Get fit before you go
Wednesday September 1, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

That's the message from the medical profession who warn that skiers and snowboarders risk a heart attack if they are unfit. Most incidents happen in the first two days. There are many more heart attack deaths than perhaps you might think.

A study by researchers from the University of Innsbruck in Austria reveals that heart attacks account for almost half the deaths on the slopes.

Of these half of the people who suffered them had not been doing the recommended levels of exercise in the run up to their holiday.

"Every year millions of tourists visit the Tyrolean Alps to participate in a variety of winter sports, each of which carries a certain risk of accident and injury," said Dr Bernhard Metzler, an associate professor of cardiology at the University of Innsbruck.

"Sudden cardiac death accounts for a staggering 40 per cent of the total fatalities amongst winter sports tourists in the Austrian Alps."

The team studied information from 1,500 patients admitted to the hospital between November and April over a four year period from 2006 to 2010.

Of these 170, had suffered a heart attack.

Most occurred in the first two days of the holiday and in the morning.

Go for it, but....As well as the exercise involved in skiing or snowboarding it must also be understood that the sports take place at altitude, where the air is thinner, and often in cold temperatures.

These two factors are also major contributory causes.

The cold temperatures constrict blood vessels and at altitude the amount of oxygen available is less.

The average height at which heart attacks took place on the slopes was 1,350m and the average altitude at which the victims live was 170m above sea level.

Here at PlanetSKI we recommend an exercise regime before you go skiing or snowboarding. Not only to avoid a heart attack but also simply to get the most enjoyment out of your limited time on the slopes.

We reckon cycling is pretty good and to start six to eight weeks before your holiday and then build it up as you become fitter.

...but don't forget to chill out too. ...don't forget to chill out too.Try walking up stairs instead of taking a lift and maybe walking briskly instead of driving on those short journeys. Leave the car at home.

You don't have to join a gym and take it all too seriously; just change you behaviour a bit.

Once out in the mountains it is also a good idea not to exhaust yourself and push too hard on the first day or so.

Keep hydrated and remember the effects of alcohol.

"Many people spend much of the year sitting behind a desk in an office and then come out to the slopes and expect to be able to ski hard and fast every day like they used to a few years earlier,' says our content editor, James Cove, who works as a ski instructor in Switzerland.

"Sadly it doesn't quite work like that as the years pass."

For more information on the research see this report from the European Society of Cardiology

For the spirit of the mountains