It typically occurs on Sundays. On Sundays, you’ve completed your run, gym session, football game, or hike; you’re feeling pretty good about what you accomplished. Later, while bending to pick something up or climbing stairs, your legs feel heavy, your back hurts, and now your shoulders appear to have joined the party. Your body shows signs of the weekend by Monday morning.
This is how a lot of people live their lives. Their weeks are hectic, so their fitness is crammed into whatever space is available on weekends. That isn’t inherently bad. However, if all of your physical energy is concentrated on the weekends, then your body likely needs more than a short stretch and an early bedtime.
Weekends Are Tough on Joints & Muscles
For many individuals, their weekdays consist of sitting (at school/work), driving, desk jobs, and hurriedly rushing through their daily routines. Then comes Saturday, and the body is supposed to immediately transition from inactive to active.
An individual who has sat for approximately five days may find themselves playing 5-A-Side soccer, lifting heavier weights at the gym, or going farther than they normally would run. In the present moment, the effort seems great. But the muscles and joints of the body notice the rapid shift. The hips lock. The calf pulls. The lower back works much harder than it should.
Injury doesn’t necessarily result from this sudden change. Rather, it tends to manifest itself as small recurrent issues. A sore knee after every run. Stiff neck after playing tennis. Tight hamstrings that never seem fully relaxed. Most individuals dismiss these as minor issues, but they generally indicate that the body is working around strain rather than functioning optimally.
Pain Isn’t Always a Positive Indicator
Several people equate soreness with evidence that they had a productive workout. While this is sometimes true, it’s also possible that it indicates that recovery is lagging behind.
There is a significant difference between normal post-exercise fatigue and soreness that continues to occur in the same location. If your legs continue to be tight after weekend training sessions or your shoulders consistently feel overworked after a competition/ practice session, that is NOT something to disregard.
Many individuals attempt to self-correct these issues. Individuals will stretch for several minutes, increase their hydration intake, utilize a foam roller, and assume that this will resolve the issue. Those methods can assist, but don’t always provide a resolution for the root cause of the issue. Many times, one muscle group is working overtime due to weakness in another muscle group, or restriction in one or both areas. This is where sports massage therapy can serve as an organic piece of maintaining functionality, rather than stopping once something hurts badly enough.
Don’t Assume More Work Will Fix Your Patterns
The biggest mistake in a weekend training plan is thinking that you just need to push yourself hard enough. The truth is, if your gait changes as you get tired, or if your shoulder muscles always tighten during each workout, then doing the same thing over again but working harder only exposes the problems more obviously. Small movement imbalances tend to creep up on you. That one tight hip can start to alter your gait while you run. It can also slow down your recovery. A stiff upper back will begin to put pressure on your neck & shoulders. After this happens for some time, it’s going to be tough to tell if you’re making any consistent progress in your workouts, even though you may be putting in the hours.
Active Recovery Requires More Than Just Good Intentions
Nearly everyone knows the fundamentals. Stretch better. Proper cool-down. Get more sleep. Get more movement throughout the week. The difficulty lies in finding time for “real-life” activities.
You leave for work late and rush to your session and tell yourself that you’ll recover properly afterward. Then the remainder of the day takes priority. As such, recovery becomes an afterthought.
Thus, scheduling a professional tune-up can help to create structure out of ambiguity. Instead of making educated guesses regarding why your calf muscles are perpetually tight or why your low back feels sore after participating in exercise, you gain insight into exactly what is occurring.
Oftentimes, the problem is not the type of activity in which you are engaging. Rather, it is the manner in which your body is responding to the increased demands placed upon it. Issues with poor mobility, residual tension from past injuries, unequal loading patterns, and prolonged posture are commonly identified when there is an increased level of intensity applied to your exercises.
Creating a Functional Routine Allows You To Remain Actively Involved
Using a functional routine allows you to continue being actively involved in physical activities. Many people who consider themselves “weekend warriors” do not intend to become elite athletes, but rather wish to stay physically active throughout the week, without having to pay the price of suffering from lack of use or injury on the first day of the work week. That is essentially the goal. A professional tune-up was designed to allow you to perform better at what you are currently doing; it should never require you to do more. As long as minor pains/discomforts are quickly resolved, movement will be less labored, and recovery will be easier, allowing you to consistently engage in activity.
If you find yourself experiencing stiff areas of your body each time you complete an active weekend, this is likely no coincidence. Your body is simply sending you a message. More often than not, if your body is sending you messages, such as “I need some help,” the smartest thing you can do is listen. Providing assistance to your current routine is probably going to be the best way to satisfy those needs.
Feature image by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash.
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