Prevention is always better than cure, which is why taking steps to actively avoid injuries as an athlete should actually form part of your weekly training regime. By implementing the right precautions, you should be able to train injury free.
However, if you do happen to sustain a sports injury, then seeing a professional like K. Mathew Warnock, MD as soon as possible is important if you want to make a full recovery. Trying to press on through the pain is never a good idea.
That being said, here are some important steps to take to avoid injuries, no matter what your training looks like.
Warm Up and Cool Down
The first and most obvious point is also probably the most important – don’t skip your warmup! Getting your muscles and joints primed and ready for the exercise you’re about to do is a crucial step in making sure you don’t get hurt.
No matter what type of training or workouts you’re doing, a good place to start is with 5-10 minutes of light cardio like an incline walk on the treadmill. After this point, your warmup before lifting weights should look different to a pre-run warm up or getting ready to play a sport. This means that doing your research and tailoring your warmup to your workout is a good idea.
Use Proper Technique
If you want to avoid hurting yourself, you need to make sure you’re always performing the exercises properly.
When you’re running, you can damage your joints if you don’t use proper techniques, and when strength training, you run the risk of seriously hurting yourself if you try to go too heavy with improper form. For example, deadlifting with proper form is crucial, and going too heavy can cause serious back injuries that can be tough to come back from.
Progress Gradually
We all want to progress and improve when it comes to our workouts, whether we’re professionals or just want to up our fitness and strength. It might feel frustrating, but taking a slower approach is usually the best way to handle this.
If you want to increase your pace, distance, weights, reps, tempo, or any other metric, make sure to do it slowly and gradually over a couple of weeks. Suddenly pushing your body too far beyond its limits is begging for an injury. You’ll be more likely to mess up your technique or you might simply reach too far and pull a muscle. Small, weekly improvements will add up to the progress you want.
Hydration and Nutrition
This last one might be a little less obvious. We all know we need to eat well to maintain our weight and to be generally healthy, but there’s something a lot of people don’t realize. Proper nutrition is important for your performance, recovery, etc. as well and this plays a big role in preventing injuries.
When you’re fuelling your body correctly, you’re making sure you’re strong enough and prepared for your workouts, meaning that you’re less likely to get hurt, and more likely to recover effectively afterwards too.
