Winter Sports Readiness Program

By: Dr. Laura Wenger, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT

As soon as the temperature starts dropping at night and there are rumors of light snow up in the high country, many of our minds turn to winter activities. We have already had a few patients comment on the desire to feel strong and prepared to enter this winter season to enjoy their favorite sports- skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing to name a few. Due to this high demand in interest, we have come up with a Winter Sports Readiness Program to serve our patients and communities. This entails an individualized, sport-specific assessment to come up with a program to address your strength and conditioning coming into the winter sports season.

Assessing symmetry of movement is a large part of the Winter Sports Readiness Program

While a literature review of the role of exercise in winter sports injury prevention is very limited, as highlighted in a systematic review by Hébert-Losier and Holmberg specific to alpine skiing and snowboarding, we have seen anecdotally that increased levels of strength, endurance, and conditioning are indicated to tolerate the demands of winter sports.(1) Although not all sports injuries can be fully prevented due to many outside variables- such as conditions, other sport participants around you, and terrain variations and difficulty in relation to skill level- many factors can go into feeling more confident and prepared to participate in winter sports.

We use plyometric and dynamic movement testing to assess your movement patterns during the Winter Sports Readiness assessment

Our Winter Readiness Program initial assessment includes a battery of testing to assess your overall flexibility, strength, balance, and biomechanics during movement. An example of a test we use is the Star Excursion Balance Test where we assess for side-to-side balance symmetry in a challenging, dynamic reaching movement. This test has been shown in research to be associated with injury status when an asymmetry has been found.(2) This is just one example of a test that we use for our hour-long assessment. We tailor this assessment based on your specific history and goals for winter sports participation so that each assessment is individualized to you. At the end of the assessment, the Doctor of Physical Therapy you work with will explain your results and advise you on a custom program plan based on your performance and goals.

Getting a holistic assessment of your movement patterns and symmetry will allow us to give you recommendations on how to improve your function as you prepare for Winter Sports

So, if you’re looking for more guidance and a plan to make you feel your strongest and best going into this year’s winter season, be sure to call and make an appointment for your Winter Sports Readiness Program assessment as soon as possible to get booked with one of our PTs!

1. Hébert-Losier K, Holmberg HC. What are the exercise-based injury prevention recommendations for recreational alpine skiing and snowboarding?. Sports Med. 2013;43:355–366.
2. Stiffler MR, Bell DR, Sanfilippo JL, et al. Star Excursion Balance Test anterior asymmetry is associated with injury status in division I collegiate athletes. J Ortho Sports Phys Ther. 2017;47(5):339-346.