#037 - Skiing into old age
Skiing Into Old Age: Why Preparation, Not Luck, Protects You on the Slopes
There’s something uniquely life-affirming about skiing. As an osteopath, I see people in their 60s, 70s and even 80s who still come alive at the sight of snow. Many move better, feel better and maintain strength, balance and confidence more effectively than peers who haven’t kept a physically challenging hobby. Skiing, for those who prepare for it, can be a powerful longevity tool.
But every winter I also see the other side: the injured. Knees swollen, backs seized, shoulders sprained injuries that aren’t surprising when you consider the physical reality of a ski holiday. And while skiing always carries risk, many of the injuries I treat are preventable.
Recent research from competitive snow sports provides a remarkably helpful framework for anyone not just elite athletes who wants to keep skiing well into later life. What becomes clear is this:
Performance and health are inseparable at any age.
“Health is just the basic requirement for optimal performance.”
(Bonell Monsonís et al., 2024)
The Myth of “I’ve Skied All My Life”
At this time of year, I hear the same confident claim:
“I’ve skied all my life, I’ll be fine.”
But often, the unspoken reality is:
You’ve skied for one week a year.
You spend the other 50 weeks sitting at a desk.
Your fitness hasn’t been tested since last season.
Then you ski 5 hours a day for six consecutive days.
And “recover” each evening with wine and cheese fondue!
From a musculoskeletal perspective, this is the perfect recipe for overload.
Elite skiing research highlights how sudden spikes in load are a primary contributor to injury (Soligard et al., 2016; Verhagen & Gabbett, 2019). These athletes train year-round, precisely to avoid the abrupt load shock recreational skiers routinely subject themselves to.
If even an elite, conditioned body cannot tolerate uncontrolled training spikes, we cannot reasonably expect a desk-adapted body to cope.
Strength and Resilience: Your Safety Margin on the Mountain
One theme the research emphasises completely supported by what I see in clinic is that strong, resilient tissue buys you wiggle room.
During a near-miss on the slopes a patch of ice, sudden stop, unexpected turn, someone cutting across your line your tissues have milliseconds to absorb force. You need:
stiff yet responsive ankles,
robust quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes,
a stable trunk,
reactive balance systems,
and adequate cardiovascular capacity.
If you’ve built these qualities in the weeks and months prior:
The knee holds when you catch an edge.
The back tolerates a rotational twist.
The hip stabilisers fire when the snow pushes you off-centre.
The body recovers better overnight.
Elite coaches call this preparing the performance system. Recreational skiers might call it looking after yourself. Both describe the same thing: capacity meeting demand.
Without that capacity, technical skill alone isn’t enough especially as fatigue sets in. Evidence from elite skiing shows that physical conditioning, neuromuscular control and strength are integral to both performance and injury prevention (Gilgien et al., 2018; Hydren et al., 2013).
Load Management: The Secret Weapon That Recreational Skiers Ignore
In competitive skiing, monitoring is continuous. Athletes report:
fatigue levels,
sleep quality,
perceived exertion,
mood,
aches and niggles,
and training volume.
Why? Because mismanaged load is one of the strongest predictors of injury (Soligard et al., 2016; Gabbett, 2016).
The recreational model, in contrast, looks like this:
11 months of low activity → 1 week of high-intensity skiing.
It’s the biomechanical equivalent of doing no running all year and then entering a marathon on day one of your holiday. Of course people get injured.
A structured pre-ski programme focusing on legs, hips, trunk, power, balance and aerobic fitness dramatically reduces risk and improves enjoyment. We have research on ACL risk in alpine skiing (Westin et al., 2020), on neuromuscular deficits in young competitive skiers (Ellenberger et al., 2020), and on injury-prevention programmes improving outcomes (Schoeb et al., 2022).
Recreational skiers might not need to train like professionals but the principles are the same.
The Mental Side of Skiing Into Old Age
One of the strongest and, in my view, most human insights from the Bonell Monsonís et al. study is the importance of mental readiness.
Athletes, coaches and medical staff repeatedly described how:
“The mental aspect is as important as the physical aspect.”
For older skiers, this manifests differently:
Fear of falling.
Loss of confidence after a past injury.
Hesitation on steeper slopes.
Reduced trust in one’s balance, strength or reactions.
Confidence, however, is not fixed. It improves with physical preparation and familiarity of movement. Stronger bodies move with more assurance. Better-balanced bodies respond more fluidly. The mind follows the body’s lead.
Research into mental load in action sports shows similar findings: emotional and psychological readiness supports safer motor patterns and better stress tolerance (Collins et al., 2018).
The real win is skiing for life.
Elite athletes frame winning as crossing a finish line first. For the rest of us, winning looks different:
Being able to ski with children or grandchildren.
Going home uninjured and energised.
Feeling strong, capable and alive in the mountains.
Continuing to ski into your 60s, 70s or beyond.
The research is clear, and so is clinical experience:
Health and performance are two sides of the same coin.
If you cultivate both, you extend not only your skiing life, but your physical life more broadly.
Skiing is challenging and that is exactly why it is so beneficial. Challenge, when approached with preparation, is one of the most powerful anti-ageing tools we have.
Thank you
Rich Baggot La Velle - Osteopath
References
· Bonell Monsonís O, Balsiger P, Verhagen E, et al. “Health is Just the Basic Requirement for Optimal Performance and Winning”: Stakeholders’ Perceptions on Testing and Training in Competitive Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding and Freestyle Skiing. Sports Medicine. 2025;55:221–239.
Collins D, Willmott T, Collins L. Periodization and self-regulation in action sports: coping with the emotional load. Front Psychol. 2018;9:1652.
Ellenberger L, Jermann J, Fröhlich S, et al. Biomechanical quantification of deadbug bridging performance in competitive alpine skiers. Phys Ther Sport. 2020;45:56–62.
Gabbett TJ. The training–injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter and harder? Br J Sports Med. 2016;50:273–280.
Gilgien M, Reid R, Raschner C, et al. The training of Olympic alpine ski racers. Front Physiol. 2018;9:1772.
Hydren JR, Volek JS, Maresh CM, et al. Strength and conditioning for alpine ski racing: a review. Strength Cond J. 2013;35(1):10–28.
Schoeb T, Fröhlich S, Frey WO, et al. The ISPAlnt injury prevention programme for youth competitive alpine skiers. Front Physiol. 2022;13:826212.
Soligard T, Schwellnus M, Alonso J-M, et al. How much is too much? Br J Sports Med. 2016;50:1030–1041.
Verhagen E, Gabbett T. Load, capacity and health. Br J Sports Med. 2019;53:5–6.
Westin M, Harringe ML, Engström B, et al. Prevention of ACL injuries in competitive adolescent alpine skiers. Front Sports Act Living. 2020;2:11.