1/22/2010

Winter Sports

No one is a bigger kid than me; my favorite holiday is Halloween, I can't resist jumping in a pile of leaves and winter is definitely my time of year. The snow ball fights, sledding, building a snowman, nothing is more fun than playing in the snow knowing at any time I will be able to smush snow in my husband's face without any repercussions.

OK, so let's bring this around to your body and massage. Think of all the other winter pastimes: sledding, skiing, even shoveling. These are all body intensive activities. it is truly imperative that you treat all of these as workouts. You must warm-up, stretch, and make sure you are using proper form. Not only are your muscles working hard to perform the action, but you also have to add the element of keeping balanced, trying to see etc. Without recognizing these are workouts, you could put yourself in a position where you wake up the next day sore and in a lot of pain. To make sure you remain well and can get up early the next day for something else fun, treat these winter activities as workouts. Warm up and stretch with winter sports. Stretching does not include lifting a glass of hot cocoa or Irish coffee, so make sure you get it in before. When performing a snowy clean-up task, remember to warm-up and lift from your legs. If you keep bending over with all the weight of the snow you will most likely hurt your back. Lift with your legs and not only will you avoid the later pain, but you will get an amazing leg and glute workout in the meantime!