It’s Fun Until Somebody Loosens a Joint
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Outside Magazine, November 1994
It’s Fun Until Somebody Loosens a Joint When it comes to alpine skiing, your hinges are only as good as the muscles around them Maybe it’s a good thing that most of us don’t ski like Olympians. Nearly every member of the U.S. Ski Team has blown out a knee at least once during his or her career, and nearly half have had a sprained ankle. On the other hand, most of us don’t train like Olympians–anything like them–and that can create problems, too. Whereas a ski racer might get hurt only at a clip that What are we all risking every time we point our tips downhill? “Most skiing injuries have one thing in common,” says Michael Chapman, head of orthopedic surgery at the University of California, Davis, and a former U.S. Ski Team physician. “They’re joint injuries.” Now as any salty downhill competitor–or probably any neophyte snowplower–can tell you, joints are where two bones and a lot of cartilage meet. That means there isn’t much fortifying that can be done. “There’s really nothing you can do to strengthen those areas,” says Chapman. “So try regularly stretching to maintain your full range of motion, and build strong muscles to If that’s not convincing enough to get you into the gym, here’s a laboratory-verified reason: Beefed-up muscles do a better job of cushioning the impact that skiing, or any other sport, delivers to your body. “They act like bungee cords to damp the shock,” says Jeremy Stern, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts. “And if your Stern, an avid skier himself, says you need about ten weeks to prepare your muscles for the season. He says the best exercises are the ones that the U.S. Ski Team uses–ones that make you use your body the way you will when you ski. Involve All the Right Muscles A case in point is the squat–a model closed kinetic-chain exercise. “It mostly works your quadriceps, but you must also use your calves, hamstrings, shins, hip flexors, and glutes to complete the exercise,” says Stern. “Leg extensions may make your quads really strong, but when do you use just your quads?” Closed kinetic-chain exercises also stress the joints less than many open kinetic-chain exercises, continues Stern, because all the pressure doesn’t center on one area. Do your work on a leg extension machine and you’re loading one joint: With all the weight set near your feet and ankles, lifting puts unnecessary strain on your knees. Similar problems can be had with leg curls, Improve with Leaps and Bounds Basically jumping and bounding exercises that train your muscles to coordinate and contract rapidly, plyometrics give you the strength and reflexes you need to make fast turns and absorb the shocks of skiing on less than even terrain. The exercises don’t require any fancy machines, but they do look a little odd. It’s like you’re skiing without snow, and that’s exactly the Which brings us back to the idea of skiing like an Olympian. Most of us still never will, in large part because we’re not interested in earmarking 11 months of each year for training and competing. But take a champion’s approach for even a fraction of that time and you’ll go a long way toward achieving every racer’s first goal: Getting to the bottom of the hill in one Dana Sullivan is a skier and a snowboarder. She frequently contributes to Bodywork. See also: |