Preventing Common Snowboarding Injuries with Physical Therapy
Snowboarding is an intense winter sport requiring excellent balance, coordination, and agility while descending packed snow-covered slopes at high speed. Due to the high speeds and momentum gained when snowboarding, injuries due to falling are common and most often involve injury to the upper body, such as wrist fractures, separated shoulders, ligament and tendon tears in the shoulder, and concussions. A physical therapist can help a snowboarder not only recover from injury and safely return to the slopes but also prepare for the snowboarding season through a targeted strength and conditioning program.
Common Snowboarding Injuries
Snowboarding is an intense winter sport that involves descending snow-covered slopes while standing on a board that is attached to the rider’s feet, using a special boot, set onto mounted binding. Snowboarding requires excellent balance, coordination, and agility while descending packed snow-covered slopes at a high speed.
Over the last twenty years, injuries among snowboarders have occurred at higher rates than skiers with falls causing up to 85% of snowboarding injuries. The majority of snowboarding injuries are to the upper extremities, such as wrist and shoulder fractures, dislocations, and ligament and tendon strains or tears. Lower extremity injuries, such as ankle sprains or fractures, or knee ligament tears, are more likely to occur in skilled snowboarders.
The most common snowboarding injuries include:
Wrist injuries: sprained wrists or wrist fractures are common when beginning snowboarding as the snowboarder reaches out their hand to break a fall.
Separated or dislocated shoulder: this can occur due to absorbing the speed and momentum of snowboarding with your arm when falling.
Rotator cuff strain or tear: This injury to the muscles and tendons that keep the bone (humerus) at the top of the arm in the shoulder socket can occur during a fall, straining or tearing these muscles and tendons and leading to instability in the shoulder.
Concussions: A concussion can occur when a snowboarder falls at a high speed. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury that can cause physical, behavioral, and cognitive symptoms due to a direct blow to the head. The worst-case scenario is a fractured skull due to a high-speed direct impact.
Knee injuries: While knee injuries are more common among skiers, they can occur in skilled snowboarders who use harder boots (normally snowboarding boots are softer, but advanced snowboarders often opt to wear harder boots like skiers). Knee injuries can include a bruised or fractured kneecap from a fall or hard landing after a jump or an ACL tear due to a rapid twisting motion or quick changes in direction while going down the mountain at high speed.
Ankle Sprains: Ankle sprains and fractures are the most common lower-body snowboarding injury, occurring after a fall or bad landing. “Snowboarder’s ankle” is when there’s a fracture of the lateral process of the talus bone. Snowboarding boots are softer than ski boots and more comfortable but don’t offer as much support as ski boots when falling.
Snowboarding injuries are often caused by the high speed that snowboarders maintain going down the mountain, which generates an enormous amount of force. When a snowboarder falls, all of that energy goes into the impact they make with the ground. At that level of impact, even soft powder snow can contribute to injury. When a snowboarder falls, the snowboard acts as a brace, keeping the snowboarder’s feet in place and secured to the board. This means snowboarders are less likely to twist knees or ankles during a fall, but they may have a greater struggle to maintain balance, leading to more upper body impacts with the ground. People instinctively reach out to brace themselves when falling, which leads to more upper body, wrist, and shoulder injuries.
Physical Therapy for Snowboarding Injuries
A physical therapist can help a snowboarder not only recover from injury and safely return to the slopes but also prepare for the snowboarding season through a targeted strength and conditioning program. Snowboarding injuries, such as an ankle or wrist fracture or kneecap fracture or ACL tear, may require surgery. Following surgery, it is essential to work with a physical therapist to regain strength, function, and agility in the injured area. For injuries like a separated shoulder or a concussion, physical therapists use evidence-based treatment protocols to help snowboarders recover safely, effectively, and gradually before returning to the slopes.
Following an ankle or wrist fracture, a shoulder injury, or a ligament tear, physical therapy treatment can involve:
Pain and swelling management using ice and heat modalities, ultrasound, and TENS units
Passive, then active range of motion exercises to help restore normal movement and range of motion in the affected joint
Manual therapy: hands-on soft tissue and joint mobilizations to increase mobility and decrease pain in the injured area
Targeted muscle strengthening to improve stability and strength in the injured area and relieve stress
Functional training once the pain has decreased and mobility improves to help prepare for activity and sport-related movement
Therapeutic aerobic exercise to strengthen and condition the body, addressing any weakness or dysfunctions in surrounding joints that may contribute to instability in the injured area
Balance and agility training, particularly for knee and ankle injuries, to regain the ability to manage unstable surfaces and responsiveness to changes in the environment
After a concussion, it is critical to receive effective, timely, and well-monitored treatment for a full recovery. Physical therapists can help you manage a concussion using evidence-based treatment protocols and a personalized treatment program involving vestibular rehabilitation, manual therapy, balance training, and a gradual, progressive exercise program. Engaging in gradual, sub-symptom exercise training has been shown to help shorten recovery time after a concussion and help the brain adapt to the increased physiological demands of activity over time in a controlled environment with careful monitoring.
Physical therapists are also a great resource for snowboarders prior to snowboarding season. A physical therapist can help snowboarders prepare for the slopes by providing an assessment of the athlete’s cardiovascular flexibility, plyometric ability and control, strength, balance, and snowboard-specific strength. From there, the therapist can help address any deficits and weaknesses and design a customized strength and conditioning program to help prepare for an injury-free snowboarding season. The strengthening program targets the muscles of the ankle as well as the quadriceps and hamstrings to support the knee and the muscles of the arm, shoulders, upper back, and core.
Tips to Prevent Snowboarding Injuries
Snowboarding is an intense, demanding sport, requiring skill, strength, agility, balance, and coordination. It’s important to take steps to prepare for a safe, injury-free snowboarding season.
Maintain a consistent strength and conditioning program during the off-season, targeting the legs, arms, shoulders, and core, especially in the weeks before snowboarding for greater control.
Eat a healthy diet with plenty of protein and stay hydrated before, during, and after snowboarding.
When descending the slope, stay at a speed where you can maintain control.
Ensure your gear fits and functions properly to help you stay upright. Use wrist guards, a good board and boots, a knee brace, and always a helmet!
Maximize control by using proper snowboarding technique. Keep your arms loose and relaxed, back straight, and hips directly in line with the board. Keep your knees flexed and head up with your eyes focused on where you’re going and on the outlook for any obstacles.
Fall safely: If you feel yourself starting to fall, pull your hands in, flex your knees and get low to the ground. Do not reach out your hand to stop yourself from falling as this will lead to a wrist or shoulder injury. Depending on your momentum, either sit back into the fall or roll forward over the fall.
