Avoiding Holiday Injuries: Tips from a Sports Physiotherapist
The holidays inherently end up being a hectic time of year, and we find that in general people are more active than usual - wether that’s rushing through the mall to finish some Christmas shopping, traveling, parties, enjoying the snow on the mountains (and hopefully not on our streets), and shovelling sidewalks if it does snow. All this change in activity can often lead to an increase of injuries.
Here are some of the most common Holiday injuries we see:
Sprains and Strains: From lifting heavy shopping bags or carrying luggage during travel. Skiing, snowboarding or snow shoeing
Slips and Falls: Due to icy sidewalks or wet floors during holiday parties.
Back Pain: A result of extended periods of sitting while traveling or driving long distances. Lifting turkeys and trays of cookies out of the oven.
Shoulder Injuries: From decorating or lifting Christmas trees and heavy ornaments.
Here are our Preventive Tips:
Lift Properly: Bend at the knees, if your knees bother you try a staggered stance with one leg slightly in front of the other. Blow out an imaginary candle as you stand up to help engage the core and protect your back!
Use Proper Footwear: We can’t emphasize enough the importance of wearing sturdy shoes to prevent slips and falls, especially when it’s snowy or wet outside. Look for shoes with a sturdy tread and grip. Some shoes will even have a little snowflake to indicate they are made for snow or icy conditions. Avoid things like Ugg Boots or court shoes that provide little to no grip.
Stretch During Travel: Long car rides, ferry rides and airplanes are in many of our futures over the next few weeks. Try to take a 5 minute stretch break every hour. Get up and walk about, and if you’re unable to stand try doing 10 ankle pumps, 10 trunk rotations and 10 shoulder blade squeezes every hour.
Warm-Up Before Holiday Workouts: If you’re planning on going for a turkey trot, snowboarding, skiing and snow shoeing session take 5 to 10 minutes to stretch. Make sure you pay attention to stretching and warming up the upper and lower body and stretch your calves! If you want a winter sports injury prevention program created specifically for you our Physio’s are here for you.
How Physiotherapy Can Help:
Our Physiotherapists are here all of December to help you prevent injuries by creating warm up or prehab strength plans specific to you and your needs. Our physio team has experience in a variety of skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, skating, skate and nordic skiing and are here to provide physiotherapy for athletes in winter sports.
If you happen to have an injury big or small during the holidays our team of Physio’s is here throughout the holidays Monday - Saturdays starting at 6AM and ending at 8PM so you can fit appointments in around work, parties and all the fun activites you have planned. If you hurt yourself while you are away and want a virtual physio appointment we have clinicians who are able to see you for virtual appointments as well so that healing isn’t delayed and your vacation is ruined!
We offer direct billing to most insurance companies and accept ICBC, Worksafe BC and MSP claims.
Give us a call at 604-430-3066 or Book an Appointment Online through out booking link