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Cole Wilford |
Summer days are here, hot and long. Don’t let that July heat fool you—snowmobiling season will be here before you know it! After speaking with our KLIM athletes Cole Willford and Jared Sessions, the importance of off-season conditioning and training is apparent. These athletes gave up some tips to stay in shape as you’re sweating through the summer months. When your dreams of powder days become a reality, you’ll be able to perform at your maximum ability.
First off, it is important—off-season conditioning and training truly is essential. If you are looking to dominate the hill, or as in a KLIM athlete’s case, if you’re looking, “to compete with guys like Keith Curtis and the other top riders that are on the circuit, you got to do something more every day than what they’re doing,” says Sessions.
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Jared Sessions |
What is it you need to do? These athletes proclaim all it takes is 45 minutes to an hour per day. Although you can use a gym, it is not necessary, just as long as you’re getting in some high-intensity cross training. For off-season conditioning, Willford says, “As long as you work on the new style- CrossFit, P90X®, Insanity® - you are working on very high-intensity workout training intervals... You are gaining strength, lung capacity, and your overall ability to go at a maximum rate and recover quickly.” This is exactly what you’re looking for when you set your sights to Winter 2014-15, and, as Session puts it, will give you “that energy burst that you need to get through the trees.”
Another important factor in off-season conditioning is your diet. If you are putting the time and effort in with your exercising, don’t cheat here! You need to keep your diet clean. “Get your mind to start thinking of it as fueling your body instead of comforting. You can start replenishing the minerals and… really start fueling your muscles and cutting fat,” advises Willford. Be sure you are eating to replenish your muscles, and the results will magnify when you head for the hills.
If you’re thinking you’ll wait until it cools off to get started on your workout routine—don’t. Fall is too late, because at that time, “you’re already 5-6 months behind everybody else- they’re always at the top of their game,” says Willford. No gym membership? “You can get a full work out easily with no resistant weights at all, just using body weight exercises,” says Sessions. Three go-to exercises for both Willford and Sessions are pushups, pull-ups and burpees, in a high intensity circuit setting.
“Work up to it so that when it is here, it comes easier,” says Sessions. It can be simple and fun outdoor activities that can put you far ahead. “I incorporate riding my dirt bike, riding my mountain bike... even more fun things like going out on the lake and wakeboarding where I’m constantly confusing my muscles and making them adapt to different styles and different durations of working out,” says Willford. Recently inspired by this quote on Willford’s gym wall, “Do today what he won’t do, so that you can do tomorrow what he can’t,” Willford and Sessions are at the peak of their summer game. Are you?