In the depths of winter, adults, as well as children, exert
themselves to engage in enjoyable outdoor activities that will keep them
warm and provide both excitement and entertainment. Cross-country
skiing, downhill skiing, sledding, ice hockey, figure skating, and speed
skating all have their enthusiasts.
Many people are proficient in multiple winter sports. Others have no
discernible degree of skill, yet persist owing to the exhilaration and
good feelings that are obtained by asserting oneself in the face of
freezing temperatures. Even in Southern California, where the winter
temperatures are laughably warm compared to those registered in places
where it gets authentically cold, residents feel the bite of winter.
Even in warmer areas, children and anyone young at heart can visit ice
rinks in neighborhoods malls and get a sense of what it's like to skate
on frozen water.
Importantly, participation in winter sports may often lead to injury,
owing in large part to the physical momentum involved in skating,
skiing, and sledding. Although injuries are often random and result from
unfortunate circumstances, we can take many protective measures to help
prevent an injury, despite having sustained a hard fall on the ice or a
rough tumble downhill.
Proper preparation for any winter outdoor activity includes making
sure that your body is up to the task. We get ourselves ready for
sports-type engagement by participating in regular physical exercise.
When we do aerobic exercises, we're training our heart, lungs, and
circulatory system to increase their efficiency. Over time, we become
better able to breathe more deeply, providing increased amounts of
oxygen to power our muscles and other metabolic processes.
When we do strength-training exercises, we're developing the ability
of our muscles and bones to support and maneuver with increased
mechanical loads -- abilities needed for skiing and skating and other
winter sports. Additionally, cardiovascular and strength-training
exercises enhance the capabilities of our proprioceptive system, a
network of nerve endings that help our bodies make instantaneous
decisions regarding balance and position in three-dimensional space,
subconscious skills that are critical to the successful enjoyment of
winter activities.
Regular chiropractic care is a key component of our winter sports
planning. Regular chiropractic care detects and corrects sources of
nerve interference and restores and supports optimal mechanical function
of the spinal column, our body's mechanical center. By making sure we
are getting regular chiropractic care, we help ourselves get the most
out of our exercise programs. In this way, regular chiropractic care
helps us stay healthy, avoid injury, and have outdoor fun all winter
long.
- Raabe ME, Chaudhari AMW: Biomechanical consequences of running with
deep core muscle weakness. J Biomech 2017 Dec 6. pii:
S0021-9290(17)30692-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2017.11.037. [Epub ahead
of print]
- Dreischart M, et al: Estimation of loads on human lumbar spine: A
review of in vivo and computational model studies. J. Biomech
49(6):833-845, 2016
- Schuch FB, et al: Exercise as a treatment for depression: A
meta-analysis adjusting for publication bias. J Psychiatr Res 77:42-51,
2016
