Top 5 Ways To Avoid Injuries

Exercise is the most important way to prevent injuries in your day-to-day. When performed properly and with a progressive plan, you'll strengthen joints, bones and muscles to perform better and adapt to different environments and stressors. You'll even preserve your metabolism and mobility well into your golden years.

However, not all exercise plans are created (nor implemented) safely, and some exercise itself can cause injury if the right decisions aren't being made. Below are our top five ways to avoid painful & costly injuries both in and out of the exercise room:

#5:  Warm up properly.  Aside from avoiding EKG abnormalities, a smooth and gradual warmup prior to exercise will go a long way in preventing muscle and joint injuries such as sprains, strains and tears.  Gradually bring your heart rate and breathing rate up from a resting level to an exercise level (a Perfect Personal Trainer will help you determine) over 5-15 minutes (depending upon your medical history) using all of your major muscles.  Move from small ranges of motion to larger ones, and from light movements to more intense.

  #4: Select the right shoes.  It's important to spread impact throughout the foot, as opposed to localizing it into one place. Equally important is the idea of changing shoes about every 300-500 miles, even if you're not a runner. Even when you're not exercising, your footwear has a lot to do with your joint health, especially throughout the legs and spine. 

"You should look for a running shoe that isn't too high in the heel, or try a walking shoe, cross trainer or tennis shoe," suggests Price. By helping spread the impact to the whole foot, you'll prevent problems like plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, anterior compartment syndrome (a compression in the front of the ankle), lateral compression syndrome (a compression at the side of the ankle) and bunions. - See more at: http://www.mensfitness.com/training/five-most-common-gym-injuries#sthash.ATju7hSK.dpuf

"You should look for a running shoe that isn't too high in the heel, or try a walking shoe, cross trainer or tennis shoe," suggests Price. By helping spread the impact to the whole foot, you'll prevent problems like plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, anterior compartment syndrome (a compression in the front of the ankle), lateral compression syndrome (a compression at the side of the ankle) and bunions. - See more at: http://www.mensfitness.com/training/five-most-common-gym-injuries#sthash.ATju7hSK.dpuf

#3:  Relax your neck.  When exercising your upper body, keep your focus on the muscles you are conditioning, as opposed to the muscles in and surrounding your neck.  A loose, relaxed neck area is critical during shoulder exercises such as overhead press, lateral raise, or scaptions, and is also important during push-ups, rowing, and similar exercises for the upper body.  Be mindful of where your focus and stress are kept to prevent agonizing neck problems and poor biomechanics.

.#2:  Prevent back trauma.  Back injuries, in general, are triggered easily but are just as preventable:  Having
a solid, progressive, and well-planned core-exercise program will strengthen your spine (both the vertebrae and the muscles themselves) and reduce the risk of overuse or imbalance.  Squatting, stair-climbing, lunging, and other exercises that sometimes create problems for the low back are far less likely to do so if your core training is appropriate, and changes with your changing lifestyle.  Be sure to stretch daily and keep your daily movements sound as well, even when not exercising.

#1:  Minimize impact.  Exercise should be far from painful, and pushing through painful movements won't only be detrimental to your body - it'll probably slow your fitness progress down due to reduced ability.  Play it smart and reduce risk for arthritis and stress fractures by minimizing or avoiding impact activities.  Consider trading in running for low-impact exercises, replacing jumping jacks with walking jacks, and lessening the pounding created in boxing and kicking exercises.  You can keep you pulse rate in the appropriate zone even without the high impact (just as a Perfect Personal Trainer to help you).  Safer, smoother movements will generally minimize unhealthy stressors and prevent bone fractures as well as joint damage.

The information herein is general, and different recommendations will apply to different aspects of your health & fitness conditioning throughout varying phases of your program.  

Contact PPT today with questions or concerns about your own progressive fitness & wellness plan!

(877)698-3648 perfectpersonaltraining.com