How To Prevent Injuries To Achieve a Lifetime of Fitness & Longevity
The Quick Cut:
Preventing injuries is increasingly important as you age.
For each workout, practice a warm-up routine that gets your blood pumping.
Avoid stretching during the warm-up.
Ease into your weights.
Be mindful of your movements while lifting; don’t just force them off of you!
Give yourself a good stretch after your workout.
Consider getting a massage to help with recovery.
Don’t forget to give attention to your complimentary muscles.
The Long Slice:
Did you know that you are at risk of a sudden decline in your health and fitness level?
That's right. You're just one injury away from getting knocked off track and watching your weight pack on.
What's worse, is as we age, our injury risk goes up.
Since I work primarily with high achievers over 40, I see this all the time.
The good news is, injuries do NOT need be part of your future.
By implementing the smart strategies below, you can stay injury free and fit for a long time to come.
As we age, preventing injuries becomes more important as our bodies begin to take the toll of daily activities and frequent workouts. With that being said, we must pay attention to our bodies and give them what they need to avoid getting hurt. In other words, we want to keep ourselves protected.
Start Smart With a Warmup
Needless to say, a proper warm up is one of the keys to preventing injury during exercise.
Key areas to warm up to avoid injury are your joints, shoulders, and wrists.
To do this, begin with a brief but somewhat brisk cardio session to get the blood flowing throughout the body.
Try cardio machines like the elliptical as they are designed to target both the upper and lower body. Keep a moderate speed for roughly two-three minutes until you feel blood pumping throughout your body and your heart rate is somewhat elevated.
Ultimately, the key focus at the beginning of your workout is to get properly warmed up, get the body moving, and your muscles and joints ready for more intense work.
The idea is, if you warm up properly it can help to avoid and prevent injuries during the more intense part of your workout.
As far as how long your warmup (and mobility section below) should be, somewhere between 10 - 30 minutes in duration should be sufficient for most people.
You can think of this rule-of-thumb:
The older you are, the longer your workout should be.
Move Better With Mobility Work
Following a short spurt of cardio, move to on some mobility work, specifically, calisthenics.
During this part of the warm-up get your arms moving by doing shoulder rotations, reverse circles, twists, and head rolls.
You can get your lower body working by doing jumping jacks, bodyweight squats, and bodyweight lunges.
A word about stretching:
Some people think stretching should be incorporated in the warm-up but I recommend leaving the stretching to your post-workout routine. (why?)(support)
Get Acclimated Before Going Heavy
While your blood may be flowing from the initial warm-up and mobility work, you still want to ease yourself into heavier part of the workout.
If you are working with weights, do two-three warm-up sets, with progressively more challenging weights, each exercise before going heavy. This will help to get your joints and nervous system ready for heavier loads.
For example, if you're going to bench press, then you want to start with a lightweight for 12-13 reps, this will help to get your muscles loosened up.
Then, increase the weight on your next set to present a challenge for your body, introduce more weights at little bit at a time. Slowly build up to the working weight that you're going to use for your first working set.
This approach will help your body to adjust properly before taking on heavyweights, as opposed to shocking your body by jumping to the max weight right away.
These strategies can act as great preventive measures against injury.
Be Mindful Of Your Movements While Lifting
Another thing you want to do is become more aware of your movements while you are lifting the weights.
Ensure that you are moving in a natural way that is not creating unnecessary strain. Your attention should remain on strict, slow movements instead of rushed or forced repetitions.
By being more present and aware of your body during your movements - also knows as a mind-muscle connection - you're less likely to get hurt or injured.
Make Sure You Stretch Post-Workout
During your post-workout routine, stretching is critical. Practice a one to two-minute cool down where you are stretching out the muscles that just worked. It can be as simple as crossing your arm over your opposite shoulder to stretch out your chest after chest-day.
Properly stretching after your workout will help prevent knots and lactic acid build-up.
Prevent Aches and Pains through Massage
Getting a massage can be another way to avoid injuries.
Massages help your muscles stay soft and supple as opposed to stiff and achy. Sports massage or deep tissue massages can kickstart your blood circulation, therefore, helping with recovery and potential injury prevention.
Strengthen Your Accesory Muscles
Pay attention to your accesory muscles, or the smaller muscles that help with lifting and stabilization.
These smaller muscles, such as your forearms, hands, hips, and muscles in your feet are used regularly while lifting weights.
They can be critical to the amount of grip, flexibility, and overall strength that you have. Therefore, they must be strengthened and trained, justs like with your larger muscles.
In closing, if you implement these preventive strategies in your workout routine, you will reduce injury risk and enjoy a lifetime of pain-free fitness and longevity!
P.S. If you'd like to learn more about how I help high achievers over 40 conquer their injuries while permanently cutting fat and building strength, in under 3 hours per week, book a 10-minute Fat Loss Recharge Call with me now.
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