Every winter the same thing happens. The local mountains open, the first big storm rolls in, and people who haven’t skied or ridden since March head straight for the steepest runs on legs that have spent the summer on the Seawall and the patio. By January, my schedule fills up with knees.
You can’t control everything on the mountain. But you can control how ready your body is when you get there, and the next six weeks before the season starts are the best time to do it.
What Actually Gets Injured
Skiers: the knee is the most commonly injured joint in alpine skiing. Sprains of the MCL, the ligament on the inside of the knee, are the most frequent, often from catching an edge or a slow twisting fall. ACL tears are less common but far more serious, and they tend to happen in a few recognisable situations: falling backwards with the weight on the tails of the skis, landing a jump off balance, or trying to get up mid-fall.
Snowboarders: with both feet locked to one board, the knees are somewhat more protected. Instead, injuries tend to come from falls onto outstretched hands, so wrists and shoulders take more of the damage. That’s a topic for its own article closer to the holidays.
The common thread for both: most injuries happen when you’re tired, off balance, or reacting to something you didn’t expect. Fitness doesn’t remove those moments, but it gives you more control in them.
The Four Things Worth Training
1. Leg strength, especially single-leg
Skiing and riding are a long series of controlled squats under load, often more on one leg than the other. Strong quads, glutes and hamstrings let you hold a good position and recover when things go wrong. Good options: goblet squats, split squats (including the rear-foot elevated version), step-ups, and Romanian deadlifts for the hamstrings, which help protect the ACL.
2. Landing and knee control
How your knee lines up when you land and change direction matters. Practise hops and jumps where the focus is on a soft, quiet landing with the knee tracking over the foot, not collapsing inwards. Start with two-foot landings, then single-leg hops forwards and side to side. This kind of neuromuscular training is one of the best-supported ways to reduce knee injury risk in sport.
3. Endurance in the legs
Injuries cluster late in the day, when legs are tired and technique slips. Wall sits, longer sets of squats, cycling or the stair climber build the kind of burning-quad endurance a long run down needs. Aim to be able to hold a wall sit for well over a minute before your first day.
4. Balance and trunk control
Single-leg balance work, side planks and anti-rotation exercises help you stay centred over your skis or board and recover from small losses of balance before they turn into falls.
A Simple Six-Week Plan
Two to three sessions a week is enough. A sample session:
- Goblet squat: 3 sets of 8 to 10
- Rear-foot elevated split squat: 3 sets of 8 each leg
- Romanian deadlift: 3 sets of 8
- Lateral hops with a soft landing: 3 sets of 6 each side
- Wall sit: 3 rounds, building toward 60 to 90 seconds
- Side plank: 3 rounds of 30 seconds each side
Add weight or difficulty every week or two. If you’re new to strength training, start lighter than you think and focus on control.
On the Mountain
- Get your bindings checked and adjusted by a ski shop at the start of the season, especially if your weight or ability has changed.
- Ease in. Your first day doesn’t need to be first chair to last chair.
- Take the last run seriously, or skip it. Fatigue is when control fades.
- If you’re going down, try not to fight it with your legs straight out behind you. Keep your arms forward and your weight over your feet.
Coming Back From a Previous Knee Injury?
If you’ve had an ACL reconstruction, an MCL sprain, or a knee that’s never felt quite right, a pre-season check is worth it. I’ll test your strength side to side, look at how your knee handles landing and change of direction, and build a plan so you go into the season knowing where you stand, with the training done in the gym at Groundwork Athletics.
Read more about sports physiotherapy at GroundSwell, or book a pre-season assessment online.
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