lower back injury
hey guys -
I been skiing for the past 10 years - probably average 10 days of skiing a year (skiing not snowboarding)
Im self taught so technically theres probably alot of room for improvement
The problem i encounter is lower back soreness and sore knees while im skiing . . (obviously im not the only one in this situation)
Can someone offer some advice to reduce the soreness while skiing . . . besides stretching before hand etc is there more of a fundermental thing i can do to take the stress of my lower back and knees while im actually skiing ??
The problem you are getting in your lower back and knees is probably due to the fact that when you ski you lean back a bit too much and hunch over with your shoulders, which puts a lot of stress on those body parts.
When you are skiing try to keep for upper body up higher and not hunched or leaned back. Try to feel the front of your boots touching the front of your shins make sure that you have a straight line that goes from your feet to your hips and up to your shoulders. Always keep your knees bent!
Some strengthening exercises you can do for your lower back are to lie face down on a bench that is about 2 feet off the ground, putting only your legs and the end of your hips on the bench. Having someone sit on your legs makes this easier. Try and hold you upper body off the ground and elevated to about 90 degrees, so it’s as if you were lying on the ground. Try only holding it for about 30 seconds and if that’s too easy slowly increase the amount of time by about 15 seconds each time. Another one you can try is the superman exercise. This one is done lying flat on the ground face down and just raise your legs and upper body at the same time and hold it for 3 seconds, release and bring your body to the ground and go right back up again for 3 seconds. Do this as many times as you can.
For your knees you can always to the chair position. Sit against a wall like your sitting in a chair and hold that position as long as possible. You will feel it in your knees, quads and glutes and hamstrings. If you have a bosu ball (this is half a ball which is hard on one side, looks like half a moon) put the bosu ball on the ball side so the hard part is facing up. Put your foot directly in the middle of the ball and go into a lunge position. Bring your other leg from behind you that is not on the ball up. Just like when walking up stairs how one leg is straight and the other is bent right up at 90 degrees. You are essentially doing lunges but on a ball. Do 12 on each leg, this exercise requires a lot of balance as well so make sure you keep the ball flat.
Your hamstring is very important to maintaining good knees. A lot of people just strengthen the quads. You might experience pain in your knees because your quads are overpowering your hamstring which makes the knee more unstable.
Try those exercises and tips and hopefully it will help with your problems. It’s hard to explain the exercises so I will try to find some sites or photos to show you what I mean.
Gavin, this is the best advice you will get. Just Giver is one of the best ski instructors (WHO ALSO SNOWBOARDS) in Whistler.
great advice Just Giver !!
Cheers for the reply !
rider26 take note as this is the best advice you will get from me . . .
Extra chilli on your Ogalos burger !
and remember . . . be champion !
I would suggest that you stop skiing immediately and suffer a day or two to learn how to snowboard, and then your back will be better.
See, if skiing is the problem, seems to me like you need to quit skiing.
Its like when you visit the doctor and you say “It hurts when I do this….” and the doctor’s response is simple ” well, dont do that”
OK I’m kidding about the quitting skiing thing. but is there any other activity that you do which contributes to the same or similar lower back pain? is there a similarity in body position or repeated motion or stance during that same activity?
Is there anything else you do that causes similar discomfort.
warm up exercises that mimick the movements made while skiing, within the weeks before you go is a good generic suggestion.
Just Giver had great suggestions, listen to her!
If you’re lucky, Becky the BwMB resident physiotherapist will chime in!
With advice we can all learn from.
G-Red can actually snowboard quite well. He is officially the only person I know who went from snowboarding to skiing.
i know someone like that too…claims it was too hard…needless to say we dont hang out much anymore 
i know someone like that too…claims it was too hard…needless to say we dont hang out much anymore
ha ha.
yeah not many people make that leap eh.
Going to the physio and getting some back strength exercises could be a plus if it’s that annoying.
As a plus that way you can find out if there’s actually something that’s a bit weak in your back (muscle) and then go research some more exercises. I hear yoga can work wonders if you want to give that a shot too.
Hi G-RED I hope some of this helps any questions please shout out. Strengthening your lower body, core and lower back for the pains your getting. Also it wouldnt hurt to see an instructor and make sure you technique is good.
As for training knee pain can be really hard to diagnose in terms of the cause. I would start from the ground up doing some reverse calf raises as this will work on your tibials muscle on the front and side of the shin. From there i would be doing 1 legged work such as squats, lunges step ups but do the lunges and step ups in a 3-d move so not just forwards and backwards but sideways also this is key as we dont only move one way.
Balance exercises are great things such as bosu balls and wobble boards which ppl have already told you about are a really good way to increase muscle versatility and elasticity for skiing.
For your lower back strengthen your core most people who suffer from low back pain have a under developed core. So train your abs, obliques and lower back muscles. Some exercises you could do are with weights and bodyweight deadlifts, good mornings, crunches, bridge holds, supermans, plank holds, leg rasies, prone cobra stretches, glute/hamsting rasies. I would also suggest on working your TVA which are your internal abdominal muscles, to do this there are a few techniques to do. Inhale with a deep breath (making sure your your chest cavity expands and your belly button is drawn towards your spine) hold this position for amout of time you are comfortable (10-15 seconds) then slowly exhale.
For your lower back strengthen your core most people who suffer from low back pain have a under developed core. So train your abs, obliques and lower back muscles. Some exercises you could do are with weights and bodyweight deadlifts, good mornings, crunches, bridge holds, supermans, plank holds, leg rasies, prone cobra stretches, glute/hamsting rasies. I would also suggest on working your TVA which are your internal abdominal muscles, to do this there are a few techniques to do. Inhale with a deep breath (making sure your your chest cavity expands and your belly button is drawn towards your spine) hold this position for amout of time you are comfortable (10-15 seconds) then slowly exhale.
Diddy, good advice on the strengthening of the core muscles to reduce lower back pain, as you said a lot of people who have this pain do have an under developed core.
Also good advice on the strengthening of your Transverse Abdominals, as a lot of people seem to think getting a 6-pack is the only way to get a strong core, which obviously isn’t the case, however the only thing I would change in your advice would be instead of having your breath held when you are contracting your TA, it should be done while still breathing in and out as naturally as possible (slow and controlled is usually how you should start), as if you train to contract this muscle set only when having your breath held, your body will learn that this is how it should be contracted, and soon you will be able to get a great core contraction with breath held, but will be unable to contract it at any other time because you haven’t trained it in that way…
Another hard part of core (TA) contractions is that without being cued, a lot of people don’t know what they are actually shooting for to contract, and with the “pull your belly button towards your spine” advice that gets drilled into everyone from your local gym to a sports physio (I personally hate this statement - it is fine if someone knows what they are aiming to contract but if they have no idea it is completely pointless) it can sometimes lead to confusion. the technique that I use with a lot of the people I give core strengthening advice to is to get your fingers about 10-15cm either side of your belly button (where the natural contours kind of bring your stomach in a bit outside your ‘abs’ - depending on the person this can change greatly so it is kind of better to do it in person) and push in, then try and contract your abdominal muscles against the force of your fingers. This is where your TA’s should be contracting to help with your core control and strength.
Once you have this contraction down, you should aim to be doing it in natural situations when thinking about it initially (such as sitting in front of the tv or computer), for 10-15 seconds at a time, and anything above 5 reps initially, moving toward 10+ reps (for muscular endurance rather than strength or power), and then once you are abel to do it while having to still think about it for a while, it should make its way subconsciously in to daily activities, and then hopefully while you are skiing you won’t even have to think about it, it will be on constantly because the body knows it need to be on.
On the subject of other core exercises, one area that a lot of people seem to overlook is your obliques (i think you mentioned them diddy - sorry) which are the muscles that run diagonally (both ways) between your lower ribs and iliac crest (top of your ‘hip’ bone), and connect in to the same area of fascia as your rectus abdominus (abs) and TA do. Side planks (using a similar technique to prone holds/bridges but on one arm)
are a great exercise for static strength and endurance in this area, bicycle crunches (where your right elbow comes up to your left knee, while your left elbow is down and your right leg is extended)
are also good for strengthening both Rectus Abdominus and your obliques, and there are a number of swiss ball exercises that act like sideways sit ups to strengthen these obliques.
Finally (and sorry for the length here) actually strengthening your lower back can be useful in some cases, however it shouldn’t be looked at without a program of core strength as this can lead to the tightening of already tight muscles, which can lead to more problems such as muscle imbalances in the short and long term. The best exercise I have used for lower back strengthening is the roman chair, and variations such as one leg and the use of weights etc once a base level of strength is achieved, however unless you have access to a gym this exercise is hard to do, so there are fitball alternatives which work well to a degree.
The best analogy I have heard for the muscles around the lower back is that it is like a ship - the vertebra is the mast of the ship, and the rectus abdominus (front), internal and external obliques, transverse abdominus (sides), and multifidus and erector spinae (back) are the guy-wires of the ship holding the mast in place. If there is an imbalance between any of these muscles, the mast won’t be held up properly, so it is imperative to strengthen these muscles evenly and maintain a good base core strength as a platform for everything else to work off of.
That was ridiculously long and I am really sorry, I got way too in to it again…I hope a little bit of it helped in some way…:)
you rock - thats good stuff.
most lay people will assume this is a strenght problem, but most back pain/knee pain isn’t from a lack of strength, its a sign of mechanical dysfunction. its not likely anyone will be able accurately diagnose whats going on over the internet so the smart thing to do is consult a Doctor of Chiropractic or a Physiotherapist