Health

Avoiding Injury When Exercising! Three Proactive Things You Can Do

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The reason we exercise is to get healthier- to take care of our body by increasing strength and endurance. So when you suffer an injury as a result or working out, it can be frustrating to say the least. Not only can it set you back and hinder your progress but hurting your body when you’re trying to help it is the last thing you want. Thankfully there are some things you can do to prevent injury when you’re exercising, here are just three of them.

Invest in good footwear

Research suggests that on average we spend thirteen hours a day sitting. On top of eight hours a day sleeping, this means an extremely sedentary life for many of us. Once of the best things you can do for your health is to simply get up more, be standing, walking or moving around instead of being sat. When you are going to be standing and moving more, you need the right footwear that will support your feet. An increase in activity can put a lot of strain on the feet leading to conditions such as plantar fasciitis. This is a band of muscle connecting your heel to your toes, an increase of activity coupled with inadequate support from your shoes can lead to pain in the heel that takes a long time to recover from. You will need footwear that’s designed for the activity you’re doing, for example lifting weights and running will require different shoes. You can also use orthotic insoles like this on biopods.com which can restore optimal foot function and provide additional support and cushioning to your feet.

Incorporate stretching into your routine

One of the most common types of injuries from exercising are strains, sprains and tears. This is where muscles and ligaments stretch past what they’re capable of, tearing the fibres resulting in a lot of pain and stiffness. One way you can reduce the chances of these injuries are by improving your flexibility. Stretching helps to safely lengthen the muscles and give you a greater range of motion. That way, when you’re exercising you’re less likely to over extend and hurt yourself. Incorporate a session of yoga or pilates into your weekly schedule. Exercise doesn’t have to be all sweating it out and going for the burn to be effective.

Know your limits

When you’re exercising, of course it’s good to push yourself- that’s how you get fitter, stronger and see results. To keep improving you need to be pushing your body to do what it hasn’t previously done. However you of course need to know what your limits are and know when your body has had enough. This can prevent injury, in some cases working your heart too hard can be downright dangerous. The trick is to set realistic goals– workout until you can feel the burn, and then add a little to it each time. For example, if you can run for five minutes until you’re breathless, work on increasing this to six minutes; don’t do more until you can comfortably run for six. This will prevent you from doing too much. If you invest in a fitness tracker, you can track your heart rate too and ensure this is staying within safe levels.

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