Hit The Gym For A Few Months Before Hitting The Slopes This Ski Season

(CBS4)- Researchers at Johns Hopkins University estimate about 600,000 people are injured each year as a result of skiing and snowboarding. On CBSN Denver, Kelly Werthmann talked to Dr. Wade Smith, an orthopedic surgeon with OrthoOne at Swedish Medical Center. He says ski injuries tend to fall into three categories:

"The first are broken bones, which myself and my colleagues take care of. Second, soft tissue injuries such as torn ligaments, knee injuries and then lastly, and perhaps most importantly concussions."

Dr. Smith says he does notice a difference between skiing and snowboarding injuries.

"Concussions, wrist fractures, and elbow fractures are relatively more common in snowboarders because of the way they often fall forwards or backwards. In skiers, we see more of the knee injuries, tibia fractures, torn ligament injuries, but also unfortunately concussions as well."

Dr. Smith says he has noticed a lot of ski injuries have something in common.

"Many of these injuries occur later in the day when people are tired and they've done many runs. They're on their 10th, 15th run down the mountain, their legs are tired. This is when people have accidents and they're less sharp."

Dr. Smith recommends slowing down later in the day and really check in on your body to make sure you aren't overdoing it. Also make sure you're always coming to the slopes prepared.

"It's not that easy to ski downhill, even if you're a good skier," says Dr. Smith. "You should be in the gym perhaps for a few months beforehand, strengthening your muscles, making sure your reactions are improved. We really like it when people do strength training, yoga, Pilates, or something else they like. This is really great prep for your ski season and now is the time."