It is another beautiful Nelson County spring and the weekend warrior in us wakes up in these times. It is fun to get outside to garden, walk or play sports. Depending on your current physical fitness level, your body may have no problem jumping back into more physical activity or your body may experience aches and pains as you increase your activity level.

One way to prepare your muscles and joints for activity is to take a few minutes to warm the tissues. The “warm up” is a 10-15 minute period of time prior to your main physical activity. The goal is to prepare the muscles, joints, heart and lungs that more stressful physical activity (beyond sitting) is on the way. For example, if you are going to walk or cycle for exercise, take the first 10 -15 minutes of that walk or cycle nice and easy then progress to a faster walk or more strenuous cycle. This period of time is crucial to warm the muscles and prepare the heart for more physical activity. It also helps to reduce musculoskeletal injuries.

If you are going to play a sport such as tennis or golf, take 10-15 minutes to walk and stretch before hitting tennis or golf balls. It is important to warm the muscle prior to stretching. Even marching in place helps to gently increase your heart rate and warm the tissues prior to stretching. Often we are a rush to get to our activity and the warm up is forgotten. Too often, that is when an injury occurs. The other factor to remember is gradually work your way back into your activity level. In other words, don’t play three hours of tennis tomorrow after a winter without playing tennis. Give your body time to become conditioned and prepare it to prevent injuries.

Enjoy and play!