Knees

Following on from Pavelski's post and also noticing how many of the posters (myself included) suffer from knee injuries do any of you have tips for exercises and preventative measures to save the old knees?

building quad strength! for cruciate ligament injuries. This is what ive been doing... since may! Old knees may not apply because I am only 17 haha but for bad knees then this works.

Exercises to strengthen your leg muscles and your stabiliser muscles are:

1) Leg extensions for quads
2) Leg curls for hamstrings (important to do these with 1 to maintain muscle balance)
3) Calf raises

4) Abductor and adductor exercises to strengthen the inner and outer thighs to improve stability and balance and thus help avoid falls

5) Strengthen core muscles, crunches for abdominals and back arches for lower back.

6) Squats are useful but must be done correctly to avoid injury and it's easy to do them with wrong technique. High reps and lower weights are preferrable for skiing.

7) Steppers, elyptical walkers, etc are great for building leg endurance and toning the stabiliser muscles.

Don't forget the upper body, strengthen chest and shoulders. Sking subjects the body to g forces all over so inorder to resist unbalancing forces the entire body needs to be strong. Obviously improving techique through practice and lessons will mean you are in a balanced position more often.

Aside from building raw muscles that will support the knee, I think it is also important to do some of this in exercise that is unstable. Squats on a wobble board would be one way.

After a meniscus tear and surgery, my knee was shaky for a couple of years. I started inline skating and within a few months all instability was gone and it felt stronger than before.

Trencher

edit. I was writing this while I love skiing was posting. In line skating does much of what I L S is suggesting.

Another point to remember here is that as you age, it is very important to maintain your fast twitch muscle fibre.
This is what allows you to explosively jump, balance and react. As you age the percentage of fast twitch fibres in your muscles decreases. Thats why so many people over forty don't have any bounce left when they run. So it is important that cross training should should include some balance and explosive movements.

Trencher

The knees ...the concern of all athletes!

I thought that by developing more power in my legs I could avoid knee problems! I worked a great deal on squats with dead weights!

I now realize that it is part of the solution! The other part is to know how to listen to your body! Know your limits!

No amount of muscle can "hold" ligaments once they get to the "tearing" position!

Power workouts are great but you must also do "stretch" type activities. That is why in-line skating, swimming, etc.. help the knee!

I am now "re-building" my knees with very specific routines with supervision by sports physio-torturers who know how to get me to the limits of my pain!

Now I know why serious competitors spend much time stretching! They have the bulk (pure muscle) but they must allow the anchors of these muscle fibers to be more "elastic"!

My advice is to develop a "balanced" program so that you have good muscle bulk but also that flexibility so important in skiing!

Trencher, you are so right about cross-training! See you on the slopes soon!

Are you free to ski in 2008? I am going to past by your place next winter, you see I have found a partner who will ski with me for two months in Utah! We will have a camper truck and visit ski centers in Oregon, Utah and Colorado!

Riding a bike worked/still works for me :)