Have you ever wondered why you have pain with weather changes? Maybe you have been feeling good lately but with last weeks cold snap, you are stiff and sore all over. This isn’t going to be a ground breaking discovery but it's easy to miss. If you’ve been shivering and freezing over the last week and your neck and back are starting to hurt, think about your posture. Are you hunched over trying to warm yourself up from the cold weather outside? Is your neck poking forward with your shoulders up around your ears? Pay attention next time you are sitting at your desk shivering away or walking through a cold parking lot.
What is the best way to avoid this? Cover up the areas where the most heat loss occurs, your head and neck. I can definitely get behind neck gaiters and turtle necks to keep me warm. The tiny weight of a scarf can make your neck sore so be aware of that extra weight.
Think about the posture you have when it is cold outside and you are walking through the parking lot to get to your car and trying to stay warm. It’s horrible. If you think about what your body is trying to do, you are basically trying to make yourself smaller so you have less areas of your uncovered skin exposed to the elements. Multiply that over three months of cold and it is easy to see why winter weather causes pain for people that tend to run cold. Be aware of your posture and realize that these posture changes will become new habits if you aren't aware of them. So remember what your mother said and just bundle up. Simple as that.
On top of that, cold muscles tend to be short muscles. Especially in the winter, once you get somewhere warm, it is important to stretch more. Stretching cold muscles isn’t such a good idea since muscles are easy to injure when they are cold.