Skiing and Snowboarding: What Happens to Your Vessels When You Hit the Slopes After Months of Rest
The Winter Season Arrives, and the Body Must Be Ready
Every year, the same story repeats itself. The first snow falls, the mountains open their lifts, and thousands of persons put on the boots, take the skis or the board, and throw themselves on the slopes with the enthusiasm of a child. But the body, in particular the cardiovascular system, has passed six, seven, eight months without this type of effort. And this is not a small detail.
Skiing and snowboarding are not simple walks in the fresh air. They are activities that ask to the heart and to the vessels a very specific and intense work, above all in the first days of the season. The cold air, the altitude, the rapid changes of direction, the muscular tension in the legs and in the core — all these elements together create a condition in which the arterial walls must adapt quickly to a request of blood flow that is much superior to the normal one.
For this reason, it is necessary to speak not only of technique and of equipment, but also of what happens inside the body, in the vessels, when a person passes from the office chair to a black piste at two thousand metres.
What the Cold and the Altitude Ask to the Circulation
It is important to understand the mechanism in a clear way, without complicated words.
When the temperature drops below zero, the vessels near the skin reduce their diameter. This is a defence of the organism, which tries to conserve the heat in the central part of the body. But this restriction means that the heart must pump with more force to send the blood where it is needed. The arterial pressure, in those moments, goes up.
At altitude, moreover, the air contains less oxygen. The body responds by increasing the frequency of the heartbeat. So we have, at the same time, vessels more narrow and a heart that beats more fast. It is a combination that, for a person who has not prepared the circulation in the weeks before, can produce a sensation of heavy legs, of short breath, and in some cases a real discomfort in the chest.
The snowboarding adds another element: the continuous isometric contraction of the thighs and of the calves. The muscles press on the veins and on the small vessels, and the blood must find the way to return to the heart against the gravity. Who stays all the day on the board, doing turns and stops, knows well the feeling of “legs of wood” in the afternoon. This is not only fatigue of the muscles. It is also a question of venous return and of microcirculation under stress.
How to Prepare the Vessels in the Weeks Before the Season
The error more common is to think that the preparation for skiing is only muscular. Squats, lunges, balance exercises — yes, these are fundamental. But the vascular system has its own training, and it is different.
Here what really helps in the four to six weeks before the first day on the slopes:
- Regular walking at sustained rhythm , at least thirty minutes for four times in the week. The cold morning air is even better, because it teaches the vessels to contract and to dilate in a gradual way.
- Contrast showers on the legs : two minutes of warm water, thirty seconds of cold water, repeated for three cycles. This simple practice stimulates the elasticity of the arterial walls.
- Hydration constant and abundant . In winter, many persons drink less water, and the blood becomes more dense, more difficult to circulate. At least one and a half litres of water every day, also if one does not feel the thirst.
- Reduction of the salt and of the processed foods in the two weeks before the departure for the mountains. The excess of sodium makes the vessels more rigid.
- Sleep of quality , at least seven hours. The vessels repair themselves during the night, in particular the endothelium, that is the internal lining of the arteries.
This is not a list of medical prescriptions. These are habits of common sense that make a real difference when, on the first Saturday of December, one finds himself at the top of a slope with minus ten degrees.
Nutrition and Support for the Vessels: A Practical Approach
The food in the period of skiing must sustain the circulation without weighing on the stomach. Heavy meals, abundant wines, the typical dishes of the mountain refuges — they are a pleasure, but they ask to the vessels a supplementary effort for the digestion, exactly in the moment in which the body is already under stress from the physical activity.
Better to privilege:
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Useful foods
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Why they help
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Blueberries, cherries, dark grapes
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They contain natural substances that protect the walls of the capillaries
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Walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts
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They give good fats that maintain the elasticity of the vessels
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Beetroot, spinach, leafy greens
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They favour the production of nitric oxide, which helps the arteries to stay open
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Fatty fish, two times in the week
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It reduces the internal inflammation of the vascular system
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In addition to the food, some persons choose to support the vascular tone with specific integrators. I have had the possibility to inform myself on formulations studied for this purpose, and among the products that I have examined with attention, Cardiobalance has resulted interesting for the approach that it proposes: a combination of natural extracts thought to sustain the elasticity of the vessels and the normal circulation, without aggressive substances. For who wishes to understand better the composition and the logic behind this formulation, the information is available on cardiobalance.biz, where one can read the details of the ingredients and the modality of assumption. I mention it not as a miracle, but as a possible complement to the habits of which I have spoken above, above all for who goes on the slopes only for few weeks in the year and does not have a constant training of the cardiovascular system.
The point is this: no supplement substitutes the movement, the hydration, the sleep. But in a context of seasonal activity, where the body passes from zero to an intense effort in the space of one weekend, a support to the vascular function can be a reasonable choice, discussed with the own doctor.
On the Slopes: Practical Rules to Protect the Circulation
Once arrived on the mountain, some behaviours make the difference between a beautiful day and a day of suffering for the legs and for the heart:
- The first thirty minutes must be of warm-up. Easy piste, slow rhythm, large turns. The vessels need time to adapt. To throw themselves immediately on a difficult run is not a proof of courage, it is a risk.
- Every forty-five minutes of skiing, it is good to stop for five minutes, to walk a little, to move the ankles. The blood that remains still in the lower limbs, in the cold, becomes more viscous.
- To dress in layers, but without compressing too much the waist and the groin. Tight elastic bands block the venous return.
- To avoid the alcohol at lunch on the slopes. It dilates the vessels in a moment in which the body is already under thermal stress, and the pressure drops in a sudden way.
- At the end of the day, ten minutes with the legs raised above the level of the heart. Simple, but very effective for the venous return.
Listening to the Signals: When to Stop
This is perhaps the part more important of all the article. The body speaks, and during a seasonal activity like skiing, it speaks with a voice that one must know to recognise.
If during a run one feels a pressure unusual in the temples, a tightness in the chest that does not pass after two minutes of rest, or a numbness in the calves that is not the normal muscular fatigue — it is necessary to stop. To sit down. To breathe slowly. To drink warm water or a tea.
These are not signs to ignore with the phrase “it will pass, I continue another run.” In the cold, at altitude, with the vessels already under stress, to ignore a signal means to ask to the body something that it cannot give in that moment.
For the persons above fifty years, or for who has a familiarity with problems of pressure or of circulation, a brief visit from the doctor before the start of the season is a gesture of intelligence, not of fear.
The Season Is Short, the Body Remembers
Skiing and snowboarding give a joy that is difficult to describe: the cold air on the face, the silence of the snow, the rhythm of the turns. It is a seasonal activity, yes, but the effect on the body lasts. The vessels that have been treated well during those weeks will conserve a better tone also in the months after. And the body, the next winter, will remember the preparation and will ask less effort to adapt.
This is the true sense of the preparation: not a list of obligations, but a way to arrive on the snow with the body ready, the head light, and the possibility to enjoy every single descent without that shadow of worry in the chest. The mountains are there every year. The question is only if we arrive ready to meet them.
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