OzoneSki Fit is primarily a workout program for winter preparation, but its structure is also ideal for non-skiers.
We started from:
According to our experience, what is missing from good skiing, and what is a risk factor in the field of safety?
We want to create a training plan that we ourselves are happy to use too.
Principally the issue is not the lack of strength. We should use our bodies better
Our experience is that the primary issue is often not the lack of brute strength or stamina.
The cooperation of several components creates our movement. Muscles and connective tissues are only the last links in the execution chain.
The nervous system plans the movement and coordinates the work of many muscles with each other and with the demands of the environment.
It is useless to develop the power of the executive side if the development of the nervous system side stays in the background. That is why we often experience that the muscles do not receive the proper instructions as lack of physical strength.
Let's look at two examples.
In the summer, I missed running due to an injury. During the first attempts in the fall, I ran a poor time, struggling to do so as well.
After two weeks and a couple of running sessions, the time became better by half a minute, and the movement became easier at the same time.
Endurance and oxygen supply cannot improve so much in ten days, nor will we become stronger.
On the other hand, coordination of the muscles can improve.
When running, the right muscles must be pre-tensioned (anticipation) with the right intensity, with millisecond precision, to transfer the contact phase to roll and spring. A slight delay, an inaccurate amount of effort, and every step will be an impact. Energy is lost, and joints wear out.
In the beginning, we improve because we learn how to be precise. Our nervous system begins to learn what command should be issued and when to make the movement fluid.
More efficient software in the computer is a better solution than brute force with faulty software.
The situation is similar to the single-leg squat. There, too, you can improve surprisingly quickly, even though we won't get stronger in that amount of time.
We will feel stronger, but it is not the strength itself that has become bigger, but the use of the existing strength is more efficient.
The single-leg squat is difficult because our support is asymmetrical. The ankles, thighs, pelvis, and upper body twist, and the balance is easily lost. The precise cooperation of many smaller muscles provides stability and keeps the center of gravity in the right place. As we learn their harmonious operation, we realize that smaller thighs and glutes can also support our body.
The function of smaller, stabilizing muscles is much more important than that of well-known large muscles.
Reps and versatility
It would be amazing if learning a movement, in reality, would be the same as well as in the Matrix: simply download the helicopter program into our mind and after a few minutes we could drive the plane.
But in reality, training is a learning process.
No one asks the children why they cannot write fluently before Christmas, even though they have been practicing squiggles and circles for months.
There will be writing from line patterns when a lot of line patterns have been written.
Our brain learns movements differently than it learns history or maths. The subject of a separate article, but we have two types of long-term memory (procedural and declarative). It is not possible to "put" information into the memory that stores movement by will, it is only imprinted and recalled automatically. So, the primary tool is to do it. The more we repeat something, the more likely we are to remember it. Paying attention can help, but it cannot replace repetitions and practice.
Time is also a method of training
Just as a calf is not born with big horns, neither is our body transformed by the next morning.
The world revolves around us, it is hard for us to believe that things are happening even when apparently nothing is happening.
Quality training is just like good wine. You need peace and time.
It is worth believing that your brain is smart. If we show him new movement patterns, he gets used to the fact that every day he gets a small movement task, and he starts working on it in the background, even when we don't expect it.
It never stops, so after a few weeks or months, it shows moves that we didn't even expect.
We often think that during a break we forget what we practiced before. Sometimes, the experience is that what we discussed at a skiing camp in October did not work at all at once, and perhaps we even felt that we did not understand it.
In February, we will meet again on the slope, or we will receive a phone call: "It's just been put together!"
Yes really. In October, our mind received a huge package of information that it was not yet able to deal with on the spot. But every single day, while we were sleeping, in the background, it recalled and reorganized our movement system, and slowly inserted the new experiences into the structure that had been developing since our birth.
We didn't even notice it, but this is exactly the essence of the plasticity of the mind. It doesn't only work when we know it and want it to.
Don't expect immediate success in your movement learning process. Humbly, regularly, without pressure to perform, we do the dose for that day, every day. Let's pay attention to improving our self-confidence and awareness. And we wait patiently for the necessary months and years.
The good news is that after every three months there will be another three months in which we can improve as long as we live.
Development only stops when we stop being active.