Now, I can’t tell you that there is some secret, magical way, of never getting hurt while skiing/snowboarding, but there are ways of making it less likely to happen… STRETCHING!!! Far too often people hit the slopes without doing any kind of warm up or stretching. Generally, people will be perfectly fine and won’t have any issues at all. However, many of the injuries that I see could be prevented by taking a few minutes stretching before hitting the slopes. Honestly, it’s not going to take you that long either, anything from 15-30 minutes will most likely do the trick. There are few areas that you want to primarily focus on. To start with the obvious… LEGS! Common injuries that occur are pulled leg muscles (Your hammy, quads, groin, etc.). In addition to stretching your legs, you should also stretch your abdomen and back muscles. I could go on and detail an entire list stretches, but there are so many and it would take way to long to describe and I’m sure you don’t want to read through everything. So if you would like to learn some stretches, I’ll leave you a few links so you can learn as much or as little as you would like, whether or not you use the information is up to you, but I highly suggest it, because you don’t want your season to end from an injury that could have been prevented.
Stretches:
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/stretching/4-stretches-to-perform-before-downhill-skiing.html
http://exercise.about.com/od/healthinjuries/a/skiing.htm
I hope all of this helps. Stay safe and have fun on the slopes!
-Justin P.
Recent Comments