I can always tell it’s getting to be corporate team softball or baseball time when I see a spike in the amount of clients coming into DASHA® with back pain, extremity issues and or general stiffness. Warmer temperatures are on the rise, which means shortsleeves, shorts and bathing suits aren’t far behind. People talk to talk about getting their “summer body” in shape, but the truth is that your body’s maintenance is something you should be thinking about on a regular basis. You can’t bake without preheating the oven and you can’t ride your bike after it sat in storage all winter without first pumping the tires up, so why should you be able to amp your body’s physical output from 25mph to 70+mph without preparing it first?
What do I mean by preparing your body? Mainly keeping your core strong and your muscles lean and limber. Most patients leave our offices with a Stretch-Out Strap, Thera Cane Massager and a tube of Biofreeze to aid them in their wellness journey. You can use the stretch out strap at home to do basic exercises that will help to ward off possible future injury, and the Thera Cane Massager is a wonderful tool to aid in self-trigger point therapy, massaging your muscles to keep them loose and released. Biofreeze relieves any pain you may experience without staining your clothes, making you greasy or smelling like menthol. Another little trick? Before you play that first softball game of the season and win one for the team, use the stretch out strap (or even a simple towel will work) in combination with a repetitive series of full-body burpees (a combination strength training and aerobic exercise involving squatting to a push-up position, and then jumping back up to a standing position with arms reaching toward the sky), and you will get your blood pumping and your body warm.
Shannon and I always talk about how we see too many people at DASHA® who have come to us long after they’ve spent months or even years putting one band-aid after another over their problem/pain/injury, when if they’d only fixed it at the beginning, their road to recovery would be faster and less painful. We are always advocating preventive medicine in your wellness journey; spring tuning that body of yours for summer by keeping it stretched out and warm is part of that preventive regimen. You body is not an iPhone, where if it cracks, you can grumble, pay $100 for a new screen, and be done with it and on to the next great thing. So take better care of your body! You only get one.
DASHA® wellness & spa is a luxury lifestyle brand and New York City-based wellness center created to offer a truly holistic approach to wellness. To learn more, visit dashawellness.com.
