Hi Reader,

Welcome! We appreciate you being part of our community and trusting us with your health and wellness. Each quarter, we’ll be sharing practical tips you can actually use - no fluff, just simple ways to support your health, mobility, and overall well being.

Summer Is Coming: Feel Your Best!

Fasten your seatbelts. The end of the school year, new schedules, summer vacations, longer days and warmer weather bring lots of changes to our lives! Here are a few powerful yet simple tips to keep your body moving and feeling good.

As the weather warms up and schedules fill with races, tournaments, hikes, vacations, yard work, and outdoor activities, many people jump back into movement at full speed, often without preparing their bodies for the increased demands. The start of a new active season is exciting, but it’s also one of the most common times for nagging aches, overuse injuries, and flare ups to appear.

Just like you wouldn’t start a long road trip without checking your vehicle, your body also benefits from a seasonal “tune up.” Small limitations in mobility, strength, balance, or recovery can quietly build over time and eventually lead to pain or decreased performance when activity levels increase.

A few simple ways to help your body transition into a more active season:

1. Increase activity gradually instead of making sudden jumps in intensity or volume

• Running? Biking? Make sure to avoid sudden jumps in mileage from week to week. Track your weekly mileage to keep track, and every 4 weeks, drop your mileage 20-30% to allow your body to adapt and recover.

• Yard Work? Mix it up! Spent only 15-20 minutes per task, and alternate it with another different kind of movement until you're completed. Example: weeding x 15mins, then raking x 15 mins, and switching back and forth. You wouldn't ever go from not running to running 13.1 miles, so why spend four hours doing seasonal yardwork all at once if you haven't been doing comparable movements?

• Swimming? If you're just jumping back into the water for the first time since last summer, and haven't been off-season training, please limit your workout and vary your strokes! Alternate between freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, etc to give muscle groups the chance to rest in between instead of spending 45 minutes straight doing straight freestyle. Your body will thank you!

2. Make movement preparation part of your routine with dynamic warm-ups and regular maintenance exercises

• Running? Biking? Make sure to do a dynamic warm up. Exercises like A-skips, Frankenstein's, walking lunges, gate opener/closers and diagonal leg swings can go a long way. Short on time? Even 2-3 minutes can help, and then spend a few minutes with static stretching at the end to improve recovery (I'm looking at you calves, adductors, hip flexors and back!).

• Yard Work? Do some active mobility work before you start (air squats, lunges, toe touches, leg swings, snow angels, etc) and finish with some gentle stretching or mobility work (I love book openers for a post-gardening recovery move!).

• Swimming? Ever watch the pros at the Olympics? They don't just jump in the pool and start swimming, and neither should you! Dry land dynamic movements like arm circles and swings, goal post rotations, leg swings and Spiderman lunges with arm rotations are a few that can help warmup the body while improving muscle length and pliability to enhance your workout performance and prepare you for movement.

3. Prioritize recovery with quality sleep, hydration, and mobility work

• Summer nights can be long- the sun stays out later so it's natural to be up and out later too! Make sure to keep an eye on your sleep habits- planning to be in bed for at least seven hours, and more if you're really active. Aim for consistent hours each night to improve sleep quality. Keep the room cool (the best you can- August in Annapolis is H-O-T!!!), limit late night snacking and electronic use before bed, and try to finish all exercise at least two hours before bedtime.

• Swimming in water and drinking adult beverages are two things that do not count towards working on adequate hydration! While some people say to drink at least half of your body weight in ounces of water, official hydration guidelines from The National Academy of Medicine suggests an average daily fluid intake of 9 cups (72 ounces)-13 cups(104 ounces) of total fluids per day with variations depending on your body size, activity level, environment, diet and health status. Easier than tracking your total ounces, pay attention to your body- aim for a pale, translucent yellow urine color.

• Motion is lotion! We need to keep our muscles and joints moving in all directions on a regular basis. As we age, we tend to lose tissue elasticity, joint lubrication (called synovial fluid), have thinning of protective cartilage in our joints, have less cellular water content(tendons become more brittle and muscle fibers can physically shorten and tighten, making you feel more rigid!). We need to make sure we are moving in all directions to keep our joints and muscles. While there are loads and loads of mobility exercises and drills out there, you can even start with a simple body check in at each of your body areas. Move you head up, down, side to side and rotate it in both directions. Is it stickier going one way? If so, gently move it back and forth a few times and see if it gets looser! Do the same for your shoulders, back, hips, knees, ankles and toes!

4. Don’t ignore recurring tightness or discomfort. Early intervention is often the key to preventing bigger injuries later

• Physical Therapy pro-tip here: this is a HUGE one! Early treatment for an issue is SO much easier to fix, rather than waiting for things to get more stuck and more angry. If you wait too long, then you have to correct movement compensations too. I recently treated a patient who hurt her shoulder and was already scheduled for traditional PT 2x a week for 4 weeks at another location. By seeing her within the first fourteen days of her injury, we were able to fix the problem completely in one visit, and she was able to cancel the PT she had setup for later that month. Don't wait to get help if you need it!

Whether your goal is staying active without pain, improving athletic performance, or simply keeping up with your family and daily life, investing in your body proactively can make a huge difference in how you feel this season.

At Align Physical Therapy and Wellness, we strive to help you move confidently, stay resilient, and continue doing the activities you love, not just recover after injuries occur.

Office News

We will have a summer extern joining us from the Broadneck Swim Team- the 2026 AACPS County Champions!

Please join us in welcoming Jojo Navarro-Monzo to Align Physical Therapy & Wellness for an externship/clinical observation. Jojo, an accomplished Navy swimmer, is looking to pursue a career path working with aquatic athletes. We are so excited to share our clinical experiences, as well as learn from him! Jojo will be in the office a few hours a week between June 20-July 20.

COMING SOON!!!

Our sister company, Empowering Movement Institute, LLC, will soon be releasing a series of podcasts discussing all of the things you want to know about healthcare, physical therapy, fitness and wellness. Stay tuned for our first release in a just a few weeks!

Wishing you health and alignment,
​Kristen Cooper, DPT
​Align Physical Therapy & Wellness

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