How to enjoy injury-free skiing all season long

Proper conditioning and technique can keep you injury-free all
season long. (photo courtesy of Graphicshunt.com)

The weather service is predicting a better than average snowfall with the El Nina weather pattern, and skiers are eager to hit the slopes. Nothing is worse,  however, than having your season cut short by injury. To avoid twisted knees and other pains, Rick Jusko, PT, owner/director of Seattle Hill Physical Therapy, says preseason conditioning (see accompanying articles, right) and following some common sense techniques can help you enjoy injury-free skiing well into April.

You don’t have to live with shoulder pain

You probably know someone who has had a rotator cuff injury. It is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. How do you know if you have a rotator cuff injury? Here are some signs to watch for:

Rick Jusko, PT,, will design a program of exercises and activity
modification tailored to your injury and your personal lifestyle.

● Shoulder pain

● Difficulty raising the arms above the shoulders

● A dull ache in the upper arm that increases with movement

The rotator cuff consists of the muscles and tendons of the shoulders. It includes four muscles: the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis, and the tendons that connect these muscles  along with  three bones. These include the shoulder blade, or scapula, the upper arm bone or humerus, and the collarbone or clavicle.

Five minutes a day can prevent shoulder injury

If you are a swimmer, golfer, baseball, basketball or volleyball player, or play any sports that involve throwing, lifting or pulling with your arms, Physical Therapist Rick Junko, of Seattle Hill Road Physical Therapy, says you can save your shoulders with 5 minutes of preventive exercise each day.

“Recreational and serious athletes can enhance shoulder stability and prevent shoulder injury by practicing good posture, maintaining a balance of flexibility and strength in all shoulder muscles, and by following a daily 5-minute easy-to-perform exercise routine,” Junko says.

Toning shoes, good exercise? Or a pain in the back?

Your physical therapists can tell you if toning shoes like these
Skechers Shape-Ups™ will help you, or not.

Skechers Shape-Ups™, MBT™ (Masai Barefoot Technology) and Reebok EasyTone™ are the latest rage in exercise shoes. The shoemakers all tout health claims for these shoes ranging from increasing calorie burn to helping relieve knee and back pain.

The common feature of all of them is an essentially unstable sole design using a curved, heavily cushioned sole. The theory is that by forcing wearers to continually adjust the foot and ankle to maintain balance, you work calve and quadriceps muscles causing you to burn more calories and strengthen the muscles.