There’s something about back-to-school season that feels like somebody suddenly hit the reset button on the entire household.
For parents, summer has its own rhythm. Kids are home. Camps, vacations, sports, beach days, late nights, random Tuesdays that somehow require three different car rides…you know the drill.
Then September rolls around and BAM. The alarm clocks are back. School buses are rolling. Practices get squeezed into the afternoon. Homework returns from the dead. And parents everywhere go back to running a small transportation company out of their SUV.
As a physical therapist, I actually think this time of year is a great reminder of just how much our routines affect our bodies.
During the summer, you might be moving differently, exercising at different times, sitting more or less than usual, traveling, chasing kids around, or putting your own routine completely on the back burner.
Once school starts, the schedule changes again.
Maybe you finally have time to get back to the gym. Maybe you’re sitting in the car twice as much driving to practices. Maybe you’re back to squeezing your workout into 45 minutes before pickup. Or maybe your “exercise” consists of carrying three backpacks, two water bottles, a trumpet and a kid who suddenly forgot how legs work.
It all counts.
And Speaking of Back to School…
This year’s back-to-school season has a pretty incredible connection for me personally.
I currently have the honor of treating my second grade teacher from 1963 as a patient.
Yes, you read that correctly… 1963!
She taught me when I was a second grader, and all these years later, somehow the roles have flipped. Now she’s coming to see me.
I’m not sure whether this means I’ve officially been around too long or whether life just has a great sense of humor.
Either way, it’s pretty special.
Teachers have an enormous impact on us, often long before we’re old enough to fully appreciate it. They help build the foundation for who we become. To have someone who was part of my life that many years ago walk through the doors of Stoneking Physical Therapy is one of those full-circle moments that makes you stop and appreciate how strange and wonderful life can be.
And yes, I promise I’m behaving better for her now than I did in second grade.
Mostly.
Your Schedule Changes. Don’t Forget About You.
That’s really my back-to-school message this year.
Routines change. Kids grow up. Teachers become patients. Second graders somehow become physical therapists.
Life keeps moving.
So as your family’s schedule shifts this fall, take a look at your own routine too.
If you’ve been putting off dealing with that sore back, cranky shoulder, bad knee or whatever else has been barking at you all summer, maybe it’s time to stop hoping it’ll magically disappear.
Get moving. Get stronger. Take care of yourself.
And to all the parents getting the kids out the door, packing lunches, finding missing shoes and trying to remember which kid needs to be at which field at what time…
Good luck out there.
Class is officially back in session.
Rich Stoneking
Stoneking Physical Therapy