Staying Active During the Winter Months

Winter brings colder temperatures, shorter days, and more time indoors. While it’s easy to move less this time of year, staying active remains essential for joint health, muscle strength, and overall comfort. The following tips can help you stay active, comfortable, and consistent throughout the winter months.

Keep Movement Simple and Frequent

Regular movement throughout the day helps prevent stiffness and maintain flexibility. Taking short breaks to stand, walk, stretch, or change positions at least every hour can help keep joints mobile and muscles engaged, even on busy days.

Strength at Home Without Equipment

You don’t necessarily need a gym to stay strong. Resistance bands work great, and so do bodyweight exercises such as squats or sit-to-stands, wall or counter push-ups, step-ups on a stair, and simple pulling or pressing movements. Focus on slow, controlled, pain-free motion rather than pushing for fatigue.

Stretch Where It Matters Most

Colder temperatures tend to stiffen muscles and can aggravate aches and discomfort. Gentle daily stretching can help, especially for the calves, hamstrings, hip flexors, neck, and back. Just a few minutes once or twice a day can improve mobility and reduce tension.

Adjust—Don’t Abandon—Your Routine

If winter weather limits outdoor activity, adjust your routine instead of skipping movement altogether. Indoor walking, light strength work, or mobility exercises can help you stay consistent until conditions improve.

The Bottom Line

Staying active in winter doesn’t require perfect conditions or long workouts. Small, regular movements help keep your body strong and flexible during colder months. If stiffness, aches, or pain are limiting your activity, remember that your chiropractor is always here to help you move better and feel your best this winter.

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Hip Mobility and Hamstring Strength Positively Associated with Low Back Pain

When dealing with low back pain, we are often looking at the site of pain as the cause of our pain as well. This is not always the case, especially when dealing with the low back. I will often encounter stiff, tight hips when dealing with someone who has low back pain. These patients will often tell me that their hamstrings are very tight as well, which leads people to associate tight hamstrings with needing to stretch. But what if I told you that weak muscles can also be tight?

There is a great study done where they measured a person with low back pain’s hip range of motion and their hamstring strength against a control group. They found very significant association with decreased range of motion at the hip, especially with rotation, and reduced hamstring strength. Many patients suffering from low back pain would benefit from improved rotation in the hips and strengthening their hamstrings. Tight muscles do not always need to be stretched, sometimes they are just holding on for dear life because they’ve been stressed for so long. This combination can add significant force to the lumbar spine and can increase the frequency of low back pain episodes.

Kuligowski, T., Dębiec-Bąk, A. & Cieślik, B. Hamstring strength and hip mobility associated with pain and disability in lumbar instability. Sci Rep (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-32033-7