Beating The Winter Body Blues

Although we haven’t officially entered winter by date, for those of us in WI and many other parts of the country, winter weather has arrived and with it comes the possibility of the winter body blues.   The winter body blues are those special aches and pains, spasms and pulled muscles that sometimes accompany the winter chore of snow and ice removal and even driving in slippery conditions.  Some of you may avoid the bulk of this because you have a snow removal service.  But for those of you doing your own winter chore work, whether occasionally or consistently, try out these tips to beat the winter body blues.

 1.  Work Smart: when you can’t avoid the activity, you need to think about how you can do the activity with the least amount of impact to your body.  For shoveling this means good body mechanics, remembering to bend your knees and lift with your legs and to rotate which side of the body you are throwing the snow so you spread the impact better between your two sides.  Use a more ergonomic shovel or do the light stuff with a broom which uses a different motion.

 2.  Pace Yourself:  the line from being sore to becoming injured often gets crossed by trying to do too much at one time.  I understand that you want or need to get the job done quickly, but even so, taking a few breaks to do a couple stretches and get some water can make a difference and still keep you on your time schedule.  Going a bit more slowly to take the time to use the right body mechanics will pay off.

 3.  Share The Burden:  recruit everyone in the family to do part of the job.  Many hands might the work light…and will help your back and shoulders!  Even little ones can do some parts of the job like a front stoop or a small patch of the work.

 4.  Consider Hiring Help For Certain Conditions:  the really wet snows make the heaviest burdens and even small clearings can strain the body.  These might be the snows for which you hire the plow or a neighborhood child.

5.  Stretch: using your muscles creates tension, especially when done for longs periods in a repetitive fashion.  An important part of preventing the tension from building up into a crisis point is to reduce the tension and return the muscles back to their normal resting length, rather than having the muscles held in shortened, tight state.  Full body stretching provided by yoga can be nice but if you’re short on time, pick stretches that address the specific areas that are impacted by the work.  If you don’t know what to do, work with a massage therapist, a physical therapist, an exercise physiologist, or a yoga teacher to find what would serve you.

 6.  Follow Up With An Epsom Salt Bath: after you’ve done your work and tried to minimize the impact, you now need to address the tension that did develop.  A hot bath with Epsom Salts to draw out the toxins can take the edge off the soreness.  Note that if you are doing this in the day and you need to do other work, follow the hot bath by a cool or cold shower rinse so your energy rebounds.

7.  Use Arnica: homeopathic arnica or arnica creams further supports the body’s aches and pains.  The difference between homeopathic arnica versus the cream is that one is for a systemic effect, all over aches and pains, versus area specific body areas.  Usually with winter chores it will be a whole body effect so the homeopathic pellets taken 3 x day for 1-2 days will work well.

 8.  Stay Hydrated: being out in the cold, you may not realize how much energy you are putting out and how much water you are losing through sweating.  Muscles tighten when dehydrated.  The general rule of thumb is to drink at least 4 ounces of water every sixty minutes depending on how hard you are working.  At the least, make sure you drink a big glass once you’re done.

 9.  Get Professional Help When Needed: if you done all of the above and still feel on the edge physically, this is the time to get professional intervention.  Get the chiropractic adjustment, the deep tissue or hot stone massage, the acupuncture treatment – whatever techniques fit your needs and philosophy.

 10.  Rest: last but not least, make sure to get some down time.  Whether that means going to bed early, taking an afternoon cat nap, or just getting your feet up while reading a book, rest is a key component to renewal.

Sometimes It Is Just Physical

As a BodyMind coach, I often help individuals explore the deeper messages underneath the physical symptoms which are keeping them in a cycle of chronic imbalance.  And yet, at other times, the symptoms or pain really can just be physical.  While tissues do store emotions, memory, and mental patterning, they also reflect good old muscular tension brought about through daily activities, weekend warrior overdoing momentum, or short-term misuse of the body.

I recently had a client for whom this example proved to be true.  Although Susie (not her real name) came in for BodyMind Coaching and we did uncover many connecting pieces to her larger goals, as she reached the end of her course of sessions, she still had residual constant pain in her right hip and leg.   Although she had been working with a chiropractor and I had also been using CranioSacral Therapy during our sessions, she wasn’ t finding any long lasting change. 

Although Susie hadn’t asked for soft tissue massage work as part of her coaching, which is an option with my clients, during our last session I suggested she might incorporate a bit of this modality to see if we could affect any change in her pain.  I have seen the phenomena before – a person who has tried other forms of treatment for pain finds significant release through massage.  And this proved to the be the case with Susie.  After just one session, she enjoyed a week free of pain – something that hadn’t happened for several years.

 Now, I’m not saying that the massage was the magical cure-all or that it was necessarily a better treatment.  Because in reality, what she had been doing before very likely could have played a role in having this particular massage be effective – kind of like you trying to unscrew a jar lid for 5 minutes then the person you hand it to opens it on the first try.  However, it does highlight the point that sometimes what needs to be released truly is just the muscles – the physical tension. 

Are you feeling tight?  Get a pre-holiday massage so you can enjoy the holidays with less stress!  Want to keep that stress down?  Take advantage of the holiday special and buy a package of 10 massages and get the 11th free.  Call my office at 262-782-1616 to get yours today.  And yes, they can be shared within the family so spread the love.

Oh My, I Had No Idea I Was This Tight!

Not only is “oh my, I had no idea I was this tight” a familiar refrain I hear from massage clients but I experienced it myself last night during my own deep tissue massage.  I knew I had built up some excess tension from summer biking and doing less yoga postures and more meditation, but I hadn’t realized just how tight my muscles were in my neck and shoulder until my therapist, Karen, began working.  And this common phenomenon is both a boon and a block.

Not feeling the full load of tension is part of how the Total Self gets us through life.  Because let’s face it, if we felt how tight we are in each and every part of our body, we’d probably all be lying in bed groaning.  Adapting to and managing the ongoing tension we hold in our bodies is part of how we function through the stress and activities of our lives.  This is the boon…in spite of what we pile on or our lack of self care, our Total Self will try to help us get through the best it can.

However, this very same adaptability combined with our lack of detailed awareness, leads us to sometimes ignore or miss the signs and symptoms of tension build up.  This leads us to continue further towards imbalance until we reach the crisis point where our system can not tolerate any more and throws up the red flag…usually intense pain, spasm, or illness.   This is the block side of the equation.  Without being aware of the lower levels of tension build up, it often takes a more severe episode of imbalance to catch our attention.  And waiting for the extreme condition and message isn’t overly healthy because it takes more work and effort to treat then had we taken care of the tension earlier in the cycle.

Before my massage, I hadn’t reached a true crisis point…precisely because I had paid attention to some earlier signals from my Total Self.  Towards the end of the summer, I was getting more hand and arm numbness and more headaches with my cycling.  I first tried some chiropractic and eventually switched to riding my indoor recumbent bike instead of my outdoor road bike.  Those adjustments helped but having left it a little too long, my tension is more entrenched. So, instead of enjoying a soothing, preventative massage, I will need to do a series of less comfortable massages in order to get the muscles back in a better condition. 

Last night was a good wake up call that I had been letting some of my self care slip.  I had been stretching but for shorter amounts.  I hadn’t been getting my monthly bodywork sessions because I was “too busy”.  I hadn’t been soaking my forearms because I kept forgetting or getting distracted.  In other words, I wasn’t making use of the knowledge and tools that I have.  Yes, we all do this and sometimes it takes a painful “ah ha” to remind us that we’re off track.

For today, I committed to listening better to the messages from my Total Self AND following through on what I know I need to do.  What do you need to do to stay out of the crisis mode?