3 Common Concussion Myths Debunked — What Skiers and Outdoor Athletes in Vermont Need to Know

When you work with outdoor athletes — skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers, trail runners — concussions come with the territory. Not because these sports are reckless, but because any activity that involves speed, terrain, and the occasional unexpected contact carries inherent risk.

Most people know that physical therapy helps you recover from muscle strains, ligament sprains, post-surgical rehabilitation, and overuse injuries. Fewer people know that physical therapy is also a critical service for identifying and recovering from concussions and other traumatic head injuries.

Even fewer people understand concussions well enough to recognize one, respond to one appropriately, or know what full recovery actually requires.

Part of the problem is misinformation. There are several widely held beliefs about concussions that are simply wrong — and those beliefs lead to delayed treatment, incomplete recovery, and in some cases, return to activity before the brain has healed. That is where the real risk lives.

In this post we are going to bust three of the most common concussion myths — because understanding this injury accurately is how we protect ourselves, our families, and our community on and off the mountain.

What Is a Concussion?

A concussion — also called a mild traumatic brain injury, or mild TBI — is an injury to the brain caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement causes the brain to bounce or twist inside the skull, creating chemical changes in the brain and sometimes stretching and damaging brain cells.

The word "mild" in mild TBI refers to the fact that concussions are generally not life-threatening — not that they are insignificant or self-resolving without attention. Concussions are real injuries that require real management, and the myths below are the most common barriers to people getting that management.

Myth 1: Concussions Only Happen to Athletes

It is easy to assume that concussions are an athlete problem — something that happens in football, hockey, or MMA, not something that affects the general public. This assumption is wrong in two important ways.

First, concussions happen in non-contact sports too. In children and adolescents, only about 40 percent of concussions come from contact sports. The majority occur in non-contact athletic activities — soccer, cycling, skiing, gymnastics, and others where collision is not the primary risk but falls and unexpected impacts still happen regularly.

Second, you do not need to be playing a sport at all to sustain a concussion. Roughly 30 percent of all reported concussions occur outside of sport or recreational activity entirely. They happen during traffic accidents, workplace incidents, falls at home, and everyday events that no one categorizes as athletic.

In the Northeast specifically, falls on ice are one of the most common causes of concussion we see — not on the mountain, but in parking lots, on sidewalks, and on driveways. Banging your head on a cabinet, being struck by an object, or a sudden deceleration in a vehicle can all produce a concussive injury.

The assumption that concussions only happen to athletes creates a blind spot. It means a significant portion of people who sustain concussions do not recognize what happened, do not seek appropriate care, and do not recover as fully or as quickly as they would with proper management.

Concussions are not selective. They can happen to anyone, anywhere.

Myth 2: Wearing a Helmet Protects You From Concussions

This is one of the most persistent and potentially dangerous myths in outdoor sport — particularly for the skiing and snowboarding community where helmet use is common and the false sense of protection it creates is real.

Here is the important distinction: a helmet's primary job is to protect your skull, not your brain.

Helmets are extraordinarily effective at preventing skull fractures, lacerations, and other bony injuries to the head. They are designed to absorb and distribute the direct impact forces that would otherwise concentrate on the skull. In that role, helmets save lives and prevent serious structural injury — and everyone on the mountain should wear one.

But a concussion is not a skull injury. It is a brain injury — caused by the rapid acceleration and deceleration of the brain inside the skull, which creates internal forces that a helmet cannot fully mitigate. Research in the ski and snowboard industry has found that skiers and snowboarders who sustain head injuries are not significantly less likely to experience a concussion when wearing a helmet compared to those not wearing one.

Helmet technology is advancing. Engineers are increasingly designing helmets to address rotational forces — the type most associated with concussion risk — rather than just linear impact forces. Some newer helmet designs do reduce concussion risk meaningfully compared to older models. But the fundamental limitation remains: no helmet currently available eliminates concussion risk.

The practical implication is not to stop wearing helmets — wear one, every time, without question. The implication is to not let helmet use create a false sense of protection that encourages riskier behavior on the mountain or reduces vigilance about head injury symptoms after a fall.

Myth 3: If You Did Not Pass Out, You Probably Do Not Have a Concussion

This is the myth I have seen cause the most harm in practice — because it leads people to dismiss a real injury and return to activity too soon.

The reality: the vast majority of concussions do not involve loss of consciousness. The CDC is explicit on this point. Most people who sustain a concussion remain fully conscious throughout. Loss of consciousness is not a diagnostic criterion for concussion — it is simply one possible symptom among many, and not a particularly common one.

I have seen this play out on the slopes as a coach, on the field as an athlete, and in the clinic as a provider. The person who stayed conscious after a hard fall, shook it off, and went back to skiing is often the one who shows up weeks later still struggling with headaches, brain fog, light sensitivity, and difficulty concentrating — because the injury was dismissed in the moment.

There is also an interesting clinical observation worth noting: loss of consciousness after a head injury does not necessarily indicate greater severity. There is some evidence suggesting that brief loss of consciousness may actually represent a protective mechanism — and that athletes who pass out occasionally recover faster and more completely than those who sustain equivalent impacts without losing consciousness. The mechanisms are not fully understood, but it underscores that loss of consciousness is not a reliable severity marker in either direction.

If you or someone you are with takes a significant blow to the head — on the mountain, on the trail, or anywhere else — the question is not whether they passed out. The question is whether they have symptoms. Headache, pressure in the head, brain fog, sensitivity to light or noise, nausea, balance problems, feeling slowed down, or difficulty concentrating are all concussion symptoms that deserve evaluation regardless of whether consciousness was lost.

What Concussion Recovery Actually Looks Like

Now that we have established what concussions are and are not, it is worth addressing what recovery actually requires — because "just rest until you feel better" is an oversimplification that leaves many people with prolonged symptoms.

Concussion recovery is active, not passive. Rest is important in the acute phase — the first 24 to 48 hours — but prolonged complete rest beyond that has not been shown to accelerate recovery and may actually slow it.

Evidence-based concussion rehabilitation includes:

Symptom monitoring and graded return to activity — a structured protocol that progressively reintroduces exertion at levels that do not provoke symptoms, gradually building back toward full activity.

Vestibular and visual rehabilitation — the vestibular system and visual processing are commonly affected by concussion, producing symptoms like dizziness, balance difficulty, and visual disturbance. Targeted exercises to address these systems are a core component of effective concussion rehab.

Cervicogenic symptom management — many concussion symptoms, including headache and neck pain, have a cervical spine component that responds well to physical therapy treatment of the neck and upper back.

Breathwork and nervous system regulation — one of the first tools we teach concussion clients at Snow Beast Performance is diaphragmatic breathing. The ability to regulate the nervous system through breath has a direct calming effect on concussion symptoms and gives clients an active tool they can use throughout the day to manage how they feel. If you want to understand the power of breathing as a recovery tool, read our post on the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing.

For a deeper look at how the brain processes threat and produces pain, read our post on why your brain tells you about pain.

At Snow Beast Performance, we work as part of a team for concussion clients — coordinating with physicians, neuropsychologists, and other providers as needed to ensure each client gets the full scope of care their recovery requires.

Concussion Care in Williston, VT

We know concussions happen throughout ski and snowboard season in Vermont — and we know they happen year-round too. Falls on ice, bike crashes, workplace accidents, and everyday incidents all bring people through our doors with head injuries they sometimes did not even recognize as concussions.

We are educated and prepared to manage this injury. If you or someone you know has recently sustained a head injury and is not sure what is going on or what to do next, reach out. A conversation costs nothing and could make a meaningful difference in how completely and quickly recovery happens.

Our physical therapy services in Williston, Vermont begin with a free 15-minute discovery call. We are happy to talk through what happened, what you are experiencing, and whether we are the right fit to help.

Get started whenever you are ready.

FAQ: Concussions for Outdoor Athletes

What are the most common symptoms of a concussion? Concussion symptoms include headache or pressure in the head, brain fog or difficulty thinking clearly, sensitivity to light or noise, nausea or vomiting, balance problems, dizziness, feeling slowed down, blurry or double vision, difficulty concentrating or remembering, and sleep disturbance. Symptoms may appear immediately or develop over hours to days following the injury. Not all symptoms are present in every concussion — even a few of these following a head impact warrants evaluation.

When should I see a physical therapist after a concussion? As soon as possible after the acute phase — generally within the first week following the injury. Early physical therapy assessment can identify vestibular, visual, and cervical components of your symptoms and begin appropriate intervention rather than waiting for symptoms to resolve on their own. Research consistently shows that early active rehabilitation produces faster and more complete recovery than prolonged rest.

Can I ski or exercise after a concussion? Not immediately — and not without professional guidance. Return to sport after concussion should follow a structured, graded protocol that progresses from complete rest through light aerobic activity, sport-specific exercise, non-contact training, and finally full return to sport. Each step should be symptom-free before progressing to the next. Returning to skiing or other high-risk activities before completing this protocol significantly increases the risk of a second concussion — which can have serious consequences.

How long does concussion recovery take? Most concussions in adults resolve within 2 to 4 weeks with appropriate management. A subset of people — particularly those who have had previous concussions, who return to activity too soon, or who do not receive active rehabilitation — develop prolonged symptoms that can last months. Children and adolescents typically require longer recovery periods than adults. The most important factors in recovery timeline are early recognition, appropriate initial management, and active evidence-based rehabilitation.

Does physical therapy actually help with concussion recovery? Yes — meaningfully. Physical therapy addresses the vestibular, visual, cervical, and exertional components of concussion recovery that rest alone cannot resolve. Multiple studies support the effectiveness of active physical therapy rehabilitation over watchful waiting for concussion recovery. At Snow Beast Performance, we incorporate breathwork, vestibular rehabilitation, cervical treatment, and graded return-to-activity programming into concussion care.

Written by Stephen Burkert, DPT — Snow Beast Performance, Williston, VT