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Kurt Browning lifting weights to keep fit
| Source: |
Edmonton Sun |
| Date: |
May 7, 2015 |
| Author: |
Cary Castagna |
Favourable genetics and an active lifestyle only take you so far, Kurt
Browning has discovered.
That's why the Canadian figure skating icon did something last fall
that he's never done before: He started lifting weights under the
tutelage of a personal trainer.
"I haven't honestly in my whole life really ever had a fitness trainer
before," Browning, 48, tells Keeping Fit by phone last week from
Halifax, prior to the kickoff of the 25th anniversary cross-Canada
tour of Stars on Ice.
The four-time world champ and four-time Canadian champ is working with
Mary-Danielle Cifelli, a veteran trainer with The Sports Medicine
Specialists in Toronto.
And over the last several months, she has helped Browning alleviate
the chronic back pain that has plagued him for many years.
"My lower back has always been a problem. It was a big problem when I
was 24, 25, competing and trying to win worlds," he recalls.
"I slipped disks, I had a fracture in my spine, all sorts of things. I
thought it was just something I was going to have to live
with."
But Browning, who turns 49 next month, says Cifelli has him on a "very
specific" resistance training regimen that includes plenty of back
exercises such as king deadlifts.
"I didn't really think it was going to work," he admits. "I thought it
was going to make me feel worse - a lot of weightlifting, but not
heavy. If you're looking at me in the corner doing my workout, you're
not seeing anything impressive. It's about quality and it's about very
specific muscle that we're trying to work."
Besides his lower back, Browning's knees have also been a target of
his training program.
"Mary-Danielle has been really good working with my physiotherapist
(Marla Pichler), as well, coming up with a program that's
super-specific to try to equalize my body," he adds.
"With it comes more strength around my knees and more support in my
core."
Perhaps the biggest telltale sign of his improved mobility is the
reduced amount of time his socks now stay on the floor in the
morning.
"I get out of bed and I bend down and I pick them up," he
chuckles. "Whereas, for the past few years, I waited until 10:30 to
get those socks or I got into a hot tub of water first … so that has
been a big change in my life."
Prior to last fall, Browning didn't spend a lot of time in the
gym. When he did go, it was "for fun - kind of" and he would make up
the exercises as he went along.
The Alberta native and Ontario resident figures he's been lucky when
it comes to keeping fit.
These days, Browning weighs an athletic 148 pounds at five-foot-seven
- a mere four pounds more than he weighed at the 1988 Olympics in
Calgary.
"I think it's just mom and dad," he reasons. "They gave me good
genes."
Browning also inherited a penchant for physicality, which he routinely
expressed away from the competitive confines of the rink.
"Everything I did for fun when I was competing was physical, like
50-mile-long bike rides or playing soccer," he recalls. "Even if we
went to the park to have a beer, it was throwing a football while we
had the beer, and then running. And I don't mean just standing still
and talking. We were running and long passes. And that was 45 minutes
straight and coming back sweaty. Everything I did for fun was
physical. It's just who I was."
And it's who he still is.
Although, as 50 approaches, Browning admits he feels his body is
starting to slow down.
The Stars on Ice headliner, director and choreographer doesn't seem
entirely certain whether he'll skate next season.
"I don't know if this is my last year, but 25 is such a nice round
number for my anniversary with Stars on Ice that maybe I'll consider
this summer changing my pro skating lifestyle and really pulling
back," he reveals.
Either way, his new fitness regimen will be a constant.
In fact, Browning hints that he may even give yoga and Pilates a whirl
in the near future.
"I always told myself that when I get off the ice, I have to stay in
shape," he explains.
"I have to get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, ‘Here's
someone that's attacking life and not letting life attack you.' That's
the person I want to be."
Stars on Ice visits 12 Canadian cities this month, including
Edmonton's Rexall Place on May 16 and Calgary's Scotiabank Saddle-dome
on May 17, before wrapping up at Vancouver's Rogers Arena on May
21.
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