Here's Why Your Joints Hurt In the Winter (and What You Can Do About it)

There are more reasons for seasonal aches and pains than you think.

Have you ever noticed that there is always a day, usually in the late autumn or early winter, and usually the first colder day of the season, where you wake up and feel like all of your joints hurt? It doesn’t seem to matter whether you already deal with arthritis or not, but everything just feels sore and heavy. Maybe it improves after a few days but gets worse each time we have a cold snap? If you’re lucky enough to live in the Sun Belt, this might not be your experience, but for everybody else, here’s why this is happening and more importantly, what you can do about it.

In Chinese medicine, we say that Qi stagnates in our joints. Joints are pivot points which, not being a straight line, represent areas in the body more prone to blockage. Blockage causes pain. How severe that blockage may or may not be depends on a number of factors, one of which is cold. There is a classic saying in Chinese medicine that ‘Cold contracts’. Energy needs a certain amount of warmth to move freely, otherwise it is rather sluggish. Think about it: your car battery needs more power in the winter to turn your engine over because the fluids inside of it are thicker and harder to move. Your Qi is no different. As living beings on this earth, we have seasonal circadian rhythms as well as our daily ones. This means that it is normal for our Qi to be diminished in the winter months. Less exposure to sunlight tells our body to rest and go deep. This is also why the thought of getting out of bed at 5am is horrifying in January, yet you might do it without an alarm in June. If Yin is represented in the body by blood, fluid, and gametes (the sexy stuff), Yang is represented by Qi and its warming and propelling action. Less Yang in the Yin winter months to move and propel, more stiffness and pain.

The good news is that there are plenty of holistic ways to address these annual aches and pains. One of the reasons I’m always trying to get my patients off of their smoothies and ice water is because these things contribute to the cold and the pain it causes. So, score one more for soup and socks. Within the context of Cosmos Qigong, there are exercises that are devoted to moving Qi in specific pain points in the body to help relieve the aches and creaks we can frequently experience.

Join me next month for Qigong For Healthy Joints where we’ll explore these simple and practical patterns and learn how to pair them up with other exercise to induce a whole-body energy flow that will leave you feeling healthy, vital, and flexible while easing sore tendons and ligaments. This class is open to all levels of experience and health and anyone who wants to explore the intersection of mindfulness and physical health. Head to the link below to learn more. Can’t wait to see you there.

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