This week I was visiting children and teenagers at a summer vacation camp. The questions this time were original. The teenagers asked, for example, if I was married (not) and if I had a boyfriend (of course). But one question particularly impressed me: why do you need such muscles?!
Indeed, why? Why are the best skiers of the 2020s completely different from the skiers of the 1990s, for example?
We are much more powerful, more muscular, we can lift ourselves twenty times on the bar (the best in this component can do forty times) and easily press our weight on the chest.
Answer: Marit Bjorgen. The most successful skier in history, eight times Olympic champion and eighteen times world champion, has changed his ski. It was she and her coaches who first realized that hard skiing, as they have learned to do in our century, requires a different approach, different muscles.
No one before Marit looked so powerful, worked so much with iron.
Now we are all a little Marit Bjorgen.
Our first training camps always include workouts that we would like to reduce but cannot: strength hypertrophy.
We do hypertrophy several times a week. For those who do not remember the meaning of the term: these are repetitions of a complex of strength exercises with weights. For example, push-ups on uneven bars with an additional weight of 20 kg. The weight of the weighting is individual, selected for 10-12 repetitions. That is to say, the last, the 12th repetition, must be given with great difficulty, through force and groans. So there are three approaches.
The purpose of hypertrophy is pretty clear: an increase in volume or mass of skeletal muscle.
I can admit that hypertrophy is the hardest workout for me. In the evening – fatigue and completely unusual difficulties for me in falling asleep at the usual time. And immediately after strength training, I want to listen to loud music, “so that the rhythm is present.” Which is completely unusual for me in other conditions – I can’t stand clubs with their loud music.
The chemistry of the process is clear: hypertrophy, like other power loads, increases testosterone. Testosterone increases aggression and gives a feeling of energy. As if he was not drinking a cup of coffee, but the whole pot.
The fact is, building muscle is absolutely essential to winning in today’s cross-country skiing.
Ten years ago, the Russian national team did not have so many training sessions for hypertrophy. And the Norwegians and Swedes (like Marit) had done it. Maybe that’s why they beat ours back then. I’m probably oversimplifying, but I’ve heard this version from different coaches more than once.
Without false modesty: such a mass of muscles in relation to the total body weight, as I have now, is very few modern rivals, Norwegians and Swedes. Although I am still far from the Slovenian Eva Urevts.
The trend did not only come from Russian skiers.
We rarely meet biathletes, but a few years ago even the most inexperienced fan could tell who was a skier and who was a biathlete by seeing us on a ski or cross-country ski run. The biathletes were far below us in terms of muscle relief and superior in body mass index. But when we trained with Istomin’s group last fall, I – and not just me – was struck by how quickly the girls in her group picked themselves up in this component. Judging by their stories, hypertrophy is no longer just “our everything”, but also theirs. Ekaterina Noskova’s medal at the Russian Ski Championships did not surprise me at all. I saw what Katya is capable of in the gym.
I do not want to be misunderstood: after Yohaug left with his relief, which any bodybuilder would envy, our main role model in quantity / quality is the same Eva Urevts. Take a look at his picture at your leisure. Eva’s last ski season was a failure, but clearly not for lack of explosive power or repulsive power.
Thus, our muscles are not for the aesthetic pleasure of admiring ourselves in the mirror. Even if I have no complex about it. On the contrary, I love this body which is mine and, more importantly, like the one I love.
And yet, muscles are necessary in the first place to succeed on the track. Without them, no victory can be won today.
Source : MatchTV
I am Sandra Jackson, a journalist and content creator with extensive experience in the news industry. I have been working in the news media for over five years. During this time, I have worked as an author and editor at various outlets producing high-quality content that attracts readers from different demographics.
