Common Ski Injuries and How to Prevent Them

Now that the winter season is fully upon us, it has become ski season for many of us. Skiing is a great pastime for the winter with several amazing resorts surrounding us in Idaho. However, all the fun you have while skiing can tend to bring some injuries with it. It’s fairly common to get injured while skiing, so it’s important to know about the potential risks and how to prevent them. Below, we at Idaho Medical Academy have listed some of the most common injuries that occur while skiing and what you can do to prevent them as best as you can.

Head Injuries

Head injuries are something that can occur in just about every sport there is. In skiing, it can occur from falling over and hitting your head on a rock or tree. Or, depending on the conditions on the mountain, you can easily injure your head by hitting it on the snow. Luckily, there are many ways to minimize the risk of a head injury. One of those ways is to wear a helmet while skiing. Although everyone wants to be the “cool skier” and wear just a beanie, it’s not a very safe practice. A properly fitting helmet can potentially save your life in certain situations.

Ligament Tears

In skiing, one of the most common injuries that occurs is a ligament tear in your knees. This can include a tear of the MCL, PCL, LCL and most commonly the ACL. Often times what causing a tear of the ligaments in your knees are losing control of yourself while skiing and crashing. It pretty easy to tear them when you lose control because your skis and boots are so much heavier than what you’re used to. Many professional skiers in preparation for the season will focus on riding a stationary bike. The stationary bike is important in ligament tear prevention because it strengthens all the muscles around your knee. Having stronger muscles surrounding the knees help to mitigate the risk of your leg being jerked and the ligament torn. However, if you’ve already experienced tear in your knee, the stationary bike also works very well for rehabilitation.

Wrist & Shoulder Injuries

Another very common injury while skiing is a shoulder injury. In skiing, when you are going to fall over the skis only make it possibly to fall sideways. This leaves you with two options; stick out your arm and potentially break it or land on your shoulder. Many people will subconsciously stick out their arms to catch themselves, and in turn get a wrist fracture. However, you face a potential injury when taking the fall on your shoulder as well. You could possibly dislocate it, or even tear some ligaments around the shoulder joint. To prevent the wrist injury, you should consider wearing wrist guards. This will minimize the risk of the bone breaking by having a piece of protective metal strengthening the joint. To prevent a shoulder injury, pull your limbs towards your torso and crouch down so you have a much shorter fall.

At Idaho Medical Academy, we realize you can’t prevent every potential injury, but you can be prepared for them. We instruct courses for EMT’s, basic medical training, CPR, and many more. Be sure to contact us with any questions you might have on our medical courses, we are always more than happy to answer your questions. Check out Idaho Medical Academy today!