Don’t Let Spring Clean-up Lead to a Messed up Back

As we move into warmer weather and start our spring cleaning projects whether inside the house or in our yards, we want to ensure that we minimize our risk of injuries.  Two of the main injury potentials we want to watch for are our overuse injuries and bending and twisting injuries.

When we come out of the winter months, where we have been a little more sedentary, we want to slowly increase our activities and should avoid an all day clean up and should start with just a few hours at a time.  After even a couple of weeks of reduced activity and movement we lose some of our strength and endurance so if we have several months of reduced activity, it becomes important not to think we can resume our activities at the same level.  My recommendation is to start with a couple of hours of activity followed by at least a 30-minute break to see how your body feels.  If you start to feel a lot of muscle stiffness, give your body more time to recover because you will not be able to recruit as many muscles to your task and you may increase your likelihood of injury.  This is your overuse injury where you have pushed your body too hard and strained your muscles.  

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