Shaping up for ski season

Hit the gym long before you hit 
the slopes, experts say

     Oct. 7, 2003 - What can you do now to get in shape for ski season? And, is it true that you should feel a little sore after weight training? Smart Fitness answers your queries. Have an exercise question?  Send it to . We’ll post select answers in future columns.

     No pain, no gain?

     Question:  "If I don’t get a little sore from strength training, am I doing something wrong?"

     Answer: Muscle soreness is not an indicator of a “good” workout, says Steve Zawrotny, a spokesperson for the National Strength and Conditioning Association and a personal trainer in Yukon, Okla.

     Whether you get sore after your workout depends largely on whether you’ve just started a weight-training regimen, he says. If you’re working muscles that haven’t been worked much before, it’s reasonable to expect some discomfort — minor aches — afterward.

     “It’s perfectly normal early on,” he says.

     But beyond the first few weeks or so, that soreness should diminish considerably as your muscles adjust to the new activity, according to Zawrotny.

     However, anytime you switch routines — adding more weight or repetitions, for instance — you also may experience some soreness afterward because you are working your muscles in new and challenging ways.

     Any pain should dissipate within 24 to 48 hours, he says. In the meantime, don’t train those muscles but rather let them rest and recover.

     To help minimize soreness after a workout, he recommends a “good warm-down” such as 10 to 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise like biking or jogging plus some stretching.

     And if post-workout pain persists longer than two days or is so great it interferes with typical activities, you may have a more serious injury that warrants medical attention.

     So if going for the after-burn isn’t the right way to gauge your weight workout, what is?

     Zawrotny advises monitoring your progress over time to see if you’re meeting your goals. Is your regimen still challenging or has it become a breeze? Are you continuing to make gains in your strength or tone? If you’re no longer getting the desired results, he says, consider ratcheting things up by adding new exercises, more weights or reps, or shorter rest periods between sets.