The sun will be shining and summer is almost upon us! Warm weather and fun go together. If you do things right, having outdoor fun can also be healthy for you. Playing games, taking part in sports, going to the swimming pool or gardening can burn off calories, give you more energy and get you closer to optimal health. But if you’re not careful, you can also get injured. Outdoor activity can be particularly tricky if you have chronic pain, like back pain or neck pain and if you’ve been injured or have aggravated an injury while spending time in the great outdoors, Total Chiropractic Care and Wellness can help.
Total Chiropractic Can Treat Sports and Other Outdoor Injuries
Total Chiropractic can help you treat outdoor injuries and manage pain related to chronic injuries. We’ll employ chiropractic techniques and we’ll also help you design a healthy lifestyle that will allow you to make the most of your outdoor time. We often treat patients who are injured as a result of taking part in outdoor activities and we want to give you some information about preventing and treating these injuries when they do occur.
Outdoor Activity and Aching Backs
If you’re preparing to go out this summer and you have back problems, the sudden start-up of activity can cause problems.
“People get out there and start running again,” said Wootton. “They start putting stress on two key joints that are not prepared to handle it — the SI joints, or sacroiliac joints,” Dr. David Wootton, a Tennessee-based chiropractor told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The SI joints and sacroiliac joints are located on your lower back and support your upper body. Wootton makes several recommendations for preventing warm weather back pain including:
- Be mindful when bending, lifting and twisting.
- Use your legs, not your back when lifting.
- Don’t sit cross-legged or kneel when gardening.
- Take breaks, eat and rehydrate.
- Don’t do everything at once.
Injury Prevention for Children
If you’re a parent, you also want to ensure that your children don’t suffer serious injuries taking part in outdoor activities. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital lists some tips. One thing parents should always remember is to put helmets on children when they use bicycles, skateboards, and scooters. You also need to stay alert when taking children to playgrounds where falls often occur. To prevent these types of injuries from happening to your child, make sure the playgrounds they visit have shock-absorbing surfaces such as rubber, sand, wood chips or synthetic turf.
If your child participates in sports, it’s important to make certain that they stay hydrated at all times by having them drink water before, during and after practice and games. It’s also very important to make certain your children stretch before participating in sports.
Finally, it’s extremely important that you never leave a child in a hot vehicle. Every eight days, a child dies of heatstroke, according to the hospital.
Total Chiropractic Can Help Sports and Accidental Injuries
If you’ve been injured as a result of an outdoor activity or sports-related injury, or even if you have back pain as the result of a car accident, Total Chiropractic can get you on the road to wellness. Chiropractic care is a non-surgical alternative and it can help you avoid taking medication. Contact us today.
