Spring is here! ‘Tis the season for warmer weather, budding flowers, and… lots of repetition injuries 😬

This time of year, lots of injuries pop up from getting back into running/cycling/hiking, gardening, spring cleaning, or even just switching from your Blundstone winter boots to full-time Birkenstocks.

Here are some injury prevention tips to keep you healthy and active this season:

Start small, then gradually build up

This advice applies to everyone - whether you’re a young athlete switching from one sport to another, or a seasoned gardener who is getting ready for another year of home-grown vegetables! The last thing we want to do is jump full-steam back into our activity.

For example, instead of a 1 hour first bike ride or gardening session, try just going for 30 minutes on the first day, see how that feels and increase slowly the next day. It’s much easier to “leave more in your tank” for the next day rather than have to recover from overdoing it. Your body will thank you!

Listen to your body (and be flexible with your goals!)

Soreness, stiffness, and niggles are signals from our body that we are overdoing it. Oftentimes, we ignore these signals because we have a particular agenda in mind. Listening to our body and taking it easy when we feel these signals will help prevent getting a repetition injury.

It will be helpful for you to be flexible with your goals early in the season, so that you don’t have the pressure to do too much at one time. For example, maybe sign up for a race later in the season if you haven’t been training much this winter, or give yourself a few more days/weeks than you normally would to get the garden ready.

Take frequent breaks

Short, frequent movement breaks are also key in preventing repetition/overuse injuries. For example, if you’re just getting into running outside, you might want to add in a few intervals of walking to gradually build up your tolerance. Or, if you’re planting seeds in the garden, stand up or change your position every 15-20 minutes.

These “movement breaks” don’t need to be very long to have a positive impact on injury prevention!

If you do find yourself with an injury that isn’t going away as quickly as you’d like it to, come by for an assessment and a personalized plan. We want to help you enjoy Movement As Medicine - whichever form of movement works best for you!