Any suggested pre-ski knee/leg exercises for the seriously out of shape?

[choucroutegarnie]

I'll be hitting the slopes in less than 2 weeks and today's cycle ride up a gentle slope has just brought home how shockingly unfit I am.

Please don't ask why I have not thought about this before...

Does anyone know any knee/leg exercises that may limit the damage?

Thanks!

The one where you lean against a wall and "sit down" to make a chair shape - hold as long as you can and keep repeating

If you are a good skier, you won't feel it as much - better technique!

Up and down lots of stairs. I'm panicking a bit now, as very unfit, and DH has just graciously allowed me a free pass over his DM and DD 2 week visit to ski a day with a friend. Yippee!

Serious stair work is in order.

Yes, the wall sitting one is good, as are squats and lunges. Keep on with the cycling too.

Are you off for Christmas? We are! We go on 21st but I think I'm going to have to admit defeat to my spd and SI joint problems that I hoped would clear up by now (ds2 is 6 months old now). I'm still in pain pretty much all of the time so I know in my heart of hearts that skiing wouldn't so it any good at all

Watch out for the wall sitting one if you feel very unfit right now, or for squats, both can injure your knees. Do, but do graduallly. If you're a gym member leg weights would be good, extensions and curls. So would yoga I guess. Cycling good too.
Have fun, I'm in your position too but have until March!

whatever you do (wall sitting, squats etc) keep your bottom down and backwards so that your knees don't go over your toes. You don't need to go seriously deep with those exercises - just smooth controlled action will hit the spot.

Right, off to do the wall sitting now... I'll report back

Sympathise - I am certainly no expert in this area... hoever - the exercise is very specific. Last year i twisted my knee playing tennis shortly beofre a skiing hol, and assumed it would be a write-off, but actually, becuase I was using it in a differtn way, had no pain at all, and survived pretty well. (Envious of you off so soon - I have to wait) another THREE weeks

The wall-sitting exercises are only of use if you are in the habit of sitting back when skiing - not really a good idea as you just end up skidding everywhere.

For 20% of people, the reason they don't/can't ski more is purely down to aerobic fitness: basically they get knckr_d. So anything which improves this will make you able to ski more.

But for the majority 80%, it's down to technique: bad technique means you use far more energy that you need to, so improve your technique with a few lessons - either before you go on your local articial slope or when you arrive - and you'll find this pays back very quickly.