Why Does Cross-Country Skiing Feel So Good?
Understanding the Health Benefits of Cross Country Skiing:
If you’re a nordic skier, you know the feeling.
You head out for a ski in your normal mental state– a swirl of to-do lists, past memories, and problems you can’t quite solve. You clip into your bindings, put on your poles, and begin. As you glide into a rhythm, your breath deepens, your body comes online, your awareness shifts from the internal to the external landscape. And when you come back an hour later, your heartrate might be up and your legs tired, but there is a palpable part of you who somehow feels better.
We usually chalk it up to exercise and fresh air. And certainly, those are part of it. But there may be something more interesting happening. Could it be that the movement of cross country skiing itself has a calming nervous system effect?
Consider the basic movement of cross-country skiing:
Left arm, right leg. Right arm, left leg. Kick. Glide. Breathe. Repeat.
For kilometer after kilometer, your body moves in a rhythmic, alternating pattern called cross-lateral movement. Cross-lateral movement occurs when opposite sides of the body work together in a coordinated pattern; opposite limbs coordinate across the body’s midline. Interestingly, alternating left-right stimulation also appears in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), one of the most extensively studied treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder.
In EMDR, a therapist may guide a person through rhythmic, alternating left-right eye movements, sounds, or taps while processing difficult memories. While researchers are still debating exactly why EMDR works, studies suggest that EMDR is quite effective for treating PTSD—strong enough that it is considered one of the major first-line trauma-focused therapies. If bilateral stimulation aids in regulating the nervous system in trauma therapy, it brings up an interesting question for cross country skiers: could part of what feels so good about cross-country skiing be the rhythmic bilateral stimulation?
Then add aerobic exercise.
A remarkable Swedish study followed nearly 400,000 people for up to 21 years and found that participants in the Vasaloppet, the world’s largest cross-country ski race, had a markedly lower incidence of depression than matched non-skiers. This study adds to a much larger body of evidence connecting regular physical activity with better mental health.
Then there is nature.
Research increasingly suggests that physical activity in natural environments provides psychological benefits beyond exercise alone. On skis, we aren’t staring at the treadmill screen or dodging traffic. We’re moving through trees and snow, immersed in a constantly changing terrain that we become a part of, instead of separate from. We experience spaciousness, fresh air, solitude, and the simple satisfaction of propulsion through a physical landscape that beckons our attention.
And perhaps that’s another piece of the puzzle: skiing gives the brain something to do.
Balance. Kick. Glide. Pole. Breathe. Climb. Turn. Descend. Dodge an oak leaf. Notice the snow.
It requires enough attention to pull us into the present without demanding so much that it becomes mentally exhausting. Psychologists sometimes describe this absorption as a flow state—that wonderful place where action and awareness begin to merge and the usual chatter in our heads gets quieter.
Put it all together and cross-country skiing creates an unusual combination: aerobic exercise, rhythmic bilateral movement, coordinated breathing, focused attention and immersion in nature.
Does this particular combination have some unique effect on the nervous system? Ask any skier, and they’ll tell you.