Spring into Action: Changes in Weather Change Your Activity Level

Spring is in the air, and that means more than just blooming flowers and chirping birds. It’s a natural nudge to shake off the winter blues and be more active. Research that looked at the seasonality of physical activity proves this is true. Across a wide variety of countries and populations, people are most active in the summer and less active in the winter.

Since it’s likely that your physical activity levels are starting to trend up, we wanted to give you a few fun ideas to try, and some tips on how to navigate the change.


Embrace the Great Outdoors:


Trade the treadmill for the trail: As the weather warms, escape the gym and head outside.
Explore nature with hikes, bike rides, or even a walk or jog around the park. Soaking up the
sunshine not only boosts your vitamin D levels but also enhances your mood and motivation.

Turn your park into your playground: Public parks offer tons of fitness opportunities. Utilize the equipment for bodyweight exercises, join a pick-up game of basketball, play around of disc golf, or find an outdoor fitness class.

 

Incorporate Seasonal Activities:


Get active with seasonal sports: Participating in spring sports leagues like volleyball, softball, pickleball or tennis is a fun and social way to get moving. You’ll meet new people while engaging in friendly competition and getting some exercise.
Cultivate your green thumb: Gardening is a surprisingly active hobby. Digging, planting, and tending to your garden provides a full-body workout while connecting you with nature.


Navigating The Changes


Spring clean your activity plan: Just like your home, your exercise routine might need a spring cleaning. Evaluate your current program, identify areas for improvement, and think about what new exercises or activities you’d like to add.
Don’t spring forward too fast: Spring is an exciting time with longer days, better weather and new opportunities. Don’t take on too much too fast. Injuries from overuse and overtraining start to get more common in our clinics when people ramp activity up too fast.
Celebrate your progress: Track your progress and acknowledge your achievements, no matter how small. This will keep you motivated and focused on your goals.


Spring is a season of growth. Let it be the catalyst for your own personal transformation. By embracing the outdoors, incorporating seasonal activities, and refreshing your routine, you can spring into action and experience the joy of a healthier and happier you.


If you’d like someone to evaluate your current plan or develop a new one for you, we’d be happy to help! And of course, we’re always here for aches and pains from too much too soon, or weekend warrior injuries from those spring sports.

 

References:
1. Sex- and age-specific seasonal variations in physical activity among adults. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2010;64:1010-1016.
https://jech.bmj.com/content/64/11/1010.short
2. Impact of Seasonality on Physical Activity: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(1):2. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/2
3. The Effect of Season and Weather on Physical Activity: Systemic Review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033350607001400
4. Seasonal Rhythms and Exercise https://www.sportsmed.theclinics.com/article/S0278-5919(04)00120-6/fulltext
5. Exercise Assessment and Prescription in Older Adults Webinar
https://learningcenter.apta.org/products/exercise-assessment-and-prescription-in-older-adultsand-individuals-at-risk-for-functionaldecline?_gl=1*2t7olk*_ga*MTEwNjIzMzg2MS4xNjgxODQyODcw*_ga_ZZJK74HXNR*MTY5NzIwMjg2OC4xMi4xLjE2OTcyMDI4ODEuNDcuMC4w&_ga=2.227565085.1495021570.1697197738-1106233861.1681842870
6. Exercise Attitudes https://www.apta.org/article/2023/03/31/exercise-attitudes

Physical Therapy is a Tree With Many Branches

Starting a career in physical therapy is like climbing a tree. Everyone starts with the same trunk, but pretty quickly, you have to make some decisions about which way you’re going to go. What kind of people do you want to work with? Where do you want to practice? And how far up the tree do you want to climb? You’ll get to grow professionally – learning more, getting better clinically, and maybe even improving your sales and business skills, but that’s not all. Physical therapy gives you a chance to grow personally too.

Pick your people

You can pick the type of people you want to work with – sports physical therapists work with athletes, helping them recover from injuries and improve performance through exercise and hands-on techniques. Geriatric physical therapists work with elderly patients on mobility problems, pain or managing chronic conditions. Pediatric physical therapists work with infants and children providing developmental assessments and helping them improve their gross motor skills.

Pick your place

You can also pick where you work – there are physical therapy jobs in nursing homes, hospitals, outpatient clinics and schools. Physical therapists provide care wherever people need it. So far, we’ve only mentioned the more common places you’ll find PTs – if you want to specialize further, you may find yourself working only in the ICU with critical care patients, in a factory doing industrial rehabilitation and ergonomics, in a women’s health clinic, or even working in a preventative, public health role.

Grow professionally

Most physical therapy careers start in a general role, working with all types of different patients. If you work in a large health system, you may even rotate between settings. But as you find the type of people you like to work with and the setting you prefer, you have the option to improve your skills and focus on a specialty area of practice. Again, you have lots of options on how to do this. You could:
● Take an internship position or join a fellowship program
● Attend workshops or conferences
● Read journals and textbooks
● Collaborate with your colleagues and mentors
● Take courses in other areas of medicine
● Study abroad or take courses online


Grow personally

Your clinical skills aren’t the only thing a career in physical therapy can grow though – you’ll grow personally as well. You have to learn to have compassion and empathy when you work with ill or injured people. You have to work as a part of a team. You need sales skills – most people aren’t going to want to make changes in their routines, or do the exercises you prescribe at home. You’ll learn to work with people who have different opinions and different viewpoints from all kinds of cultures and backgrounds.

You may also have a chance to improve your business skills. You could advance out of the clinical setting and into a management role. Some PTs start their own practices, or a company in a field related to physical therapy like wellness, performance, injury prevention or population health for large corporations.

Wherever you start in physical therapy, you’ll have a lot of options on where you end up. Chances are you’ll explore more than one branch of the physical therapy tree. That’s OK, having the chance to grow and change is part of what makes PT so exciting!

Returning to Activity After a Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, activity levels dropped for a lot of people. Between stay at home orders, gym closures and working from home, people became more sedentary. On top of that, there were shortages of equipment like dumbbells and bicycles, making staying active at home difficult even if you wanted to.

But this summer, things look different; vaccines are widely available, restrictions are loosening and people are looking to get active and enjoy the warm weather. That’s all good news, but if you had a long break from activity, your body might not be ready to jump right back in. Here are a few tips to help you get more active without getting hurt:

Start slow
● If you’re a runner, think about a walk to run program
● If you’re a weight lifter, start with lighter weights and less reps.
● Whatever your activity of choice is, start with short periods of activity and gradually work your way back up.
Warm up and cool down
Warming up gets your heart and lungs ramped up and prepares your muscles and tendons for the increase in activity about to come. Include some light cardio like jogging, calisthenics, or cycling, followed by active stretching like butt kicks, high knees, or yoga.

Cooling down transitions your body back to a lower state of stress – it brings your heart rate and breathing down, decreases blood flow to your muscles and back to places like your digestive system, and helps you relax. It’s also a great place for static stretches if you need some work on your flexibility.

Take a day off
Rest days let your body recover and keep you from getting burned out. Not enough exercise isn’t good for you, but too much of a good thing can cause problems too.

Watch for early signs of injury
Some soreness for a few days after activity is normal, especially if you’ve had a long break. But there are a few common issues to watch out for as you return to activity:
● Swelling or bruising
● Joint pain, especially in the knees or shoulders
● Foot pain, which could be a sign of plantar fasciitis
● Muscle strains – particularly common in the hamstrings
● Sprains – most common in the ankle

Any of these issues justifies a call to your physical therapist. Getting checked out early can prevent an injury that derails your attempt to return to activity. PTs see all of the issues just mentioned on a regular basis and can help safely guide you back into a more active lifestyle.

Want to Stay Healthy? Move More.

COVID has certainly made the importance of health very clear and we have all seen how quickly
things can change with an illness. While COVID is currently front and center in most people’s
thoughts, it isn’t the only thing out there that can change your life. Heart disease, diabetes,
strokes and cancer can all be devastating too.


Movement offers a defense


If you’re looking to be more resilient and defend against these things, physical activity can do it.
The dangers of being sedentary are well known and documented in the research. Excessive
sitting and sedentary time have even been called the new smoking. For many of us, sitting and
being inactive is part of our jobs. However, research has shown that getting in enough
movement can counteract the negative effects of being sedentary.

A large study done in the U.K. found no association between the amount of time people spent
sedentary and their chances of illness. But the authors didn’t conclude that being sedentary is
OK. Instead, they felt their findings were likely “attributable to a protective effect of the high
volumes of daily walking.” The study was conducted in London, where people tend to spend
much more time walking or standing than average. The people in the study had daily walking
times that were over double the average amount reported in the U.K.


Physical Therapists Are Unequaled Experts in Human Movement


While walking was the activity in this particular study, other research has shown that all kinds
of movement can help protect your health. If you’re looking to get those protective benefits for
yourself you could choose to walk, bike, lift weights, dance or garden. If you’re not moving as
much or as well as you’d like, see your physical therapist. PTs are the most qualified
professionals on the planet to help you move better and allow you to stay healthy and enjoy
life. From designing a program to get you started or moving more to helping you recover from
an injury, your PT is the right person to look to for help.

Life is a Movement Journey, Here’s How PT Can Help

Now that spring has arrived, temperatures are starting to rise in many parts of the country. And
that means the transition from heating our homes to cooling our homes is right around the
corner. No matter what method you use to cool your home during the warm spring and summer
months (central air conditioning, window units, or fans and dehumidifiers), each spring you cross
your fingers that your approach still works. If not, you might be calling an expert for a tune-up,
or in extreme circumstances, you might need a complete overhaul.

Just like an AC system that has probably been dormant for many months of the year, a body
that hasn’t been physically engaged on a regular basis may have trouble getting started again.
And yet, this time of year, the warm temps draw many people to city and suburban streets,
tracks and trails, ready to take that first run of the season. A good percentage of these spring
runners haven’t kept up their strides throughout the winter. It should come as no surprise that a
4-mile run for a previously inactive person is going to stir up a few aches and pains.

Especially as we age, our ability to move undergoes changes. But whether we’re talking about a
college student or a retiree, returning to an activity without proper planning is a recipe for
disaster. That’s where physical therapy comes in. Physical therapists are trained to treat injuries
and ease pain, but they can also help their patients prevent injuries and safely prepare to
participate in new activities.

Think of physical therapists as “movement consultants” who can ensure that your body is
physically ready to tackle a new challenge—or resume a favorite leisure activity. Here’s another
example to illustrate what we’re talking about: Let’s say that you play in an adult soccer league
and you’re preparing to play in your first game of the season in a few weeks. You probably hung
up your cleats when the last season ended months ago, but expect to pick up just where you left
off. But it’s simply too much to ask for your 2019 debut on the field to be on the same level as
the last game of the previous season, when you likely had reached peak performance.

This is a good time for your PT to step in and help you shake off the rust. The rehab professional
can customize an exercise plan to help you slowly return to sport and avoid an injury that could
sideline you for the whole season. Or like cleaning the filters before firing up your air
conditioner for the first time this year, the rehab expert can help to ensure that your body is
prepared to return to its former activity level following a hiatus