Andrew Hooge, CSCS It’s that time of year again…the snow begins to fall in the mountains, skiers begin flipping through the pages of the latest ski magazines and ski film companies, like
Matchstick Productions, begin their motivation tour. Every year, I dig through my old copies of ski films to pump myself up for the coming season. One thing I’ve always wondered though…what sort of training regime do these guys and gals use to tackle the toughest terrain? This year, I got on the horn and asked Murray Wais of
Matchstick Productions how their athletes get in shape for the 10 plus hour days on the mountain. He explained most don’t even set foot in a traditional gym, but rather try to get as many hours on a bike or surfboard as possible. Find out more about how the
Matchstick athletes maintained an extreme level of performance for their latest film,
CLAIM.
1. While on shoot, how many hours a day did your athletes typically ski? Shoot days can run very long, they typically go from sun up to sun down. So in the spring, if the crews are leaving before dawn, those can be 14-hour days. The thing is we are making ski movies, not skiing. It is very different than skiing. Some days it can be a lot of hiking for skiers, maybe as much as three hours. It can also mean long snowmobile rides, which can get very physically demanding as well. So to answer your question, there is no typical ski day, however for these film shoots skiers will typically spend 10 hours outside in mountains, whether it be shoveling to build a kicker or climbing up the side of a mountain.
2. What sort of pre ski physical conditioning (off-season training) did your skiers undertake before shooting began (i.e., yoga 5 days per week, traditional strength training 3 days per week, etc…) if anything? Every skier is different but the all do train to stay in shape. I would say the majority of them mountain bike, and it would be very rare for anyone to actually go inside for a gym. They all stay very active, surfing, mountain biking, hiking peaks to base jump off... you name it. The only time they might go in a gym would be to recover from an injury, which more often than not is to knee.
3. What sorts of exercises (i.e., stretches, etc…) did your skiers perform on the day of shooting (warm-up exercises like stretching, etc…)? Typically there is not much warm up or stretching before hand.
4. How much of a difference do you and your skiers feel a pre-ski exercise program made in their ski performance? Pre exercise is key, these guys need to stay very fit and stay on top of their game. While normally they don't train in the gym they do charge hard in every day life. It would be impossible to be out of shape and perform at this level.
5. What sorts of treatment did they use to help them recover (i.e., acupuncture, chiropractor, surgery, etc…)? Many [of our skiers] use traditional physical therapy and acupuncture.
6. If your athletes had to pick their favorite exercises what would they be and why (i.e., squats, lunges, running, downward dog, etc…)? I would say skiing, mountain biking, surfing.