Ask Well: Put on the Snowshoes

Photo
Credit Thomas Whisenand for The New York Times
Q

Can you get as good a workout with snowshoes as with running? If so, how?

Asked by Someone • 92 votes

A

If by “good,” you mean a workout that leaves you sweat-soaked and panting, then snowshoeing may provide a better workout than running or walking. In one of the few studies to directly compare those activities, researchers in Vermont found that snowshoeing in powder at less than 3 miles per hour requires about the same exertion as jogging on level ground at more than twice that speed.

“Snowshoeing is hard work,” said Adam W. Chase, the captain of the Atlas Snow-Shoe Company snowshoe racing team.

People wearing snowshoes must lift their knees and raise their feet more than during running, he said, to allow the cleats on the bottom of the snowshoes to clear the ground with each stride. “Your hip flexors get quite a workout,” he said, as do the quadriceps and buttocks muscles.

Someone interested in snowshoe training (and, yes, I’m thinking about you, Boston) should first invest in modern snowshoes, Mr. Chase said. Today’s models are much lighter and more streamlined than the guitar-size wooden platters familiar to our grandfathers. You can find snowshoes online or at many sporting goods stores. They generally are one size fits all.

Once strapped or clipped in, adjust your running form before setting off. “Your stance has to be wider” to accommodate the snowshoes, Mr. Chase said, a change that often leaves people with sore thighs at first.

And know that striding through powder is more tiring than across packed snow, but exhilarating. “One of the best ways to train is to find a field” filled with fresh, untrammeled white stuff, Mr. Chase said, “and do loops. As you pack down the snow, it gets easier to run. So you just pick up the pace.”

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