Sore yet? When the temperature inched its way up, did you plant your entire garden in one weekend? Or did you cram in three days of golfing?

Even if physiotherapists were stuck in a windowless room, they would know when the seasons change -- especially winter to spring.

That's when more people show up with sore, injured muscles.

This year, the Canadian Physiotherapy Association has focused its annual campaign on gardening, golfing and walking.

"I see these three as important because a large portion of the population does them," says Jen Palmer, a physiotherapist in London and Strathroy.

Golf is exploding in popularity. Walking is something almost everyone does. Gardening, too, is done by almost everyone who owns a home.

Warming up is a good start to prevent injuries, says Palmer, who works at the Spine and Joint Physiotherapy Centre in London and Active Joint Physiotherapy in Strathroy.

She says a warmup gets blood flowing to muscles and tissues to increase flexibility.

"Movement is going to go where movement can go," she says.

By that she means, if your shoulder isn't flexible enough to do a full backswing with a golf club, you'll twist your back to compensate. That may cause a back injury on top of the stiff shoulder.

Start by moving around at an easy pace for two or three minutes. "Stretching cold is not the best thing."

Then, stretch the major muscle groups.

Finally, do stretches specific to the activity you will be doing, for example, upper-body and lower-back stretches for gardening.

Palmer says people are starting to learn they don't have to be sore and live with pain.

She even has one rare client, a cyclist, who comes in for an assessment of his range of motion to see if he can prevent injuries.

Palmer also says people shouldn't throw themselves into a complete schedule of new seasonal activities, but build up gradually, so muscles will have time to strengthen.