Most people do not realize how important it is to use good equipment that fits properly when skiing. The wrong equipment could cost you an arm and a leg or at least the use of them for a while with pins and steel rods in your bones and casts covering your limbs. It is important to have a good fit from your boots to your jacket. Proper ski size is also ultra important and most of all it is important to stretch out before you hit the slopes so you are not sprawled out later in the day waiting for paramedics and a stretcher instead.

Indeed all of us as we hit middle age still like to think of ourselves as teens with massive amounts of energy and invincibility, even if we know that is no longer the reality. A 30-minute stretching exercise will help immensely and lessen your chances for soreness of god forbid a serious injury, airlift and expensive medical bills. Not to mention the aggravation of being confined and or loss of work.

If you are going to be out there blazing a trail and taking a few risks, it makes sense to stack the deck in your favor before you go balls to the wall. Good equipment and proper warm-up with stretching exercises will make all the difference in the world. So, play it safe and then go ballistic. Consider all this in 2006.