[slyfink]

I telemark and xc ski 3-4x/week (sometimes more if the snow is good, there was a stretch a couple of years ago where I was out skiing every day for 17 days straight).

But I also go to the gym. I use the exercises BikeJames recommends because they're bike-specific and cross over well to skiing. I do a 5 min. cardio warmup, then weights. I do one "warm-up" set at approx. 60% of intended weight, then one set of 8-10 reps. Then 20-30 minutes cardio (usually run home). I got that set/rep recommendation off the American College of Sports Physicians exercise prescription website: http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Guidelines.html What I like about that site is that it is their position, and it is backed up with lots of studies, not just some dudes opinion, or "look at what has worked for me" (no offense intended to anyone here - it's just that there is so much junk out there online that it's hard to find good advice). Everybody is different and these studies tend to look at a broad spectrum of people.

I think the key point for me is to keep my gym time short. I'm usually in and out of there in about 30-40 minutes.

Dig around in that site, there's lots of information about strength training vs. trying to gain mass and how to lose fat. There's even an exercise search option that has animated gifs to show you how to do the exercises properly, and which muscle groups are targeted. I felt like I struck gold when I found their site!

 

[b1k3_r1d3r]

I obtained some of the work outs from the MTB Strength program a while back and the strength training system made a lot of sense and was really beneficial until my shoulder exploded. However his theory of putting in "base" miles and aerobic work outs being harmful doesn't make complete sense to me. Considering that most of us are not professional althetes, base miles and cardio/aerobic work outs should help you with general fatique therefore allowing you able to focus and be more alert while riding. I ignored his lack of base mile's stuff since I also ride road and do some racing for the collegiate team for fun and I definitely noticed an increase in strength and stamina while riding dh and xc.

My example of this would be this summer just riding xc and road along with push ups and my basic shoulder exercises to keep it strong then doing the two collegiate conference races and nationals and barely feeling any body fatigue aside from my blown up shoulder. I would say the "base" miles didn't harm me. Maybe for professionals too many base miles or getting too carried away with endurance type training could hinder ones performance but the amount of aerobic and cardio most of us will probably do it shouldnt be an issue.