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The weather forecast is calling for snow. You make sure your snow removal equipment is ready or if you're a winter sports enthusiast, you get your gear together to head for the slopes. But, what about you? Are you ready, physically, to shovel that snowy sidewalk or to take that last ski run?
"The majority of winter injuries just among the general population is usually related to slips and falls," said Dr. John Kunkel, D.O., with UPMC orthopedic care in North Central Pa.
"Usually slipping on ice or snow usually involves injuries to the wrist and the shoulder, and then sometimes even injury to the hip. Those are usually fractures or sprains. Also related to winter sports, most commonly skiing, we see a lot of skiing and in the winter, those are usually knee injuries and then similar with falls, injuries to the shoulder and wrist are pretty common," he said.
The older population is particularly at risk for slip and fall injuries because bones become more brittle with age. Balance is also an issue, which Kunkel said relates to "core stability and our ability to react quickly with our muscles and space."
"They're a little bit more at risk to fall anyway. So then you throw some ice in there...then those falls will result in fractures as we get older rather than just bumps and bruises," Kunkel said.
"There's no real great way to fall or our body has kind of built in reactions. We usually put our hands out to try and protect our head which is important. But then that usually results in those upper extremity injuries I was talking about. So yeah, there's no great way to fall. The best thing is to try and prevent falls," he said.
Going out to shovel snow can also result in slipping and falling, but the main injuries resulting from shoveling are related to the weight of the snow and using what Kunkel called the "proper lifting mechanics."
"When you're going out, you shovel and you have a bunch of heavy snow on the end of that shovel. You can injure your shoulders or your back as well. And so making sure that you're using your leg, you don't have the weight of that snow too far away from you," he said.
"Making sure that you're ready to do something like shoveling. We don't think of it as like a physical fitness type of an activity. But it really is, you know, getting up from the couch, cold and going right out and shoveling snow kind of sets you up for muscle pulls and strains. So kind of doing somewhat of a warm up and stretch before you go out and shovel snow and then just being conscious of your lifting mechanics making sure you don't have that weight too far away from you, or being hunched over trying to lift the weight and then hurting your back," Kunkel said.
Knowing when to seek medical attention for any injury is also important.
"I think if you have any significant pain. People are usually pretty good at understanding the difference between falling and having a bump and a bruise versus something that is more significant. But certainly if you notice any deformity of your arm that doesn't look like it used to or swelling that doesn't go away fairly quickly," he said.
"When you're dealing with joints, whether it's a knee or an elbow or shoulder, if you have instability where you feel it's shifting around on you and swelling of the joints that would be a reason to go get it checked. Really anything that is out of the ordinary and is not getting better, you should always go get it checked out by your doctor," he said.
Kunkel, who is a sports medicine physician, said there is always an increase in injuries during the winter months.
"I do see an uptick in skier injuries and that's usually knee injury. So the most common knee injury with skiing is an ACL tear. That's the main ligament in your knee that prevents the shin bone, tibia, from moving forward on the femur bone -- the thigh bone. That's the most common knee injury usually with skiers," he said.
Other common injuries with skiers include shoulder dislocations, wrist fractures from falls and then skiers' thumb, which is kind of a sprain where the skier's thumb gets jammed while holding on to the ski pole and the thumb is sprained backwards.
The important thing to do to try to prevent any of the injuries, either from winter sports or from removing the snow from your sidewalk, is to prepare for the increased activity.
"That's the biggest way to prevent all injuries, whether we're talking about sports injury or day-to-day life injuries that start kind of months in advance or weeks in advance, at least. That's some conditioning strength, your core and leg strength. That will give you an ability to prevent falls," he said.
"When you're dealing with skiing, if you haven't been active in the last few months and get out on the slopes your conditioning is going to be a little bit lower than it has been. So a lot of the injuries that we see in skiing often will happen on the last run. Have somebody say, I was going to head home and then I went out for one more run. That's a lot of times when the injury happens and that's because they're fatigued. When our muscles are fatigued, our form starts to suffer and then you set yourself up for falls or injuries in that regard," Kunkel said.
Just being aware of what your current conditioning level is and then not trying to exceed it is really important.
"All of a sudden when it snows, whether it's to shovel or go out and ski and hit the slopes just kind of having a good sense of where your current conditioning and physical fitness level is, will help prevent a lot of injuries," he noted.