Hey!
I was wondering if anyone knew of any good exercises to help strengthen my legs.

I was skating today and I realised I find it really hard work to stay in a camel spin position, to push myself up from a sit spin, and to do more than about 4 loops in a row (as a combination jump)- not because my position is wrong or because I fall but because my legs seem so weak I can't continue jumping.

I'm due to start work on my axel and I really want to improve, so any off-ice tips would be very welcome

Get yourself a bean bag chair and try getting out of it on one foot.
Do Backward and Forward crossovers with your legs bent.You wouldnt believe how strong you will get.
GoldSeals

Pushing up from a sit spin: If you are just learning this, pull the free foot in and give a little toe push up. You won't have to do this for long. The leg will strengthen just from practicing these spins. Make sure you do it on both feet. Learn the back sit! I had a friend whose left leg was noticably bigger than her right. She was a CCW spinner and had not learned the back sit yet.

Kay

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I've been doing sits for about a year and a half now, but only recently had problems getting up - my leg position has been a lot straighter lately, and my position lower, maybe that has something to do with it.

Also, whilst I'm here - as I swing my leg round into the sit position I often get pins and needles down my leg which are more painful the straighter my leg is. Anyone else had that problem?

Plyometric exercises off ice may help strengthen the legs for jumping. I've never learned any specific ones, but I recall a torturous exercise I had to do for ballet classes that seem to fall in the category--we would do repeated jumps in place (with no rotation) in whatever foot position was chosen by the teacher (first position, second position, or parallel first, or parallel second, etc.). Each jump was to be with 100% of our energy and as high as possible, but the pace of the jumps was very slow--so we couldn't use the momentum of the previous jump to get power for the jump--instead our leg muscles had to be our "rocket ships." We did them barefoot, but I think they could also be done in running shoes for more stability and shock absorption.

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Those are called Saute's and there are some variations to them.

Biggest thing to remember in doing these is not to land on the balls of your feet, you will end up with very sore calf muscles the next day if you do.

I usually would do about three minutes of back crossoevers in one direction, then switch and do another three minutes in the other direction at the end of the session.

If I felt like pushing it, I would do back crossovers on the mushroom.

Steven

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