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Weight Loss Exercise

How to Prevent Injuries This Summer


I have always found that the best way to get started on something is to do it for consecutive days. Exercise is no different than anything else but in the past I have been terrible for this as I used to never do enough to prevent injuries

What I have always done is set a goal, lets say to run a 10k. Well I go in gung ho and run hard everyday for a week, not getting started and moving up in distance but just moving up too quick and I end up with lots of aches and pains and injuries that just end up stopping me. This is bad.

What happens when we start and exercise program is that we need to strengthen a few things. We need to strengthen our will, our tenacity, our strength, our joints, and our form. Lets looks at each of these.

Prevent Injuries By Working Up

How to Prevent Injuries This SummerStrengthen our Will – The very first day that you go for a walk or run, or even a weight workout you will be excited and carve out a piece of your day to squeeze it in. We are all busy and fill everyday so something falls off that day. What falls off? TV, or Facebook, or just some quiet time, even sleep sometimes. Well after that first day, especially after the first week life invades again.

For me my internet surfing and quiet time have to be sacrificed to get a workout in unless I workout at lunch. The trouble is that after a few days of this for most people, me included means that life is not the same as it once was. I miss idle time, I miss just “catching up”. But these priorities are not as important as a daily workout. In my household workouts are a top priority but in most households they are not. So what do you do? Strengthen your will, get serious about your exercise priority and realize that there are no shortcuts. You can workout at lunch (like I tend to do) but if that is not convenient then maybe getting up an hour earlier to workout will help. Whatever it is this is a painful change in your schedule.

Strengthen our Tenacity – I call it this because I am not much of a runner. If I start running then a few minutes in I will think about walking for a few minutes. After about 20 minutes of running I want to just be on the couch. Again this is tough at the beginning but exercise in the beginning is always tough. After a few workouts, and I really mean a few like 5 or 6 workouts your brain gets less lazy, and your body is able to get these workouts done and you don’t have the lazy brain telling you to stop because your body knows it can handle more.

Our Strength – Leg strength and arm strength, even core strength takes time to increase. The trouble is that we get sore. After a weight or cardio workout you feel invigorated but in the morning it is hard to get out of bed. I feel this most in my legs and lower back but truth is that your body will get the hang of it and strengthen pretty quick unless you take a week or more off of your training. This is another reason to not be dumb like me but to progressively up your output as you get your workouts, or new style workouts going.


How to Prevent Injuries This SummerOur Joints – This is a tough one for me. Whenever I start running I know that my legs and back will get sore later but what really has always stopped me is my joints. I have trouble with my hips and my knees and always have. One of the problems with me is that I have a pretty big frame with a fair amount of muscle on it and I don’t think that 200 pound guys are really built to run.

What I have always found is that there are alternatives to hit joints and the internal ligaments better. I find that bike riding has always strengthened my knee joints since there is a lower amount of force but a huge number of reps when you ride a bike. Try to find these high rep ways to strengthen your joints and you will be in much better shape to make them work better.

Our Form – This is critical. Have you ever seen a good long distance runner in training? These guys are awesome. They have short strides, float between strides, and seem to make the action more effortless. This is good form and this makes all the difference to all of the points above. If you learn proper form then the mechanics of the exercise will make things much easier for you and lead to less injuries and a much more enjoyable time training.

Another opposite example of this is a new weight lifter. Have you ever seen a guy on his first time doing lat pulldowns or bench presses? It is all about jerking the weight up and down, once you learn the biomechanics of the exercise you will see people with really smooth reps up and down and there is a much more even and steady force on the muscles.

Safest Way to Move Up Our Training

Really there are no excuses for bad form. The easiest way if you are running is to join a running club, if weightlifting get a few workouts from a personal trainer, and otherwise with most sports you can have someone record you on an iphone or video camera and then after watching this you can go to youtube and watch how a pro moves and see what you are missing.

All this leads to progressive exercise. I know that just for my wife and I starting to do distance walking for our Kidney March we have to eventually get to 100 kilometers in 3 days. The forst week is just a 3 kilometer walk for three days which is easy, but after 8 weeks there are a couple of 20 kilometer walks. Finding time for a 40 minute walk is ok now and our muscles and joints can take it but finding 4 or 5 hours a day in a few weeks will be tougher on our time, muscles, and joints. Having a chance to progressivley move up from 3 kilometers in 40 minutes, to 5 kilometes in and hour and 10 kilometers in 2 hours over a few weeks will allow everything from our style of walking to our joints, our will, and our muscles to get stronger

Follow these steps to prevent injuries and you should have a much more safe and enjoyable summer


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Weight Loss Exercise

Exercise As Power Source



This day and age it can be very difficult indeed to go to the gym. Life is very hectic and busy, which will create a serious challenge for remaining consistent with exercise each day. Exercise is however, just what we all need to reduce stress, and give the body the extra energy it needs to carry out normal living.

The best results of exercise are achieved through the use of refined techniques, functional exercises, cardio, the right nutrition, variety, awareness, consistency, and motivation over a period of time.

Use Proper From While Doing Exercise

Use Proper From While Doing Exercise

Use Proper From While Doing Exercise

The refined techniques mean correct form to isolate muscles or to target areas of the body. Efficiency is need to ensure stimulation of the muscles. With weight lift training, which is also known as resistance training, you’ll need to eliminate any type of momentum.

It is also important to move the weight about using a full range of motion. Full range of motion causes the muscle to contract for the right amount of time and help to ensure the right length of the tendons. The goal here is to strengthen the joints of your body by stimulating the muscles.

Cadence is also helpful, as it is a term that refers to the rate in which the resistance or the weight moves. The best results with cadence are gained by slow movements which will cause the muscle to contract for a longer period of time. You can mix in a series of fast and slow cadence, which is very beneficial with sports type training.

Using the correct angles will achieve muscle isolation in target areas and help to decrease the risk of injuries, which is great for those using heavy weights.

Doing Functional Exercise Helps

Functional type exercise is a popular technique that will stimulate the core and torso of your body while you work on another muscle group at the same time. As an example, when you perform a dumbell press while lying on an exercise ball.

Your abdominal muscles and the core muscles will contract to hold your body into this position, while your chest and tricep muscles will push the dumbells up. This type of exercise and challenge will cause maximum stimulation to your body and keep the workout interesting and refreshing.

Cardio is another exercise that is great for the heart and lungs. The total number of calories you burn is very important along with maintaining the right heart rate. The formula for your heart rate is 220 minus your age times 60 for the lower number, then 220 minus you age and times 80 for the upper number.

This is also known as fat burning zone. Cardio will also de-toxify the body and help to strengthen the immune system along with other benefits. The muscles will contract and pass the lymph along, which will allow the immune system to clear away dead cells and bring new ones in.

Be Sure to Warm Up Before Exercise

Anytime you exercise, warming up is very important, as it will prepare your body for the more demanding workout of cardio. You should always allow 15 – 30 minutes prior to weight lifting and 10 – 15 minutes prior to cardio exercises. You should also stretch as well, as this will help get the blood flowing through your musles and get them limber as well.

An ideal schedule for working out is to warm up then follow with cardio. You can lift weights on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday then cardio only on Tuesday and Thursday. Even though you may think your schedule is simply too busy to maintain a schedule for working out, you’ll find that adding exercise will actually add more time, as you’ll have a lot more energy in your normal everyday life. You can think of exercise as the batteries that will help to give your life power.

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Eliminate Pain with these 3 Keys to Promoting Joint Health




As people grow older, they frequently complain that they have problems with joint pain, hip pain, back pain, neck pain, and other types of pain. They then go on to blame their pain solely on the fact that they are getting older. Sure their body may have been through a lot, but that does not mean that the pain cannot be prevented or fixed.

To fix anything in life, you just have to take the right steps.

Exercise for Joint Health

You know your body needs physical activity on a regular basis. You do not have to go climb a mountain or run an ultra-marathon, you just have to do things that challenge your current fitness abilities.

Exercise is important for maintaining a healthy body weight, keeping muscle tissue strong, and also for promoting joint health. When you exercise, the bones in your joints and the muscles around your joints are strengthened.  It is important to have strong muscles surrounding your joints because they help support the joint. If the muscles are weak, unnecessary stress is placed on the joints. This can cause pain and increase the risk of injury.

Mobility Work to Eliminate Pain

Your mobility is basically how well your joints and soft tissues are able to move.

Every day, your body endures a variety of stresses and strains. Over time little things add up, causing soft tissue and joint restrictions. When your joints and soft tissues are not healthy, they are not able to move fluidly through a normal range of motion, causing pain and discomfort.

The pain and problems associated with these restrictions can be avoided and corrected. You just need to practice moving your body through the motions.

Here are two things you can do to improve your mobility

Stretching: Both static and dynamic stretching are beneficial to the soft tissues in your hip. If you need a stretch to try for your hips, get in to a full squat position.

Here’s how to do a full squat:

  • Stand up straight.
  • Place your heels so that they are positioned below your shoulders.
  • Slowly push your hips down and back, like you are going to sit in a chair (focus on dropping your hips and your knees will automatically bend).
  • As you squat down, you will need to lean your torso forward in order to keep your center of gravity over your feet.
  • Go down until you reach the end of your range of motion and hold that position for a little while.

Squat Tips:

  • Keep your chest up and put your arms in front for balance.
  • When you go to stand up, push your hips back so you do not place unnecessary stress on your knees.

Rotational exercises: These exercises are particularly helpful if you have hip joint pain. They can be used to move each of your joints and their supporting tissues through their complete range of motion. Here is another one you can try for your hips…

 Front to Back Leg Swing:

  • Stand up straight.
  • Lift one foot off of the ground and balance on one foot.
  • Swing the leg that is not in contact with the floor back behind yourself, then swing it in front of yourself.
  • Repeat this motion several times, and then switch legs.

Leg Swing Tips:

  • Use your arms to balance, and hold onto something if you need to.

Eat Properly

Food is essentially a drug.  Due to this simple fact, you can either use food to help yourself or to hurt yourself.  When it comes to keeping your joints functioning well, it is important that you eat foods that contain fatty acids and anti-oxidants. Both anti-oxidants and fatty acids help to reduce inflammation. When you reduce inflammation, you also speed up the healing process which will help relieve joint pain.

In addition to eating foods that help reduce inflammation, you should also eat in a way that helps prevent inflammation in the first place. I am taking about eating to control your body weight. Maintaining a healthy body weight ensures that additional stresses are not placed on your joints. In the long run, this will help reduce the wear and tear caused by daily activities.

Bonus: Drink lots of Water

Other benefits of water have been stated before here on Fitness Tips for Life, here is another one to add to the collection. Drinking lots of water promotes joint health be ensuring that the muscle tissue around your joints have the proper fluids to function smoothly. It also helps the cartilage in your joints to perform optimally.

 

About the Author:

Dave is a trainer who focuses on sustainable methods of training. He maintains a personal website about hip pain, which can be found here.

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