Knee strengthening and injury protection

Get thee on a bike!! I had my ACL replaced at the end of April and by July I was logging 50 mile road rides. I used a cadence counter and kept the rpm's above 90 during the entire rehab. I kept the rides flat and didn't put a load on the knee by climbing steep hills. Mountain Biking would not be my first recommendation because of the slow cadence involved and the up and down nature of most mountain biking trails.

Proceed at your own pace however.

Sorry to hear if that's an official Dx Silas.  Did you have a clean out/trimming of the meniscus already? If something is torn and catching there really isn't much that can be done to improve it non-surgically.  Post-op, return to activity sort of depends on whether there was an attempt to tack it back down/repair vs. resection.  A repair will likely involve a couple weeks (up to 6) of non-weight bearing; I wasn't able to repair my bucket handle tear so I'm without 70% of my left knee medial meniscus.

What has worked for me immediately following knee injuries (plural) is low resistance spinning on an stationary bike, 30-60 min/day 5-6x /week for the first month or so. Outdoor is ok too but you really want to limit hills so that gets a bit more difficult in our area.  Continue with the the spinning and gradually increase resistance in the 3-4th week. This means you may need to get up early and do this before skiing or in the evening when you get back- it's impossible to ski you knees stronger.

I've gone through Kneehab 3x with Olympic, good people and a good program IMO.  Increasing core strength and working on proprioception were the key elements I took away as the best things to do to prevent knee injuries from re-occurring.  One more thing is to increase the hamstring strength, as skiers tend to have overdeveloped quads and weaker hammys.

Fat skis are easier on the knees generally, unless it's a hard snow surface or where one is really trying to engage the ski edge. Skiing only soft snow does wonders for my knees; yesterday's conditions have me feeling sore in the knees today.

Also stop skiing when conditions are bad or marginal( heavy or hard).....save the knees for good days. I know that's hard for you but longevity is the key...like pacing yourself dude.

Correct ! And cross train on the funky days.

Wrong, in BC conditions here in the PNW particularly , a fatter ski will help his knees and help him stay above the crud and windpack and sludge and smooth out our heavy pow. Many of the older geezers I ski with have gone Phat and confirmed that it's helped their knees and back etc.

you should stick to soup reviews and reminding us that your friend is banned....

On any surface where a skier is angulating to ski on his edges, a narrow ski presents a shorter offset from the ski's center and is a leverage advantage mechanically. IE, greater leverage...

As far as soft snow goes and skiing on your ski's surface area (rather than it's edges) I would point out to you that the reason that your fat ski floats more than a skinnier ski is because it's greater surface area applies more force to the skier giving him more floatation... How is more force applied to the skier better for the knees???

perhaps I should remind you more often that physics is not banned on this website..???

Silas, I have a training bike you can have if you like. I couldn't run on pavement for conditioning. My knees swelled up like balloons after every run. The bike with no resistance helped immensely.. It's here in Preston if you want it.

I'm an engineer so I like physics and I make my living from applied Physics,  but in reality ( physics aside), I would say that 95% of the geezers I know have found phat skis more forgiving on their knees , back and bodies, unless of course they are using them on hardpack. But to each his own.

I would point out to you that the reason that your fat ski floats more than a skinnier ski is because it's greater surface area applies more force to the skier giving him more floatation...

I think we need to draw a free body diagram here.. lol