Spring is working hard to show its warm and welcoming face. Gardeners, sports enthusiasts, and everyone tired of being cooped up or cold look forward to this time of year.
Did you know that certain musculoskeletal injuries spike in springtime? Just as nature becomes suddenly active, much of the population does too, and doing too much too soon often adds up to simply overdoing it.
Your knees are particularly at risk. Bending to tend the garden, the repetitive motion of cycling, or just a dramatic increase in the number of steps you take daily can cause knee pain.
At Active Care Chiropractic & Rehabilitation in Lafayette Hill, the Main Line, East Falls, Elkins Park, Manayunk and Hatfield, Pennsylvania, we’re ready to help when knee pain threatens to keep you from enjoying spring. We’re joint pain specialists, and we can help you return to your favorite springtime activities promptly.
Reduced activity through the winter can decondition your knees and their supporting tissues. The glutes, hamstrings, and quads serve as shock absorbers, transferring force that’s otherwise absorbed by the knees.
While temperatures are getting warmer, there’s still plenty of morning chill around, even on the nicest of days. Those cold mornings leave you with less flexibility and more muscle tightness than you might expect.
Your joints may be affected by the unsettled weather too. Changes in barometric pressure sometimes cause tissue swelling that you “feel in your bones.” Being outdoors can also mean uneven, challenging surfaces that tax your joints in different ways.
Combine those environmental conditions with increased activity and you have the potential for a range of knee injuries. Among the most common are:
Watch for overuse or overstraining your legs to reduce your chances of developing pain.
Consider these strategies to bypass painful knee injuries:
Listen to your body and stop when you’re tired. Rest is a crucial part of recovery and continued activity, so don’t let your enthusiasm get the best of you.
If you take on too much, don’t wait for pain to escalate. Contact the nearest location of Active Care Chiropractic & Rehabilitation for an exam and treatment. Call or click at the first sign of new knee pain. We’re here to help.
