Posted on December 24, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

Going skiing is great fun, what’s more fun is keeping injury free whilst skiing and believe it or not there is a lot you can do in the gym that can help prevent most of the common injuries. Before we get into injury prevention of skiing lets look at the latest ski injury facts:

• 33.4% of ski related injuries occur at the knee
• 13.5% occur to the face/head
• 9.5% of ski injuries happen at the shoulder
• 8.6% occur at the shin
• 6.1% occur at the ankle
• 4.4%- occur at the thumb
• 24.5%- are miscellaneous and involve collisions, equipment issues etc

As you can see the knee stands out, whats more concerning is that 47.7% of the knee injuries are sprains. Something that can be minimised with correct training. Unfortunately  the gym won’t help with the other 52.3% of causes. Knee injuries are so common in skiing due to the nature of the sport, the body position, speed and frequent changes in direction are a recipe for strain upon the knee.

Specific to the knee the medial collateral ligament  is responsible for most of the knee injuries, this is when the knee collapses inwards caused by a twisting or sudden force from the outside of the knee.

 

However fear not here is the program that will help you strengthen the surrounding musculature and help prevent MCL injuries. Focus will be placed upend developing strong quads, specifically the VMO and VL, and the hamstrings.

Your new best friends are lunges, squats and deadlift variations.

Include the following into your program 6 weeks before your ski trip

Week 1-2:

A1- Back squat cyclist position 10 sets 5 reps (load 70% 1RM) Tempo 3010

A2. Romanian DB deadlift 10 sets 5 reps (load 70% 1RM) Tempo 3010

B1. Front foot elevated Bulgarian split squats 4 sets 12 reps per leg (load 65% 1RM)

B2. Laying hamstring curls swiss ball 4 sets 12 reps per leg (load body weight)

Week 3-4

A1- Back squat Olympic stance 8 sets 3 reps (load 85% 1RM) Tempo 2010

A2. Romanian deadlift 8 sets 3 reps (load 85% 1RM) Tempo 2010

B1. Rear foot elevated Bulgarian split squats 5 sets 8 reps per leg (load 75% 1RM)

B2. Laying Hamstring Curls dumbbell 5 sets 8 reps per leg (55% 1 RM)

Week 5- Ski Trip

A1- Back squat sumo stance 10 sets 2 reps (load 85-90% 1RM) Tempo 10×0

A2. Step Ups (knee level box) 10 sets 3 reps per leg (load 85% 1RM) Tempo 10×0

B1. Lateral step barbell lunges 6 sets 6 reps per leg (load 75% 1RM)

B2. Negative only hamstring extensions (extended tempo) 6 sets 6 reps per leg (max tempo)

This program will do little for body composition , you won’t add muscle, nor will you burn tons of fat, what you will do is walk way with a strong set of legs and solid knees to keep you injury free when skiing.

If you need any more information about any of the exercises drop one of the personal training team at motive8 North a line [email protected]