Nordic Sports
Cross-country skiing is a technical endurance sport. The motion pattern of XC skiing is determined by the sum of all forces acting on the body. Depending on the technique the upper body propulsion can contribute by up to 2/3 to the moving force of an athlete (*).
Rollerskiing is the perfect off-season alternative to XC skiing with an identical motion pattern using almost the same material (boots, bindings, poles).
Nordic Blading enables to mimic XC skiing in summer by using poles while inline skating and to train the upper body. However, it is biomechanically not possible to fully simulate the leg pushing sequence due to the missing clap-mechanism of the inline skates.
Inline Skating is analogously the off-season alternative to ice skating and nowadays widespread. The involvement of the leg muscles is impressive as well as the balance requirements; however the arm muscles are not trained.
Nordic Walking is a good supplement to the diagonal XC skiing technique and thanks to the use of poles it activates the entire body musculature.
(*) G.A. Smith, Cross-Country Skiing: Technique, Equipment and Environmental Factors Affecting Performance, Biomechanics in Sport, Chapter 12, Edited by V. Zatsiorsky, Blackwell Publishing, 2000.
Philipp Ruefli from SSC Lengnau, 4 x Swiss champion U18 and U20 demonstrates the V2 and V1 technique on rollerskis WEASEL Prolog.
