You are the most important player in your injury recovery.
These are our top tips for treating your skiing or snowboarding pain And injuries at home…
If you have suffered a new, Acute Injury from a crash or fall…
First and foremost take a look at our blog How To Recover From An Injury Faster. Most people have heard of RICE (or RICER, or PRICE, or… ) but do you actually know how to apply these steps for the best effect? Hint: Ice is not the most important part!
If you are having difficulty walking, breathing or moving the painful area we highly recommend you make an appointment with us or at a medical centre to have your injury properly assessed. We have a wide variety of braces, compression and taping options which we can use to help stabilise the injury to decrease your pain and speed up your recovery.
If your pain seems to have “Come From nowhere” or gets worse the more your ski or ride…
We guarantee, there is always a reason for pain and it is not just that you’re “too old” or that your body is “not designed to do it”.
Often, the cause of these injuries is that when you’re skiing or snowboarding you’re not actually using your body the way it was designed to be used, which can be the case even if you’ve been given skiing and snowboarding technique instruction. Skiing and snowboarding instructors provide a very valuable and important service but unfortunately we do come across cues and tips that have been given by instructors which are not biomechanically sound and can therefore cause pain and injury. For example; skiing all day pretending that “you’ve been punched in the stomach” to activate your core is definitely not the way we are supposed to move and will frequently lead to lower back, hip and knee pain.
Take a look At our top technique tips:
This the most common advice we find ourselves giving out in the clinic to fix your ski technique.
A good squat is important for being able to absorb impact and chatter when you’re skiing and snowboarding. Take a look at our favourite squatting technique tips.
Both skiing and snowboarding position are biomechanically similar to sitting. Often, understanding the basics of good sitting posture will point you in the right direction to helping your skiing and snowboarding posture.
Lots of our patients have been told at some point to turn on their core. And the core is important but there is a whole lot of bad information about turning on your core out there. Make sure your cue isn’t causing you pain.
We’re also strong believers in proactively looking after yourself.
Skiing and snowboarding is hard work on the body and giving it a bit of love in the form of stretching and muscle release before or after a day on the hill can definitely help to decrease soreness and increase your fun.
And don’t just think lower body, keeping the upper body flexible will make life easier for your legs as you ride and ski!
These are our favourite stretches and release techniques for Skiers and Riders:
Tight glutes commonly cause hip pain, back pain and knee pain. They also get a real workout with skiing and snowboarding.
Our absolute favourite stretch. Just do it.
Lots of people have heard about it but few know how to foam roll effectively.