Injury Prevention, part 2

Yesterday we discussed in-workout strategies for injury prevention.  Today we’ll look at general lifestyle choices that help.

The first big thing to do to prevent injury is to get enough sleep.  Tired people make mistakes and workout mistakes make injuries.  Getting enough sleep can be a challenge in our all-hustle-all-the-time culture, but please, let’s fight the dominant paradigm enough to get our rest.  It’s worth it.

 

Another basic choice for injury prevention is proper nutrition.  When we don’t have the nutrients we need to build our bodies or to run our cellular processes, we are less resilient, more likely to get hurt, and more likely to take a long time to heal.  Our bodies can only run so long on caffeine and sugar.  Throw the cells a vegetable now and then, please.

 

Another thing we can do to help keep ourselves injury free is to reduce our overall muscle tension.  The cheap way to do that is to spend quality time with a foam roller or tune-up balls.  The luxurious way is to make massage a habit.  The time and money we spend on relaxing are investments in our wellbeing.

 

So:  sleep, eat, relax.