Heart attack risk on a ski holiday

Untrained risk heart attack on ski holidays. DAK advises to prepare well for the winter sports holiday

11.01.2011

Anyone who exaggerates the strain on the slopes without training can harm their heart and increase the risk of heart attack. About 40 percent of deaths in winter sports in the Austrian Alps are due to sudden cardiac death, mostly as a result of a heart attack. This is the result of an Innsbruck study *. Half of those affected had not moved much before their skiing holiday.

Fitness for winter sports
If you have booked your winter holiday, you should start as early as possible with ski gymnastics and adjust the body to the strain. Untrained generally a high risk of injury, warns DAK sports scientist Uwe Dresel: „The main thing is to prepare the muscles for the high loads in the snow, ie to improve the strength, flexibility and endurance.“ One to two training sessions a week are ideal for preparation. Sports clubs and gyms usually offer special courses.

Beware of overconfidence
„If you have not been on the slopes for a long time and you do not do much sport then you should not trust yourself too much“, advises Uwe Dresel. If the knees are soft, this is an alarm sign for an overload of the body. His tip: Do not overestimate your fitness level, slowly increase your daily workload and consciously plan regeneration phases. „At the end of the vacation, there is often an over-training condition - the muscles get tired every day. That's why you should treat yourself to more peace on the last days of your vacation“. (pm, dak)

* Study data of a group of Innsbruck cardiologists. Between 2006 and 2010, 170 patients of the Innsbruck University Hospital with acute myocardial infarction were examined during winter sports holidays. Most sufferers were tourists from Germany and Holland

Picture credits: Rainer Sturm