Skiing can be hard on your body, especially your knees. Olympic skiers make it look effortless, but all those turns and bumps can cause a lot of problems. Whether you are a sometime skier or more, here are some of the things that can happen while skiing that can cause knee pain.
Ligament injuries
A common ski injury is an ACL or anterior cruciate ligament injury. It tends to happen to more advanced skiers, and happens when they do sudden direction changes and twisting. Typically, it causes a torn ACL. Along with that are MCL or medial collateral ligament injuries. These are caused by the type of stance and turning practice that skiers use, stressing the inside of the knee.
Skiers often twist their knee when they have a lot of weight on it which can cause a torn meniscus. A torn meniscus can also happen when a skier has a direct fall on the knee. The meniscus are basically the shock absorbers for the knee, so an injury to them can make any activity painfully impossible.
More stress
The more stress you place on the knee skiing can cause other knee stress injuries like bursitis, tendonitis or runner’s knee. Bursitis happens when there are small injuries that affect the bursae, the small sacs of fluid that cushion the knee joint. Tendonitis is an inflammation of the tendons in and around the knee. Runner’s knee is caused by misalignment of the knee, partial dislocation, injury, flat feet, or tightness and weakness of the thigh muscles.
Your best bet if you have any knee pain is to see your doctor or physical therapist. Your physical therapist can help you with exercises to rehabilitate and strengthen the knee, and advice on how to prevent more injury in the future.
