We’re going to spend a couple of days talking about injury prevention. Today we’re focusing on things to do during our workouts that help and tomorrow we’ll talk about lifestyle changes that keep us less likely to get hurt.
The first thing we want to do in our workouts to prevent injury is to warm up. I have to admit that I was a slow adopter of warm-ups. Some of that is just that I was younger then and my body was more forgiving. And, even if I wasn’t a big believer in it, it doesn’t mean that my body didn’t have to warm up; my movement naturally got better and bigger and stronger once my body warmed up by doing whatever I was going to be doing anyway. Those of us who are smarter than I used to be will want to do an intentional warm-up of at least five minutes before jumping into the main part of our workout. Gentle cardio, some stretching, and a few body weight exercises are good choices for that.
We also want to protect vulnerable body parts. What that means will vary with our bodies. Some of us will need to be extra careful about having supportive shoes. Others of us will want our ankle support or our wrist support. Obviously, the bikers among us need to wear helmets. We may also want to use some kinesiology tape to increase blood flow to particular areas.
During those workouts, we want to ensure that we spend some time working on core and balance work. Practicing balance helps us prepare for life’s little surprises. A strong core means that we can react gracefully to whatever comes along.
Proper form is crucial to injury prevention. When, say, we do our lunges without paying attention to knee alignment, we add strain to our knee ligaments. Similarly, a lack of focus on glute engagement can put pressure on our knees. We want to work with our best possible alignment from top to bottom to make our movements as efficient and safe as possible.
Finally, we want to make sure we stretch. Flexibility training gives us the appropriate range of motion to do our workouts safely.
Now go play.
No comments:
Post a Comment