In Season Tips to Enjoy your Skiing

Most likely we'll all hit the slopes this year and wake up the next day struggling with stiffness to get out of bed, causing us to miss out on a few more hours or days of skiing. This soreness or stiffness is commonly referred to as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and occurs when we perform exercises we are not used to doing.

If you perform an exercise you are not used to, DOMS is virtually impossible to prevent, so your best bet is to ensure that you are fit and ready having completed a ski-specific training program. Assuming that you have actually done this there is still the possibility of picking up a few aches while on the mountains. Here are a few wise words on things to do at the mountain and after skiing to help prevent those unwanted injuries.

1. Stretch the low back: Depending upon the type of skier you are your low back will take a pounding, especially in the bumps. Trunk rotation exercises both before and after skiing will help alleviate some of this soreness.
2. Quad stretches: standing upright flex your leg bringing your right foot up to your right hand. Then try to pull your foot back to the ground while resisting. Do this on both sides.
3. Calf stretch: stand about 3 feet from a wall with feet beside each other and heels on the floor. Keeping your legs straight and lean slowly towards the wall. You'll feel the stretch in the calves.
4. Shoulder rotations: these are simple shoulder swings forwards and backwards. People often don't think about the shoulders in skiing but they are commonly aggravated with pole planting.
5. Leg swings: best performed while wearing ski boots for added weight. Simply stand beside a wall and swing each leg straight back and forth. Do this on each side.
6. Low squats: again perform in ski boots. This exercise simply involves squatting down as low as possible trying to get your butt cheeks to touch your hind legs. This helps stretch out the butt, thighs and knees.

When you finish on the mountain your first drink should be a large glass of water. Your water loss is high in the cold dry mountain air and muscle aches are worse with dehydration. In the morning a multivitamin should complement your breakfast. There is a growing body of evidence to support the protective effects of vitamins 'C' and 'E' in muscle soreness, especially the type experienced during skiing. You might even want to supplement with higher quantities of vitamin 'C'. When you get out of your ski boots try to put on socks and good supporting shoes. Several hours of wearing ski boots tends to relax a lot of foot muscle action and the added support helps prevent acute instability. Once back to the chalet, you should ice any acute injuries, or take some anti-inflammatories, but then take a nice warm shower. This is important as it increases the blood flow causing a relaxation of the muscle when you exit the shower. But the best thing is a massage, if you can afford it.

Your biggest challenge on the mountain in injury avoidance! Make sure your equipment is checked, your bindings are set right, you have completed your pre-season fitness routine, you stretch well before and after skiing and practice good nutritional habits. A little pre-planning will go a long way to reducing your discomfort and making your time pre-and apres-ski more enjoyable.

Article by Declan AJ Connolly
Assoc. Professor, UVM
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