6 ways to help you get back on the slopes after a snowboarding injury

Feb 5

How to be the comeback kid, part II

I received support abound and many questions after my last post, so it required an addendum. If you missed my first blog, please get up to date here: You Got This.

Photo taken from sitting on a chair lift with skiers on the chairs ahead of them. Bluebird day with beautiful clouds and moguls underneath. — Photo by Sandy Berkenbush

In addition, there were several more things that helped in recovering from a sports injury that others may find value in.

1. RICE, RICE, baby

Rest. Ice. Compression. Elevation.

I learned this in the sports trainer clinic in high school while my shin splints were constantly being re-taped.

I follow this for alll injuries, big or small.

Ice is huge immediately after injury

When ice is applied to an injury, it causes the blood vessels to constrict, which reduces blood flow to the affected area. This helps decrease swelling and inflammation by limiting the amount of fluid that can accumulate around the injury.

Additionally, the cold temperature can help numb the area, providing pain relief. You do not want to apply ice directly to skin, and should use a barrier like a cloth between ice and skin.

Using NSAIDs like ibuprofen can help tamp down the pain after you know and rest what is hurting. I happened to have a little emergency kit in my backpack, and immediately took 3 ibuprofen when I found myself splayed on the mountain- snow in every crevice of my gear- waiting for Ski Patrol.

If you have an injury that is going to take awhile, definitely invest (or borrow) an ice machine. (There will be no need to refill bags of ice, or constantly be going to and from the freezer.)

You fill the bucket with water and ice, attach it around the affected area (got your “C” for compression handled here too- double double.) Mine had time controls, as I about froze my leg off one time my physical therapist told me… (One of those things that is funny, now.)

*** As with anything, there are conflicting thoughts on ice therapy as it may impede the healing process because healing happens with inflammation. Please consult your doctor for more precise ways to treat your leg with cold and heat. ***

Rest

duh.

Elevation

Get that injury above your heart!

2. Sun

Vitamin D is HUGE. Vitamin D is essentially a hormone with direct action at the nucleus of each and every cell of the body.

Your copywriter out on the deck with her dog, Gunther. I would crutch myself out there and sit for at least an hour reading or just looking at the piles of snow (they made a bit of an igloo.) — Gunther enjoyed it too! Photo by author

Ask anyone who is in an office under fluorescents on the daily (ahem… Clint.) I hobbled out into the clear bright sun as many days as the sky would gift me.

I even got so warm at some points, I was down to my camisole! Given, there was a virtual igloo adjacent to me, reflecting all the light towards me… It was glorious to be basking in the sun in a frozen tundra.

3. Diet

The human body is 60% water… So, why do we shirk this responsibility as a collective so often?

Wellll even as the rebel that I very much am, I certainly do not. I try to consume at least 4 liters of water on the daily. Check this out if you don’t believe me: Science!

In addition, I watched my diet (for the most part)…

Foods that lower inflammation:

Fruits and vegetables
Legumes (beans and peas)
Whole grains
Fish that are rich in omega-3 fats (salmon, halibut, scallops, tuna, sardines, herring, anchovies, oysters, trout, mackerel)
Plant foods that are rich in omega-3 fats (walnuts, flaxseed oil, canola oil)

A beautiful bowl of veggies representing the rainbow: lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes, garbanzos, avocado, sweet potato, red cabbage.

These are all in my typical diet; I just upped my protein intake!

(Ok, maybe there was an uptick in my (Lactaid) ice cream intake… it has calcium, right? But also, comfort is nothing to shirk away! One must give oneself grace during these trying times.)

4. Supplements

My dear friend and master nutritionist, Pam Cho, M.S. Clinical Nutrition and Integrative Health at Connections Nutrition told me from the get-go to be taking:

Vitamin C 500mg, Zinc, Vitamin D 1000-5000IU, and calcium 1200mg, and Magnesium 500 Mg daily. I was already taking the bulk of this in addition with Tumeric (for a healthy inflammatory response.)

It was good to know being confirmed with a professional, I was on the right path!

Any questions? Contact Connections Nutrition.

5. Keep your brain busy & overall self, SANE

Wordle, Sudoku, a long binge-worthy series (the Crown in my case I normally wouldn’t sit still for…)

After a long heart to heart with Clint speaking about what I was going to do for work after the injury (I was selling residential solar at the time) I started researching my copywriting coaching classes while down for the count and looky here… Blogging away!

6. Visualizing

“Visual imagery is one effective method to help athletes recover more quickly. By utilizing imagery, athletes see themselves performing the movements of their sport. The ability to see the sport by utilizing the imagination creates a sense of motivation to return to the game.”

--Marty Durden, Ed. D., United States Sports Academy.

A snowboard stuck in the snow standing vertically with the ski mountain in the background. — Photo by Dane Deaner

I literally imagined going up the gondola and going down the Orion run. Having worked up at the mountain and taking this hundreds of times, I thought this best to get my “sea legs” back under me. Funny part, there happened to be technical failure and a temporary closure to the gondola in the days before my return.

As the great Carrol Shelby said in the movie Ford vs. Ferrari:

“Plans change!”

So, it wasn’t where I was that mattered… it was how I was and what I was doing.

Good thing I was visualizing how my legs were going to move underneath me and my feet on the board, and how my hips swing and my whole body is in motion. Difficult to explain in words, but you get the drift: I was imagining snowboarding whilst sitting on my couch, or laying in bed, or whenever one drifts off or daydreams.

My favorite question was: How did you feel getting back on the mountain?

Wellll… the power of meditation put me in the here and now. I was not concerned about something I had done so many times (1.) get off a lift- (2.) ride- your brain doesn’t forget to ride a bike! It might be clunky or awkward at first but the brain is remarkable!

I WAS afraid of involuntary palm sweating (this has happened countless times on high lifts, stopped high lifts, —> if I can’t see foreseeably jumping off a stuck lift it appears my body does not like this) or sweating in general…

None of this happened.

Conditions were not ideal but I took my time and just cleared my mind and focused only at the task at hand. Flow state is a very real thing for me, and i think it is one of the wonderful gifts of being human… and hey, by the way: