prevents injury. For example, someone focusing on arm curls and develops massive biceps is actually neglecting the triceps, which can cause injury. The appositional strength between biceps and triceps should be in balance, as that balance also affects shoulder strength and lat strength.

Discover What Training Planes Can Do

As I am now in my late 70’s, I have focused on cross training and the three planes of motion throughout my athletic life. I have played many sports at fairly high levels and have been injury-free. I have friends who have been on similar training programs and they are also injury-free, with good joints, balance, agility, and flexibility.

We are all “experiments of one” and we need to figure out what works for us. We can do this by following good research and listening to intelligent mentors. Unfortunately, we may think we are doing the right thing and only when something breaks or fails do we realize we were on the wrong path toward physical fitness and health.

You might also like

• How And Why To Use All 3 Planes Of Motion To Improve Your Mobility
• How To Own The Transverse Plane With The Tall Kneeling Press
• Train The Lateral Plane For Maximum Athleticism

The post Three Planes of Motion Training for Masters Skiers appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Did I mention I work for the ski resort?

Two weeks later, I found out my ACL was nowhere to be found. Four weeks after that, my custom-fitted knee brace arrived, and I was back on the hill (on my old skis). I skied for the rest of the season without my ACL, relying completely on my knee brace to hold everything in place, until my surgery the Friday before Easter. There was no egg hunt for me that year—I was laid up on the couch with my CPM (continuous passive motion) machine, loaded with painkillers, fading in and out of consciousness, while Parks & Rec and Frozen played on Netflix.

The following Monday, I attended my first of many physical therapy appointments. I’m sure that my PT did his job to the best of his ability, but I hated it. I wanted more. I didn’t want to be just back to normal, I wanted to be better than I was before. I wanted to find out what weakened my knee in the first place, and try to find a way to prevent it from happening again.

A Blown ACL Reveals a New Passion

A month before I tossed myself down the mountain, the instructor in an exercise class I was taking pulled me aside and told me that if I continued squatting the way that I was, I was going to encounter problems with my knees. Foreshadowing much?

I got a desk job at a local gym where I could do my exercises, and didn’t have to do too much on my feet while my knee healed. One of the trainers offered to work with me to see if he could help me with the residual issues I was dealing with, like the severe grinding I was experiencing behind my knee caps. We worked on my form (a lot) and started to increase the weights I was lifting. I started to notice muscles developing, and looked forward to our Friday morning sessions. I felt strong, and before long I was hooked.

I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go back to school, because I wanted to help people the same way my trainer helped me. I had my bachelor’s degree in psychology already, and my student loans were going nowhere fast, but I was determined. I held two jobs, went to school full time, and managed a 4.0 GPA. I studied my ass off, and put everything I had into my classes. If I was going to spend all that money and commit to becoming a trainer, I was going to do it right.

Don’t Take No for an Answer

When I first found out I had torn my ACL, I was devastated. I was told my skiing career was over, and my knee was never going to be the same. Around the same time, Lindsey Vonn had crashed and blown out her knee, but still wanted to recover in time for the Sochi Olympics. If she could ski down a hill at over 60 mph, there was no reason I couldn’t teach a handful of four-year-olds how to ski.

Tearing my ACL changed my life in the best way possible. It made me realize what I enjoyed most in life, and what I wasn’t willing to give up. It made me realize just how stubborn I am, and that when I put my mind to something, I will get it done. It made me realize what I was really capable of, both mentally and physically. What experiences have changed your life? How have you gotten to where you are now?

The post How a Torn ACL Changed My Life appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

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Eva Twardokens has been on the ski slopes since the age of three and started competing at the age of eight. She has done it all, including the Olympics, and has learned a huge amount along the way about what it means to be an athlete. Eva is now a strength and conditioning coach and uses her wealth of wisdom and experience to help her clients stay healthy, move well, and live happy.

Eva has won six National Ski Championships, won a world Championship Bronze Medal, and is a World Technical Skiing Champion. She also is a Masters Weightlifting Champion. In 2011 she was inducted to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. As a sought after coach and consultant, she offers seminars, functional nutrition testing, and coaching to sustain training and optimize health. You can learn more at her website, Eva T. Strength and Conditioning.

Click Here to Read Articles and Workouts by Eva Twardokens

The post Training for Long-Term Success With Eva Twardokens, Ep 2 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Talking about her years on the U.S. Ski Team, Eva shared:

I was a successful ski racer, but I didn’t get a win under my terms. Meaning, I didn’t win the gold medal; I didn’t get to do the kind of training I wanted to do. It was all managed by the U.S. Ski Team and it was kind of a more is best attitude and I really think that most years that I ski raced I was burnt out. I was young but I just did too much. They had us do too much.

After retirement and discovering CrossFit, Eva had the honor of working with CrossFit’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). In particular, Eva developed a love of Olympic weightlifting. She began training regularly with coach Mike Burgener, traveling monthly from Santa Cruz to train with him and his team in Southern California. Eventually, Burgener convinced Eva to compete. Not only did she compete, but she won her division at the National level.

The Olympic weightlifting was a lot about getting rid of some demons. Which was getting a lot of second and third places in the world, which is awesome, but if you’re getting top five in the world all the time you want the wins – you’re capable of the wins. For the Olympic weightlifting it was just getting rid of the need to win on my own terms. The biggest part was the journey, managing my own thing. And the second part was the feeling of winning and doing it.

Now, as a trainer at CrossFit Central Santa Cruz, Eva works with others helping them reach their athletic potential and lead healthy lives. For her, this is her true passion in life, based on a lifetime of pursuing athletics herself:

It’s my passion – learning the knowledge and sharing the knowledge. And also part of that goes with that is I have a unique knowledge and experience that I can share with my clients. I don’t think it’s anything you can see, it’s not like, “Oh, Eva teaches the clean in a different way.” It’s more something that my clients can feel. I love teaching people. I love seeing the smile on their face when they learn something new, when they’ve accomplished something, and I think that I just like to help people. I like to do it in something that I’m kind of a geek about, which is fitness and health. That’s my drive in the real sense.

And while Eva has a unique understanding of intensity and mental toughness, coming from world-class competition, she doesn’t push her clients like she used to push herself:

I don’t really push my clients to that point that much anymore. I don’t feel like it’s necessary. I think it’s necessary with safe movements and certain modalities, but I don’t need them to do it in movements that are highly technical, or even with a lot of weight. I have started to do more segregation with my training. If we’re going to lift heavy, we’re going to lift heavy. When we’re going to do a WOD, we’re going to combine the movements so they’re safe. And if we’re going to do metabolic conditioning I would like to see you do sprint intervals, on the bike, on the rower, or running. After a strength workout I still will put together a little mini-WOD and have them work hard for five minutes, but it’s not like I’m going to look at them and go, “You know you have to do it like I do it.” Or like I used to – I don’t even go glycolytic that much anymore. That’s when they get their mixed modality training in and they get a little CrossFit in, but it’s usually short. I try to keep it very callisthenic-like – we’ll do thrusters with dumbbells, or cleans with the bar if they’re going to have to rep it out, but I keep it very, very simple.

Eva has seen the extremes of fitness and athletics. From years on the U.S. Ski Team where she endured injury and overtraining, to working with elderly and/or deconditioned clients who just need to learn how to move. As both an athlete and a coach, Eva has amassed a unique knowledge of what it means to be a good coach.

Eva’s Advice to New Coaches:

1. The first advice I would give is if you get to the point where it’s like, “Should we do another round, should we do another rep, should we do another something?” My advice is not to do it. Undertraining is always, even for a professional athlete, going to be more effective than overtraining. So, if I see my client has a funny look on their face, like they’re not sure about the next something we’re going to do, and I say, “Hey, you want to take one more run?” And they’re like, “I’m not sure, what do you think?” I’m like, “we’re done. We’re out of here.” The benefit you get from that one extra thing is usually not worth the risk of them not having their mind in the game, or being fatigued, or even going up and skiing another run and being so tired that they ski crappy and all the whole session I’ve done with them, we’ve worked on technique, and they’ve gone back to their old habits. It’s risky in that way.
2. Try to get people moving well. If someone’s doing an overhead lift and they’re not getting it overhead, they’re really just getting it strong at not getting overhead. You’re training the muscles to not be overhead, you’re training the muscles to be forward of overhead. You’re reinforcing them and strengthening them to stop at that stopping point. It’s not practice makes perfect, it’s perfect practice makes perfect.
3. Encourage your clients to get the hell out of the gym. I know that’s counterproductive to my income, but as a consultant that’s some of the best advice I can give. Find your sport, find your outdoor thing, walk, whatever it is – just don’t get too stuck in the garage gym. Use the benefits you’re getting here for something else.
4. Know what your clients are there for. Don’t treat them like a CrossFit Gamer if they’re there just to be healthy. There’s no reason. If they want to do the CrossFit Games, of course you’ll train them differently, but know what they want and make sure you’re doing what they want, not what you perceive they want, or what you perceive they should want. Do what they want.

These days depending on the weather, you might find Eva out on the ocean surfing, anywhere along the coast from Santa Cruz to Baja, Mexico. Or you might find her out on the hills riding her dirt bike. Regardless, you can be sure Eva is up to something. How does Eva see her life playing out?

I don’t know where I’m going. My life has taken so many turns. You come to a moment of desperation and something comes along that saves you, something new. Who knows I might end up working in the computer industry or I might end up being an actress. I don’t know what the future holds for me, I just do live with the hope that opportunities come around every corner. I love my life right now, if I could live it like I have been right now for the next fifty years, I would do it.

For more about Eva:

Featured Coach: Eva Twardokens, Part 1 – Growing Up on Skis

Featured Coach: Eva Twardokens, Part 2 – The Evolution

To follow Eva’s workouts here on Breaking Muscle follow this link:

Strength & Conditioning Workouts from Eva Twardokens

The post Featured Coach: Eva Twardokens, Part 3 – Demon-Free and Future Bright appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This week Eric and I are going to push him just a tad further to get him ready for next Monday’s trip to the mountains. Our training this week will be focused more on simulating his runs down the slopes and should leave him ready to tear things up next week.

Since Dave is going to a ski resort and not a back country trip, we’re banking on the fact that his actual ski runs will only be about 5 – 10 minutes, with breaks while the gondola takes him back up the mountain.

Here is what his week is going to look like:

WEEK THREE

Monday:
3 Rounds For Time (4 Minutes Rest In Between Rounds):

30 Push Ups

50 Mountain Climbers

30 Second Side Plank (Left)

30 Second Side Plank (Right)

50 Squats

Since there is a long rest between rounds, these exercises are to be done at sprint speed.

To perform a mountain climber start in the plank position. Alternating legs, step your foot as close to your hands as possible. Left + right = 1 rep.

Tuesday:
Rest Day

Wednesday:
2 Times Through:

1 Mile Run asTabata Intervals (20 Seconds at 90%, 10 Seconds at 60%)

5 Minutes Rest

2 Minutes of Max Squats

5 Minutes of Rest

Tabata intervals split a workout into 20-second intervals of work followed by 10-second intervals of rest and can be applied to any movement. In this case we are applying the Tabata aspect to the amount of effort Dave is expending on his runs.

Thursday:
Rest Day

Friday:
5 Rounds:

1 Minute Max Speed Skaters

30sec V-Hold

2 min rest

See week one for a description and photographs of Speed Skaters.

V-Hold is as is pictured below:

Saturday:
15 Minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)

10 Lateral Burpee Box Jumps

10 Lunges

10 Medicine Ball V-Twists (Left & Right combined = 1 Twist)

See week one for a description and photographs of V-Twists.

Lateral Burpee Box Jumps are done in the sequence pictured below – begin on one side of the box as normal, getting down into your pushup position, then jump up to your feet, jump sideways onto the box, sideways off the other side of the box and back down into the plank position.

Mobility:
Couch Stretch – 4 Minutes each leg.

Couch Stretch is as is pictured below. Get your knee as close to the wall as possible. Keep your back straight and tall – do not let your lower back arch excessively. Try to maintain a “hollow” position by keeping your belly tight and tailbone tucked under. You should feel this stretch in your hip flexors and quadriceps. Use a mat or towel to cushion your knee.

This should give Dave a solid foundation for his ski trip. We’ve strengthened his legs considerably, and worked on his abdominal and oblique muscles as well as his low back. All in all Dave should be facing his trip in a much healthier manner: his recovery time has been increased, his chances of getting an injury are significantly lower and most importantly, he should have one heck of a good time.

If you missed out, here are weeks one and two of our 3 Weeks to Ski program:

3 Weeks to Ski: Week 1 – From Couch To Potato to the Slopes in 3 Weeks

3 Weeks to Ski: Week 2 – Almost Ready for the Slopes

Did you try these workouts? How was your ski trip? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

The post 3 Weeks To Ski: Week 3 – Headed for the Slopes! appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

At my gym we get a call like this about this time every year: “Hey, my buddies and I have our first ski trip of the year in three weeks and I want to be in the best shape possible for it, what can I do?”

This usually comes right around the New Year and a few exploratory questions lead us to the understanding that our caller is not in the best shape of his life. “You know, I hit the gym every few days. I bench, I do some curls, I do some pull downs, I’m in pretty good shape, I just want to beat my friends down the slope.”

From that information we can deduce our caller – who we’ll call David from now on (names have been changed to protect the weak and out-of-shape) – is completely out of shape and doesn’t really do much of anything when he actually steps foot into his gym, which probably is a lot less and a lot longer ago than he’s letting on.

Not a problem! I’ve got a great exercise programmer right at my disposal in my good friend and business partner Eric Malzone. I’ve asked Eric to come up with the best three-week program he can to get somebody from flabby to ski fit. Now obviously a period of time longer than three weeks would be more ideal, but these are the circumstances we coaches have to work with all the time.

Eric broke the training up into three, one-week cycles. The first cycle will work mostly on general fitness and mobility, the second on more sport specific training and mobility, and the third week will replicate the experience of the day on the mountain.

WEEK ONE

Monday:
50-40-30-20-10
Sit Ups
Box Jumps (any height Dave is comfortable with)

First it’s 50 sit ups, then 50 box jumps, then 40 sit ups, and then 40 box jumps until the end.

Tuesday:
Rest Day

Wednesday:
AMRAP 5 – Heel Taps (AMRAP stands for “As Many Reps As Possible”)

3 Minutes Rest
AMRAP 3 – Medicine Ball Side Lunges

2 Minutes Rest
AMRAP 1 – Burpees

An “AMRAP 5 – Heel Taps” means you want to do as many heel taps as you can in 5 minutes. On a heel tap, stand up on a low box and with one leg hanging off of the box, lower yourself down until your heel touches the floor and then push yourself back to a standing position with the leg that’s still on the box.

Medicine Ball Side Lunges – Don’t have a medicine ball? Substitute a rock, a gallon of water, or even a heavy book. Check the photo of Eric performing a medicine ball side lunge.

“AMRAP 1 – Burpees” means complete as many burpees as possible in 1 minute.

Thursday:
Rest Day

Friday:

3 Rounds
1 Minute – 10 dips and then for the remainder of the minute do as many burpees as possible.

1 Minute Rest

Dips can be performed by pushing furniture together (chairs, end tables, etc.) if no dip bars are available.

Saturday:
8 Rounds
20 Medicine Ball V-Twists
1 Min Speed Skaters

1 Minute Rest

Medicine Ball V-Twists are demonstrated in these photos. Use a ball somewhere between 10 – 20 pounds. Tap the ball to the ground, alternating sides. Each tap counts as one.

“Speed Skaters” are just like they sound: for 60 seconds you get to do your best at beating Apollo Ono in your living room. Keep your level low and push back and forth out of each leg. Socks help with movement immensely.

Sunday:
Watch Football (this is very important, it’s the playoffs)

Mobility:
Week 1’s mobility work is to spend time rolling out on a foam roller. Hamstrings, quads, glutes and Dave’s low back should be the areas of focus.

Eric wants to have our client doing 4 workouts per week until his trip as well as minimum of an hour of mobility work – stretching and joint mobilization – for injury prevention. We’re banking on the fact Dave has access to a gym, but we have also made the workouts as “at-home-friendly” as possible with substitutions listed.

The goal of Week 1 is not to throw David down a flight of stairs, so to speak, and leave him ruined and over-trained. The goal of Week 1 is to reawaken some dormant muscle groups, to get Dave into the swing of working out again, and to begin to lay down as much of a base as we can in the short time we have.

Keep going with Week 2 of 3 Weeks to Ski!

Keep going with Week 3 of 3 Weeks to Ski!

The post 3 Weeks to Ski: Week 1 – From Couch Potato to the Slopes in 3 Weeks appeared first on Breaking Muscle.