High Point State Park Monument Hike

Posted on by Brownski

On Saturday, I had to drop off Junior at a school far from home, and was scheduled to come back and pick him up five hours later. It was a structured academic thing so there was no way to stick around the school, nothing to watch. It was either spend that time reading a book in my car, or find something to do in Sussex County, New Jersey.

High Point Monument

Some quick research revealed that the school was not far from the High Point State Park Monument. After failing to find my New Jersey Atlas/Gazetteer around the house I printed a trail map from the park’s website instead. As the name implies, High Point State Park is the highest point in the Garden State. Don’t be too impressed; it’s 1800 feet above sea level at the summit.

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Tagged: Hiking, NJ10 Comments

Core Exercises for Skiing

Posted on by Peter Minde

Watch any World Cup race and you’ll see athletes employing incredible core strength as they hurtle downhill. Let’s look at exercises to strengthen your core musculature.

Many of you have likely done sit-ups and crunches at some point. Fifteen years ago, I was that guy doing sit-ups on a decline bench while holding a 25- or 35-pound plate. New research has shown that sit-ups stress the lumbar vertebrae at a level near National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health [NIOSH] safety limit.

core exercises for skiing

Shirley Sahrmann notes that crunches train the rectus abdominis and internal obliques, but not the external obliques. Even a twisting crunch — say bicycles or Russian twists — don’t adequately train external obliques.

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Tagged: Instruction4 Comments

The Blue Cooler

Posted on by Brownski

I can’t think of too many things that I owned in 1993 that I still have today. If I dug through my dresser drawers I might find my high school ring. My book shelf has a couple yearbooks from back then, probably a few other books I was given as a kid. I can only think of one thing that I have for sure owned since I was twenty one years old and have used continuously ever since, my blue cooler.

To say I own the cooler might not be accurate. We found each other some time in 1993. I was in college and sharing a place in the Bronx, near Van Cortlandt Park with four other guys. There were a lot of people in and out so I can’t really say who first brought the blue cooler into the apartment.

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Tagged: Ski Life7 Comments