Hey guys, it’s Stephen Dunn from CORE Therapy & Pilates… Today I want to go into our next blog on our skiing series. I’ve gone over a few tips so far on how to strengthen the ankles and strengthen the knees. Today I’m going to go over 9 Tips to consider when going skiing… period!
The first tip is to Prepare and so what we’ve already started talking about is how to get your legs prepared. So in preparation, you need to get those legs strong, whether it’s just two weeks before you go or preferably 6 to 8 weeks so that you have some time to work on not just strength, but the endurance as well. We’ve gone over some balance work, some ankle work, some knee work and I’m gonna go over a couple things at the end today for some more preparation…
Something else to considered is that you need to Know the Mountain when you get there… so the second tip is that when you get there, know the mountain, get a trail map, know where the ski patrol stands are and just really get to know the mountain. Don’t just go out there and take it for granted, we’re from Texas and we don’t get to ski as much as we like, so that’s the second tip…
The third tip is Wear a Helmet! When I learned to snowboard, I didn’t wear a helmet for years… It’s kind of crazy because I had a few concussions from snowboarding and it really would have been a much better thing if I had a helmet. So again wear a helmet, no matter what age you are and what your level is, just protect your head. There’s been so much out there with concussions lately with the NFL and all that stuff, so just protect your head, protect that noggin and wear a helmet…
The next tip is to Hydrate… now it’s hard to get my clients to drink water in Texas when it’s hot… so when you’re on the mountain and you’re bundled up with all this gear in the cold, it’s really a challenge to get someone to drink water. Staying hydrated is very, very important especially when you’re up in the altitude, so stay hydrated… drink lots of water…
The next tip is going to be do a Warm Up… make sure you don’t just jump on the gondola and go all the way to the top and start coming down the double black diamonds. So when you get going, don’t just start going 100 miles an hour, take it easy, do a nice couple of easy runs. I also think it would be worthwhile to do a little bit of warm up before your first run, possibly even a light jog, some of the homework that we’ve taught you in here from therapy…
The next tip is to Be Cautious on Your Last Run… Every year, right after Spring Break I see someone I know in my community, at my church, at the kids school, with a knee brace on and it’s always the same story. “I tore my ACL (not the music festival, the ligament in the knee) skiing, it was the last run of the day, I knew I shouldn’t go, I was fatigued and exhausted but I did it anyway because it was the last run of the day.” So please if it’s the last run of the day and you’re fatigued and you’re tired and you’re not up for it, don’t do it… Because guess what? That is the busiest time for the ski patrol, 3:30 in the afternoon, so be cautious out there…
Now as I talk about being cautious on the last run for skiers, now I’m a snowboarder, so it is a little different, but for skiers the next tip is when your about to fall, It’s Okay to Fall… Attempting to fight it and not fall is when you end up tearing your knee up and when you tear your ACL up and your medial meniscus and your MCL… so just fall, it’s not failure to fall, go with it and roll and fall like you learned in lessons back in the day. That’s actually going to be a lot better than trying to protect yourself and not falling… That’s my advice for that…
Now the eighth tip is to Eat, Drink and Sleep Well… Its best to eat healthy while you’re on a ski trip, you don’t want to go eat a big huge steak the night before you’re going skiing. Drinking, you want drink lots of water… we already talked about that, but alcohol in the mountains with the altitude is something you may want to be cautious of. If you’ve had alcohol, it’ll tend to make your body less resilient and a little more injury prone the next day. So get a good night’s sleep and eat well and drink well… or drink lots of water but not alcohol…
The last tip Be Cautious of the Hot Tub… Most people go straight to the hot tub to soak as soon as they get off the mountain. Well, when you have acutely inflamed muscles from overworking and overtraining, we don’t recommend heat, we recommend ice… So getting in a hot tub may be very counterproductive for what your body needs physiologically at that time… Have you ever heard of a football player taking a hot tub after a game? NO, they take an ice bath… Pitchers put on a huge sleeve of ice after a baseball game.
So those are my tips for your ski trip, now I just want to show you two more strengthening exercises to add today for your quads… so I went over some squats the other day, I went over some lunges, some different lunge angles and whatnot but this is called a ‘Wall Sit’. I used to call it leaning on the wall and I learned this back from a basketball player that played at LSU back in the day named Chris Jackson. We really just called them Chris Jacksons, so basically we’re sitting down at the wall, we’re sitting down keeping our head back, our shoulders back and bending those knees just above 90 degrees, I’m just gonna hold that for about 30 seconds… now Chris Jackson was the basketball player about six-one that could jump out of the gym. He won the dunking contest from the high school All-American camp when he was a senior, which I was at and got the see. It was pretty impressive, he was really fun to watch… So these are Chris Jacksons wall sit… that’s something to work on.
Once you’ve done 3-5 sets of 30 seconds of those, you can also do an up and down motion that’s gonna be called a ‘Wall Slide’… a wall slide is basically gonna be down and up, bend the knees and then straighten the knees, sliding your back on the wall. Do 20 reps…
These are a couple new exercises to prepare for your ski trip… alright guys that’s it for today I hope that helps and makes sense. I’ll be back in a couple days with the next tips, we’ll go into some outer hip motions and some core work… alright guys, take care, have a great day… bye now.
Do you need some help before heading to the mountains for Spring Break? Back Pain, Knee Pain and Hip Pain don’t mix well with a ski trip. Call 512-215-4227 NOW and we will listen to your story… And then help you reach your goals…
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