How to help your body recover from skiing or snowboarding - Alpine Action Blog (2024)

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How to help your body recover from skiing or snowboarding - Alpine Action Blog? ›

Stretching after a day of riding helps muscles return to their original position by removing the tension. During your post ski stretching the circulation of blood will return to your muscles allowing them to recover and repair. Make sure that you focus on stretching your leg muscles, glutes and lower back.

A hot tub, bath, steam or sauna

As your body warms up in hot water, steam or air, your blood vessels will expand. This helps to get nutrient-rich blood flowing throughout your body and shifts lactic acid (a waste product of exercise), which are key elements in helping our bodies recover.

Stretching is one of the best things you can do to recover from a long day on the slopes. The best stretching techniques for skiing help tight muscles return to their original position by removing tension and improving blood circulation, allowing muscles to recover and repair.

Whether beginner or expert, you can find yourself sore in muscles you didn't even know you had. There's a lot you can do to prevent unwanted soreness, but the fact is most of us ski only a small portion out of the year, so some soreness is inevitable.

Skiing and Snowboarding work parts of your body that you don't use in everyday life. If you aren't “ski body” ready there are going to be parts of you that will ache after a day on the slopes.

However, one thing that can do exactly that is sore muscles, especially in your legs. No matter how much fun you're having on the snow, skiing and snowboarding are still exercise that mostly works your legs. As a result, your legs may be sore after just one or two days on the slopes, which may keep you from going back.

Calf exercises: sore muscles after skiing usually sit deep in the calves. Therefore, it makes sense to strengthen your lower legs as well. This also contributes to more foot stability which in turn leads to more control and fun on the slopes.

Some skiers prefer the combination of an ice bath followed by a soak in a hot tub. The ice reduces muscle inflammation, while the hot water provides relief from soreness. The same results can be achieved by using a cold compress followed by a hot compress.

Ski sickness seems to represent a special form of motion sickness produced by unusual and contradictory sensory information between the visual, vestibular and somato-sensory system.

How many days skiing in a row is too much? ›

Aim for one to two days of planned rest per week; training 7-days in a row probably isn't the best idea. Always listen to your body and take a day off when you need it, even if it's not written in your training schedule.

Anywhere from 25 to 50 days would be an admirable goal, and make no mistake—bagging 25 days of skiing in a year is more than most skiers get! By far, the easiest way to ski 100 days in a year is to structure your work life around skiing.

Why does ski sickness happen? When skiing down the slopes, the visual cues of rapidly moving surroundings might contradict the sensory signals from the inner ear, which detects motion and balance. This sensory mismatch leads to symptoms like dizziness, nausea, and even vomiting.

Any part of the body can be injured during skiing or snowboarding, including the head, spine, pelvis, arms and legs. The biggest difference between skiing and snowboarding injuries is location. Skiers tend to injure lower extremities, especially the knees and lower legs, which can get tangled up during a fall.

Knee injuries make up nearly half of all ski injuries, predominantly with ACL and MCL tears and knee meniscus injuries. But skiers are also subject to injuries beyond the knee, like shoulder injuries, including dislocations and sprains, head injuries, fractures, and even skier's thumb, which is unique to skiing.

If muscles are subjected to more strain than usual, soreness can be the result. Erratic strain during skiing often leads to sore thigh muscles if the skier didn't prepare properly beforehand. Pain in the thighs often occurs a day after the event because of small tears in the muscles.

Recovery. Typically, recovery time from surgery needs six to eight weeks of relative immobilization and non-weight bearing, if the fracture has been stabilized (fixed with screws). If the fracture fragments were just cleaned out (debridement), then weight bearing can be started once the patient feels comfortable.

Snowboarding Injury Rates. According to a study by the National Ski Areas Association, the injury rate for skiing is 2.5 per 1,000 skier visits, while the injury rate for snowboarding is 3.9 per 1,000 visits. This means that snowboarding has a higher injury rate than skiing.