Injury Prevention: How to manage exercise and remain injury free (4/4)
Dr. Darrenn Mitchell has seen a lot of sports injury related patients in his life. Working down under, he has met not only athletes at the top of their game but he has also seen ordinary people having serious exercise related injuries. Although the types of the injuries are different – a common theme of how the injuries were sustained remains the same; extra effort in trying to increase the physical limitations of their body!
He concludes that most of the injuries that he sees can be easily prevented. Although these injuries were preventable, once you have them, you have to suffer a lot. His tips to prevent some crucial injuries
- Do not mix exercise pain and discomfort with long and chronic problems: it is very easy to confuse between the two but they should not be mixed.
- Use the best gear possible for exercise: Do not in any case try to save money on exercise gear and other stuff related to that. There are other avenues where you can save money but this is not an area where you should experiment. Find the best shoes possible to wear – foot injuries are very common and may result in life long problems.
- Understand your physical limitations: It is very important to understand what your body can and cannot do. Although exercise helps increase endurance, it is a painstakingly slow process sometimes. The initial gains come quickly but once you have accomplished the initial goals, progress will become slower.
- The mental side of remaining healthy and injury free: Not only you require physical strength to master injuries, you also have to show decent amount of mental strength to overcome injuries. People often forget that if you remain positive, mental strength can help you make things better.
- Recovery time: Even if you don’t want it, it is better to take a lengthy recovery period in case you get an injury. Even if you feel that you have the strength to go back to full throttle – do not do that. It is a common trap that many people feel. Recursive and repeat injuries are more dangerous than the initial injury and take more time to heal than the first injury.
- Get routine physicals: In case your body is showing symptoms, consult the physician quickly.
- Learn from your elders: Go through the medical histories of your parents, grand-parents and other people in your family to see the history chart. Identify the possible problems that you are most likely to suffer and plan according to them. If your family has a history of back problems, be more careful to any discomfort if it is related to your back. Pain in the shin area may not be as dangerous to you as pain in lower back – although both cause discomfort, one should raise immediate concern and a check-up while the other can be allowed natural rest and recovery time.
Photo credit: Keith Allison via Foter.com / CC BY-SA