Get Ready to Get Outdoors

This is one of my favorite times of year. The weather starts warming up, the days get longer, and people naturally begin spending more time outside.

Getting outdoors can look like a lot of different things. Running, hiking, frisbee, yard work, tennis, pickleball, or simply being more active than you were during the winter months.

While I love this season, it can also be a risky time for the weekend warrior.

When we look at non contact injuries, there are generally 2 main ways people get hurt.

First, someone does far too much activity for far too long without giving their body enough recovery time.

Second, someone is not physically prepared for an activity and ramps up their activity level too quickly.

The second scenario is especially common during the spring.

Let’s talk about a few general concepts to keep in mind as you increase your activity this season.

1. Ramp up slowly

Every year, I see people come into the clinic after the first beautiful spring weekend saying they hurt their back after 5 straight hours of pickleball or tweaked their knee 4 miles into what was supposed to be a 6 mile run.

If you have kids, they might be able to play pickleball for 7 hours straight without any problem. That does not mean you should try to keep up with your 12 year old just to prove you still have it.

I promise your kids will make much more fun of you for getting injured than they will for sitting out every other game.

So how fast should you increase your activity?

A good rule of thumb is the 10 percent rule. Try to increase your activity level by no more than 10 percent each week.

For example, if you spend 1 hour working in the yard this weekend, add about 10 additional minutes the following weekend. It may feel like a small increase, but over several weeks you will build the capacity to tolerate longer activity without throwing out your back on week 2.

One helpful way to track this is by monitoring your daily step count. If your phone or watch tracks steps, this can provide an easy and objective measure of activity. If your current average is around 6,000 steps per day, increasing to about 6,600 is a reasonable next step. After a few consistent weeks, you may find yourself comfortably reaching 8,000 steps or more per day.

2. Listen to your body

I give my competitive athletes the same advice at the beginning of every season.

If your goal is to stay active all summer, there is no reason to risk it by pushing through discomfort in March.

Starting early and progressing slowly gives your body time to adapt before activity levels really increase. I would much rather you take a few days to recover now than deal with lingering knee or back pain during your family vacation in July.

I could probably go on longer about this, but I think you get the point.

Ramp up slowly. Listen to your body.