Don’t Let Aches and Pains Ruin Your Holiday Fun: How Physical Therapy Can Help

Millions of Americans suffer from chronic pain, including high-impact pain that interferes with daily activities. When the holidays roll around, those painful symptoms can feel even worse, making it a lot more difficult to enjoy all the holidays have to offer.

Long hours spent shopping, decorating, or baking can leave your body feeling stiff and sore. Even simple activities, like wrapping gifts, can cause many types of pain to flare up, making the holiday season a lot more challenging — and a lot less fun.

At Minit Medical Urgent Care and Physical Therapy, our team helps patients of all ages relieve pain and focus on what matters, with physical therapy plans that target the root cause of pain. Here, learn why the holidays can make your pain feel worse — and how physical therapy can relieve discomfort now and all year long.

Holidays and chronic pain

Chronic pain can happen any time of the year, but for many people, the holiday season can be especially challenging. That’s because often, holiday events and preparations involve a lot more physical activity, and that means increased demand on your joints, muscles, and other parts of your body.

Lifting heavy shopping bags, standing in line, or preparing big meals can stress your muscles and joints. Even sitting for long car rides or flights can lead to stiffness and discomfort. These sudden changes in activity can wind up straining areas of the body that aren’t used to the extra demands.

But physical triggers are just part of the problem: The holidays can also bring a lot of added stress, and that can lead to emotional impacts, too. Planning events, stretching your budget, and even dealing with unpleasant memories of past holidays or personal losses can all take an emotional toll, in turn making physical pain worse or harder to cope with.

The physical and emotional impacts of the holidays can make it harder to sleep, too, leading to restless nights and poor quality slumber. Since sleep is when our bodies take time to heal and recover, it makes sense that poor sleep can lead to even more aches and pains during the day.

How physical therapy can help

Physical therapy helps relieve holiday-related aches and pains in multiple ways. It starts by determining the underlying cause of pain, using targeted therapies to treat that cause instead of simply masking its symptoms. Once the cause is identified, our team works with you to develop a therapy plan focused on your specific needs and goals.

For most people, physical therapy plans include special exercises and stretches focused on strengthening muscles and improving flexibility to take some of the strain off sore muscles. Balance exercises improve mobility and reduce your risk of pain as well as injury caused by falls or overexertion.

Your therapist can also provide medical guidance to help navigate holiday-specific activities to help reduce stress and strain. Learning how to lift heavy objects safely, improve posture while cooking or wrapping gifts, or take care of yourself during long periods of travel can make a surprisingly big difference in your comfort, both now and in the weeks and months to come. 

Better still, physical therapy can be used preemptively before pain begins, helping your body prepare for the added demands of the holiday season so you can keep up with the increased activity without succumbing to extra aches and pains.

Give yourself the gift of comfort

The holidays should be a time for enjoying yourself and creating lasting memories, not a time for struggling with discomfort. Physical therapy can help you relieve those aches and pains now and prevent them in the future, too. 

To learn how we can design a plan that’s focused on your personal goals and concerns, request an appointment online or over the phone with Minit Medical Urgent Care and Physical Therapy in Kihei, Kahului, or Lahaina, Hawaii, today.