Spring Ahead... At Your Own Risk

As soon as we start getting accustomed to waking up in the morning to the first glimpse of sunlight shining through our windows, we spring ahead once more. That lost hour of sleep seems more difficult than ever to recover from, and we wake to the greeting of darkness again. Yes, springtime is upon us, despite the chill in the air and the lack of green outside. Warmer temperatures are on the way and the smell of fresh-clipped blades of grass consumes us all as we begin thinking of golfing, gardening, and lake season.
All winter long, we’ve allowed ourselves to lull into semi-hibernation. Nestling into our favorite chairs, pulling that soft, warm blanket just over our noses, and indulging in our nightly favorite TV show. What happens to our bodies when our day consists of driving to work, sitting at a desk for 8 hours, driving home from work, and then sitting in that nice, warm, comfortable chair? We go from sitting, to hurrying up and sitting some more. Our bodies become stiff, weak, and the feeling of rigor mortis starts setting in. Our bodies aren’t designed for staying in one place for too long. Men, remember how it feels to stand for hours on end, waiting and watching your wives shop? Women, remember how your back aches and aches from sitting in those plastic fold-down chairs or bleachers at your husbands favorite sporting game? We aren’t constructed to stay in place, and anything to the contrary is detrimental to how we feel.
Have you ever played the game Hangman? Guess a letter, if you guess correctly you’re one step closer to guessing the phrase. Guess incorrectly, and your opponent draws a circle and five straight lines that form a stick figure. In all your days of playing hangman, has that stick figure ever gotten up and out of that noose, landed on its feet-less legs, and walked off the page? Besides the fact the stick figure isn’t REAL, and doesn’t have feet, it would need something to get going. It needs joints: knees, ankles, elbows, etc. We have joints to allow us to move, and if we were born with joints we might as well use them. A colleague of mine always says “If you didn’t want stress in your life, you might as well have been born a plant or a rock.” It’s true, and slightly off-track, but it works also if rephrased, “If you didn’t want to move, you should have been born a plant or a rock” (Even though some will combat they were born couch potatoes).
In the end, the bitter cold of winter has entrapped us in the sitting position for the better part of four months. And now that those tremendous snow banks we have struggled to look around for oncoming traffic are melting away to turn our city roads into rivers, it becomes time to look out our front windows and begin contemplating to move. No, not packing up and relocating somewhere warm and sunny, but move as in activity.
Activity… it has a better sound than the word “exercise,” don’t you think? It doesn’t necessarily mean driving straight to the gym and training for the Fargo Marathon, it means the act of DOING something, whether it be as simple as walking the dog outside, or as complex as gathering together as a community and helping one another to fight yet another possible “500-year flood.” It is doing something, anything really, but getting your butt out of the chair to do so. However, this time of year, we need to take caution before jumping straight into your favorite activity.
We need to take care of ourselves prior to moving. We take care of our cars before we take them out for a spin; why not take care of our bodies? We give our cars oil, gas, and we ease them onto the road (generally, if not in a hurry) without putting the pedal to the metal. If we don’t prepare our bodies before stepping on the gas, we’ll break. So here is what we need to be doing.

1. STRETCH- Before we even think about running, sandbagging, gardening, or golfing, we need to get loosened up. Stretch out those muscles
2. EASE into it- Some people say they know one speed, and it is FULL SPEED. Full speed is the quickest way to hurting one’s self if we’re not prepared. Every athlete has a preseason beforehand to ease them into their sport, maybe professional sports are on to something?
3. HYDRATE- Drink plenty of water if doing any activity. You’ll feel better, for longer, and it will decrease some of the soreness afterwards.
4. GET TREATED- Before you jump into anything, or immediately following an injury, go see your local chiropractor. They are the experts on getting your body to work at optimum capacity.

Every activity has its own risk of injuries. Many injuries simply occur from bending and twisting. What are you doing when you put your ball and tee into the first tee box? When you’re pulling out weeds from your garden? When you’re lifting this year’s clutter into the garbage for spring-cleaning? The forward bending can be a silent killer, so bend at your knees like your weight lifting instructor used to tell you. What are we doing when we swing that golf club? When we pull the start cord on the lawn mower? When we hand the sandbag in our arms to the next person down the assembly line? The twisting action, especially with any weight added, can drop a person to their knees if we pull a muscle or pinch our spine. Take caution when twisting, and move your feet to square yourself if at all possible.
As flowers blossom, trees bloom and everything outside turns bright colors, remember to spring ahead this season, but at your own risk. Take the necessary precautions so that you can enjoy your spring and summer activities without taking any important time out for healing and recovery. Have fun and feel good while doing so!

Dr. Matthew Lau
Storlie-Pladson Chiropractic
www.matthewlaudc.com