Monitoring of intensity and caloric consumption during skiing

Alpine skiing is an activity that is usually a combination of low and high intensity, and can be of different duration (Turnbull et al., 2009). According to some researchers, the intensity level observed at the heart rate can range from 60% to 80% of the maximum heart rate (Seifert et al., 2009). The skiing load depends on many factors, and in particular the snow conditions, the level of knowledge of the skier, the inclination of the terrain, duration, weather conditions, skiing days or skiing style (Scheiber et al., 2009 ; Seifert et al., 2009). During skiing the energy consumption also depends on these factors, as well as on the body weight and the intensity of skiing (Jeukendrup & Gleeson, 2010). The main aim of the research was to determine the differences in load levels and energy consumption among skiers of different levels of skiing skills. The sample consisted of a total of 18 participants, out of which 9 participants comprised a group of skiers with high skiing skills (IVSS lincence - average age 34.7 ± 8.1 years, body height 179.6 ± 6.7cm, body weight 77.5 ± 9.3kg and BMI 24.0 ± 2.4 kg/m2) and 9 subjects with a beginners skiing knowledge level (average age 23.0 ± 2.1 years, body height 180.0 ± 4.9 cm, body weight 82.0 ± 3.3 kg and BMI 25.3 ± 1.5 kg/m2). Garmin Forerunner 310xt was used to determine intensity and calorie consumption. The following data were used for statistical data processing: total caloric consumption (KCal), relative calorie consumption (Kcal / kg), average heart rate (HRaverage), maximum heart rate (HRmax), relative HRaverage values and relative values HRmax (Rel. HRmax) expressed in percents (%). The average skiing time for both groups was 280 minutes, and the distance covered was 30km. T- test was used to calculate differences between groups. The level of significance was defined as 0.05. The results were processed in the statistical package STATISTICA 7.0 (StatSoft. Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA). The results showed that the load in both groups of subjects was on average 72.5% HRmax for a group with high skiing skills, or 75.6% of HRmax in the group of beginner skiers, which is in line with previous studies (Muller et al., 2011 ; Seifert et al. al., 2009 ; Scheiber et al., 2009). Statistically significant differences (p˂ .05) between groups in HRaverage, HRmax, and KCal were noted, with the notation that higher values were recorded for a group of skiers of beginners level (94.6 vs 109.6 beat • min-1 ; 134.26 vs 109.6 beat • min-191 ; 1448.4 vs 1869.5 Kcal). The obtained values were lower than in previous studies (Stoggl et al., 2016). Generally, it can be concluded that the level of skiing knowledge significantly affects the load and calorie consumption during skiing.