Plyo training during the season?

[linds-o-rama]

Hi all,

I had a dislocated kneecap and subsequent surgery in August of '08. I didn't want another ruined ski season, so I trained my ass off from August - November of this year, including cardio, weight training, plyo training, and yoga.

The plyo stuff was taken from my physical therapy workout, and involved side to side and front to back box jumps, 180 on/off box jumps, zig zag hops, and one-leg box jumps.

Now that ski season is in full swing, I'm having a hard time fitting in 3, 2+ hour workouts into my week. The easiest thing for me to cut out is the plyo stuff. Is this sensible? Should I continue with the plyo once a week or is it OK to cut it out all together since I am basically plyo training by skiing 3x per week?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. It's amazing how little spare time I have once ski season gets started...

[Vinman]

I'd cut the plyos. Skiing should be high enough intensity. Adding high intensity plyos on top of high intensity skiing/hiking etc would not make a lot of sense to me.

[RootSkier]

What kind of workouts are you still doing during ski season?

[linds-o-rama]

I generally do a 20 - 30 minute sweatfest on an elliptical for a warmup.

Then weights, including chin ups, dips, lat pulls, overhead presses, chest presses, curls, leg presses (single and both legs together), hip adduction and abduction, eccentric calf (for ongoing achilles issues)...

After that, I do single leg bosu squats, walking lunges w/dumbells, front and side planks, and a wierdo yoga ball exercise that works the hamstrings.

Then the plyo stuff on the box and floor, then some stretching.

It takes me about 2 hours to go through this routine, and splitting up the weights into upper/lower body doesn't save me much time.

Generally, I ski Saturday, Sunday and Monday (backcountry and resort), then try to do cardio and upper body weights after skiing on Monday, yoga Tuesday, full workout Wednesday, rest day Thursday, upper body weights and cardio Friday.

So... that's my routine in a nutshell. It would be awesome to cut some of it out, but I'm not sure what should go. I'm thinking the plyo...

[linds-o-rama]

I'd cut the plyos. Skiing should be high enough intensity. Adding high intensity plyos on top of high intensity skiing/hiking etc would not make a lot of sense to me.

I'm thinking you're right...

[haydukelives]

squats trump leg presses

[Vinman]

squats trump leg presses

depending on what you are trying to accomplish and the health of your knee.

[XXX-er]

I think plyo is too hard on the body to do more than once a week

[linds-o-rama]

depending on what you are trying to accomplish and the health of your knee.

I did both in PT, which is why I do both now, but this brings up a good point of eliminating redundancies... I can leg press way more than my body weight, but the bosu is good for balance and core muscles. Maybe single-leg bosu squats holding dumbells or something?

BTW, my knee is about 85%, and I have to cut bosu squats sometimes due to pain. My goal, obviously, is to become so awesomely fit that my knee pain just vanishes... because it really sucks.

[Vinman]

Most peeps leg press more than squat as it does not require any back strength or balance and does not include your own body wt.

For me the key is to do a variety of training to balance your leg muscles.

As for knee pain, strength is only one consideration. Could there be flexibility issues are well