The weather is getting warm, and we’re not sure about you, but we’re all dreaming of the beach here at Fit Club! The dark, cold winter can really throw someone off of their fitness resolutions. With the weather warming up, people tend to get back on track and work on their beach bodies and overall fitness levels. Similar to those New Year resolutions, we often get clients who come in with complaints of pain around this time. Keep reading to find out why!
With the warm weather coming, and after this past year we’ve had, everyone is looking to spend more time outside. Running, playing basketball or soccer; we’re all looking for fun ways to stay fit. However, because of the quarantine and winter hiatus, we may have been on, jumping too quickly into an activity is how someone might expose themselves to a potential injury.
Plantar fasciitis is an example of something we often see this time of year. After not being active for 2 – 3 months in those -10 degree days, people will suddenly have a big increase in their running. The problem can feed itself because our cardiovascular system will adapt sooner than our muscles. Because of this, people are eager to run more and keep increasing their mileage even though they may not physically be ready. This exposes the body to more stress than it can handle, and eventually can lead to pain. When we are discussing this with our clients, we talk about balancing out the LOAD we place on our body and the CAPACITY that our body has to handle it.
Tim Gabbett coined it best; “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the load that you aren’t ready for.”
Our bodies are very good at adapting if given the right environment. Think about the first time you learned something new, like snowboarding. Did you go straight to the hardest trail, or did you start out on the bunny slopes? Usually, the way we learn and adapt best, is to expose ourselves to small doses and slowly progress from there. When there are too many difficult things to consider, it makes it really tough for us to pick up that new skill.
Training—whether running, basketball, or weight lifting—should be the same. We want to expose our body to LOAD at the right level, so that our CAPACITY to handle it slowly increases. Think about trying to balance a scale, or a see-saw. You want to add enough weight on one end, so that you can keep it level without it all toppling over at once. By doing this, we allow our body to be exposed to the stress, recover from it and then adapt to become stronger for a new set of stress.
(Check out our running blog for an example of how to slowly increase your running to create the capacity your body needs to handle all those miles!)
As you ramp up your fitness routine this spring keep these thoughts and principles in mind. If you have any questions or need some professional insight, please give our team of licensed physical therapists a call today at 646-875-8348. Also please feel free to email us at info@fitclubny.com and we will be more than happy to help!
