Avoid Workout Injuries With These Tips
There’s nothing worse than starting to reach your goals then encountering a huge setback like a workout or sporting event injury! Our expert stopped by to tell us exactly how to avoid workout injuries and how to keep you active and healthy!
These habits are key to avoiding injury
Many people who regularly participate in sporting activities or even working out believe that all they need to do is stretch and warm up to avoid workout injuries.
While this is a helpful strategy, stretching alone is not going to save you from developing injuries.
There is very little medical evidence on hand that proves the benefits of stretching and while warming up is helpful, it cannot save you by itself.
The next time your fitness guru buddies try to convince you of the supreme benefits of stretching and warming up, you can provide them with this handy list of five habits that must be developed in order to avoid workout injuries.
While many of them would not seem to have anything to do with athletic activity, our ability to remain healthy does not hinge on any major choices, but a series of small ones.
1. Get Plenty Of Sleep
This one is for all the people out there who tout the virtues of rolling out of bed at the crack of dawn to get their workout. This is a great idea, provided that you are not sacrificing any of your necessary sleep to do so.
Injuries are driven by tiredness and when you do not get the proper amount of sleep, you are putting your body at far greater risk of developing injuries.
While this may seem like an indirect tip, the amount of sleep that you get plays a major role in your ability to stay healthy. This type of thinking is very commonplace nowadays and a number of professional sports franchises (including last year’s NBA champion Golden State Warriors) have begun to track their players’ sleeping schedules so that they can get a greater jump on injury prevention.
2. Become More Coordinated
Contrary to popular belief, coordination is not something that we are born with.
We can actually improve our coordination and help to keep ourselves injury-free. In many instances, it is not a violent collision or a bad fall that causes us to get hurt, it is the awkwardness of the impact.
Cultivating the correct coordination increases our ability to withstand the inevitable bumps and bruises that accompany regular sporting activities.
Coordination improvement focuses on increasing our body’s chances of properly sensing and responding to the presence of traumatic forces.
To develop better coordination, you will need diligent practice at a series of complex tasks, depending on which sport or even workout you are participating in.
Whether it’s learning how to stop on a dime and perform complicated cuts and pivots, or you are more focused on challenging yourself with a wider range of activities, your coordination CAN be improved.
3. Don’t Be Rigid
3. Don’t Be RigidTo get the most out of your workout while avoiding injuries, you need to work on your relaxation techniques. Are you living and dying with every play, allowing yourself to get more and more worked up?
While having a great competitive spirit is awesome, becoming too rigid and tense is how injuries happen.
To keep injuries at bay, you will want to make yourself as adaptable as humanly possible.
The majority of the tension we feel during sporting events is self-generated. Getting to know yourself better will allow you to locate the sources of this tension and eliminate them before they have a chance to become your own worst enemy.
4. Play Smart, Not Hard
No one is suggesting that you give anything less than your best effort, but a variety of injuries are caused by the effort that is misplaced. This might seem like a no-brainer to certain readers, but for those who are used to putting that pedal to the metal at all times, this piece of advice just might save them from a lengthy rehabilitation process.
Think back on the times you played sports and took one of your competitors lightly, due to their physical appearance.
They may not have been built like an Adonis or been flying around the playing surface at 100 miles per hour, but they always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.
Instead of relying on superior effort at all times, learn how to lean on your savvy and utilize strategic bursts of intensity to get the job done.
5. Learn Mobilization Techniques
Stretching is not going to cut it, but you still need to perform movement-based exercises to lessen the risk of injury.
For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, mobilization is a movement that emphasizes rhythm and also provides the muscle with a helpful dose of stress and stimuli.
If you are familiar with the “use it or lose it” ideal, then mobilizations may already be a part of your regimen. Another term for mobilization is “wiggle therapy”. They provide a gentle warm-up, while also helping to cultivate greater coordination.
When you are already nursing a minor injury, mobilization helps facilitate the healing process.
These exercises are easy enough to be done by anyone, regardless of their level of physical fitness or experience. They offer the ability to target specific areas that have become problematic.
Wrap-Up
By adopting these habits, you can avoid workout injuries.
While some of these tips may not be as obvious as others, there are many subtle changes that you can make which will allow you to reach your full athletic potential.
Don’t let yourself be fooled by the typical “warm up and stretch” jargon that is fed to you by those who don’t know better and develop the right habits for you.
If you want to learn more about sports injuries, you can check these awesome sports injuries resources.
There you will find tools, articles, books, and more useful information for you to prevent or improve your current sports injury.
- 5 Habits That Help Avoid Workout Injuries - November 16, 2015
