SPRINT PHYSIOTHERAPY'S GUIDE TO MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TIME ON THE SLOPES THIS WINTER

Hands up how many of us can honestly say we take as much time or put as much effort into limbering up and stretching for a day on the ski slopes as we would, say, for 90 minutes of football, half-an-hour on the treadmill or an hour’s exercise class.

“It is one of the great mysteries of winter sports that so many people tend to forget the rules they would normally follow when it comes to preparing and warming-up for other sports, “says Trish Formby at Sprint Physiotherapy in Kensington. 'Despite the obvious and often somewhat painful physical demands of skiing and boarding, many of us tend to think that trudging to the first lift of the day wearing a pair of cumbersome ski boots is ample preparation for the day ahead. It really isn't.'

Stranger still is the fact that most of us tend to go skiing and boarding once a year, making the need for proper preparation before hand even more vital. Furthermore, when we do take to the slopes, we tend to go hard at it from day one instead of finding our feet slowly after a year's absence.

'All these factors,' explains Camilla Curtis, also at Sprint, 'together with the all-too-tempting après ski distractions, make a basic stretching and training programme, both before your trip and during it, absolutely fundamental to ensuring that you're nursing nothing more than a sore head on the slopes this winter.'

To get the most of your time on the slopes this winter, Sprint Physiotherapy have developed a two-part programme: