As new COVID-19 cases continue to emerge, many healthy individuals are being requested to stay at home in self-quarantine. In many areas, fitness centers are temporarily closing to help with social distancing. However, staying at home for prolonged periods of time can pose a significant challenge for remaining physically active (and sane). Sedentary behavior and low levels of physical activity can have negative effects on the health, well-being and quality of life. Physical activity can be valuable tools to help you remain calm and continue to protect your health during this time.
Continue reading Staying active during COVID-19 pandemicWarm Weather Activities and Stretches To Go With
With all of the warm weather in New England currently, you might be dying to get outside and do a lot of moving around. With warm weather comes all of the things we enjoy doing outside, such as spring gardening, bike riding, path walking, and more adventurous things such as mountain trail hiking or climbing, camping, fishing, and more.
After sitting stagnant inside all winter (or not so stagnant if you participate in winter sports or did a lot of shoveling as some of us have), it may be difficult for you to just get up and go outside to enjoy the high-energy things you normally do during warm weather. Even just a few hours of strenuous raking can cause pulled muscles or pain in your muscles that can radiate for days or even weeks.
That’s why we stress the importance of stretching your muscles before you do any sort of physical activity. This is especially useful if you haven’t done that activity in a long while. What stretching does is loosens up your muscles and prepares you for the activity ahead. Stretching only takes a few minutes to perform, and it’ll save you days of aches and pains.
We’ve compiled a list of some great stretches to perform before you start in on some of your spring activities.
Continue reading Warm Weather Activities and Stretches To Go With
Winter Sports Stretches
If you’re an avid skier or snowboarder, you know the importance of stretching before and after a fun session down the mountain. If you’re more like most of us, you might go once a season with friends or family just for a fun time. If this is more like you, it’s more important than ever to do stretches before and after to mitigate pain from over stretching your muscles and using muscles more than you normally use them in your daily activities. Stretching will also help you avoid winter sport muscle injuries.
Winter sports have a lot in common. When you’re skiing you may use some of the same muscles you use if you’re snowboarding. Let’s go through some great stretches you can practice to help shape you up for your time up on the mountain.