A week in the life: Olympic athlete Ali Nullmeyer
Photo Credit Malad Communication
As a 26-year-old Olympic Athlete, I’ve had people ask me this summer if I also have a job during my off-season. This question makes me giggle as I wonder if people would ask the same to an NHL player. After the third or fourth person asked me this, I realized that many people may not understand what the “off-season” of an elite Olympic athlete looks like. As a professional skier, competing most months of the year in Europe, summer is when we get to spend some time at home, train in the gym and work on our strength to compete with the best in the world. Most years, I have a few weeks of recovery immediately after my eight-month competition season before I start full-time in the gym again. For the last two summers, I have also been managing two herniated discs in my lumbar spine. Rehabbing this injury has not only meant extra time in the gym, but more meetings with my nutritionists, working through the mental hurdles, and lots of daily learning lessons to ensure that I can compete healthy and at my best during our season. Anyone who has dealt with back issues can probably relate to the nuisance it can be daily. So, here is a typical week of summer training for an elite alpine skier!
On Monday morning, I drive to my gym. Due to the intricacy of my back issues, this means a one-and-a-half-hour drive to see a ski-specific movement specialist. Once I get to the gym, I warm up on my own before meeting with the trainer to complete the meat and bones of the workout. This summer, I worked specifically on my spine and core stability and my capacity to handle the load from rotational forces – something my body endures every turn while skiing. After we finish, I cool down for about 20 minutes to decompress my back and muscles before driving home. Once or twice a week, I use additional recovery tools at the gym for an extra 30 minutes to help my recovery process. After getting home, I make lunch and spend another two hours of downtime before my second workout of the day. I use this time to connect with potential sponsors, follow up on emails, or plan and create content for social media (which has become such a prevalent part of being an athlete today). A huge part of my summer is contacting and securing partnerships as well as fundraising to help cover team fees for the coming season. Many people don’t know that to be on the Canadian Ski Team, each year we pay $20,000 in team fees to our association to cover a portion of our season’s cost. So, this past summer was full of reaching out to sponsors and travelling across Canada to help raise money to help fund my season.
Around 2 pm, I head out for my second workout of the day. On Mondays, this consists of a 1-2 hour low-intensity bike ride that trains my lower endurance range so that my body can better handle fatigue and training loads while I’m skiing. After my afternoon session, I typically have a snack and do some mobility and stretching, before starting to make dinner. Post dinner, I wind down as much as possible so that I can get a good night’s rest to do it all again the next day. The remainder of my week looks similar with gym workout in the morning rotating between heavy lifts, movement patterns, core-specific workouts or agility-type exercises, and a cardio or mobility session in the afternoon. These cardio sessions vary between intervals, higher intensity work and more recovery work. My trainer programmed my hardest intervals for Friday afternoon which makes the weekend even more welcomed after a packed week of training. During mobility sessions, I also have eye and neurocognitive exercises that help get me ready to compete more efficiently and be able to perform on demand. I also get physiotherapy or chiropractic treatment every week or so to help maintain muscle health throughout the training block. This summer has been a big improvement in terms of my back pain, so I was able to decrease the amount of treatment signifying that my physiotherapy exercises and mobility routine are working!
Over the past year, I have discovered the importance of rest and regeneration. So often we are told to push ourselves and that we are not doing enough when in many cases, we aren’t giving ourselves enough time to recover and rebuild from the activities we did all week (I think this can happen to non-athletes as well!). This summer, my trainer programmed me to take the entire weekend “off” (the first time I’ve taken two full days off during a gym training block in probably ten years) and fill it with activities that I enjoy while also ensuring to get at least one day where I am fully off from all workouts. Most of my weekends this summer included family time, reading, spending time outside, and baking while also catching up on any work that overflowed from the week. These two days are much-needed recovery time for me as this week repeats for a ten-week block before we return to snow training in Europe or South America in late August.
A long training week, even during the offseason requires the time and dedication of a full-time job. My summers are arguably as busy as my competition season just in different ways. I’m so grateful for the opportunities and privilege I have to travel the world and compete so passionately in something I love. As with most things in life, it’s hard to know what’s behind the curtains for anyone so while I giggle at the question, I understand that the off-season life of an elite athlete may be relatively unknown. And now, the next time you watch an Olympic sport on TV, you have a better idea of what goes into the months prior to the event!