Knees

My left one gives me problems after catching an edge on a culvert last year. This summer I worked out almost every day doing squats and running and just overall strengthening it the best I can. It still gets sore a little every now and then, but I definitely saw improvement. Not a whole lot you can do except advil strengthening. best of luck, knee injuries SUCK.

Cheers man, its just annoying cos I would like to rest them but living in the UK I only get 6 days at a time in Europe. I think I'm just gonna take it easy, ice and heat in the evenings.

ya i tore my tore my MCL last spring and last saturday i sprained it again, thought i tore it. good thing i didnt, but id say im gona have to do a fair bit of quad strengthening and what not to make sure this doesnt happen again. knees are a bummer sometimes

my knees are terrible and im only 17 just use them as much as u can till you cant function haha

Whereabouts did you ski? Lots of English people ski here at my home resort around Christmas time.

Anyway about your knees - don't apply heat to them. If your knees are swollen for any reason (just skiing can make them swell) then the best thing to do is RICE:
• rest
• ice
• compression
• elevation

You rest your knees as much as possible. Obviously that's not easy when your skiing is packed into one week and you're likely skiing every day, but just go easy on them when you aren't on the slopes.

Ice. Apply either bags of frozen peas/other foods (easily accessible) or wrap ice cubes in a cloth or bag made of material (so that there is no direct contact). This helps reduce swelling. If you were to heat up your knees, e.g. having hot baths, then you would increase the blood flow into the particular area of swelling, allowing the swelling to become even more intense, so don't apply heat. (That's a mistake I made, when I tore my ACL last season.)

For compression, just wrap the swollen area in an ACE bandage or whatever you have on hand. It may even relieve you of any pain which you get from the swelling, but be careful not to wrap extremely tight because this does not help either.

Elevation is important, so when you aren't skiing, try to elevate your knees. If you are just chilling in a chalet or wherever you might be staying, lift your legs up and rest them on a couch. Long days of skiing strain the knees and this can help to get rid of some of the swelling. Having breaks throughout the day can also be a good way to stay on top of the worst part of the swelling!

I'm in Avoriaz. They felt a bit better this morning but deteriorated quite quickly. Icing them as I write. Man this sucks, but I'm enjoying every minute I get in actual now rather than the snowflex back home.

you can ice and rest all the time but i think the problem you are facing needs more that just R.I.C.E. although i think icing will also give you some temporary relief. i would start stretching everyday. its basically what you pay a physio $150 to tell you.

Hi Mark.

work out your quads and hamstrings, a lot.

What BUNBURY said makes sense & is great for your knees, but stretching alone won't prevent tiredness and pain from skiing. The best thing to do, if preparing, is to work out all of your leg muscles; this will prevent lots of straining and give you a chance to ski for longer.

Many people argue that stretching cold muscles is bad, although I don't know how true this is.

Thanks for the advice guys, I've had ice on them for quite a while this evening. It's meant to snow here over night, so hopefully the powder will be more merciful than the ice that's been around the past few days.

see a doctor, stay in shape, and seriously don't ski in the backseat. i hear so many people talk about how hard skiing is on the knees and its usually a load of bull unless you're doing it wrong. there is a reason why those really good big mountain guys can keep ripping big lines and stomping big cliffs well into their 30s and sometimes 40s.