Is cross country skiing the best way to improve your VO2Max?

Previously I mentioned how naturally endurance sports are going to rank higher in VO2Max, because of the bias to be good in this aspect.

Could it be that cross country skiing is the missing piece of the puzzle?

You’ll notice that not only do norwegian cross country skiers dominate the top results of the list, the norwegians in other sports do as well.

However, this might be misleading, because cross country skiing is practically the national sport in Norway.

Norway so completely dominate cross country skiiing, that winning the local Norwegian championships is judged as more difficult than winning the World Championships.

Every boy or girl has tried cross country skiiing in Norway. Every boy or girl has gone on long hikes in the perfectly lighted, perfectly prepared slopes of the Norwegian winter.

It’s one of my fondest childhood memories, the silence of the forest, the way the moon reflects on the crystalline snow. Hours go by, but you don’t feel it, until you get home.

There’s no doubt in my mind that cross country skiing is one of the greatest endurance training methods in the world. Using your entire body to propel yourself forward, you learn rythm, body control and discipline.

If you ever saw Bjørn Dæhlie collapse as he finished one of his World Record runs, you would know that the cross country skier knows exactly the limits their body and go exactly to that limit.

Only cyclists going to their absolute max in a grueling spring classic race or the Tour De France show the same level of near collapse max performance and they dominate the VO2Max results as well.

Now, I actually did some research on the norwegians riders, and as I expected, they did compete in cross country skiing.

Thor Hushovd competed in cross country skiing until he was spotted as a cycling talent at age 10 and during his career, he stayed in shape doing skiing in the winter months.

The young Hushovd was more familiar with the names of cross-country skiers Vegard Ulvang and Bjørn Daehlie
Cycling News

What about cycling professional Kurt Atle Arvesen of Tour De France fame and holder of the third highest recorded VO2Max?

Turns out Kurt Atle was also a promising cross country skier in his youth.

Kurt, like many Norwegians, began his sporting career in cross-country skiing at the age of 5. He competed in the famed Birkebeiner ski race 5 times as well as the Oslo marathon.
Podiumcafe.com

I think we might have found an answer here, but does science back our initial findings?

Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail did a very interesting article on the benefits of cross country skiing as suggested by science:

“…The combination of high intensity and full-body involvement in cross-country skiing, the researchers speculate, seems to be particularly potent in fighting heart disease.

The findings build on previous results, like a famous analysis of more than 73,000 finishers of the 90-kilometre Vasaloppet ski race in Sweden over the course of a decade. In that study, those who completed the race once had half the risk of dying during the follow-up period compared to the general population; six-time finishers had less than a third of the standard mortality risk…”

While risk of death is probably not at the forefront of young athletes, it’s probably safe that a healthy heart from cross country skiing also means a strong heart for sports in general.

Are you going to start cross country skiing?

The question remains, if you’re an endurance athlete, is this information about cross country skiing going to change how you approach your training?

Instead of heading for warm climates for your winter cycling training, should you instead head north and hit the trails?

Let me know in the comments!