Falling on the ski slopes might cause severe pain, ligament tears or, in some cases, broken bones. In contrast, knee pain unrelated to falling is your body's way of warning you that something is wrong with your technique, equipment or both. Muscular imbalances and lack of fitness might exacerbate the pain. These pain-causing factors often are interrelated.
Overall Conditioning
Skiing requires weight bearing for hours at a time. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle, your body might be unaccustomed to spending many hours in an upright position. Muscle weakness often accompanies the sedentary lifestyle, and weak leg muscles tire quickly, especially when tasked with supporting your body weight and heavy equipment. The added weight of heavy ski gear makes it even more challenging. Significantly overweight people might find weight-bearing for long durations even more painful, British orthopedic surgeon Jonathan Bell told the "Telegraph" in 2008. Begin with shorter sessions on the slopes and use your love of the sport as motivation for getting into shape.
Joint Laxity
Joint laxity results from genetics or overstretching your muscles to the extent that you sacrifice the integrity of your knee joints, warns fitness coach Vern Gambetta, author of "Following the Functional Path: Building and Rebuilding the Athlete." Gambetta argues that overstretched muscles cause weak joints, and weak joints will not stabilize the knees. This spells disaster for skiers, because your knee responds to instability by performing superfluous movements that twist your ligaments into painful, stability-compromising positions. If you like to ski, balance your flexibility program with strength training.
Wedging
Instructors teach novice skiers the wedge, or pizza-shaped position, to help them gain confidence on the slopes, but this confidence might come at the expense of your knees. The wedge position puts added stress on your medial collateral, or inner, knee joints, says Dr. Mike Langran, creator of the Ski-Injury.com website. If your inner thighs already are weak and overstretched, using the wedge position for extended time periods may irritate your ligaments, or, in some cases, tear your medial collateral ligament. Ski lessons with a certified instructor help you break out of the wedge and into a more functional skiing method.
Backseat Skiing
The backseat position -- an alignment that shifts your weight away from your ski tips and toward your ski tails -- triggers a number of problems that produce knee pain. Your ski tips are less efficient than your ski tails. Initiating your ski turns from the tails of your skis causes you to skid your skis in a jerky, knee-unfriendly movement. Skiers with this alignment ski with their knees in a chronically locked position. Locked knees do not absorb the impact during mogul skiing and other types of terrain changes, says former Olympic mogul champion Anja Bolbjerg. The habit results from weak hamstring muscles or improper boot fit.
