Feeling Stiff and Achy? How Physical Therapy Can Help…

Our bodies are made to move and rely on a finely-tuned balance of proper posture, strength, coordination, chemical levels, blood pressure and more. When you don’t move on a consistent basis or experience changes to your health, you may start to feel stiff and achy, especially in the mornings. Poor health, injury, a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition are also often to blame for the constant nagging aches or pains you may be experiencing.

Why do I ache in the morning?
Your tissues get irritated in the day and build up a chronic layer of inflammation. This may be subtle enough where you don’t notice it too much at the end of the day. However, overnight the inflammation thickens and makes your tissues inelastic, while also irritating the affected area further. The result is aching stiff joints or muscles in the morning, until you get moving. Then the inflammation becomes more liquid like, allowing the tissues to move better, thus hurting less.

If this cycle continues to happen, a chronic deterioration of the tissues can happen, often leading to severe problems down the road. Therefore, it is important to address your constant aches and pains, before they become severe.

Here are some tips for relieving common aches and pains

• Stay hydrated and drink plenty of water. If not, your tissues can become drier, which slows down normal chemical processes in your body.
• Get enough sleep. Too little sleep drastically affects the hormones in your body that are needed to maintain your delicate body chemistry. This can affect your muscles and other tissues normal functioning.
• Exercise regularly. This makes your body more efficient at pumping blood around the body and removing normal metabolic wastes that are produced.
• Improve your posture. If you sit at a desk or computer, get up every 30 minutes for a few seconds stretch. Move around and stand up to be straighter.
• Eat bright colored fruit and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables with bright colors often have a higher concentration of antioxidants and vitamins that assist the body in repairing itself and normal functions.
• Get a physical therapy consultation. If you have aches and pains that aren’t going away, or if you have a recent or past injury that keeps you from doing the things you love to do, you need to seek out the advice of our expert physical therapists. Physical therapy can really help you quickly relieve aches and pains for the long-term.