Warm weather inspires people to get out and golf, garden and otherwise use their bodies in ways they haven't used them all winter.
Those first spring romps often lead to doctor visits, but some stretching and a little restraint could keep that from happening, two physical therapists said.
Matthew Gatesman of East Suburban Sports Medicine Center said it's not just the couch potatoes who end up needing therapy.
"Most of them are very healthy people, and they do things to keep themselves in shape," he said.
What they don't do is stretch their bodies enough to keep them limber.
"The most neglected area of fitness is flexibility," Gatesman said.
Tara Ridge, a sports medicine physical therapist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said visits to the therapy center increase by about 10 percent to 12 percent in March. Most of those visits come from people not listening to their bodies.
"What we tend to do is, in the presence of pain, continue to exercise," she said.
Gentle exercise helps sore muscles recover, but it doesn't help with joint or back pain, Ridge said.
"You would want to let that rest," she said.
Trying to "play" through joint pain just makes the problem worse and can create complications.
Hamner Williams, 55, of Plum knows that from personal experience. When he first started golfing, he couldn't see the point to spending up to 45 minutes warming up and stretching when he could be playing golf.
He ignored the first twinges in his shoulders, and just tried to twist and turn the stiffness out while he was teeing up. Recovering from his second shoulder surgery, Williams said he regrets the time he didn't spend on preparing to golf.
"I tore ligaments that needn't have been torn," he said.
About 90 percent of his therapy is stretching and strengthening muscles; the same exercises that could have averted the injury.
"Now, I'm a firm believer in that," he said. "I even have my wife and children doing that now."
UPMC's Ridge said the force of a golf swing is distributed across the body when the golfer has normal flexibility, but it concentrates in the knees or mid-back on someone who's not flexible. The same is true for runners.
Gardeners run into a different problem because they spend hours crouched in positions that they probably haven't experienced since the previous summer. Taking frequent breaks and spreading the planting over a couple of weekends gives their bodies time to adapt and have a better chance of avoiding injury, she said.
Gatesman said the key to avoiding sports injuries is to gradually increase the frequency, duration and intensity of activity. Golfers who haven't touched a club all winter should start off with nine holes instead of 18 and not try to play two days in a row, he said.
Even people starting a walking program should start small and increase the distance they walk, how many days they walk and how fast they walk as their physical condition improves, he said. The idea is to change one component at a time and see whether the activity is creating a problem, he said.
"You always start with less than what you think you can do and then you gradually increase the frequency, intensity and duration of the activity," Gatesman said.
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