Isk8NYC
02-12-2010, 09:47 AM
Saw this article today and thought I'd share it.
Figure skating
If you want to be even half as flexible as Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu, the two women representing the United States in the ladies' singles figure skating competition, you'd better spend a lot of time in yoga, ballet, or Pilates classes. But the competition, ever more driven by athletic feats rather than artistic expression, really depends on those jumps. That's where plyometrics—exercises that build explosive power—come in, Schafer says.
He recommends that when doing plyometric exercises like jumping up onto a box, jump squats (a squat into the kind of vertical leap you'd see in a basketball game), or step-offs (with one foot on a curb or platform, knee bent, push off into a jump and land on either the same foot or both feet), you focus on landing the same way you take off. If you bend your knees and swing your arms for momentum when beginning the exercise, do the same as you hit the ground. That works power and deceleration, Schafer says. "And try to land quietly," he says. (Pretend like there's an entire hushed arena listening.) "Anyone who can do that is a great athlete."
Full article: http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100253757
Figure skating
If you want to be even half as flexible as Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu, the two women representing the United States in the ladies' singles figure skating competition, you'd better spend a lot of time in yoga, ballet, or Pilates classes. But the competition, ever more driven by athletic feats rather than artistic expression, really depends on those jumps. That's where plyometrics—exercises that build explosive power—come in, Schafer says.
He recommends that when doing plyometric exercises like jumping up onto a box, jump squats (a squat into the kind of vertical leap you'd see in a basketball game), or step-offs (with one foot on a curb or platform, knee bent, push off into a jump and land on either the same foot or both feet), you focus on landing the same way you take off. If you bend your knees and swing your arms for momentum when beginning the exercise, do the same as you hit the ground. That works power and deceleration, Schafer says. "And try to land quietly," he says. (Pretend like there's an entire hushed arena listening.) "Anyone who can do that is a great athlete."
Full article: http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100253757