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Nordic Cross-Training

Runners and other summer athletes increase aerobic capacity with cross-country skiing during the winter.


If you are a summer sport athlete, your final competition of the 2009 season is well behind you. The days are getting shorter, temperatures are dropping, and you have probably found a cozy corner to enjoy a hot beverage and begin planning for next year. Your motivation to get out the door to run or ride is pretty low. Welcome to the dog days of winter.

The term off-season generally implies just that: it is your time to turn off until the next training year begins. As a former Olympic athlete, by the time that last race rolled around, I could hardly wait to cross that finish line. That line was both physical and metaphorical. It meant many things. It meant completing eleven months of training and competition, including travel, injuries, physical and mental fatigue, and personal sacrifice. It also meant the beginning of a free month. A month when I could sleep in, eat junk, and live a successful social life. Unfortunately, I did not learn until after I retired and became a coach that this might not have been the most effective approach to a successful off-season. Sure, I had a great time, but I also came back to training with a few too many pounds around my mid-section, and too much stiffness and physical resistance to my subsequent return to training.

The best athletes are the ones who strive to become better. Everyone trains hard. The off-season is your chance to find that advantage. Maybe the word off-season is not the best or most accurate description. Regardless of what you call it, make this the season where you use sport to regain your health and joie de vivre, and become a better athlete through cross-training.

Enter cross-country skiing. Although there are numerous cross-training options available, few offer such an extensive list of benefits. It is easy on the joints, gets you out of the house at a time of year when it is easy to hit that snooze button on weekends, and it is pursued by the best aerobic athletes in the world.

Endurance sports are notorious for their repetitive movements, performed in a single position for hours on end. Runners commonly develop chronic overuse injuries from the high-impact nature of the sport. Cyclists spend hours in the saddle, working solely their lower bodies, creating muscle imbalances that are tough to overcome. Triathlon promotes cross-training principles, but unless you live in one of Canada's rare mild climates, you will inevitably face the challenge of getting out the door for a few cold, wet sessions.

nordiccross-training
"Cross-country skiers are aerobic animals."
From a recovery standpoint, the body needs to catch up and get back to neutral. It is important to take adequate rest after your final competition, but you want to minimize the amount of fitness you will lose before starting your training for the next season. It is nearly impossible to train year round for one sport. Cross-country skiing has long been a sport of choice for many endurance athletes in the off-season. It is low impact and full-bodied, allowing those aches and pains to subside, while working many of those muscles that were largely ignored for so long. Imagine going to the gym and doing bench presses in order to build your chest. Without adequate musculature in your back, you will not only limit your pectoral gains but also risk injury. The same theory holds true for sport. Creating balance is essential for long-term gain and health.

Getting outdoors in a different capacity also provides a great amount of mental stimulus. Hitting the ski trails on a cold, crisp January morning with friends is far more enticing than that start button on the elliptical trainer at your gym. The idea of adventure will also help take the idea of training out of your session. Not a fan of the man-made groomed loop at your local ski centre? Pick an ungroomed trail, or put on some beefier skis for a backcountry excursion that will connect you with Nordic's roots. The variety will keep your workouts fun and help you avoid burnout. This will also make you hungry for your sport in the spring. No matter how resilient you are to injury or boredom, there comes a day when the cumulative effects of repetitive sport will catch up to you.

Physical and mental health are great motivators, but becoming better is intrinsic to human nature. By using cross-country skiing this off-season, you can make some real physiological gains as you prepare for next season. Cross-country skiers are aerobic animals. Nordic skiing is the most demanding cardiovascular sport in the world, and these athletes have the VO2max levels to prove it.

VO2max is the measure of how much oxygen your body can process to produce energy. A study by Saltin and Rowell concluded that the major limiter to VO2max is oxygen supply. This is determined by total blood volume, the delivery of blood into the muscles, and maximal cardiac output, or stroke volume. The latter is where you will find most of your gains through the use of cross-country skiing. Nordic training is based on volume, where athletes will spend up to ninety per cent of their training below anaerobic threshold. This, plus the full-bodied nature of the sport, provides a unique environment for building the size of the heart and ultimately one's stroke volume. According to online records, four of the top six recorded VO2max scores belong to Nordic skiers. To put this into perspective, Lance Armstrong comes in at number twelve.

Whether you are an elite athlete or a weekend warrior, the winter poses a particular challenge to everyone. There are many forms of cross-training out there, and there is no single way to get from point a to point b. If you are looking for a new way to stay fit and healthy, give cross-country skiing a shot. Who knows? Maybe next year at this time you won't be starting your off-season, you may be coming off of it.

About the Author

Chris Jeffries is the head cross-country coach for Foothills Nordic Ski Club (www.foothillsnordic.ca), a Calgary-based, full-service ski club, offering a wide range of cross-country and biathlon programs for skiers of all ages and performance levels. A seven-year veteran of the Canadian National Ski Team, Jeffries won more than ten national championship medals and competed at the World Championships in 2003 and 2005, and the Winter Olympics in Torino in 2006. He can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

"Nordic Cross-training" was first published in the November/December 2009 Winter Running & Fitness issue of IMPACT Magazine.