Most first timers have this romanticized vision of skiing. In fact, you’d be surprised how many people see it as pure recreation and not a sport. However, those of us in the know understand how excruciating the pain can be after a day on the slopes. But luckily, there are a few ways that you can facilitate and speed up recovery, so you can get back on your two feet in no time. Here are a few recovery tips for skiers.
Use Prevention
First, if you want to speed up recovery, you have to take preventative measures as well. It would be wise to invest a little money in a pair of good tights before you leave. You should wear the tights when skiing and a little bit after as well. What these tights will do is provide extra support to your muscles, and in some cases, to your joints too. This will significantly reduce recovery time and the chances of injury.
Ice Bath
There’s nothing better than a nice hot tub after a long day of skiing, right? Wrong! While the hot tub has become a sort of universal ritual for after skiing, you’ll be sacrificing a few hours of pleasure for a week of pain. What hot water does is flare up the inflammatory response in your tissues and muscles, making the pain even worse when you step out. Inflammation ultimately slows down the healing process.
We spoke with a few folks at smfnew.com and they all agreed that a much better decision would be to immediately hit the bathroom for an ice bath. An ice bath will shock your system and stop inflammation as well.
However, don’t be put off by the idea of an ice bath. You don’t literally need to immerse yourself in ice for hours; just soaking in cold water (around 55f or below) with a few hotel buckets of ice will be enough for you to reap the benefits. And you don’t need to stay in the water for hours neither, a minute or two should be enough. But if you really want to get all the benefits, you should try staying in the water for 5 to 10 minutes. This should be enough to flush out the toxins from your muscles and stop inflammation in its tracks.
Massaging
But, however beneficial an ice bath may be, you might need a little bit more help to get back in shape. If you really want to speed up recovery, you might want to consider active recovery tactics as well. If you don’t have money for a good massage, you could always use a foam roller instead. If you’re on the road and don’t have space for a roller, you could also use a miniature stick roller massager instead. Focus on your most used muscles, such as your hamstrings, quads, anterior tibialis muscles and IT bands for best results.
Conclusion
All these tips should help you recover faster after a long day of skiing. If you follow these few simple steps, you should up and running in no time.
