Every regular gym enthusiast will tell you that motivation is definitely at its lowest in the winter and depending where you live in Canada that can be anywhere from four to six months. But let’s look at winter from a glass half full perspective, there’s a multitude of fun, winter activities right outside your backdoor from skating and skiing, to snowshoeing and tobogganing Canada is ripe with outdoor activities. However, most winter sports are going to place the greatest physical demand on your lower body more specifically your glutes, hamstrings, quads, adductors and abductors. Simply put, your butt, hips, legs and inner and outer thighs. The gluteus maximus (butt) is the most powerful muscle of the body, typically the largest and is responsible for hip extension, lifting your leg behind you and rotating your leg outward. The three hamstring muscles all attach to the ischial tuberosity (sit bones) at the base of your butt, running down the back of your leg and attaching to the lower leg bones just below the knee. These three muscles work with the gluteus maximus during hip extension and are solely responsible for flexing the knee.

The front of the thigh is made up of four quadriceps muscles. These four muscles run down the front of the leg and when contracted extend the knee. One of the quadricep muscles (rectus femoris) also crosses the hip and along with the hip flexor (iliopsoas) flexes the hip. Five adductor muscles form your inner thigh to bring your leg inward towards your other leg.

The gluteus medius and minimus muscles forming your upper hips are the hip abductors. They work together to move your leg out and away from your other leg. The gluteus medius also works to keep your pelvis from tilting when standing on one leg. All these muscle groups work together to perform multi-muscle tasks.

Not only is it important to exercise the muscles of your lower body to make them stronger and more explosive for the winter activity you choose but it’s equally important to stretch these same muscles. Proper stretching allows maximum benefits for both health and performance to reduce the risk of potentially painful and debilitating injury to muscle and connective tissue.

Muscle imbalances develop because the weight bearing muscles of the lower extremity gradually shorten over time with repetitive usage and fatigue. These large muscles will remain shortened for the rest of our lives if stretches are not done routinely and correctly. Indeed, many people do stretch faithfully, however they maybe stretching incorrectly and can cause permanent damage to various body structures.

Muscles truly do not “stretch” they relax. A stretch is a sliding elongation of overlapping protein fibres. If the muscle is doing work and contracting during the stretch to maintain a position it cannot relax and elongation of the myofilaments will not occur. Stretching must isolate one major muscle or muscle group in a position where the muscle group can relax back to its resting length and slide longer. Be gentle and allow the loss of tension in the muscle to happen slowly. Overstretching places too much tension causing damage to muscle fibres. If the stretch is felt in the muscle tendon junctions, the weakest part of any muscle, then microscopic tearing and permanent scarring (fibrosis) will occur. Lastly, make sure you feel the stretch in the muscle belly and very, very important remember to breathe.