Spring is here, the weather is warmer and most of us want to get moving. Whether it’s starting running, cleaning up your garden or starting a new hobby, this time of year offers more chances to be active. It’s so tempting to jump in and spend hours doing your favourite things, but if you’ve had a winter off, you need to be careful not to do too much too soon.
I hear it all the time in the clinic “Well the weather was so nice…” or “I was having so much fun…” or “I just needed to get it done…” and then my client tells me how they hurt themselves. Not all injuries are those one off injuries we see in sports on TV. The most common injuries I see in the clinic are repetitive strain injuries. To protect yourself from these types of overuse injuries, there are a few guidelines you can follow to make sure you don’t do too much and get hurt.
Start and progress gradually. Our bodies are amazing at adapting to most activities, as long as we give them the chance to adapt. For gardening, this might be 30 minutes to start, and another 30 minutes tomorrow. For running, if you’ve had more than two months off, I recommend starting with a run/walk, for example run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute and repeat the cycle three times, then end with another 5 minutes of walking. If you’ve never run before, try 1 min run, 1 min walk three times. If you feel great the next day, do more the next time you go out.
Pay attention to aches and pains. If your body is whispering to you, LISTEN. This might be a stiff back the morning after gardening, or a sore knee on the stairs after your first outdoor bike ride. If you listen when your body whispers, it won’t have to yell! If you have stiffness or pain, your body is sending you a message that you have taxed it. You are flirting with injury.
Rest and recover. Our bodies actually get stronger and fitter in the rest between bouts of exercise. If you feel stiffness or pain, take a day or two off, let yourself recover, and you will come back stronger.
Get help if a pain is not going away. Sometimes we get pain that interferes with normal day to day, for example pain that keeps you up at night, or shoulder stiffness that makes you use your other arm to reach into the upper cupboard. Rest and be careful for a few days. If it doesn’t go away, get it checked out by your favourite physiotherapist.
Getting injured is both painful and keeps us from activities we enjoy. Following the guidelines above should let you get moving without getting injured.