David Frost, associate professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and director of the Master of Professional Kinesiology (MPK) program, and Alex Malone, lead coach in the Faculty's Sport & Rec fitness and performance program, recently shared their expertise with the Globe and Mail on exercises you can do at home to prevent common wintertime injuries.
Canadian winters don’t just mean unbearably cold temperatures. It also means trudging through snow and ice, and all the chores that come with it. Shovelling snow, scraping ice off of windshields and scattering salt are all a part of the winter experience – and can lead to injury. 31 per cent of Canadians say that shovelling causes back and joint pain, according to the Association des chiropraticiens du Québec and slippery icy conditions send nearly 1,800 Canadians to the hospital every day.
Luckily, there are some easy-to-practice exercises you can do at home to improve your mobility, flexibility and strength that will help prevent these common wintertime injuries.
Traditionally done with barbells, deadlifts can also be done at home with hand weights, kettle weights, resistance bands, or even cans of beans held in each hand. Deadlifts engage the erector spinae muscle, which sits in the lower part of your back and helps keep you standing upright, says Alex Malone, lead fitness coach at the University of Toronto. These low back muscles are used when lifting something off the ground, such as when you’re shovelling snow. Building up to more repetitions can also train you to be able to lift – or shovel – for longer, Malone adds.
Dave Frost, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, adds that doing deadlifts can teach your body proper lifting positions – namely engaging your hips, glutes and core. People often hurt their back shovelling snow because they’re bending from their back and not their hips, he says.
To do a basic deadlift, start with your weights on the ground. Sit your hips back, bend your knees and lean your torso forward to maintain a straight back. Then, lift the weights up as you work toward a standing position, squeeze your glutes and then return to the beginning posture. Just remember to keep your knees in line with your hips and feet (when shovelling and doing deadlifts) to avoid falling inward.