Topic - Off-snow training:
Nordic Track machines 1
Date first posted on eCommunity - 24
September 2006
As the days grow shorter with the approach of
winter it becomes more and more difficult to train in the open air, and
we look for activities that we can do indoors. One option for home
exercising is the XC ski simulator machine sold under the brand name
Nordic Track, but actually manufactured by Icon Health and Fitness Inc.
Nordic Track machines have been around for many years (I bought one in
the early 1990s) and at one time a fairly wide range of models was
produced. Now there seems to be just the one, the Nordic Track Pro Skier
- pictured below.
If you go to:
http://www.nordic-track.co.uk/imgs/db/doc/NTXC80180%20USA.PDF you
can get a PDF of the users' manual, with labelled diagrams of the
machine and instructions for use and for maintenance.
A glance at these images – the photograph and the diagram – will make it
obvious that although the machine might provide a fairly good simulation
of classic-style XC skiing, it is different in important respects.
When using your arms, you don't push down and back on poles, as when
skiing. Rather, you pull back on a single continuous cord that is wound
around a tensioned spindle about a metre in front of your face. As you
pull back actively with your right hand, your left hand – at the other
end of the cord - is pulled forward into the position where it is ready
to make its own backwards pull. This arrangement is fine in terms of
muscle workout – triceps and shoulders get particular benefit. But in terms of skiing technique it
does tend to make you shorten your arm-extension. If you were to push
back with the driving hand as hard and as far as you would when skiing
on snow in a track, then your other hand would be pulled too far forward.
When using your legs, you don't kick down and back, as when skiing. If
you did so, your feet would simply pop out of the toe-loops that serve
as bindings. Rather, you slide your "skis" forward, rolling them over
wheels and against a tensioned flywheel whose resistance can be adjusted
to provide a light or a heavy workout. This takes a bit of getting used
to; and even when you are used to it you will probably think it is the
weakest aspect of the machine's design. (Soon after I got my machine I
tried removing the standard "skis" and replaced them with proper track
skis. But it was too noisy and the skis' camber made the action too
bumpy. I thought about attaching proper XC bindings to the standard
"skis", but decided that although this would improve the control, it
would be too risky. If I lost balance - or if I forgetfully jumped from
the machine to answer the phone - a broken leg would be a certainty.)
So it can all feel very different from skiing, and a potential drawback,
therefore, is that the machine could promote poor skiing technique.
Other, more certain, drawbacks are that it takes a lot of space, and
that it is quite noisy in operation. If you live in a flat it is not a
very good option for you. Even if you live in a large house, the best
place is probably the garage.
On the plus side, it gives a low impact workout that is relatively
ski-specific in terms of both muscle groups used and intensity of
cardiovascular effort - even on low resistance settings your heart rate
will quickly rise to effective training levels. You can alter the
intensity by raising the effective height of the machine's front feet,
though it is a fiddly process, or more easily by changing the resistance
of the flywheel belt. Once you have adjusted the settings to suit your
own training requirements, and climbed on to the machine, the skiing
movement is pleasantly rhythmic, and most XC enthusiasts will probably
find it easy and congenial to close their eyes and imagine themselves on
some fondly remembered ski route. The recommended half-hour session just
flies past!
The machines seem to have come down in price over the years, but still
retail at a fairly hefty list price of £399 (including delivery to UK
addresses). However from time to time you see them on eBay – a good
condition one was last week being bid at under £40 – buyer collects from
Warwickshire. Another was on offer at £50 from Ascot – again on the
basis of "buyer-collect".
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