Knee strengthening and injury protection

your last one got banned

True.....but I have high hopes for whomever his successor is.

Sorry and a little surprised to hear that you’re not invincible.

I have no exercise advice (especially for someone who puts in the vertical that you do), but the thread seems to have expanded.

I have arthritic knees from way back, and I also have a frequently-sore ligament (or some such thing) in one knee that was injured a few years ago. I almost always start my ski days feeling just fine and often end them with a little knee pain. So I’m a good test case.

I use a large quiver, including the very fat K2 Darksides and skinny Shuksans. Plus XC. I ski telemark with quite a few parallel turns thrown in.

With that in mind, a few observations:

In general, if today’s conditions make it easier to ski on a given pair of skis, then those skis will be easier on your knees today. On a big powder day, the fattest skis will be the easiest and also easiest on the knees. On a groomer day, you’ll have more fun on the skinny skis and your knees will probably thank you. Never mind the physics, the lesson is: A big quiver is good for your knees. Something to keep in mind if you need some justification.

Also, try some Cho-Pat neoprene knee supports (“dual action straps”). I’ve used them for years, skiing and hiking, and I can readily tell the difference they make.

One more thing: Glucosamine.

In case you take the suggestion seriously, I think tele might actually be safer for your knees (probably more so if you always ski with boots in uphill mode, as I do), but pain seems to be less predictable. Tele turns might make your knee hurt more. The best thing about tele might be that it helps make the muscles around your knees very strong, which is exactly what you’re after.

One more thing: Glucosamine.

Call me a skeptic but the scientific evidence is that Glucosamine , in the normal dosed commonly ingested has no more effect than a placebo. I  have many friends that say different and take the stuff and my own wife takes many vitamins and supplements every day( much to my disapproval). I think the current supplement craze in Merika is more due to marketing and business than actual scientific results and in the long run could be more harmful than good.
YMMV but at least research the scientific results rather than anecdotal evidence which by it's very nature is biased.
See here.
www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/d...osamine-really-work/

oddly enough, I had soup for dinner tonight and my knees feel great....

oddly enough, I had soup for dinner tonight and my knees feel great....

That must be ddk's secret and why he can keep up the PowderBowl to BearPits hamster runs and get 50k every day without his knees giving out..............it' s the soup!

Call me a skeptic

Oh please, call me a skeptic too.

I joined the “supplement craze” about fifteen years ago when I was diagnosed with arthritis in my shoulder. The doctor -- I think he was a rheumatologist -- recommended glucosamine/chondroitin, saying it was cheap and had a good chance of slowing the arthritis and maybe improving it. After taking it for quite a while, I wasn’t so sure about my shoulder, but I felt that my knees were giving me less trouble on steep hikes.

Here’s something from the article you cited:

... they ended up measuring subjective pain relief ... . They tested 5 groups of patients on glucosamine, chondroitin, glucosamine and chondroitin together, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) or a placebo. The NSAID worked fastest and best, but not significantly so. None of the drugs worked significantly better than placebo. The placebo response rate was very high, which has been used to question the results, but which might also mean that there is a naturally high placebo response rate for this condition ... .


-- So, if you’re not taking glucosamine, you should at least be taking a placebo. Try the soup.