The jaw dropping benefits of cross-country skiing – Alex Hutchinson

The jaw dropping benefits of cross-country skiing – Alex Hutchinson

Felix Shier

December 5^th 2014

PAD20

Rating: ***

            This article is about how cross-country skiing is one of the best methods of exercise during the winter. The article points out that one of the reasons cross-country skiing is such good exercise is that it will work so many of the muscles in your body, along with your fitness.

            The article begins by saying that people who cross-country ski are healthier and fitter than the non-skiers. In the article, they talked about a study that researchers in Sweden did where they took two groups of healthy and fit men, half of them did cross-country and the other half didn’t, and the skiers had “approximately twice the cardiovascular and muscular fitness” of the non-skiers. The article continues by mentioning that the full-body workout that cross-country skiing gives the body is extremely effective and makes male skiers part of the “lowest all-cause mortality risk category for men of any age” meaning that skiing will make one more likely to live longer and it will keep you in better health for longer. The article then takes a turn and talks about how good cross-country skiing is for your arms and how important that is. They talk about a study that compared men to women at different skiing techniques, in the end the men were superior in all of them, but they were a lot better at the ones involving more upper body strength and the gap between them became significantly smaller for the techniques that required less upper body strength. Finally, the article talks about hills, and how short bursts of skiing and working very hard for a short amount of time can be good for you, just like sprinting compared to running. It says that sort bursts of intense activity can make your workout more effective and skiing on hills is great because for motivation you know that if you don’t work hard enough, you’ll start to slip backwards.

            This article made me think about doing cross-country more often, I used to do it a lot but I’ve only gone a couple of times in the past few years and this article makes me want to ski. While reading this article I learned that skiing is and all around good workout for your entire body, not just your legs, and that skiers are significantly fitter than non-skiers. This article has inspired me to start skiing again and it will make me think of skiing as not only a source of amusement, but also an extremely good workout.

            In conclusion, this article taught me that skiing is a very good workout because it is a workout for the whole body and will keep you in great shape.

MLA Citation/Reference

The Globe and Mail,. 'The Jaw-Dropping Benefits Of Cross-Country Skiing'. N.p., 2013. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.