Let me begin by presenting a solid fact. There is only one thing more detrimental to your fitness routine/progress than lack of motivation: sustaining an injury. Having to pause your training because of an injury is beyond frustrating, especially if you're preparing for an event. Abandoning your routine, even for a few days, can result in disappointing setbacks. The longer the break lasts, the more decrease in performance and motivation you can expect. Therefore, it's crucial to start physiotherapy as soon as possible to speed up recovery. What is even more important is to prevent injuries. It's a hella lot easier to deal with an injury if it doesn't exist in the first place.
I'm going to give you a few tips on stopping injuries from happening, so you can perform at your best all the time.
Nutrition
Here is an example to demonstrate the importance of nutrition when it comes to injury prevention. Say you have a nice car. You have to put fuel in it to make it run. However, if you want to extract maximum performance, you have to fill it with top-quality fuel. Running your vehicle on poor quality gas or diesel will lead to premature fatigue of various engine components, aka things will start breaking. That exact same thing happens to your body when your diet consists of McDonald's burgers, chips, booze, candy bars, cigarettes, class A, B, C, or whatever drugs. You not only limit your performance and ruin your fitness, but you're slowly killing yourself. Your kidneys will start looking like sponges that you used to wash your car with and then left it to dry under the sun. The liver's going to turn pale and dysfunctional like my mom when I scare her good. The lungs and the heart will have a very similar faith. I'm sure you get the picture by now.
On the other hand, if you eat well and consume healthy beverages, you'll perform better and boost your overall health. Improve your diet by introducing homemade dishes with fresh ingredients, eat more fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices. Don't forget about hydration. Drink plenty of water and herbal teas.
Prehab
Prehab is the collective name for all the activities you do before cracking on with your workout's main component(s). It includes the warm-up, dynamic stretches and mobility drills. The risk of injury is significantly higher if an individual skips the prehab phase. Engaging in physical activity with a "cold" body can result in muscle strain, sprains, and other injuries. Performing a well-designed warm-up routine will prepare the muscular and nervous system for the upcoming work. Muscles can be up to temperature, and we can mobilise the joints, but if the brain is sleepy, we can still run into the wall during training and end with a broken nose. So here is my recommendation to bulletproof your body and fire up your CNS (central nervous system) before jumping into your training session.
1. Cardio warm-up
You want to spend about 5-10 minutes working at a low intensity to raise your heart rate and the body's temperature. Jogging, the rowing machine or the cross trainer is an excellent choice to elevate your heart rate and start firing up the nervous system.
2. Dynamic stretches
Instead of static stretching, I always recommend dynamic stretches before working out. The main reason is that even though static stretching helps to lengthen the muscles, thus increasing the range of motion, it can also destabilise the joints. Instability in the joints can lead to severe injuries, especially during heavy lifts or explosive movements. With dynamic stretches, we can temporarily improve flexibility without compromising joint stability. Perform exercises like torso twist, windshield wiper and dynamic windmill to loosen up the lower back. Throw in a few repetitions of leg swings and marching downward dog to stretch the hamstrings and calves. Chose 10-15 exercises and make sure that you target all major muscles groups.
3. Mobility drills Mobility drills are dynamic movements that focus on improving the range of motion of the target joint. For example, think about exercises like the cat-cow and the thoracic rotation designed to mobilise the spine. Or shoulder CARs (controlled articular rotation) that can help to improve shoulder mobility. In my opinion, mobility drills are the most important component of the prehab routine. This is because stiff joints can lead to several injuries like dislocation, fracture, strains or torn tendons and ligaments. Besides that, limitation in movements due to lack of mobility will compromise overall performance. Don't do dumb stuff All types of physical activity can pose a certain level of risk. Every time you relax your focus or deliberately do something risky, you increase the chance of sustaining an injury. For example, a popular fitness challenge is the box jump. I see way too many people attempting and failing miserably. 99 % of them know they haven't got a chance, but they still go for it. That's what I call dumb stuff. If you struggle to take two steps on the staircase at a time, then don't try to jump a 50-inch box because you will most definitely land on your back folding like a jackknife while screaming like a rubber chicken. Activate common sense! Cooldown Never abruptly stop your training session. Instead, always make sure that you spend at least 5 minutes cooling down. Walk around or hop on the bike and do some light pedalling. This will help you gradually bring down the heart rate, thus preventing blood pooling in the lower limbs. Cooling down also helps to calm the nervous systems so you can return to your day like a normal human being instead of acting like an amphetamine-induced zombie. Stretch after working out Post-workout stretching is probably more hated than Donald Trump. Nonetheless, we've got to do it. Continuously avoiding post-workout stretches will result in stiff muscles, which leads to loss of flexibility and range of motion. It's hard to perform well if your body feels like a concrete slab, but it's easy to bag an injury. I highly recommend performing several static stretches for at least 5 -10 minutes at the end of your sessions. However, an important detail to keep in mind is that you shouldn't be aggressive with your stretches. Warm muscles have increased pliability, and because of that, it's pretty easy to overstretch them. Don't spend prolonged time holding a position at the very end of your ROM (range of motion), or you can quickly end up with a strain. Also, remember this: always aim for mild discomfort, never for pain. If you feel pain during your stretching, you're hurting yourself. Follow these simple tips and build a routine so you can keep training injury free till the end of time.
Written by Szilard Jakab
16.09.2021
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