Skip to main content

Après Ski: How to Recover Like a Champ

Skiing this winter? After you get off the slopes -- and before you head to the bar -- consider yoga, or an ice pack.

It was not your clichéd beautiful day in Vail, Colo., a spot known for enjoying more sunshine than most any other resort. It was overcast and unnaturally cold, with temperatures registering 11 below zero. Instead of mounds of fluffy white powder, the landscape was covered with hard-packed snow that felt like ice.

Suzanne Oliver, 46, an avid and expert skier since 1990 and a lightweight woman, was trying out new boots and they felt stiff in the extreme cold.

“They were too much for my small body,” she says. “I couldn’t flex them at all, so when I went down, I was immediately alarmed.”

She caught the edge of her ski and went tumbling down the mountain. Despite the mind-numbing cold, she was still thinking clearly.

ski-yoga-inline.jpg

“This was not my first rodeo with a torn ACL,” she says, referring to the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee. “I felt the pop and the tear. I felt my knee dislocate. And after the excruciating pain, there was nothing. No pain at all. That was when I knew I had completely blown out my knee. Again.”

According to the trade group Snow Sports Industries of America, an average of 8 million people ski in any year, 7 million snowboard and 3 million enjoy cross-country skiing. The vast majority are not professional athletes, but people like Oliver, who are out for an enjoyable winter day.

Injuries like Oliver’s are all too common in skiing today. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic surgeons, an average of 200,000 people injure their ACL every year in sports such as soccer, basketball and skiing. But there is good news. Despite her injury, Oliver was able to regain a full range of motion in her knee in just two months after surgery. How did she do it? She credits yoga.

Après Ski Is Not a ‘Green’ Run

While a torn ligament will ruin a skier’s year, there are other headaches and more common frustrations that can kill the buzz of your après ski experience, such as not being able to walk from pain in the legs or back. Every weekend warrior or once-a-year skier knows the feeling. It’s like an 800-lb gorilla jumped on your shoulders and refused to get off.

Beyond Downward Dog: The Rise of Yoga in the NBA and Other Pro Sports

“I have grown up skiing and skiing the moguls,” says Susie Masterson, a former competitor on the World Pro-Am Mogul Tour in Colorado and a professional ski instructor. “A typical day would be to ski 10 to 15 bump runs. Walking away, your thighs would be screaming. It was just miserable.”

And that was when she was younger! Aging can bring about positive changes in wisdom and spirit, but not so much in the muscles. Now that Masterson is 49, you would expect that muscle soreness after skiing to be worse. But instead, she says her body feels better.

“I can still ski as hard as I once did, but now I’m not in any pain afterward,” she says. “I attribute that to yoga. I can go hammer bumps all day long and my back doesn’t hurt at all because I have a stronger core and more awareness of my alignment.”

The Secret is not a Secret

The secret to enjoying a ski vacation and being strong for the slopes is not a secret at all: Take care of your body before and after your hit the slopes.

There are ski conditioning classes and personal trainers who can help build strong leg muscles, but it's tough to maintain a routine all year long and there aren't any gym exercises that can simulate actual skiing. The effort needed from a skier's muscles -- such as engaging the quads for extended periods of time -- is unlike any other sport. And it can be brutal to desk jockeys.

apres-ski-yoga-tile.jpg

While Masterson and Oliver were both exercising and working hard to build more strength, they didn’t experience a shift until they started a regular yoga practice.

“I am paying attention now,” Masterson says. “I know how to hold my body in alignment and play with my center of gravity. I use my core consciously and my back doesn’t hurt.” This change came from a four-times-a-week yoga practice.

Practicing yoga for skiing is for balancing out the typically tighter quads with the looser hamstrings, releasing painful feet and ankles and stretching out sore muscles to make for a better day on the slopes tomorrow. Yoga before skiing can fire up the gluteus muscles, release a tight iliotibial (IT), band, stretch the quadriceps and release calves. You can wake up your core and feel balanced and centered in your stance.

Teton Gravity Research: A family affair for snowboarder Jeremy Jones

Oliver, who was able to return to the slopes after her ACL tear the following season, believes her recovery was due to her time on the mat.

“My yoga practice does not vary for athletics or skiing, says Oliver, “I keep it the same all year round.”

Oliver, who is also a certified yoga teacher in Avon, Colo., says, “Yoga is a full body, mind and spirit experience. And so is skiing. You don’t just ski with your lower body. You use everything. You use the entire body to maintain a balanced position, you use the breath to be calm, and you use the spirit at times to get you down the mountain. Yoga works all of that.”

It’s good, until it’s not.

“It’s the third day that hits them,” says Jenn Metz, 54, a veteran ski instructor for Vail Resorts. Metz has been instructing skiing for 38 years and she knows how to coach her clients to have a great vacation, but still, they often wake up sore. “They have overall fatigue, tired legs, quads and sometimes calves.”

Metz also has a year-round business in fitness and nutrition and says the preparation before skiing is vital. “Once someone is here, there’s not a lot we can do. We can try to help them use our instruction more effectively, for example, if the quads are tired we can try to get them to ski in a more balanced or centered posture.”

For Après ski, Metz recommends the “Triple Whammy.”  “You need hot water, preferably with Epsom salts,” she says. “Hydration is king, and if they can tolerate it, an anti-inflammatory.”

A soak in a hot tub is a good choice, but there are other approaches to recover from strenuous activity, such as ice baths.

“Certainly most people say a hot tub is relaxing, but for breaking the inflammatory cycle, ice is the best thing,” says Andrew Parker, a leading orthopedic surgeon in Denver, who is often the choice of athletes from the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets. “From the standpoint of achiness, you would want to put an ice pack on the area. It is the best remedy for pain, combined with stretching.”

emily-cook-ski-yoga.jpg

Metz knows an ice bath might be the best thing after a long day on the slopes, but it can be tough to convince a skier. 

“For me to tell a skier to take an ice bath, that’s not going to fly,” she says. “A hot bath will also provide circulation and flush out the muscles. Also, I recommend self-massage with a hard ball, or padded wand or a foam roller.”

Former freestyle competitive skier Joshua Hensley learned to bring little hard balls and padded implements for après ski.

“I thought I could ski on natural talent, but I was unprepared and unconditioned,” says Hensley, 41. “I couldn’t compete at the level I should have.” 

To fix his problem, Hensley, along with two friends who also competed, created the Rad Roller, a family of products meant to reduce inflammation, stretch muscles and generate myofascial release. The myofascial connective tissue is a like a thin sheath that surrounds muscle and is difficult to stretch, however gentle pressure into it will eliminate pain and restore motion. The Rad line includes hard balls and rolling pins you press along the injured tissue after skiing.

“It allows you to pinpoint the myofascial build up and knots in your muscles,” Hensley says. “It’s a ‘hurts so good’ kind of ache, and afterward, it’s like night and day.”

With rolling, icing and yoga becoming the new normal for ski preparation and recovery, amateurs and professionals alike can enjoy snow sports comfortably well into mid-life, and beyond.

“Even though I’m older, I ski stronger,” Masterson says. “And I walk away strong. That has made all the difference.”

Michelle Marchildon is The Yogi Muse. She’s an award-winning journalist, the author of two books, and an E-500 RYT yoga teacher in Denver, Colorado.

4ac35768685511e180d51231380fcd7e_7.jpg
05ba8172623d11e28ed122000a9f1311_7.jpg
6ddd9202f9fb11e2a62a22000aa803cb_7.jpg
7c981fe664b511e299a722000a9d0ee0_7.jpg
41d37d30aab211e38c6712d7209e185e_8.jpg
42f578a2f45211e1aeda22000a1d0343_7.jpg
73f9a64cb98411e2bfae22000a9e0782_7.jpg
125bfeaaa30611e3b330122dbaf13212_8.jpg
439f71de3bfd11e28a5622000a1fbe35_7.jpg
40474db267c211e3a15612e740d32ce3_7.jpg
44522f24635a11e385ff1234c61f9f0f_8.jpg
915568_655396877872709_1803421949_n.jpg
916915_503936876371699_607145506_n.jpg
917266_366068120195659_2010358294_n.jpg
924839_246001528910126_93963715_n.jpg
928561_545514068892429_1672097920_n.jpg
929070_840938932590305_983258499_n.jpg
1171108_207352526115513_602214636_n.jpg
1171688_1398064857100650_708131161_n.jpg
1208414_166336466907721_722791386_n.jpg
1391292_230789577084057_82651871_n.jpg
1515572_278081159011632_216405222_n.jpg
1599469_1441749879390439_1692246672_n.jpg
1661426_580888688656194_1696127644_n.jpg
1661893_630209207062333_778408715_n.jpg
1742963_649189848478108_591928825_n.jpg
1963002_347731715368251_1456485683_n.jpg
3494914a851511e2b12d22000a9e295b_7.jpg
10005307_665193736874314_1142131933_n.jpg
10175142_613002205459914_275609748_n.jpg
10246179_442520815892556_1229909460_n.jpg
10254348_638202499568828_1836203644_n.jpg
10299651_253481338170508_938412283_n.jpg
10311246_644145192333461_1136789842_n.jpg
10326609_1426586224268025_626024325_n.jpg
10358314_1466058653637243_1198265897_n.jpg
10362351_258272471023539_318956980_n.jpg
10375848_458723080897444_811437423_n.jpg
10375885_633399313404214_2078644015_n.jpg
10387788_1417555098526516_544916659_n.jpg
10388038_318631414954914_640938939_n.jpg
10401620_417187668421189_1409220305_n.jpg
a2d6133e164e11e3ab4322000a1fa430_7.jpg
b0fa2a562c3b11e3ab6822000a1fb191_8.jpg
ba16bbeeaab311e38aca0e51ab9d14d3_8.jpg
d73bf0ee2c6511e3bb2322000a1fb131_8.jpg
da051f48dcf811e1b1281231381b6846_7.jpg
edb9b3dede6c11e2b82c22000a1fbca3_7.jpg
efdbe87eab7d11e39f6712f215cd2394_8.jpg
facc29fadd8a11e1a77722000a1e95c3_7.jpg