Seasonal Stiffness: Gentle Ways to Keep Your Body Moving Through the Colder Months
As temperatures drop, many people notice seasonal stiffness creeping in. Muscles can feel tighter in the mornings, joints may feel less mobile, and warming up often takes a little longer than it did in summer.
In this post, I'll look at why this happens, which areas tend to feel it most, and some simple, realistic ways to support your body through autumn and winter.
Why seasonal stiffness happens
Feeling stiffer in colder weather doesn't usually mean something is wrong. Research suggests that muscles tend to work less efficiently when they are cooler, with performance closely linked to muscle temperature (Racinais and Oksa, 2010).
Routines also tend to become more static at this time of year. Less overall movement, combined with moving between cold outdoor air and heated indoor spaces, can leave the body feeling heavier or less flexible than usual.
The areas that often feel it first
In my experience, people most often notice stiffness or fatigue in the:
Hips
Lower back
Shoulders
Neck
Paying these areas a little extra attention now may help you feel more comfortable as winter approaches.
Gentle strength and mobility work
Strength and flexibility work doesn't need to be intense to be worthwhile. Current World Health Organization guidelines are clear that some physical activity is better than none, and recommend muscle-strengthening activity as part of a regular routine (Bull et al., 2020).
Simple movements you could try include:
Controlled squats
Hip hinges
Light upper-body strengthening
Gentle spinal mobility
These can usually be adapted to suit the space, time and equipment you have. The aim is to feel supported and prepared, rather than pushed beyond your current capacity.
Little and often
Short, focused sessions are often easier to maintain than longer, demanding workouts. For many people, a few minutes of movement most days is more realistic than occasional big efforts that are hard to sustain through the darker months.
Warming up and cooling down in cooler weather
Give your warm-up a little longer
Allowing extra time for gradual movement, light cardio or dynamic stretches can help you feel more ready for activity. A review of 32 studies found that warming up improved physical performance in most of the measures examined (Fradkin, Zazryn and Smoliga, 2010).
That research looked at performance rather than comfort, but many people find a slower build-up makes both exercise and everyday tasks feel more controlled in the cold.
Cooling down gently
The evidence here is more modest. A review found that active cool-downs are largely ineffective for most measured markers of recovery, although they may still offer some benefits (Van Hooren and Peake, 2018).
So a cool-down isn't essential. If slower movements, relaxed breathing and a few simple stretches help you wind down before heading back out into the cold, it's a perfectly reasonable habit to keep.
How sports and remedial massage may help with seasonal stiffness
Sports and remedial massage can sit alongside these habits, with focused work on areas such as the back, hips, shoulders and legs.
It's worth being honest about what the research shows. A systematic review and meta-analysis found no evidence that sports massage directly improves performance, but it did find small improvements in flexibility and in muscle soreness after exercise (Davis, Alabed and Chico, 2020). Everyone responds differently, and massage works best as one part of a wider routine.
A session can also be a useful chance to notice where tension tends to build. You might find yourself bracing through the shoulders against the cold, or tightening through the lower back after long periods of sitting. Recognising these patterns can guide small, helpful adjustments in daily life.
Preparing for winter, one small step at a time
Managing seasonal stiffness is less about pushing harder and more about supporting your body sensibly. Gentle strengthening, regular movement and occasional hands-on support can all play a part.
If you're starting to notice more stiffness as the days get shorter, it may help to choose one or two simple things to begin now, rather than waiting until discomfort builds.
Ready when you are
If you'd like some hands-on support alongside your own movement routine, you're welcome to book a sports and remedial massage with me at our Paisley clinic. If you have any questions first, just get in touch - we're always happy to help.
Written by Finn Elias-Schofield, Sports and Remedial Massage Therapist
References
Bull, F.C., Al-Ansari, S.S., Biddle, S. et al. (2020) 'World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour', British Journal of Sports Medicine, 54(24), pp. 1451-1462. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955.
Davis, H.L., Alabed, S. and Chico, T.J.A. (2020) 'Effect of sports massage on performance and recovery: a systematic review and meta-analysis', BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 6(1), e000614. doi: 10.1136/bmjsem-2019-000614.
Fradkin, A.J., Zazryn, T.R. and Smoliga, J.M. (2010) 'Effects of warming-up on physical performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis', Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(1), pp. 140-148. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181c643a0.
Racinais, S. and Oksa, J. (2010) 'Temperature and neuromuscular function', Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20(Suppl. 3), pp. 1-18. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01204.x.
Van Hooren, B. and Peake, J.M. (2018) 'Do we need a cool-down after exercise? A narrative review of the psychophysiological effects and the effects on performance, injuries and the long-term adaptive response', Sports Medicine, 48(7), pp. 1575-1595. doi: 10.1007/s40279-018-0916-2.
