Physiotherapist offers tips on how to handle the seemingly endless snow shovelling
Laura Lundquist recommends stretching, cardio exercise and taking frequent breaks
Many Nova Scotians are feeling the weight of the snow that's fallen across the province over the last couple of weeks. Especially in their backs.
The province has received a winter's worth of snow in two weeks, leaving many residents tired and sore from the endless shovelling.
Laura Lundquist, a Halifax physiotherapist and owner of Zoomers Physiotherapy and Health Solutions, has some practical solutions.
She spoke with Portia Clark, host of CBC Radio's Information Morning Halifax, on Thursday about best practices for recovering from snow shovelling soreness and injuries.
What shovelling and snow-related injuries are you typically seeing at this time of year, especially after the last couple of weeks?
They're definitely rolling in and sometimes outright injuries, and sometimes just soreness that lasts for a few days afterward, when your body can tell you've really been doing something that's out of the ordinary. Give it a little bit of rest from the shovelling, although that's not always possible. We actually want to move a little bit when we have that muscle soreness because stiffness is really the enemy, gentle movement and resting, away from more shovelling if at all possible.
What about the actual injuries, the strains and sprains? Where do those tend to show up?
I would say the lower back will probably top the charts, followed closely by the neck and shoulder. One that sometimes surprises people are the elbows because we do so much gripping, lifting and twisting of the shovel. We could actually get tennis elbow or golfer's elbow from shovelling.
Is it twisting that's accounting for these injuries?
It's a combination of things for the lower back. The real tough thing with shovelling is our tendency to want to bend forward to get the snow on the shovel, and then to twist as we lift it up onto the pile beside us.
That bend and twist is a real killer for the low back, especially when it's loaded with a shovel full of snow.
When it's heavy and those snow banks keep getting higher and higher so that you have to lift it over to drop it, how do you avoid that? I mean, it sounds like it might take a little more intentionality to avoid that twisting.
Definitely being mindful of how we're moving when at all possible. If you can push the snow rather than having to lift it up, that works well. Then sometimes you know just if you are having to lift it and throw it up onto a bank, trying to do it in smaller shovelfuls.
Sometimes we feel like we just want to get it done and get it out of the way. Taking a little bit more time is probably smart.
You know, each individual shovelful, usually, other than when it's full of ice and heavy wet snow, is not necessarily beyond a weight that we can handle. It's just that we do it so many times when we shovel a driveway.
So if we can break it down into little chunks, so to speak, and do 10 or 15 minutes of shovelling and then go do something else and then come back to shovelling, it makes it take longer for sure and that doesn't always fit with our needs, but it's a good way to avoid injury because it gives your body a little bit of recovery time between each 15-minute round.
Teenagers that have younger backs, are they also susceptible to these kinds of strains and injuries?
Everybody is susceptible. Children generally are a little bit better at self-regulation sometimes than adults are. So usually with an activity like shovelling, they'll do it until they're tired and then they stop.
How do we decide to see someone for some professional advice about specific exercises or recovery?
I have three general rules that apply to shovelling, about when it's a good idea to see a physio. I always say if you know you've injured yourself, there was one big shovelful that really caused a sharp, acute pain, then getting help sooner rather than later, like that day or the next, is a good idea.
If it seems to have been relatively mild, but after two or three days your pain isn't getting better, then chances are a little bit of help from a professional is a good idea.
If it seems to be getting better after two or three days, but after two weeks you've got some symptoms lingering, chances are you need a little bit of help to just get yourself all the way better.
Are there any exercises or stretches that you would recommend before or after more shovelling?
It's a great idea to warm up for your shovelling, rather than rolling out of bed and picking up the shovel. Even just reaching your arms up overhead, maybe bending a little bit side to side, maybe a little bit of gentle turning left to right, because despite our best efforts we will do some twisting when we're out there.
When finished, one of the best things, if you have overall muscle soreness, is just to do a little bit of light aerobic or cardiovascular exercise. Going for a little walk or, if you have access to an exercise bike, just 10 or 15 minutes at a gentle pace sends the blood through the muscles. That helps loosen them up and clean them out of all the metabolites that build up in there when you do that heavy work. That can help you feel better quite quickly.
A hot shower might feel good, but also do us some good.
A hot shower if you have that just generalized muscle soreness. If you know you've had an acute injury, I'm a little bit biased to putting an ice pack on, but if it's just general muscle soreness then a hot bath or hot shower. Sometimes even a bath with Epsom salts can feel good.
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With files from Information Morning Halifax
