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Make sure you stretch

Posted on February 1st, 2008 in Injuries, Uncategorized by

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Everyone puts a lot of effort into their running and work outs but how many of us actually pay attention to stretching, warming up and limbering down?  

Warming up does more than just loosen your muscles, it can improve your fitness and your performance.  The warm up should begin with you rotating your joints beginning from your toes and then working your way up or alternatively from your fingers and working your way down.  This helps your joints to participate more easily when called upon during physical activity. Perform circular motions in clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

After this you require some sort of aerobic activity wherein you should do roughly five minutes of jogging, jumping, skipping or any such activity that will increase your cardio vascular output.  This raises your body temperature and increases blood flow. In turn increased blood flow improves the performance of muscles and their flexibility and makes injuries less likely to occur.

After this you need to do some static stretching where you exercise the various parts of your body.  Start with your back, then your upper body and finally your lower body.  Here stretching should include the following body parts – back, sides, neck, forearms, wrists, biceps, triceps, chest, thighs, hamstrings, shins, insteps etc.

Once you have completed this you should perform some light dynamic stretching like leg raises and arm swings in various directions.

Lastly you should perform movements that resemble movements that you will make during the sport.  This is important because it improves balance, strength, coordination and reduces response time. It also makes you less prone to injury.

Thus warming up is essential for you to perform better during activity and more importantly to reduce your risks of injury. Limbering down is also extremely vital and shall be dealt with later.

 

Dealing with injuries

Posted on January 10th, 2008 in Injuries by

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When you’ve begun a running routine and things are going well, the last thing you need is an injury which will prevent you from running for some time. Injuries are terrible news for a person who regularly performs physical activity because it stops you from being active for some time. This break from activity affects you negatively because it takes some time to work yourself back to the shape you were in. This is how to deal with injuries:

It is very important that you do not run with an inflammation or injury. Keep an elastic bandage with you when you engage in some activity so that when you get injured you can wrap it around the injury to reduce the inflammation. Moreover if you have a small injury or pain it is best not to work out or run that day because it could get aggravated and lay you off sports for quite some time.

When you have put on a sports bandage do not continue to run with it on. The elastic bandages are stretchable and designed so in order to give way to your body’s movement and may move out of position. This will only cause greater problems to the injured areas.

When you go running do not wear a brand new pair of shoes that you have never worn. It is important to try shoes out before so that you get comfortable with them. Brand new shoes can cause blisters and shoe bites which will put paid to your chances of running in the immediate future.

The most important thing to remember about sport injuries is to never ignore them .If you feel pain in some part of your body you should get immediate medical attention. It is extremely inadvisable to go on with activity even if you are feeling pain. Get immediate attention so that your body can heal and you can get ready to run sooner