Is Snowboarding Bad For Your Hips?

Snowboarding is one of the most popular winter sports in the world. This exciting sport requires a mix of balance, agility, and focus. It’s common to have some falls and injuries, especially when you are starting to learn how to snowboard properly.

So, is snowboarding bad for your hips? When you are snowboarding, you’ll often rely on your hips and upper body strength to guide the motion of the board. Because of this, you’re placing a lot of force on the hips. While this won’t damage them, you will need to make sure that you have stretched properly before snowboarding. You should also avoid this activity after a hip surgery.

So, you might be placing more pressure onto the hips when you are snowboarding, risking aggravating old injuries. But what are some of the most common hip injuries? How can you reduce the chances that you will be seriously injured while snowboarding?

Jump to a Section

Is Snowboarding Bad For Your Hips? What Impact Does It Have?

Like all sports, snowboarding can have a big impact on your hips. You’ll need to be moving your hips to control the motion of your snowboard. When you do this, you’ll often be placing pressure onto the hip joints.

When you are on the board, the way that you lean will determine the direction that you are traveling. Unlike skiing, where you use your legs and arms, snowboarding will rely on your upper body. As a result, you’ll need to use your back, arms, and hips.

In most cases, this extra hip pressure won’t cause any injury, as long as you are snowboarding safely. However, you will still need to take some precautions before you head out onto the slopes.

Why Is Stretching Before Snowboarding Important?

One of the biggest complaints after snowboarding is hip stiffness a few days. This pain occurs because they haven’t prepared their hip flexors properly. If you don’t adequately prepare your body, then place the hips under a lot of pressure, it can often lead to serious problems, like hip pain. Stretching will help prevent this.

The hip flexors run from your pelvis to your femur. These control movement in your lower body. When standing on a board, you’ll need to be using these frequently, as you try to maintain your balance.

However, if not used frequently, these muscles can tighten. For example, if you are sitting down in an office, you often won’t get the chance to use your flexors. As a result, when you go snowboarding, and place a lot of pressure onto these muscles, you might find that you will feel sore a few days afterward.

When you stretch out your muscles before you head out onto the slopes, you will be able to prepare your body. When you do this, you will be able to lessen the hip strain and reduce the amount of pain that you experience after snowboarding.

There are a few stretches that you can use to do this. Ideally, you should also stretch after you come off the board, helping your hip muscles relax. If you do this, you should be able to lessen the pain you experience after snowboarding. In some cases, you might be able to avoid any pain altogether.

Should I Snowboard After Joint Surgery?

It’s recommended that you avoid placing a lot of pressure on your hips after major joint surgery. This will give your body time to recover. As a result, most doctors would advise against snowboarding.

When you have hip surgery, your hip joints will tend to require a lot of time to heal properly. As a result, you will often need to avoid intensive activity for a while. If you agitate the area, you might end up feeling intense pain and face difficulty walking. In some cases, you might need to have another surgery, to correct the issue.

Because of the pressure that snowboarding places on the hips, most doctors would recommend that you avoid this activity. However, you should discuss your situation with a healthcare professional, to get a more personalized diagnosis.

What Kind Of Hip Injuries Can You Receive While Snowboarding?

There are multiple kinds of hip injuries that you might receive while snowboarding. In most cases, you will get a few bumps and bruises from falls. However, you might also experience more serious injuries, like hip displacement.

For most snowboarders, they’ll just end up receiving a few bruises, from where they have fallen over. Though you might be sore for a few days, these injuries will often heal quickly, and won’t leave any permanent damage.

While snowboarding is a safe sport, there is still the chance that you will end up with some serious injuries. For example, if you land awkwardly, you might end up doing some damage to your hip. There are a few types of injuries that you might experience. For example, you might hit a rock and fracture yourhip bone. In other cases, you might displace the hip entirely.

If you do have a serious injury, make sure to get it treated as soon as possible. Often, the faster that you are able to address the problem, the better the chances that you will make a full recovery.

For serious injuries, it can be weeks or months, before you can recover. Thankfully, these types of incidents are rare.

How Can You Prevent Hip Injuries While Snowboarding?

As we’ve seen, you might have a few hip injuries while snowboarding. Thankfully, there are some things that you can do to try and prevent this from occurring. First, you might want to wear impact pants, which can lessen the blow. However, the best precaution is to make sure that you are snowboarding safely.

What Are Impact Pants?

Impact pants are a common safety item worn by snowboarders. These will help you absorb the impact of a fall, reducing the damage that it does to your body. By wearing these, you will be able to reduce the chance that you have a serious hip injury.

Impact pants are typically worn underneath your snowboarding gear and often feature rubber spikes around the outside. These are designed to absorb the force of the impact, reducing the chances that you will have a serious injury.

Impact pants are most common amongst beginners, who don’t have a lot of experience. As you learn, you will fall a lot. However, if you have a pre-existing hip problem, you might want to wear impact pants, to form an extra layer of protection.

When snowboarding safely, you will often need to wear some other types of safety equipment. For example, you will need to make sure that you have a helmet. You might also want to wear elbow and knee protection.

Final Thoughts

Using a snowboard does place a lot of pressure on your hips. Because of this, some people might feel a little sore after their session. However, if you stretch properly, you should be able to stop this from occurring. If you are concerned about a hip injury, you might want to wear impact pants, which will help reduce the damage caused by a fall.

We would love for you to join our Facebook group over here and subscribe to us on YouTube as we start to show you the benefits to outdoor diversions and show why you should take time to enjoy them and not be stuck inside.