Each year, thousands of people in Colorado are injured snowboarding or skiing. But according to physiology Professor Robert Mazzeo of the University of Colorado at Boulder, the best way to avoid an injury is to get into shape before you slap on the boards.
"Fatigue is one of the primary causes for falls, which is the major cause of injuries in skiing," said Mazzeo. "The best way to battle fatigue is to get into shape before you ski."
Mazzeo suggests the following exercises for getting into shape:
∑ Running, cycling or any aerobic-type exercise to increase your aerobic capacity and cardiovascular health and conditioning.
∑ Strengthening the legs through weight resistance training or a repetition of simple leg lunges. A series of squats, leg presses, calve lifts, leg curls and adduction and abduction exercises is suggested.
∑ Increasing your flexibility by stretching.
The leg exercises can be done in a fitness center with machines and free weights or at home by leaning your back against a wall and repeatedly squatting into and out of a skiers position until your legs get tired, said Mazzeo. He recommends exercising three to four times per week for at least 30 minutes per session.
He also points out that even if you don't have a lot of spare time for sport-specific exercises, you can still get in a workout by being creative while at the office. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, suggests Mazzeo, or instead of driving a quarter mile for lunch, walk.
Another thing to remember, said Mazzeo, is that any exercise is good for you even if it is only for a few minutes, several times a day.
"You'd like to get anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of exercise a day if possible, but one thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't have to be all at once," explains Mazzeo. "You could do 10 minutes in the morning walking to work or you could do 10 minutes over lunchtime and 10 more minutes on the way home walking home from work, so, accumulatively, you've got 30 minutes."
Mazzeo also recommends stretching and light exercise to warm up properly before hitting the slopes. If your muscles, your ligaments and your tendons are cold, you're more susceptible to injury, said Mazzeo.
Once you are on the slope and you feel fatigue coming on, Mazzeo's advice is to ski slower or stop to allow more blood flow to the muscle.
According to the Wilderness Medical Society, a non-profit medical research and education organization, in a typical year about 135,000 "medically significant" snow-sport injuries occur. "Medically significant" injuries are those that require medical treatment or keep a person from skiing for at least one day.