April 2005 Newsletter

Contest Winners

Thanks to everyone who entered our ICE PRINCESS contest, on line or in the store! The winners of the double passes to the Advance Screening were:

Madeline Norris, Alisia Lopez, M.J.Y. Morris, Alyssa Stea,Bethany Rees, Marides Motalleb, Inese Grava-Gubiin, Sarah Ikin, Nancy Wu-Chan, Lisa Miadovnik,Sarah Arnold,Jenn Fyffe, Michelle Conklin, Brianna Gilmet, Alicia Bagshaw.

Winners of the 2 ICE PRINCESS Soundtrack CD’s were Bonnie Morgado and Dominika Ruszkowski.

We still have free ICE PRINCESS movie posters at the store, while supplies last!

Skate
Sharpening We are thrilled to announce that we are now able to sharpen skates on site! Through the month of June, it will still generally be an overnight process, but we are thrilled to continue to move toward being a one-stop shop for all your skating needs!

GI Gym’s Fit Tip

A very neglected muscle group in skaters is the abdominals. The key words in stomach muscle training are 'slow' and 'high'. Now get at it!

We were so excited to bring you last month’s ICE PRINCESS contest, that we “hopped” Jim’s article all the way to this month! But, it’s here now – so hope you get lots of inspiration to continue your training!

By Jim Parker

Let's see . . .Easter, rabbits, Easter eggs, bunny hop... THAT's IT!! 'Bunny Hop'! As in hopping, jumping, leaping, landing and so forth. Now I don't imagine that rabbits, even the Easter Bunny, worry much about core muscle strength, specific training of hamstrings and quadriceps and abdominals. But you as an athlete certainly do! Or you should! As GI Gym has repeated said, merely practicing one's sport - no matter what sport it may be - is not enough to strengthen your muscles or increase the endurance of your cardiovascular system to a high competitive level.

To help identify what muscle groups are important in jumping, look at a slow-motion tape of your skating program. You will notice that you use all the muscle groups, not just the lower body, as most people presume. The upper body has as much input when jumping, as the lower body, yet looking at many skaters, we see underdeveloped upper musculature. But we’ll leave the upper body jump training for our next newsletter.

Without getting bogged down in terminology, there are different types of strength, based on power, speed and different proportions of 'fast' and 'slow twitch' muscle fibers: fast twitch to perform explosive jumps such as axels or flying camels vs. slow twitch for extended periods of cardio. To get your jumps higher and move explosively you have to do off-ice training to train your muscles explosively. “Specificity of Training”, remember.

Some tips on 'how' to train for explosive power: 1.Be very warmed-up ensuring your muscles are heated right to the core. If you can do off-ice training shortly after on-ice practice, you’re already warmed up. 2.Do some slow, easy stretches, holding at least 15 seconds per stretch and breathing easily while doing so. It is almost 'yoga-like' and for those of you who do Yoga, you're ahead of the game! 3.Use thick mats, boxes of varying heights, some exercise balls and motivational music. 4.Remember that proper technique is as important off-ice as it is on the ice. 5.Break down the jumps in your program into repetitive motions on the gym floor. For example, if you’re going into an axel, picture yourself on the ice gliding up to the jump, and repeatedly practice the jump portion (very important that you do this on mats or cushioned floors) with as much explosive power as you can muster. And remember, HOLD THAT LANDING! 6.Use a partner as your ‘safety’ and to help critique your style.

Muscles react to 'stimuli' or training, so it is very possible to increase their strength-power through practice. Think e-x-p-l-o-d-e.

Good Luck, Skate Hard - 'til next time!

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