Bending knees for strength training vs for skating | Golden Skate

Bending knees for strength training vs for skating

cl2

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Having worked with several physiotherapists and personal trainers for strength training, I have one thing that really puzzles me. PTs will tell you, on any exercise involving bent knees, that your knees should not go past your toes. This means that to get into the bent knee position, your butt sticks out and you have to bend your body forward to maintain balance. "Don't put strain on the knees," they would say.

BUT, we all know that in skating, we are constantly pushing our knees over our toes, our bodies are upright, our butts are over our heels. The ideal posture for PTs is diametrically opposite of that for skating.

I've asked the PTs why they demand one posture whereas skating demands another, but none of them have given me a very compelling explanation.
- "You bend differently, so the strain on the knees is different." (Well ok... that's still super vague)
- "You skate on their toes all the time." (Huh?!?)
They are probably too polite to say it, but I wonder if they really think that skaters are destroying their knees.

So... am I missing something here? Why can't we strength train the posture we actually use for skating?

I respect the knowledge that PTs bring and understand the value of strength training for skating. It's just this one contradiction that I'm having difficulty reconciling.
 

jf12

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
A few reasons I can think of - our skates are pitched forward more than in shoes, we need to control where we are on the blade more so we can’t be shifting alignment, and most of all - most strength training is done as if you’re centered on your middle body line (ie skating on flats on 2 feet) and in reality we almost never skate that way. Almost all skating is on deep edges with a twist to one side or the other, and switching often between lobes and fwd-backward. So we have to maintain an upper body position that can’t change in its forward-backward alignment if we are change find so much our twists and directions. There probably is a lot in skating that’s not ideal for the knees (just like there is in basketball tennis etc) but that’s why you do outside training in the first place, right? 😂
 

cl2

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
A few reasons I can think of - our skates are pitched forward more than in shoes, we need to control where we are on the blade more so we can’t be shifting alignment, and most of all - most strength training is done as if you’re centered on your middle body line (ie skating on flats on 2 feet) and in reality we almost never skate that way. Almost all skating is on deep edges with a twist to one side or the other, and switching often between lobes and fwd-backward. So we have to maintain an upper body position that can’t change in its forward-backward alignment if we are change find so much our twists and directions. There probably is a lot in skating that’s not ideal for the knees (just like there is in basketball tennis etc) but that’s why you do outside training in the first place, right? ��

I agree that the shape of the blade and the heel of the boot does shift the center of balance compared to street shoes.

But that still begs the question, if we are needing to have strength to twist side to side, control blade movement without drastic posture shifts, why are we not training our strength specifically for those kinds of motions? Obviously it takes a different set of muscles and coordination to hold one posture or the other, so why is it assumed that training my strength in one posture automatic translates to proper muscular control in a different posture? Shouldn't we be training our body-twisting strength off-ice, instead of leaving it to on-ice to develop that strength? Shouldn't we be training our knee over our toes strength off-ice to reduce injuries when we have to do it on-ice?

Still a puzzlement to me, but hopefully we'll start to find answers. :)
 

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
I agree that the shape of the blade and the heel of the boot does shift the center of balance compared to street shoes.

But that still begs the question, if we are needing to have strength to twist side to side, control blade movement without drastic posture shifts, why are we not training our strength specifically for those kinds of motions? Obviously it takes a different set of muscles and coordination to hold one posture or the other, so why is it assumed that training my strength in one posture automatic translates to proper muscular control in a different posture? Shouldn't we be training our body-twisting strength off-ice, instead of leaving it to on-ice to develop that strength? Shouldn't we be training our knee over our toes strength off-ice to reduce injuries when we have to do it on-ice?

Still a puzzlement to me, but hopefully we'll start to find answers. :)

I'm going to guess that it has a lot to do with realistic motion on a specific surface, and what can be safely done. But what move are you doing on ice where your knees are that far over your toes that it would be a concern anyway?
 
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