INJURY prevention
Playing any sport is a great way to maintain your fitness. However, injuries can occur and prevention is the key to keeping you in your game.
h Rest and Recovery. Over-training or overuse injuries are self-fulfilling prophecies that occur when we don’t allow our bodies enough time to recover after training or following a big game. Muscles, joints and ligaments need to recover and rejuvenate to be ready for your next training session. And it’s not just your muscles – your nervous system and endocrine systems also need to repair and rest too. Ensuring that you give your body adequate time for recovery is vital, so that you can give 100% effort again in your next training session. Even elite athletes who are training 2-3 times per day need rest in between sessions. Another tool to ensure enough recovery is to vary the intensity of your sessions and by scheduling your sessions to include rest or lower intensity workouts.
h Correct Form. Incorrect technique or poor posture can result in a myriad of muscular and joint injuries, including things such as inflammation, tendonitis and ligament wear and tear. Poor technique may cause some muscles to become tight while others become over-stretched and weaker and can impact the flexibility or range of motion at a joint. This can affect your performance in various ways, such as not being able to reach a ball with your racket on the tennis court or not being able to follow through with your golf swing. Learning correct posture, technique and form of the specific movement patterns of a sport can save yourself from injuries later on. h Warming Up. Making sure that your muscles and joints are warm by performing some light aerobic activity and adding some dynamic stretches in your warm-up phase is vital to preventing injury. It is a great way to prepare your muscles and joints for the specific movement patterns of your specific sport and it also prepares the cardiovascular system for the work that you are about to do. When you fail to warm up properly or skip the warmup altogether, you increase your risk of muscle cramps, strains and even ligament tears, and you could be out of your chosen sport for many weeks if an injury does occur. Taking some time before your session to warm up appropriately could prevent acute and chronic injuries from giving you grief.
Injuries are sometimes unavoidable. However, you can definitely take some of the proactive steps mentioned above to reduce the likelihood of an injury occurring so you can continue to play and participate in a wide range of sports. Always remember to listen to your body. If you are feeling off your game, or sore and tight, give yourself a break and recover properly.
Angie Ferguson is an exercise physiologist and Tony Robbins Results Coach from Fort Myers, Florida. She also is a Corrective Biomechanics Specialist, USA Triathlon Advanced Level 2 coach, USA Cycling coach, has a Specialty in Sports Nutrition certification, and a PHD in results! For more training tips, contact her at www.gearedup.biz
DECREASE CHANCES OF MISHAPS WITH PROPER TECHNIQUE AND REST