How to Prevent Injuries While You Train
How to Prevent Injuries – Simply put, Injuries occur when we don’t care for our bodies correctly.
Common ways sporting injuries can occur are:
- Too much training and not listening too our bodies, they need rest sometimes!
- Not moving correctly, having poor technique or just utterly confused about the movements you are supposed to perform
- Minimal body awareness, lack of proprioception (where you and your limbs are in space), and inability to brace the core, glutes and muscles to be worked
- Too little training or deconditioning where our bodies become lax, weak and can develop poor posture and movement patterns
How can we Prevent Injuries and get the most out of our training?
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Let’s start focussing!
Focus on exercise TECHNIQUE: ‘Am I performing the right movement, and can I feel it in the right muscles?’. ‘Does my trainer think I look good when I move, or do I need some 1-on-1 time to critique this?’. ‘Am I bracing my core throughout the whole movement, keeping in good posture/alignment and breathing regularly?’. Lastly, take it slow! Practice makes perfect, and the better you move the better your results will be. Did you know that slow and controlled movements are actually hard and can burn more calories.
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Have you warmed up appropriately?
A good warmup ensures every muscle you are about to use is fully ready to work and less likely to get an injury. A good warm up should get progressively harder as you get warmer, and ultimately lead into the moves you are going to perform in the workout. It also starts you thinking about your body and that ‘proprioception’ I mentioned earlier! *A simple run does not cut it anymore. If you are struggling in the lighter phases of the warmup (excessive sweating, muscle pain and fatigue ect, you probably would benefit from a REST day, and should take it light throughout that whole workout; avoid overtraining.
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Relax, cool down and breath
At the end of every session, try and allow yourself at least 5-10min (30min is ideal) to cool down and let the body come back into a parasympathetic rhythm (low heart rate, regular blood flow, natural breathing). When we exercise, adrenaline and cortisol are released, contributing to higher stress levels throughout the body – which need to be down regulated post workout. Taking a few solid breaths, cooling the system (breeze, shade, cold water), holding some nice stretches or foam rolling will all aid in returning to a relaxed state, contribute to flexibility AND increase positivity for the rest of the day!
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Feeling for body Aches, Pains and Niggles to address Injury
As I have already mentioned, if your are feeling tired, run down, stiff and achey or just painful during the warmup, you probably shoulder take a day for yourself to rest and recovery. Listening to your body is a number one determine to prevent injury, and well, being injured isn’t going to allow you to keep training now is it?! Further, feeling something ‘go’, ‘pop’, ‘twinge’, ‘shoot’ or ‘give way’ are all signs of injury that can only progress if not looked after. Cracking can sometimes be an indication of injury, but often is just displaying tightness, tendon clicking or in some cases ‘general joint movement’ – not always a bad thing! If you ever have any worries that you may have or are developing an injury, it is always best to get it checked. It’s better to be safe knowing you are all good than progressing into a diagnosis that may take a lot longer to rehab.
On that note, acute injuries (Eg; rolling an ankle) should be iced initially to reduce the swelling; 5min on; 5min off. Heat is then followed for increased blood flow, healing properties and relaxation effects!
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Are you nourishing your body the right way?
Lastly, nutrition and sleep. What is the point of you doing all of this hard work, but then not sufficiently fuelling your body and losing your gains? This is a common problem for everyone, females especially, where we always feel eating less will get us the best results, or the hot topic of ‘carbs are the devil’ type thing. Carbs, protein and fat (our macro’s or macro nutrients) effectively fuel the body. Carbs (in the form of unrefined sugars) help to migrate protein to the muscle cells, they do not just turn to fat. Fat, makes up our cells, again not just turning into fat in our body. Sugar is the thing to avoid; rapid absorption with minimal long term use. Supplementation is also important with products such as glutamine, creatine, super-greens, beta alanine, protein, carbohydrate powder, fish oil, and ZMA being my go to’s for optimal performance and gains. Each to their own with supplements, but it is always best to head into the professionals for such advice. Next, Sleep. being a massive part of your day, should contribute to 7-8hours and this ideally needs to be unbroken, quality sleep. You would be amazed at how much can be affected from a poor sleep; mood, daily activity and energy levels, exercise and performance, posture and muscle use, digestion, and so so much more – Get your 8hours in to prevent Injuries!
Written by Physiotherapist Marissa Seeley
