EVAD for nordic skiers

Dryland season is
May to October.

You already know your annual hour target as a number, and you already know how the easy hours are supposed to sit against the hard ones. So EVAD's nordic rules tell it to write none of that — no ski sessions, no roller-ski sessions, no intervals, no weekly hours, even if you are self-coached. It takes the dryland side: double poling trained as a press and a pull, hip extension for the kick, and the strength-endurance that is still there in the last kilometre.

NO SKI VOLUME, EVER DOUBLE POLING AS A HYBRID BUILT FOR THE GYM BLOCK
An EVAD training day on iPhone, showing today's lift, the weekly goal, and the session that comes next
The rules EVAD follows

What it builds — and what it will not write.

NEVER

Ski volume or intensity

No ski sessions, no roller-ski sessions, no interval prescriptions, no weekly hour targets. Your club or program coach owns the volume and the distribution, and EVAD is told so even when you train without one. You count your year in hours. It is not going to guess at that number.

BUILDS

Double poling, pressed and pulled

A pole plant is not a pull-up. It is lat-driven shoulder extension running straight into a triceps-driven push-off at the bottom. EVAD programs the press alongside the pull, in the same session, because training it as pulling alone builds half of the stroke.

BUILDS

Hip extension and one leg at a time

Posterior chain and hip extension for the kick. Then loaded unilateral work plus lateral hip and abductor strength, because a skate push is a single-leg squat against a sideways shove.

BUILDS

Trunk strength-endurance

Double poling is hundreds of loaded hinge cycles held over tens of minutes. Anti-rotation work is not wrong, but it is not the quality that fails. EVAD trains the trunk under repeated flexion, with the volume to match.

NEVER

Balance drills billed as leg work

Ask most plans for single-leg stability and you get low-load warm-up filler on a foam pad. EVAD writes single-leg work with weight on it, which is where the gym actually transfers to snow.

ACCOUNTS FOR

Where you are in the year

Race season runs roughly December to March; the gym block is May to October. Declare an off-season and EVAD treats it as a real build phase rather than maintenance, then tapers hard into the race window you name. Strength-endurance is programmed as its own quality, not as leftover sets after the heavy work.

A day from a real block

What one dryland session looks like.

A junior skier in August, lifting three times a week through the build phase, with the first race four months out.

WEEK 9 · DAY 2 — UPPER PULL + PUSH

Double Poling & Hip Extension

OFF-SEASON BUILD · 52 MIN · GYM
A Shoulder & Thoracic PrepBanded shoulder extension, thoracic rotation, scap work 7 MIN
B Trap Bar DeadliftHip extension for the kick — heavy, crisp, no grinders 4 × 4 @ 82%
C Straight-Arm Lat PulldownArms long — shoulder extension, not an elbow bend 4 × 10
D Weighted DipThe terminal push-off — finish every rep at full lockout 4 × 6
E Rear-Foot Elevated Split SquatLoaded single-leg strength, not a stability drill 3 × 6/LEG
F Dumbbell Lateral LungeThe sideways push the skate leg has to hold 3 × 8/SIDE
G Cable CrunchRepeated loaded flexion — long sets, controlled return 3 × 20
Representative session — your block is generated from your training week, PRs, and equipment, and it adapts when practice runs hot.
Start

Build your block.

A few minutes of setup — your training week, your equipment, your first race. Every answer is editable before you build, and the account comes last.

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