Injury Prevention: How to manage exercise and remain injury free (3/4)

In this post, we are going to try to expand the exercise limit. It is well and good that you are exercising hard and slowly increasing your threshold but most people observe that very soon they reach their performance plateau and they cannot go any further. Performance plateau is the point at which you reach your maximum limit and no matter how much you try in your current physical scenario, you are unable to move any further. A performance plateau is dangerous because in order to move on from there, people are guilty of spending extra energy, time and effort which may result in causing injures and adverse health conditions.

Although walking does not carry potential to serious injuries like more strenuous exercises, it can definitely cause foot and leg injuries among others that can become seriously damaging to quality of life. How to develop a strategy suitable for incremental growth once you have reached your performance plateau?

• The organic method of thrashing your performance plateau: The organic method involved in crossing your performance plateau requires a calculated and sensible approach. The alternatives include but are not limited to increased diet, steroids, and supplements among few. As we have always claimed in our blog that there is no magical way to remain fit. Fitness as it is, is an on-going process rather than means to an end. In order to grow organically from your limitations, you need to possess information and data about your physical limitations. If you are stuck at 14,000 steps a day, you must analyze yourself and see what the areas that you can improve are. In certain cases, you need increased nutrients of some sort, in certain cases you need to move to a more rigorous exercise to build certain muscles that are not being developed by walking. If you choose to use the organic method, you need to have complete information on as many variables involved in exercise as possible. Having a device like pedometer helps because you have a lot of information already available to you. A careful manipulation of all the information can lead you into identifying areas that can easily be improved.

 

• Staying injury free while shattering your limits: Here comes the hard part – you wish to outdo your own self but you are afraid that you are exerting a bit too much. As they say, sometimes running away does not mean that you have accepted defeat – it only means you require more time to analyze your problems. Things like warm-ups, dynamic warm-ups and introduction of incentives can slowly help you alleviate your performance. A longer warm-up focusing on weak muscles can be increasingly important in your quest to outdo your own self.

 
  The mental aspect: One of the main concerns in such an activity is maintaining the mental balance. It is very easy to become over encumbered by pressure. Such an occasion leads to making silly and unnecessary mistakes.




Photo credit: IvanClow via Foter.com / CC BY-NC