Our Chiropractor Provides Tips to Enjoy the Outdoors

Before you embark on your Norfolk vacation, make sure you protect your health so you can get the most fun out of outdoor summer activities. Here are three safety tips from our to help you get started:

1. Apply sunscreen. Sunscreen is a critical factor in your outdoor wellness. Ultraviolet radiation can cause long-term skin damage while raising your risk for melanoma, a deadly skin cancer. Depending on how much skin you expose, you may need to rub the equivalent of an entire shot glass of sunscreen onto your body before you hit the beach. Keep in mind that even the most water-resistant, high-SPF products will lose their protective abilities within two hours’ time, so you must keep re-applying it as needed.

2. Limber up. Summertime means summer sports, but take the time to stretch before you leap. Give your muscles and tendons a chance to warm up through gentle stretching exercises before swimming, running, surfing, or playing your favorite beach sport. Swimming, for example, uses every part of the body, so include stretches that work your arms, shoulders, lower back, hips, buttocks and calves. A limbered-up body is less likely to encounter the kind of muscle, back or shoulder pain that calls for a chiropractor.

3. Hydrate. Most of us fail to get the recommended eight glasses of water per day even when tucked safely indoors. In the summer heat, though, failure to hydrate can cause heatstroke, a potentially fatal condition. If you are active for more than 40 minutes, you need to replace not only water but also electrolytes such as sodium and potassium. Consuming large amounts of water alone could result in hyponatremia, a hazardously low concentration of electrolytes in the blood.

Trouble? Visit Wards Corner Chiropractic

If your active summer lifestyle includes an accident or two, let us serve as your Norfolk wellness resource. Our own Dr. Robinson can prescribe the appropriate spinal adjustment, decompression and other treatments for everything from headache relief to sports injury rehabilitation.

What are your favorite summer activities?