Why (mogul) skiers have bad knees
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k s swigart
Sep 3, 2013, 12:11:48 PM9/3/13
to ride...@endurance.net
Diane said:
> A better comparison to a horse repeatedly trotting downhill, not
> jogging or shuffling, is mogul skiers. Arthritic knees in their 30s
> is not uncommon. Repeated stress of weight-bearing joints does
> damage.
Comparing trotting downhill to the damages to the knees caused by skiing is not really a very good comparison.
The stress on the knees caused by skiing are almost all lateral stresses (i.e. twisting). Knees are not very well designed to withstand lateral stress and skiing puts ENORMOUS lateral stress on the knees. These lateral stresses on the knees are exacerbated in skiing because a) the ski boot immobilizes the ankle joint (thus transferring some of the stress to the knees) and b) after immobilizing the ankle joint with a rigid boot, a long lever is attached to the extremity (i.e. the foot) which exponentiates those lateral stresses.
Skiers don't get bad knees from going down hill at high speeds, they get bad knees from making turns at high speeds.
Mogul skiing is worse because the terrain increases the forces of the turns.
The stresses associated with skiing are more comparable to the stresses horses joints are subjected to in the sport of cutting; although at least cutting horses don't some of their joints immobilized and then have levers added to the end. If cutting horses had to wear the equivalent of ski boots and skis, it would rip whichever joints weren't immobilized to shreds.
kat
Orange County, Calif.
:|
> A better comparison to a horse repeatedly trotting downhill, not
> jogging or shuffling, is mogul skiers. Arthritic knees in their 30s
> is not uncommon. Repeated stress of weight-bearing joints does
> damage.
Comparing trotting downhill to the damages to the knees caused by skiing is not really a very good comparison.
The stress on the knees caused by skiing are almost all lateral stresses (i.e. twisting). Knees are not very well designed to withstand lateral stress and skiing puts ENORMOUS lateral stress on the knees. These lateral stresses on the knees are exacerbated in skiing because a) the ski boot immobilizes the ankle joint (thus transferring some of the stress to the knees) and b) after immobilizing the ankle joint with a rigid boot, a long lever is attached to the extremity (i.e. the foot) which exponentiates those lateral stresses.
Skiers don't get bad knees from going down hill at high speeds, they get bad knees from making turns at high speeds.
Mogul skiing is worse because the terrain increases the forces of the turns.
The stresses associated with skiing are more comparable to the stresses horses joints are subjected to in the sport of cutting; although at least cutting horses don't some of their joints immobilized and then have levers added to the end. If cutting horses had to wear the equivalent of ski boots and skis, it would rip whichever joints weren't immobilized to shreds.
kat
Orange County, Calif.
:|
he...@sagehillcmk.com
Sep 3, 2013, 12:29:38 PM9/3/13
to ride...@endurance.net
What Kat says is a lot of it...but I would also add that the human being does NOT have that HUGE suspension mechanism that a properly balanced horse has for taking up the shock, either.
Heidi
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