The Best Ways To Avoid Injury

Over 85% of people have some type of pain in their body. It has come to a point where in society it is normalized to have some type of pain. 

Most people chose to ignore it in hopes that it will go away on its own, or they act after it is too late where they've been dealing with the injury for a long time. If they do act on it, it is common to do simple things that are not proven to help like ice, rest, or foam roll. These are simply bandaids, not permanent fixes for your problem. And some can delay the time it takes to heal or make your injury worse!

When your body is in pain that is it's way of telling you that you're doing something wrong. Whether its lifting with poor technique, performing repetitive tasks over and over again that lead to chronic pain, or a sudden incident where you injured yourself and get extreme pain like tearing a rotator cuff muscle.

Today I am going to share the best things you can implement into your regimen that can help you avoid developing an injury. 

1. Core stability

Your core muscles completely surround your trunk from front to back and side to side. These muscles help with certain spinal movements, but more importantly help with spine stability, which is keeping your spine in a neutral zone when it should not be moving. Every nerve in your body originates from somewhere in your spine. If you develop a spinal injury, it is common for radiating pain to occur. For example, someone who has neck pain may get tingling down their arms or fingers. Tip: Isometric exercises like planks, side planks, or bird dogs are a great way to strengthen your core muscles to provide better stabilization for your spine. 

2. Poor posture 

Whether it is sitting slouched over all day , or staring down at your phone, this takes certain parts of your body out of neutral alignment. When this happens compensatory motion occurs. Meaning other muscle groups try to take over for what other muscles are not able to do. When this happens a ton of different injuries can occur. This is most common for people who go prolong periods of time in poor postural positions. Tip: If you sit all day, stand up, stretch or go for a short walk to give your body a break. 

3. Overload

Although an overload injury can occur to anyone, this tends to be more common in younger people, specifically males who think it is cooler to lift heavy weight with poor form than lighter weight with proper form. When you place a stress or stimulus on your body it is not strong enough to tolerate, once again a ton of different injuries may arise. Similarly to poor postures, compensatory movement will occur where other muscles try and jump in to take over. If this happens your injury is at risk of getting even worse if not addressed properly. Tip: Lower the weight until you perfect your form. Your 1 rep max is how much weight you can lift when your form looks identical to your warm-up reps with no weight.

4. Only looking at the sight where you have pain

If you already have pain and are afraid of it getting worse, an important thing to know is that almost 100% of the time when you experience pain somewhere, it is being caused by a different part of your body. If you have neck pain, it can be caused by your shoulder. Or if you have knee pain it may be due to an issue with your hip or ankle. This is why a full body movement assessment is very important if you have pain. Tip: The picture is not always what it seems. Screen at all joints above and below the sight of pain to see if they are what's causing it. 

I hope these tips help you if you're experiencing any type of discomfort. If you are someone who is experiencing any type of pain, injury, tightness, or movement restrictions, email us at platinum.train1@gmail.com to schedule your free movement assessment!