The Leg Blaster Thread - are we having fun yet?

[Shred Baron]

How long does it take you guys to do say 5 sets of minis? I work out a bit before work a couple days a week and might try getting blasted. I’m usually not too worried about downhill performance since I mostly tour these days, so prioritize endurance work, but hell why not.

[Dantheman]

Sep. 1 seems a bit early for this thread.

[pfluffenmeister]

How long does it take you guys to do say 5 sets of minis? I work out a bit before work a couple days a week and might try getting blasted. I’m usually not too worried about downhill performance since I mostly tour these days, so prioritize endurance work, but hell why not.

Not long.

Minute or two per rep.
30 seconds down time.
Repeat until you puke.

[2FUNKY]

Sep. 1 seems a bit early for this thread.

Yeah, these don’t show up for me until mid October. But ski season doesn’t start until
End of November here.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[old goat]

It begins:

Just got done with 5 sets of mini Leg Blasters.
Damn am I sore.

But that's a much stronger beginning than normal.

Thanks for reminding me. Asshole.

[alias_rice]

Sep. 1 seems a bit early for this thread.

Agreed. I don’t see any benefit to leg blasters any earlier than 4-6 weeks before ski season. Time is better spent right now with traditional leg and core workouts.

[shera]

Glad for the thread bump! Saw it last year and wanted to try it out. I guess I need extra days due to being generally weak and pathetic and will be ashamed to say how few I can do.

[bodywhomper]

Last year, when I described leg blasters to my PT, he thought the plyometrics were a great addition to some of the other things that he had prescribed to me, like SLRD on buso and Bulgarian split squat. So I’ve kept jumping lunges and squat jumps in my routine. I also do jumping side lunges.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Agreed. I don’t see any benefit to leg blasters any earlier than 4-6 weeks before ski season. Time is better spent right now with traditional leg and core workouts.

Is the idea that Leg Blaster actually simulate skiing? I agree that is your baseline fitness is good, perhaps it too early to have a specific focus. But if you have been slacking and your are using ski season as a motivator, something is better than nothing. I think we have a Crusty Fucks thread somewhere for that.

[Stuntmonkey]

How long does it take you guys to do say 5 sets of minis? I work out a bit before work a couple days a week and might try getting blasted. I’m usually not too worried about downhill performance since I mostly tour these days, so prioritize endurance work, but hell why not.

We started yesterday as a "pre workout" prior to our normal gym session. Was able to get 5 slowish sets done in under 11mins.

Agree that its pretty early for them but no real reason not to? It's good habit forming and a great addition to your standard gym work. I went really hard on legs on Friday and the leg blasters helped loosen me up for sure.

[shera]

Yup, ski season is my grand motivator in life.

I spent the summer dinking around in the garden and wandering through the woods with my dog. I did go completely off caffeine and felt like a zombie for 2-3 months. Best I can say is that I do air squats to wake up in the morning and get my creaky knees loosened up.

Anyway, now I'm playing catchup. Ran sprints yesterday. Got the mountain bike working and trying to climb the hill every day. Really it's only 7-8 weeks until skiing on the ribbon, splitting hairs. Yes it's time for me to do the blasters, well manana.

[californiagrown]

We started yesterday as a "pre workout" prior to our normal gym session. Was able to get 5 slowish sets done in under 11mins.

Agree that its pretty early for them but no real reason not to? It's good habit forming and a great addition to your standard gym work. I went really hard on legs on Friday and the leg blasters helped loosen me up for sure.

If it works for you, keep on doing it.

BUT, i would warn folks against using leg blasters as a warmup. I could not come up with a more perfect routine to impart patellar/quad tendonitis if i tried haha. I would highly, highly suggest that people be fully warmed up before doing them. IMO, leg blasters are a perfect finisher to a leg workout... the sheer amount of volume and pre-fatiguing before any jumping means that they are not an actual plyometric excercise, along with the fact you can use shit form and still be safe means there isnt really a great reason to put them at the beginning of your workout.


A good idea would be to introduce wall sits to your workouts a few weeks before introducing leg blasters. Isometric holds (like wall sits) help strengthen tendons and will help protect against developing tendonitis when you do start up leg blasters.

[54-46]

Not yet

Did a century bike ride on 8/17 and doing another one on 9/28.

Will turn to more power and eccentric training in October/November. Figure 8-9 weeks more specific training and I’ll be good.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[alias_rice]

Is the idea that Leg Blaster actually simulate skiing? I agree that is your baseline fitness is good, perhaps it too early to have a specific focus. But if you have been slacking and your are using ski season as a motivator, something is better than nothing. I think we have a Crusty Fucks thread somewhere for that.

Dan is more of expert than me and can give better reasonings, but I think the gist of it is that leg blasters don't really do much for leg strength or muscular endurance, both of which are more important than anything leg blasters provide. What they do help with is that horrible leg soreness from your first few ski days. This can pretty well get achieved with a month of blasters. They definitely don't hurt anything and I do them every year, but if you are currently out of shape you will be better off spending your time building strength and working on cardio.

[shera]

Dan is more of expert than me and can give better reasonings, but I think the gist of it is that leg blasters don't really do much for leg strength or muscular endurance, both of which are more important than anything leg blasters provide. What they do help with is that horrible leg soreness from your first few ski days. This can pretty well get achieved with a month of blasters. They definitely don't hurt anything and I do them every year, but if you are currently out of shape you will be better off spending your time building strength and working on cardio.

I live at 10k feet, don't get out of breath much when skiing, but I'm def interested in increasing "muscular endurance" - my legs get smoked anymore skiing half days of double blacks.

Is the bike what I need, longer rides?

[Foggy_Goggles]

Do you do strength training? Because if you don't you should.

[EWG]

I don't want to even think about these things till Oct 1. Up till then it's biking/soccer/backpacking/playing outside and weights. Screw you guys for reminding me these things exist.

[Dantheman]

Dan is more of expert than me and can give better reasonings, but I think the gist of it is that leg blasters don't really do much for leg strength or muscular endurance, both of which are more important than anything leg blasters provide. What they do help with is that horrible leg soreness from your first few ski days. This can pretty well get achieved with a month of blasters. They definitely don't hurt anything and I do them every year, but if you are currently out of shape you will be better off spending your time building strength and working on cardio.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert

Yeah, it's the soreness issue mostly. LBs certainly improve muscular endurance, but what makes them especially evil and good for ski conditioning is they are very eccentric dominant. Most of the muscle damage that causes DOMS occurs during the eccentric phase of a muscle contraction (lengthening under tension) and skiing is an almost completely eccentric activity. With repeated exposure you become resistant to this damage (Repeated Bout Effect), the the effect maxes out within 4-6 weeks so you hit diminishing returns pretty quickly.

Anything is *far* better than nothing, but if you're already doing some level of structured training program there's better uses of your time this far out of season.

[old goat]

I don't want to even think about these things till Oct 1. Up till then it's biking/soccer/backpacking/playing outside and weights. Screw you guys for reminding me these things exist.

I agree. I don't think about them until October. That doesn't mean I do them in October.

[shera]

Do you do strength training? Because if you don't you should.

Yeah, I know I could benefit from some organized progressive overload. Maybe next summer.

I love fitness and do a variety of random stuff. I run sprints about once a week and do bodyweight stuff like pushups and pullups. Gardening often means using a pickaxe and hauling rocks around here. But I would guess it's just maintenance level and I wouldn't be adding any mass or strength.

Glad to be conversing in this thread. It's a wakeup call. Gee, why are you disappointed in your ski endurance, well, here's the harsh truth.

[shera]

Disclaimer: I am not an expert

Yeah, it's the soreness issue mostly. LBs certainly improve muscular endurance, but what makes them especially evil and good for ski conditioning is they are very eccentric dominant. Most of the muscle damage that causes DOMS occurs during the eccentric phase of a muscle contraction (lengthening under tension) and skiing is an almost completely eccentric activity. With repeated exposure you become resistant to this damage (Repeated Bout Effect), the the effect maxes out within 4-6 weeks so you hit diminishing returns pretty quickly.

Anything is *far* better than nothing, but if you're already doing some level of structured training program there's better uses of your time this far out of season.

Thank you for that.

Could you please expand on the idea of muscular endurance and how to address it efficiently in the skiing context? And what about the bike, does it help?

Also, please remember that some of us are not as young as you, so timing assumptions like "far out in the season" might not apply in the same way. I am old af and everything is so much slower, including adaptation.

Thanks, you are smart.

[rod9301]

Biking of course helps, but it affects mostly slow twitch muscle fingers, while skiing uses a lot of fast twitch. The fast twitch fibers can be trained by weight lifting.

Sent from my moto g 5G using Tapatalk

[shera]

Ok, are you saying that squat and deadlift are superior to leg blasters (and to bike rides) for muscle endurance during long ski days?

And the reason I'm getting tired by lunchtime is because aging causes the loss of fast twitch? I thought that would just affect power, not endurance?

[californiagrown]

Ok, are you saying that squat and deadlift are superior to leg blasters (and to bike rides) for muscle endurance during long ski days?

And the reason I'm getting tired by lunchtime is because aging causes the loss of fast twitch? I thought that would just affect power, not endurance?

How old are you, roguhly? Every exercise has a risk-reward ratio, and that rebalances with every year you get older... especially if you do not have a background in lifting weights and will have to learn how to properly do the lifts. Barbell squating, and especially deadlifting are really not great in that regard... many other safer options that will get you 90% of the benefit with 10% of the risk... the #1 rule of training is to NOT GET INJURED. However, it is true that lifting "heavy", which for you would be in the 8-12 rep range, is extremely beneficial from a muscle and bone density standpoint as you age, so pursuing weights is going to be a good idea.


To be clear, is your issue is that your legs are cooked by lunchtime when you go out touring? How many days per week are you touring, and what is an average tour for you (vert)? If you are 66 years old and you are getting cooked by touring 3000ft before lunchtime... well yeah, thats about right. Unless you want to dedicate your life to being in world class shape for your age you might need to adjust expectations a little. The offseason and the gym are places to increase base strength/fitness levels... but there is a reason that no matter how hard you go in the offseason, every single athlete ever will tell you that getting into midseason shape is only possible by playing yourself into shape. There is no better motivator than the heat of competition, or in the case of recreational skiing going 40mph with your legs burning and cramping and having to find that little bit left in the tank to make a few turns to stop/control yourself. Training in the offseason is mostly meant to get you into mid-season shape quicker once the season starts, or to raise your peak performance ceiling for your midseason fitness.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Ha...no next summer. Today. I'm not the expert but we have those. And Dan's not that young.

Being strong is good for us. And as we age, we loose muscle mass. So we combat that by lifting weights because it is a really efficient way to do this. Bike rides are fun and they are really good for you. But they are not an efficient way to become strong.

You can do it a home. Don't overthink it. Maybe somebody here has a routine. Or check the unlimited YouTube on how skiers train. We got an old fucks workout thread somewhere , I'll try to bump that.