Are you setting healthy fitness resolutions?
It’s a new year and chances are you are already planning on joining a gym, a CrossFit team, or have decided to go it alone and be a road warrior (running, walking, biking). No matter what you choose, it’s important to have a goal in mind, which is why healthy fitness resolutions are so important. Unfortunately, what starts off with the greatest intentions tends to stop a month or two into the year. Sometimes we just lose momentum, but more often than not, clinics like ours see an increase in exercise-related injuries that can completely derail your fitness efforts.
Our physical therapy team sees it all, whether it’s gym related, or an injury from the streets or sports field. Some of the more common injuries we see include:
- Back pain
- Muscle pulls and strains
- Sprained ankle
- Shoulder injuries
- Knee injuries
- Shin splints
- Tendonitis
- Wrist sprains
- Muscle soreness
Many of these require some type of physical therapy to recover, but many could have been prevented with proper preparation.
Preventing Fitness Injuries
Proper prevention is key to ensuring a strong start to any goal, and assists in completion of your goal if followed throughout the journey. Working with your physical therapist, you can discuss what type of activity you plan to do, share a bit about your plan to achieve your goal, and work towards finding ways to better prepare your body for exercise.
Preparation and prevention comes from three general areas.
- Proper Nutrition & Hydration – The holiday season can be full of snacks, pastries and candies, but reaching for these will not get you the results you are seeking. The cups of coffee you normally drink may keep you going, but the fall off when the caffeine runs out can be hard to pull yourself through. Instead, be sure you hydrate yourself with water throughout the day, and reach for fruits and vegetables and healthy proteins to keep you fed, full, and away from junk that will keep you tired.
- Warm Up & Stretch – It’s important to warm up and then stretch your muscles before you do any workout. By allowing 10-15 minutes of warmup, it gets your blood flowing and warms up the muscles in preparation for the workout you have planned. Your legs, arms, back, hips, ankles are just a few areas that benefit from this pre-activity ritual.
- Proper Recovery For Buildup – If you’re feeling sore from a workout three days later, chances are you pushed yourself too hard. Know your body. The key is to know when your body is pushing back. That’s not say that you give up when things get hard, but instead push yourself just enough to see gains, but never so much that you leave yourself in pain and unable to workout for days to follow. Stretch after your workout, feed your body what it needs to not only repair itself, but give you the energy to keep going long after the workout is done.
If you are currently experiencing pain and would like a professional opinion/assessment, sign-up for a FREE Pain Assessment. We will then contact you to schedule an appointment for you to come in and have someone take a look. Our goal is to get you healthy for life!
