For most skiing enthusiasts, the sight of snow or the approach to the winter season couldn’t be more exciting. Skiing is fun, and the adrenaline rush it gives you also means it’s exhilarating. However, there are common injuries you can get when skiing.
As part of the extreme sports group, skiing puts a lot of stress and demand on your body, so it’s easy to get an injury. Therefore, you should read more about these injuries to prepare you psychologically and physically. Likewise, you can know how to prevent them or what to do if you get one.
Some injuries can end your skiing days, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned skier. Continue reading to find out some of the most common skiing injuries.
Shoulder Injuries
Your shoulders play an essential role while navigating through the snow. During directional changes, the shoulders help in your steering. They are also part of your first line of defense when you’re about to fall. Additionally, the shoulders take some weight when you extend your arm to break a fall. This move can be catastrophic sometimes.
You can either get a dislocation or fracture on your shoulder depending on how you fell. A dislocation pops your upper arm from the shoulder socket. This can be painful and limit your use of the affected shoulder. Besides, you can also get a rotator cuff injury that can get torn.
Even though you can pop a dislocated shoulder back in place, you may need days to nurse it. When you tear your rotator cuff, you would require surgical treatment and therapy sessions for extended periods. A shoulder injury can also mean torn ligaments, tendons, and muscles, which may weaken your overall shoulder strength.
Knee Injuries
Your knees take most of the brunt because of the nature of the sport. An injury to the knees can require months of physiotherapy to rehabilitate it back to necessary strength. The most common knee injuries are torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). A tear or a rupture of these ligaments can be extremely painful and require orthopedic surgery to repair them.
The MCL ligament connects your thigh and shin bones and is found on the inside part of the knee joint. This ligament helps prevent the knee from bending awkwardly inwards. If you’re skiing, you may accidentally force your knee to bend backward. This would usually be a sudden jerking motion that results in a torn MCL. You’ll experience pain, bruising, and swelling on the inside of the knee from this injury.
Even though you might stand and walk, it can be excruciating. When you sustain this injury, you can ice it immediately to reduce the swelling and pain. However, you should seek specialist treatment for therapeutic sessions. Taking time off from skiing is key to recovering from a torn MCL.
Meanwhile, although you might walk off from an MCL tear, an ACL tear is more painful and delicate. The ACL controls the movement of your shinbone with the thighbone movement. When skiing, this ligament strains due to the frequent changes of direction, jolting stops, and hyperextensions. Thus, an injury to the ACL can mean you can’t move your knee without experiencing pain.
If you’re skiing and feel a pop in your knee, you might have suffered an ACL tear. Inflammation and restricted knee motions can follow. This injury may require orthopedic surgery to repair it. You’ll also need extensive physiotherapy sessions to rehabilitate the injured knee. Physiotherapists may advise you to keep off skiing until the ACL is well again and fully recovered.
Arm, Wrist, And Ankle Injuries
As with shoulder injuries, you can injure your arms or wrist when trying to use your hands as support or break your fall. This instinctive move puts your body weight and the force of the motion on your arm and wrist. As a result, you can either sprain your wrist or get a fracture.
The recovery period and process for arm and wrist injuries vary depending on their severity. A minor wrist sprain can heal with a few physiotherapy sessions. In contrast, a fracture would need a cast or splint with numerous sessions.
The turn and twisting put a strain on your ankles, too. A wrong footing or pivot can sprain your ankle as you go down a slope. Even though the pain can be excruciating, physiotherapy sessions can help nurse it back to full fitness.
Head Injuries
It’s not uncommon for skiing slopes to have various obstacles you would need to maneuver through. Therefore, if you misjudge your path or a turn, you may hit a rock or a tree. In some cases, you can collide with another skier. If these instances involve your head, you can get a concussion. Yet because you wore a safety helmet, the injury might be minor, but you can still feel dizzy. Hence, go for a medical checkup in case of a bump to the head to ensure you have no severe injury.
As an extreme sport, skiing excites the ardent skier. However, skiing comes with its risks and occupational hazards. The ones discussed here are some of the common injuries you can get if you are into skiing or looking at getting into it.