Winter Sports Injury Prevention

Winter is coming.

Different seasons usually signify a change in our recreation habits. As you pack up your mountain bike and get out your skis, it’s important to practice mindfulness and bring your focus to different muscles that you may use in various sports. Skiing, both downhill and cross country, utilize the large muscle groups that need both stretching and strengthening.

Chair pose is an excellent pose to build strength in your quadriceps. Working on different variations of chair pose helps to strengthen and more importantly stabilize your muscles. Come into chair pose and sit your hips as low as they go. Now, lift up your heels so you are balancing on your big toe mounds. As you lift your heels up, lower your hips down. If you shake, recognize that this is indication of your strength and balance being challenged. Stay with it even as you shake!

Conversely, stretching and resting these muscles will decrease muscle tears and injury. Standing hero’s pose isolates these muscles in order to get a deep stretch into the belly of the quadricep muscle. Stand next to a wall with your left hand on the wall for balance. Bend your right knee and reach behind your low back for your right foot. Keep both knees next to one another and bring a gentle tuck to your tailbone. Hold this stretch for 5 breaths (5 inhales / 5 exhales). Next, turn around so…