Why Off-Ice Training?
Speak to any elite athlete, and they will tell you they work hard off the ice.
Successful athletes spend as much time training off-ice as they do on the ice!
Off-ice training builds your strength and stamina.
Strength and stamina will help you maintain your body for optimum skating performance and prevent injury. Athletic conditioning will also improve your injury recovery time too!
Success in skating takes dedication and commitment to all aspects of your training!
No matter what your level, you need a combination of on-ice and off-ice training for success.
Improve Performance & Longevity
Training to increase the strength of young athletes has proven successful!
With younger athletes, there will be little or no change in the size of the muscles. At younger ages, a large portion of the strength gained is due to neural mechanisms. Repetition is particularly important to building muscle memory.
The benefits gained through a resistance training program for young skaters include:
- Increasing muscular strength, power, and endurance - improving performance capacity.
- The possible prevention of injuries due to improving the balance of muscles around joints
- A positive influence on healthy body composition.
- An increase in jump height.
- An increase in static strength for positions such as landing position, spirals, camel spins, etc.
Research has suggested that shoulder girdle and, in general, upper-body strength is relatively untouched in the training of figure skaters on the ice. This may offer the greatest potential for increasing the height of jumps!
One of the biggest reasons for off-ice training is to develop what the sport requires, but the sport itself does not substantially train through regular participation and/or competition.
An Essential Part of Your Training!
The truth is skating is a multi-faceted sport.
Skating alone is not enough to excel. You must train to skate with the right program to meet your goals.
Finding exactly the right program for YOU can be pretty confusing.
It can also feel a bit intimidating, especially if you’re new to training for athletic performance.
You should not just walk into a gym and purchase a training package!
Most certified personal trainers at gyms gear their services toward the general population. Those looking to lose weight and tone up - NOT training for athletic performance, never mind figure skating!
It's Best to Work with a Specialist!
That is a Certified Personal Trainer, preferably Specializing in Strength & Conditioning for Skaters
There are many well-meaning figure skating coaches who offer off-ice training.
But this is not the best choice unless that coach is specifically certified and INSURED for off-ice training work.
Strength and conditioning is a totally different skill set from on-ice training.
I work with both skaters and their coaches as part of their training team, performing skater fitness evaluations to determine a skater's deficits and create customized and efficient periodized training programs for you, including:
- Off-Ice Warm-Ups
- Off-Ice Cool Downs & Stretching/Flexibility Training
- Complete Off-Ice Work Outs
- Discuss Nutrition and Healthy Choices
Sport Specific Training for Figure Skaters
According to the principle of specificity, sports training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport for which the individual is training to produce the desired effect. In a sport like skating that requires a wider set of skills, your training program must break down different components so that you can train specifically for each one.
The primary goal of the specificity of training is to condition the muscles that will be used in the activity. Over time, you will develop muscle memory for specific actions to perform them without concentrating on them.
You can improve your skating skills by correcting musculoskeletal issues that limit your progress.
If you are new to off-ice training, the program will be designed so that it is simple for you to get started! If you are more experienced with strength and conditioning, a more challenging program will be recommended.
Coach Aimée will monitor your progress, and the program will be adjusted accordingly.
Periodization
It is critical to organize your skating season into time periods:
- Off-season
- Pre-season
- In-season
- Rest period
It's not possible to develop the same training plan for every level of skater!
Your peak may be for regionals, while others may peak at nationals! Still, other skaters are more recreational, while others may compete in open competitions year-round.
Coach Aimée customizes each plan for each individual skater.
Training to Skate
Strength & Power
Strength and power are developed by a continuous rise and fall of the skating knee and the pressure of the blade's edge against the ice.
Strength is the creation and maintenance of balance and flow.
Power is the creation and maintenance of speed without visible effort.
Power results in:
- Velocity, speed, or pace;
- Flow across the ice;
- Acceleration.
Increased muscle mass increases your stability and body control.
Increased strength will also improve nearly every facet of your life by making daily movements easier.
Strength + Balance
I work with skaters on both strength and balance!
Almost all skating is performed on one foot. Not only that but on a narrow blade while gliding on a giant ice cube!
Several factors affect your sense of balance:
- The inner ear (vestibular system) assists you in sensing your position while moving.
- Your eyes help you detect your surroundings.
- Balance receptors in your hip, leg, knee, ankle, and foot tell you where your body is in relation to the ground.
I don't know about you, but I like to work efficiently - smarter, not harder! So, I find ways to incorporate balance training into strength training!
This holistic approach encompasses balance and strength, resulting in better coordination and speed too!
Your muscles are attached to your bones, so when you use them during strength training, they pull on your bones, signaling your body to increase the activity of osteoblasts, specialized cells that help lay down new bone. The more often these cells are activated, the stronger and more resilient your bones become over time. Denser bones are also associated with reduced injury risk.
Strength & Balance Create Power, Endurance, and Consistency!
Core
Gluteus Medius
Gluteus Medius
Core strength and stability originate from the abdominal and back muscles. These muscles work together as a control center for your body's balance and stability.
Powerful core muscles help:
- Maintain balance and proper posture.
- Check rotation.
- Proper body alignment on take-offs.
- Maintain tight air positions.
- Centering spins.
- Control the upper body position, such as holding your arms at shoulder level without fatigue during footwork, stroking, and crossovers.
Gluteus Medius
Gluteus Medius
Gluteus Medius
The gluteus medius is one of the main pelvic stabilizer muscles. It plays a huge role in controlling the motion of your femur and hip, which provides you with stability.
Gluteus medius strength is required for:
- Control alignment of your hips, legs, knees, ankles, and feet for proper technique in all jump landings and takeoffs.
- Maintaining proper alignment in stroking, footwork, and turns.
- Stabilizing the hip and controlling balance in your spins.
- Raising your free leg into a higher spiral or arabesque position.
Psoas
Gluteus Medius
Legs, Knees, Ankles & Feet
This is the primary muscular connection between your upper and lower body. The main function of the psoas muscles is to help flex your hip joint by bringing your leg up and in toward your torso.
Psoas strength is required to:
- Strengthen your lower spine, supporting your posture.
- Develop the height of your jumps.
- Lifting your free leg in Axel and salchow jumps.
- Maintaining stable hips in your spins.
- Any free leg kick or thrust, such as in a flying camel spin.
- Prevent psoas muscle syndrome, often called "jumper's hip" or "dancer's hip."
Legs, Knees, Ankles & Feet
Legs, Knees, Ankles & Feet
Legs, Knees, Ankles & Feet
You are using your legs (quadriceps and hamstrings), knees, ankles, and feet in every skating movement so you must keep them strong!
Leg, Knee, Ankle, and Foot strength are required for:
- Gliding, stroking, and crossovers.
- Turns & steps.
- Spirals, Ina Bauers, hydroblading movements.
- Spins and jumps.
- Stamina to perform from beginning to end of your program.
Arms & Shoulders
Legs, Knees, Ankles & Feet
Arms & Shoulders
Your arms and shoulder muscles include your deltoids, biceps, and triceps. In skating, strong arms are required to perform choreography that adds flair and grace that contribute to your component scores.
Arm & Shoulder strength is required for:
- Stretching arms out from your body.
- Prepare for jumps.
- Contribute to power and speed.
- Retain balance.
- Hold difficult spin positions.
- Support your core.
Flexibility Is Required For:
Spirals, split jumps, spread eagles, Ina Bauers, as well as camel, sit, layback, and Biellmann spins
However, flexibility is necessary for more basic elements too!
- Muscle flexibility controls the angle of your hip, knee, and ankle joints on jump take-offs and landings. A small deficit in muscle length can affect the quality of your jumps.
- Joint position and motion are controlled by the flexibility of the surrounding muscles. This affects the angle of your hips, legs, knees, and ankles during basic stroking, crossovers, spins, and footwork.
- Each joint in your body requires a balance of flexibility for a proper range of motion. An imbalance of flexibility makes you more prone to injury.
No matter your level, every skater should perform flexibility exercises year-round at least four times a week to maximize muscle elasticity and flexibility.
Flexibility = Enhanced Positions + Reduced Injury Risk
Shoulder Mobility
Hamstring Flexibility
Shoulder Mobility
Shoulder mobility is the ability of your shoulders to move through a range of motion with control. Mobility issues that develop in the shoulder may result from impingement, rotator cuff tears, and frozen shoulder.
Instability and/or overuse of the joint cause shoulder mobility issues. Both shoulder mobility and strength are critical to keeping your shoulders open.
Shoulder external rotation mobility will reduce stress on the shoulder during any blade grabbing move, such as a "haircutter spin."
Shoulder flexion mobility provides freedom of arm movement for beautiful choreography and more appealing lines.
Hip Rotation
Hamstring Flexibility
Shoulder Mobility
There are six external hip rotator muscles that play a role in both hip stabilization and hip rotation:
- Piriformis (PI)
- Quadratus femoris (QF)
- Obturator internus (OI)
- Obturator externus (OE)
- Superior gemellus (SG)
- Inferior gemellus (IG))
Hip external rotation mobility is required for:
- Difficult variations of sit spin, such as the pancake and sit behinds.
- Proper free leg angles for jump takeoffs.
- Appealing free leg position in upright layback spins.
- Spread eagles, Ina Bauers, and other skating movements.
Hamstring Flexibility
Hamstring Flexibility
Hamstring Flexibility
Hamstring muscles are skeletal muscles that run down the back of your thigh. You use them to walk, climb stairs, squat, and perform many other leg movements.
Hamstring injuries are the most common sports injury.
Hamstring flexibility is required for:
- Proper free leg position in camel spins and spirals.
- Proper lunge, shoot the duck, sit spin, and hydroblading positions.
- The spiral variations such as the "Y" and Biellmann spins.
- General skating mobility.
Quadricep Flexibility
Quadricep Flexibility
Hamstring Flexibility
Four separate muscles make up the quadricep muscle group in each of your thighs, all of which cover the front and sides of the thigh bone (femur).
The quadriceps muscles are:
- Vastus intermedius
- Vastus medialis oblique (VMO)
- Vastus lateralis
- Rectus femoris
Flexible Quadriceps are required for:
- Preventing knee injuries.
- Difficult upright spin variations such as "haircutter" and Biellmanns.
Psoas Flexibility
Quadricep Flexibility
Psoas Flexibility
This is the primary muscular connection between your upper and lower body. The main function of the psoas muscles is to help flex your hip joint by bringing your leg up and in toward your torso.
Psoas flexibility is required for:
- Proper free leg hip extension on jump landings and stroking.
- Proper free leg position in layback and camel spins.
- Extension of free leg in landings and stroking.
- Achieving spiral, camel, and Biellmann positions.