nordic skiing

[The_Giant0]

Hi,

I am a collegiate rower and a troller of the concept2 forum. I was wondering what people thought about classic nordic style vs skate skiing. Which is better as a compliment to rowing? It seems like skate is a higher power exercise which is good. The advantages to classic seem to be that it is forward motion like rowing and it is slower (slower being good because there is a better uphill/flat to downhill time causing a higher avg hr). I have heard that skate uses a higher VO2 for the same lactate concentration because it uses more parts of the body. This would be for 1-3 hour ss around 135-155 bpm (UT2 or lowgrade UT1). I have done classic in the past, but always had traction issues because of poor technique. Perhaps the skate style is easier to pick up?

[jamesg]

You go a lot faster skating, don't need to wax for grip, it's easier for the snowcats (no ski tracks) and can ski well on almost any muck. However we do have to skate uphill which is no joke, and skis waxed for speed can get very fast on ice downhill, somewhat scary when you have no steel edges or brakes and have to pedal round corners at high speed.

The great thing about langlauf is the variety of techniques needed, it's changing all the time according to the slope and the speed, even if you stick to a single style. And of course it takes us outdoors and into the woods.

The power needed depends on the course and on our weight: a 50 km race has more than a mile of vertical climb. Both styles work the arms as well as the legs, but certainly skating lets the legs do a lot more.

[The_Giant0]

ok. Ill go with skate then. That was an astonishingly on point answer

[remarkymarkable]

I find both styles of Nordic Skiing complement rowing very well.
In order to skate ski, I find the snow conditions have to "just right"
and tend to only skate on groomed trails.
With classic skiing you can go out in just about any conditions and
off into the back country. That's why I have equipment for both
styles.
I enjoy skating more, but find I ski classic more often due to
snow conditions.

[Rockin Roland]

Both styles of Nordic Skiing have changed technically in recent times.
Classic style is now considered less technical than Skate style. Classic races now consist of a higher proportion of double poling and less striding. This means your legs do less work than in a skating race but your upper body does more. As you know in rowing your legs should do most of the work. Those that use too much upper body in rowing tend to be the ones that spend long winters training on static C2 ergs. So using nordic skiing for cross training for rowing is a much better move than erging. Hence Skate style has a more complimentary usage of muscle groups to rowing than classic, so go with skate style.