Snowboarding in Japan

Read this blog about my snowboarding prowess, how you are vulnerable to injury when pregnant or a new Mummy and how you can prevent injury when returning to or starting a new exercise.

I am an excellent Apres skier. Classy outfit, good drinker. We are about to travel to Japan to go on a snow boarding holiday. My first trip to Japan was our ‘honeymoon’ and we have gone every year since. My husband loves snowboarding. He is actually really good at it, and I would love to see him in full flight on the black runs, but it is hard to perform at your peak on the gradient of the green runs your wife only dares venture to. I am a terrible skier and boarder.

It is a regular source of entertainment amongst my old friends, for them to recall me demonstrating to my friend how to ski, on the greenest of runs in full, slow motion, snow plough, and spectators in shock that I was the teacher. My honourable experience had come from a few school and family trips where my long gangly giraffe legs somehow survived the cruel encouragement of my PE teacher to go down a black run. Apparently, it is not the done thing to walk down the hills with your skis so the only way down was at full speed completely out of control until skis, stocks and I went flying in all directions. Retrieval process followed and then the procedure started again! This trip finished with an injury. Not a heroic black run injury but on a t-bar lift. My dodgy dislocating knees, which have always made me apprehensive of any sport on my own two feet, dislocated as another person’s skis going in the opposite direction got tangled in mine. Impressive.

I think it is purely the ease with which my knee caps dislocate that has always made me a scaredy cat when it comes to sports that rely on the skills of my feet and legs. I was planning on jumping out of a plane for many years, love fast cars, was good at Rowing because I could just sit and pull bloody hard but exercising upright (bar walking!) instils fear in me, even recalling this while writing this blog. So, it is definitely the love of my husband that takes me to Japan, in the middle of the beautiful hot Australian Summer to -10° C Hakuba.

Don’t worry I am not a submissive housewife looking for my next hit of valium. I am building up my holiday credits for a longer European holiday basking in the Italian and Greek sun with a Campari soda. My kind of holiday!

Preseason training

So that I can still be a functioning physiotherapist, Mummy and wife, I need to make sure I can get down those green runs without injury. Different sports require different skills such as muscle strength, cardiovascular endurance, reaction time. Being on top of these particular skill sets will help prevent injury as well as make you competent/ excellent at your sport. With snow-boarding, to prevent injury the main skills you need are: technique (tick), muscle strength, agility, flexibility, muscular endurance and depending on how much you ‘carve up the slopes’, cardiovascular endurance.

“Different sports require different skills… being on top of these will help prevent injury…”

Flexibility

Generally, you don’t need that much flexibility as a snowboarder unless you are doing crazy tricks. However, in my case as an eternal beginner, I need decent soleus (calf muscle) length and general ankle flexibility (dorsiflexion) to keep getting myself up from sitting on the snow to standing, so I need to stretch those. The good snowboarders don’t fall often and basically stand with only slight knee bend. I am squatting more because basically I am losing my *&$% and want to be as close to the ground when I fall, again! Can you tell I love snowboarding?

Strength

What I do love about snowboarding, apart from the beautiful views, time with family and friends, great Japanese food, getting a cold beer from the snow outside your chalet front door…. Is that I come away stronger than when I went.

Don’t do it this way! You are more likely to injure yourself if you have not adequately prepared yourself. I have always thought it was a waste of money my husband exercising with a personal trainer but it is the only way he will exercise. I used to be quite motivated to do my own fitness but have found it hard to find a routine again since having our daughter Misaki. I used to go for 1-3 hour bushwalks but that just can’t happen anymore.

“You are more likely to injure yourself if you have not adequately prepared yourself”

Anyway, today I joined my husband with his personal trainer because I need help to kickstart some serious fitness and strength training before we leave in 3 weeks. I LOVED it so much! I have known full well that I have been getting down because I have not been prioritising exercise. I have been feeling lethargic too and it is all due to lack of exercise and the associated oxygen to my brain and endorphin release. One session and I feel mentally so much better and I know that 6 more of these before we leave will do me so much good. It is all about taking the first step with fitness routines.

“… I have been getting down… and lethargic too and it is all due to the lack of exercise and the associated oxygen to my brain and endorphin release…”

So, what we will focus on in these sessions is quad, glutes and core strength, the main muscles required for snowboarding, especially when you are having to stand from sitting a lot, and squatting as low as I do. It’s a pretty sight trust me. You can work on the legs and glutes with lots of squats and lunges. My knee has been sore too but I know that strengthening my quads will probably sort that. I have an appointment with my physio today to have a look too.

With the core strength, it depends on your core strength baseline and recovery of your linea alba after pregnancy. It is best to get your strength assessed by a physiotherapist before doing heavy core exercises like the bicycle crunches and planks which we did today.

“With the core strength, it depends on your core strength baseline and recovery of your linea alba after pregnancy…”

Agility and Balance

The squat jumps, scissor legs (not the one seen to the right!) etc will be good for our agility and balance too. This will help us to have quicker reaction time when our balance gets thrown. If you have had grade 3 or 4 vaginal tears with child birth, you are at risk of pelvic organ prolapse which will be increased with high impact exercise such as these so I would advise getting this assessed by a women’s health physiotherapist if you have had significant vaginal tears.

“If you have had grade 3 or 4 vaginal tears with child birth, you are at risk of pelvic organ prolapse which will be increased with impact exercise…”

Muscular and Cardiovascular Endurance

I need to build up my fitness and endurance too so hopefully this will be the start of more walks with Misaki in the pram up and down the hills.

How to prevent injury when commencing exercise when an expectant or new Mummy

As an expectant or new mother what can you learn from this blog? Do not go skiing or boarding if you are in your third trimester or even your second! You place great risk on your unborn baby if you fall. If you are planning a big exercise holiday whilst pregnant or shortly after having a baby, you are more vulnerable to injury. Your ligaments are generally weaker so your joints are more vulnerable to injury as the ligaments can’t be relied upon to support them. At this time, you need more muscular support to replace the lack of ligament strength but with exhaustion and being tied to your baby can lead to your muscles being weaker and stiffer too, so you are less flexible. Along with less flexibility you have not been jumping around so you could be less agile so more likely to have a slower reaction time and not be able to recover as well from challenges to your balance.

If you are a new Mum, you need to prepare more than pre-pregnancy. Get a physiotherapy assessment to assess the fitness factors required for your sport to see if anything needs to be addressed and then get an individual program written up. This especially applies for the last trimester and first 6 months or so after birth when you are most vulnerable to ligament weakness. The longer you have been inactive whilst being a new Mummy will make you generally weaker, less fit and less flexible. If you have done a great job at returning to strength and fitness as a new Mum, congratulations. If the exercise has been specific to the exercise holiday you are about to embark on you are much less at risk of injury.

So, wish me luck and I hope to see you on the flip side (well at the end of the green run).

Summary

Prepare yourself before going on an exercise holiday with appropriate preseason training for the sport.

You are more vulnerable to injury in your third trimester or for the first 6 months after having your baby.

Continuing similar exercise whilst pregnant if you are previously fit is safe but seek guidance about an exercise program whilst pregnant if you are largely sedentary.

As a pregnant or new Mummy seek guidance from a physiotherapist if you are unsure of your abdominal strength/ linea alba separation or pelvic stability before commencing an exercise program.

If you are still reading, here is an example of my snowboarding prowess.

Melli Tilbrook is an Physiotherapist based at Adelaide Physiotherapy and Pilates Studio, Beulah Park.