We've had a big dose of winter weather this month, and that can lead to achy joints for a number of reasons. When temperatures drop, some people just don't move around as much.
"When it gets cold we want to stay inside, bundle, stop moving," said Dr. Simeon Siahmakoun, Chiropractor with Omni Chiropractic. "And that's why our joints get stiff. Joints don't like to be stationary and being under a load, which is what sitting does to the spine for long periods of time. So when you sit for a long time, you don't really feel it but when you get up it might feel creaky, you hear that pop, and that's because we've been stationary for too long, the joints were under too much stress."
If you're sitting for a long time, he recommends getting up and walking around every hour or so.
"A good thing to do maybe after every hour of watching TV, get up, walk around a little bit during those commercial breaks," he said. "Walk around, do some jumping jacks, really just get some movement in the joints. Remember joints need that movement to keep joint fluid flowing, to keep blood supply to the right areas, so that's why that lack of movement in the wintertime is why we tend to feel more stiff."
For winter sports fans, it's a good idea to add a little extra activity a few weeks before getting back into it.
"My technique, the activator technique, is very functional," Siahmakoun said. "So what I'm trying to do, quite often when one joint is stuck, you got joints above and below that have to move too much to make up for it. So I want to make sure that when you go out on the slopes everything is moving, you're not compensating because when one segment is not moving you got a whole bunch of muscles that are not moving that means other muscles are taking a greater load, and it's easier to tear those."
When it comes to shoveling snow, try and use your legs and hips instead of your back.
"What I teach my patients is we always want to use the hips over the back so once we get that snow and we lock our arms we use the legs to lift and then that momentum from that legs, we turn to the open side because when you turn to the open side it's a hip movement; when you turn to the closed side its a back twist."
Another thing he recommends - if you're spending a lot of time on the roads this holiday season, be cognizant of your posture.
"You want to try and sit up as much as you can," he said. "You have to use muscles to sit up and that takes energy, and we're tired, so we like to lean back. But that's loading the joints in the back. The thing about posture is it has to be conscious first because if the muscle strength isn't there than it can't be an unconscious activity."
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