CLASSES & JOBS

Skiing is one of my favorite activities. I absolutely love the thrill of speeding down a frozen hill, wind howling in my ears and trees flashing by. The many miscellaneous things you need to ski can be expensive, but if you shop for good deals online, you might be able to save money. One of my other favorite things to do when shopping for miscellaneous ski items is to go to local ski swaps. If your town has a ski team, most likely they’ll also hold an annual (or biannual) ski swap.

I think part of the reason I love skiing so much is that it’s an individual sport but it’s also fun to do with friends! We can all go down the hill by ourselves but meet up later to share stories, laugh and hang out on the chairlift on the way back up. It’s a social activity, an incredible thrill, and great exercise all in one. I love to take a trip to the mountains with friends and ski from open to close. That is of course unless it’s a powder day; because everyone knows, “There’re no friends on a powder day.”

Nothing keeps me more fit than skiing, and I wish I could do it for a job like my friend does. Skiing is a balance between cardio and strength training, but I seem to get more of a strength training workout. This is especially true for pre-season hiking. My friend hikes up before the lifts open to get to the runs. This provides her with a pretty good workout because of the steep grade, and hiking up is essentially the same motion as a stair master, except with weight on your back. So think of it; she just might have the perfect job. She gets to stay in shape and ski all day. What a life.

Finding a perfect job that fits your lifestyle can be hard. First, decide what it is that you love to do. For example, if you’re a ski-buff too, you can get jobs at a resort, on the ski slope, in ski hotels, and more. Just be creative, and don’t limit yourself. Look at job ads, ask friends and family for suggestions, and read your local paper. Who knows, your perfect job may be just around the next corner (or on the next ski slope).

Outdoor recreation activities are a great way to stay in shape and have fun. They’re also a great way to spend time with friends. Outdoor recreation includes hiking, biking, walking, swimming, running, boating, and so many more activities that are good for you and good for your family. Getting outside comes highly recommended by most doctors; you get sunshine and fresh air as well as exercise.

I am without a doubt happiest when I’m doing something outdoors. I try to be outside as much as possible! If I have a few free minutes I’ll toss a Frisbee around with some friends. If we have the whole day, a long hike or bike ride is a great way to spend it. I’ve found that it’s almost impossible to be unhappy when you’re outside being active. The sunshine, a nice breeze, and exercise make me feel great every time. There’s something about the fresh air that seems to freshen life, and make it more enjoyable!

When I had ACL reconstruction on my knee, there was a lot of physical therapy that I needed to do to help me recover completely. I had to go to physical therapy with a trainer and also did a lot of exercises at home. My physical therapist was excellent; he helped me gain confidence, learn to move my knee in a way that helped it heal and grow stronger, and he made recovery more enjoyable.

I always really enjoyed going to physical therapy. Since I’ve always been a very active person, it was hard for me to rest after surgery. Physical therapy gave me a way to expend my energy that I couldn’t spend running around like normal. It also sped up my recovery time a lot. My favorite exercise in physical therapy was this slide board thing. I put on hospital booties over my shoes and just slid side to side on a plastic board. I had such a great time sliding back and forth and strengthening my knee at the same time. I remember after the first time I did the slide board my muscles were sore for the first time after surgery. It felt so amazing to be sore after having to be stationary for so long.

There are lots of physical therapy products but my favorite is those big rubber exercise balls. There’s so much you can do with them. I used to take a class at the gym that the entire workout was done using a ball. We did lots of variations of sit ups, crunches, and pushups. We even improved our balance drastically by standing on the balls. It was incredibly difficult to do, but after a while we all could stand on a ball and toss a weighted medicine ball back and forth to each other.

I have one piece of physical therapy equipment in my apartment, and it’s an exercise ball. There’s no limit to the amount of exercises I can do with it. There are pretty much different workouts for every muscle group in my body using just one piece of equipment. You can find physical therapy products like exercise balls online, and they usually come with a set of workout instructions that will help you lose weight, gain strength, and heal from injuries.

Rehabilitation is very hard after an injury, but it also can be rewarding. After my knee surgery I had a lot of rehab in order to get back to my strength before surgery. I had knee surgery in high school, in the middle of my ski racing career, so I was incredibly strong before it. I was amazed that after about a week of keeping my leg completely still the muscle just seemed to melt away.

The rehab that I did was incredibly difficult, but every day that I got sore from a workout felt great. I still appreciate the feeling of being sore because of that experience. I learned that I should appreciate being able to work out. I know that it makes me feel great and rehab proved that. My advice: Make sure to stay on top of your rehab schedule. It is important not to push your injury and stop your rehab too soon. Rehab is so important for so many reasons, and if you do it right, you’ll end up having a stronger joint/muscle/bone than you did before.

Safety should be first and foremost when you are working out. My college soccer coach hounded us our position when we were doing strength training so that we wouldn’t injure ourselves or injure someone else. Safety tips should be followed no matter what sport you play or what activity you participate in. There are safety rules for playgrounds, sports parks, even office buildings. Follow these safety rules and avoid getting injured!

Whenever I work out now, I can still hear coach saying, “Position guys, if you hurt yourselves in the weight room you’re going to feel like quite the idiot.” Our team knew that what coach was saying was important. It’s too easy to pull a muscle by putting stress on your body in ways that it’s not meant to be stressed. I try to have someone spotting me whenever I lift weights, even if I’m just lifting light weights. It’s good to have someone else’s eye on you for position as well as catching a weight if you run out of energy. Coach really taught us all a great lesson in that working out is great for our bodies but we can ruin it all if we’re not careful to be safe.

I grew up playing sports. Soccer, tennis, riding horses, basketball, baseball, you name it, I played it. This also means I was under the coaching guidance of many different people. It’s funny looking back at the years of practices and games and how my coaches differed in their techniques.

Some coaches were excellent at inspiring us to give 110 percent while others were good at planning and implementing strategies to win. And then there was Coach Bob (his name has been changed to protect his anonymity and to protect me from having to do 20 push-ups).

Coach Bob was a mid 30s divorcee who had played high school ball but never made it onto the college team. His level of passion and enthusiasm were only matched by his love for storytelling. We spent more time on the practice field listening to his glory days than we did training for the big game. I’m glad I had Bob for a coach because he taught me the biggest lesson of all: That it’s just a game. You win, you lose, but at the end of the day it’s about having fun and gathering memories to use for stories.

Unfortunately injuries are unavoidable. Even for people who don’t live seemingly dangerous lives, there’s always the inherent toe stub or paper cut. Sometimes I feel like I’m the most accident-prone person ever. Like other people I know, I can get injured doing pretty much anything, including sleeping.

I really enjoy living life on the edge and doing things that give me a big adrenaline rush. But those are not the things that make me injure myself. I’m more likely to run into a wall, trip over a curb, or burn myself cooking dinner. I am such a klutz it’s ridiculous! My friends laugh at me because I can’t ever walk straight so I’m constantly cutting people off when I walk next to them. It’s a very rare occasion that I don’t have a bruise or cut somewhere on my body. Just this past week I was opening a door and somehow managed to injure my hand on the metal door frame. Don’t ask me how I did it, but I have a nice gash across the top of my hand to prove it.

It’s incredibly important to have insurance in case something unforeseen happens. There is insurance for everything. You might be surprised to hear that I have insurance for my horse in case he gets hurt or gets sick. My horse insurance covers the cost of his medical bills or death expenses if he dies. There is insurance for most types of pets, as well as for your car, boat, house, children, health, etc. If you own something of value (or if you have someone who is dependent upon you), they should be insured, as should you!

I pay a little less for my horse’s insurance than I do for my own health insurance. It covers any major surgery that he needs and if he dies, it will pay me what he’s worth. I was very glad that I had insurance for him when I found out that he needed surgery about a month ago. It was a good lesson for me to learn that insurance really is very important. I definitely would have been hard pressed to be able to afford the surgery he needed without it.