By Harriet Wallis
Some experts say stretching before exercise helps performance and lessens injuries. Others say stretching can cause damage.
So what should you do?
“Skiers who stretch at the top of a lift are crazy!” says Jo Garuccio, a PSIA Examiner, Snowbird ski instructor and Triathlon World Champion. “They’ve been on a cold lift and then they’re going to stretch? That’s absolutely nuts!” she exclaims.
Really good warm ups in ski boots include swinging arms, swinging legs and marching in place, Garuccio says. They all get the blood flowing.
Recent studies concur. Static stretching done cold without a warm up hurts the performance of weight lifters and competitive athletes.
Okay. Case closed. Warm up at the top of the lift before you even think about doing something else.
But when I Googled “dynamic stretching” and also “dynamic warm ups” I found – ironically – that the images were virtually the same for both. So it seems it’s your responsibility to ask your body: “Am I getting juices going, or am I straining cold muscles?”
On a humorous personal note, my best ski buddy would stand at the top of the lift and wiggle this way and that. I don’t know if she was warming up or stretching. Nevertheless, she was glued in place until she finished her routine. If it was a powder day I was frantic. “Hurry up. We’re wasting fresh snow,” I’d grumble. She finally learned that fresh powder trumps wiggles.
A recent poll by SeniorSkiing.com revealed 60 percent of our respondents did some kind of stretching, 40 percent didn’t.
Harriet Wallis’ story first appeared in SeniorsSkiing.com.
