Lisa Marie Mercer Transcript

December 29, 2007

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors.” Today is our holiday show, sitting between Christmas and New Years. My next guest is Lisa Marie Mercer, author of “Open Your Heart With Winter Fitness.” Welcome to the show.

Lisa Marie Mercer: Hi, how are you? Glad to be here.

Dr. Kent: Have you been skiing this year yet?

Lisa: Yes, I have. I’ve been skiing where I work at Copper Mountain, and in early September, I had the good fortune of teaching a ski fitness week out in Portillo, Chile. So, I sort of got a head start on everybody else.

Dr. Kent: Sounds like it. I grew up cross-country skiing. I was a competitive athlete up in Minnesota, in the cold. How did you start skiing?

Lisa: It was a very funny story. I met a man who loved to ski. I was a quintessential native New Yorker who thought that even a 40-degree day was in the Arctic zone, but I wanted to be with this guy. So he took me on a ski trip. At first I absolutely despised it, because I couldn’t stay up for one minute. Then about 10 years later I started doing all these balance exercises, working out on the stability ball, and I got up on the slopes and found out my balance was incredible. From there I just got hooked, left New York, moved to Colorado, and the rest is history.

Dr. Kent: So tell me a little bit about “Open Your Heart With Winter Fitness.” This is a book that’s not only about fitness. What’s it about?

Lisa: It is about the benefit of learning to ski or snowboard, or even snowshoe or cross-country as an adult. And I’m talking about the physical benefits, the psychological benefits, and even, for some people, the spiritual benefits. It talks a little bit about my journey into the world of snow sports.Then the second part of the book presents a very, very detailed ski or snowboard or snowshoe fitness plan. It has references to some of the best instructors in North America who specialize in teaching adult beginners. All in all, it’s a very comprehensive book. It’s basically everything you wanted to know about snow sports.

Dr. Kent: And what value does athletics and sports have in our lives, not just this time of year to work off those couple pounds, but for in our sedentary lifestyles where we’re staring at the computer all day, what’s the value of sports?

Lisa: There are many, many values. First of all, you’re getting outdoors. In the winter season, anybody who suffers from any kind of Seasonal Affective Disorder, you’re out there in the snow. There are social values. Let’s take an example of some of the Internet message forums, such as EpicSki.com; that message forum has over 16, 000 members from all parts of the globe. People go on that forum to talk about skiing, and sometimes they even meet up with each other at various parts of the world, so you have friends all over the place.Physically, snow sports are weight bearing, so they prevent the eventual onset of osteoporosis. They improve your balance, which is great just for general walking around. If there’s something on the ground that you normally would have tripped on, most snow sports participants would have enough core stability to kind of drag themselves back up and not fall down and get hurt. So, the possibilities are endless.

Dr. Kent: I know you also work with people one on one, why write a book? Why do that?

Lisa: Why write a book? Because when I first tried to learn to ski, I was what you would consider an extremely fit person. I was a marathon runner. I spent about two or three hours a day in the weight room, but I had no balance whatsoever. And my first day on the slopes was absolutely embarrassing. Then years later, after I did some balance training, I found out it was really natural.Now I work at Copper Mountain where I’m sitting right now. One day in this very spot where I’m sitting, there was a woman, very fit, very beautiful, looked like she worked hard, she was sitting in the cafeteria crying, and I went over to her. I asked her what was the matter, and she said “I always prided myself as being a very, very fit person, but I cannot stand up on these slopes.” And I spoke to her a little bit about the proper type of training, and as I walked away, I said “You know what? I need to write a book.”

Dr. Kent: So you feel that this book can reach out to people that are athletes and want to figure out how to do this winter sports thing. Does it also reach out to non-athletes?

Lisa: Oh absolutely, absolutely. A lot of people I know, especially a lot of people who take my classes out at Mountain Sport Fitness in Frisco, Colorado, they never got into any kind of physical exercise until they started skiing. And it was the skiing that motivates them to stay in shape.

Dr. Kent: And it’s because of the fun aspect? The view and the endorphins? What is it about skiing?

Lisa: There are a lot of things. It’s the social aspect of it, although for some people–for me I often like to ski by myself, the solitude. It’s the fresh air, the excitement, the view. Sometimes you use it as a way of just traveling around the world, seeing different parts of the world, but not seeing it through the point of view of a tour bus. You’re just out there on the mountains getting a view of the scenery, the different topography. It’s just a rather amazing thing to do.

Dr. Kent: Let’s talk a little bit about New Years; it’s coming up. Do you get a lot of people coming in saying, “It’s my New Year’s resolution to get in shape”? What do you tell those folks?

Lisa: I tell them that it should go beyond a New Year’s resolution, because resolutions often get broken. It should just be something that is going to become your way of life. Start to see yourself as an outdoor person, and that’s the way–if you make the total commitment that you’re an outdoor person and this is important to you–then it will be natural for you to want to stay in shape for your sport.

Dr. Kent: I can see several different personalities of athletes. My father and I tend to be very extreme athletes. We like to push the limits, but my mother, when she goes skiing, she’s thinking about the hot chocolate at the end of the hill. Do you get both types?

Lisa: Well, that’s a big part of it. I was talking beforehand about Portillo in South America. When we went the conditions were not really all that good, but the whole environment, it’s just a rather amazing place.It turns out that the same people will often book the same week every year so they can come back to see their friends. You’ve got a lot of the international ski teams going out there, and they just hobnob and socialize with everybody.Part of the day is just spent in the afternoon in the lounge having some cocoa, chatting with people. So, I always tell people don’t overlook the entire experience. For some people, it’s going to be about the thrill and the challenge, but for others there’s just something very wonderful and relaxing about the experience. It can be catered to each person’s preferences.

Dr. Kent: Where can we find out about your next project?

Lisa: You should check out my website which is mountainsport–no “s” at the end of sport–just sportfitness.com.

Dr. Kent: Mountainsportfitness.com?

Lisa: Dotcom.

Dr. Kent: Sally Franz’s book is called, “Stressing down for the…” Sorry, “Open Your Heart with Winter Fitness”. My next guest’s book is called, “Stressing down for the Holidays”.But, on that subject, stressing down for the holidays; how do you feel after doing the exercise of skiing? Is it the same as running or running a marathon, as you said you did before?

Lisa: It’s a little bit different. There is a similar type of thrill, but I would say it’s a little bit more mellow. You feel a little bit more relaxed at the end of a ski run, whereas in a marathon you’re often still a little bit hyper and you’re talking very, very quickly because you’re just moving very quickly. But, the skier’s high is a little bit more mellow.

Dr. Kent: Cool. What are some tips for winter fitness besides just skiing for us this winter? What if, like in my area, we don’t have much snow?

Lisa: OK. Balance training is extremely important for any kind of snow sport. You want to get yourself a stability ball which is very, very inexpensive nowadays. There are some great exercises that you can do on the ball, which I’ve covered in detail in my book.You also want to learn to keep your core muscles, your deeper abdominal muscles very active. And, that’s very simple to do. All you need to do is about 10 times a day draw your belly in and see if you can hold it tight for about 10 seconds; that’s all. Eventually, that will train the deeper core muscles to support you, and eventually you will find your balance will start to get better.

Dr. Kent: What’s the importance of physical balance in terms of our everyday lives?

Lisa: In terms of our everyday life, they keep us from getting injured. One of the biggest causes of injury in older adults is falling, but if you start training your balance at an earlier age you are less likely to fall.Out here in Colorado we have women and men in their late 80s who are still skiing. Although it’s intriguing to watch them ski, it’s equally fascinating to watch them walk across an icy village in their ski boots, carrying their skis and being totally balanced. But, that’s because they started training for it when they were younger.

Dr. Kent: How has athletics balanced your life?

Lisa: That’s an interesting question. It’s balanced it in a number of ways. It’s made me see that balance in the general aspects of my life, balancing work and play, balancing play and family time, balancing work and family time and spending more time with my pets.When we first started to learn to ski, we had just adopted a greyhound. It turned out our greyhound really, really loved the snow. So, we just started taking ski vacations with our greyhound. Eventually, she was part of the decision of moving us out to Colorado.

Dr. Kent: Do you put skis on her?

Lisa: No, we don’t put skis on her, but she absolutely loves to play in the snow. The other day we had some deep powder, and she decided to just jump into it to do her business. And, it was so funny because all you could see was her little smiling head sticking up with her mouth wide open and looking like she was laughing. I wished I’d brought a camera. It was really adorable.

Dr. Kent: That’s a great picture to leave us with. Thank you so much for being on the show, Lisa Marie Mercer. Her website, again, is…tell me again.

Lisa: Mountainsportfitness.com.

Dr. Kent: Mountainsportfitness.com and her book is, “Open Your Heart with Winter Fitness”. And we’ll all do our best to do that. Thanks so much for being on the show.