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Top Tips for a Physically Healthier Springtime
| Published: 14th April 2013 08:11 |
In my role as an Osteopath, springtime brings in familiar complaints to my clinic. We are often more sedentary over the winter period. Maybe this has caused us to gain a little weight, and lose flexibility through our bodies.
Here are my top tips for a physically healthier springtime and beyond!
- 1. Get out in the fresh air and get active. If you haven't been participating in regular leisure or sporting pursuits, then start slowly and gently. Build up steadily the speed, repetitions, weight resistance and time.
- 2. If it's a weight bearing activity, make sure you're wearing the appropriate footwear. The shoe needs to provide support relevant to the activity, your own body and shock absorption. If you're regularly active, watch the wear on the shoe. They will need to be changed regularly. More specialised sports shops provide gait analysis, and can recommend a shoe for your exact requirements. Sometimes insoles can help.
- 3. Warm up and cool down with any activity. Often people will just practice this when playing a sport. It is equally relevant for housework, gardening or washing the car. It helps prepare your body for the activity, and limit the chance of strain following it.
- 4. Gardening is a very common reason why people visit my practice in springtime. If you're planning a long gardening session, try and take regular breaks. Where possible, avoid lifting and bending through the back and try and use the legs.
- 5. Finally, and apologies for being a bore. Go easy on the chocolate eggs! It goes without saying that any excess weight we carry adds strain to our joints and tissues. It can be the cause of problems in itself, or perhaps it can hinder the recovery from an issue.
Osteopaths treat joint and muscle problems body-wide. So we are well equipped to tackle day-to-day strains and stresses, sporting injuries and degenerative problems, amongst many other issues that may arise. We consider individuals as a whole. This means, we address the part that hurts, and we also look at how that affects other areas of the body. Then treating other predisposing and maintaining issues as appropriate.
Claire Webster (BSc Hons Ost)
The Rivermead Osteopathic Clinic
(Based at The Rivermead Gate Medical Centre)
123 Rectory Lane
Chelmsford
Essex CM1 1TR
Tel 01245 280636 / 07771 591298
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