Constable: Weekday physical therapists now seeing springtime weekend warriors
Monday's raw wind, cold and drizzle couldn't have come at a better time for my knees, shoulders and muscles aching from the first really glorious spring weekend. Apparently, all the muscles I strained during months of shoveling snow on frigid winter days are equally ill-prepared to handle a weekend spent painting porch doors, windows and screens under sunny skies.
"We see this the first couple of nice weekends," says Carrie Hockinson, a physical therapist and facility manager at Athletico Naperville Freedom Drive. For many of us suburbanites coming out of hibernation, spring has sprained, and a "spring in the step" merely means a limp.
"This is the time of the year when we see an uptick in what we call weekend warriors," Hockinson says. Athletico facilities throughout the suburbs this week will see men and women who tweaked or twisted something during the pleasant weekend.
Some are athletes who return full throttle to the tennis and basketball courts or soccer and baseball fields after months of relative inactivity. Many others find themselves moving slowly or making odd noises whenever they get out of a chair at work simply because they spent the weekend doing chores, pitching dozens of balls to a son or daughter or even puttering around in their garden.
People have reported getting injured while "taking a mower out of storage," Hockinson says, noting that the typical Athletico client this time of year is in his 30s or 40s. "Back is the most common injury, and then shoulders and knees. It's related to work around the house and trying to keep up with their kids."
I remember my own softball career nearing the end when I hurt my right shoulder reaching behind the couch to plug in the heating pad for my aching left shoulder.
Generally regarded as a safe activity, gardening results in many physical woes this time of year.
"It's usually associated with lifting up something, lifting heavy pots or lifting bags of mulch," Hockinson says.
Past president and a member of the Garden Club of Inverness, Betty Ann Dailey admits to soreness after weekend work outside her Palatine home.
"I was out there picking up sticks and cleaning up. I was trying to take off dead leaves," Dailey says, explaining how a large bush didn't drop its leaves even though new buds are starting. "I was out there picking off all the brown leaves."
Not much is up yet, including her mint garden. So it's not as if she was crawling around pulling weeds.
"I've got the knee pads, but I don't do that anymore," she says, noting that is one perk of being a senior citizen. But she did enough to be sore.
"Yes, I still am, and I wore high heels to church and that wasn't a good idea, either," says Dailey, a member of Holy Family Catholic Community in Inverness. Her fellow gardeners no doubt came out of the warm spring weekend with equally sore knees, achy shoulders and tired muscles. But you don't hear griping at the club meetings.
"We're pretty strong-hearted when we go to our meetings," Dailey says.
Lots of folks pop a couple of Advils and go to bed Sunday night with pain caused by "repetitive overuse in muscle groups that haven't been used since last summer," Hockinson says. "They did something on Saturday and Sunday, and we get the phone calls on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday."
Athletico facilities offer free, 30-minute injury screenings. In cases where therapy is appropriate, therapists can "calm down the aggravation and retrain the muscle groups to work appropriately," Hockinson says.
In the meantime, it might be best to ease into spring as a warm-up period for the real activity of summer.
Earth Day is Wednesday, and I'm hoping it will be too chilly and overcast to work around my house. I need a cool breeze to soothe the sunburn I picked up on my neck during the weekend.