Have you done your ski prep?

30 July 2018  |  By Fiona Milne

Every winter we see a lot of knee and skiing injuries come through the clinic. Here are our best tips to stay safe on the slopes this season.

Strengthening

Make sure you do some strength and conditioning for your legs prior to going skiing. Not many of us do exercise for 6 hours a day as you may do in a days skiing. We need to condition ourselves for this, with some good strength and cardio work like cycling, squats, lunges and climbing stairs prior to hitting the slopes. Fiona and Mel’s FUNC FIT classes, or a Pilates class targeted towards strengthening for skiing would be an ideal way to prepare for your ski trip this winter.

Injury Management

If you have sore knees, hips or back, get them checked out with our physios before you go up to the snow. Perhaps wearing a brace or getting the right stretches and warm up exercises may get you through the ski day happy and pain free.

Warm Up

Start your day with a few easy stretches for your quads, calves, hip flexors, gluts and hamstrings before you hit the snow. Do several easy warm up runs on easy slopes, before tackling more challenging steep or bumpy slopes.

Pace Yourself

For those of us not in our 20’s anymore, we need to pace ourselves to our current level of fitness and strength. Maybe do 3- 4 runs and when your legs are feeling tired, have a break for a coffee or hot chocolate and rest up. Most injuries happen on the ‘last run’ of the day when our muscles are fatigued and can’t hold an edge in the snow