Shoulder Injuries in Skiing

Behnad Honarbakhsh, MPT, BHK, CSCS, CAFCI, D.O.(c), discusses shoulder injuries in skiing.

Shoulder injuries are very common in downhill skiing.

Part of the reason is the shoulder joint is a very unstable joint where you have a shallow socket with a big ball sitting there.

In downhill skiing, it usually happens when you fall with an outstretched arm.

The shoulder can get dislocated out of sockets.

You can also get a fracture through the head or neck of the humorous.

With shoulder injuries, determining the severity of the injury and the nature of the injury, there are several tools that we can use to help in your recovery.

Sometimes people will need some bracing or splinting in the initial phase while the tissue is trying to heal.

And these specialized braces will also allow people to have range of motion, and planes and directions that we want them too, without sort of keeping the joint in a stable static position where it can stiffen up and lead to other detrimental effects.

Taping is another option that we usually use for a shoulder injuries that help people get through rehab a little bit faster and sort of provides stability and control when needed as we sort of work through rehab to then sort of wean people off of that.

Now, it’s very important to get to a qualified physiotherapist so that they can determine the severity of the injury and whether or not to immobilize the shoulder with a sling or a brace perhaps or whether we need to start you off on rehab exercises right away in terms of strengthening and flexibility to get you back to recovery as optimally as possible.