Customer Reviews

Fitskiing: Your Guide to Peak Skiing Fitness

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not a book about how to ski, but about how to strengthen your muscles the rest of the year so you can ski more effortlessly and with less fatigue.
I'm a fitness instructor (I bought this book for my dad), and I think the author does a great job with the exercises. Each exercise gets a photo, a drawing of the muscles involved, step-by-step instructions, and a brief description of how it applies to skiing. A variety of exercises for the legs, abs, and upper body are provided. Most are things anyone serious about weight training would already know and do, but the plyometrics section is more ski-specific. A few stretches are also given. All the photos make it appealing and easy to follow.
However, the book would have benefitted from correcting the many spelling and punctuation errors and removing the introductory first 60 pages, which are all over the place and unhelpful.

This is by far the best book I have ever read regarding getting in shape for the ski season. So many of the books either don't have enough information or get too technical. This was a breeze to read and understand. The author puts otherwise complicated information like understanding lactic acid into an easy to understand format.
There were so many exercises to choose from which was great. At the same time the book gave a great step by step program and helped me choose which exercises and activiites were right for me. The illustrations showing which muscles were being worked was an added bonus.
If you want to get in the best shape for skiing, buy this book!

Be aware that this is a total fitness guide.
You need to be prepared to commit to a complete exercise program involving plenty of gym work as well as following a recommended nutrition program.
Great book, requires only your commitment!

Like the other reviews, this book has very few information about skiing, but it is very detailed and informative about land training before the skiing season. Actually many of the methods described in this book can be used for other sports or just for being a healthy person. So if you are looking for something for actual skiing techniques this is not your number one book. But for land training it can be...

I have several gripes about this book:

1. The page layout of the 1st edition is terrible. The type size is too big, and the paragraph length is too long, making it difficult to just sit down and read. It looks like it was made using Microsoft Word, which detracts from the professionalism of the content. Cheesy clip-art doesn't help. This book would really have benefitted from a more professional editor and publisher.

2. Like another reviewer said, there are a number of typos, misspelling and instances of poor grammar. This again distracts from the "authority" of this text.

3. Some paragraph text was missing altogether, such as the "Ultimate Hangover Solution" in that section: it is about 1" of empty paragraph. So, it's unknown what the recommended "ultimate" solution for apres-ski hangovers.

That said, it does have excellent information about how to get in shape for skiing, and to improve your fitness while targeting skiing as a hobby/sport. There are good photos and diagrams, as well as step-by-step instructions for performing exercises properly. Hooge is a young author (in his early 30's); I think a 2nd "tidied-up" edition would really make this book worthwhile. Hopefully the 2nd edition (released in Oct 2006) will live up to this expectation.

I'm giving it only 3 stars due to the poor production; however the content seems pretty solid.

I am not great at getting ready for ski season. But as I get older I find that I am not able to get away with "on the slope conditioning". So this year I decided to try a more structured program. I am six weeks into this one and happy with the results so far. I am doing the basic program.

Depending on your conditioning you could probably stand to bump up the cardio on the basic program in the early weeks. I did inadvertently. If I hadn't it would have been way too easy for me and I have fallen pretty far out of cardio shape.

I will hopefully get around to doing the advanced program next year.

Learn some great exercises to improve your fitness level for skiing. Step-by-step instructions for each exercise are included.

This is a great book - for less than I'd expect from a quality hardback. It will give you the exercises and the knowledge - you need to provide the effort and motivation :-). A good value.

Some great stuff but I was looking for something more basic for a guy who goes up 25 to 30 times a year and be ready ..this will get you there but I thought it was a bit much for what I wanted ....go for it anyway and good luck ...