Exercise Safely

June 27th, 2015

I see many sporting injuries in my practice.  Often these are fall into some major categories and my recommendations on how to prevent yourself from injury:

• Weekend warrior: who are essentially sedentary from Monday to Friday and decide they want to engage in high intensity sports on the weekends.  This usually involves some serious injuries to muscles and joints.  The Fix:  Be a weekday AND weekend warrior.  Engage in some form of exercise during the week.  Ideally, this should be something that is similar to your sport.  For example, if you play basketball, run a few miles on the treadmill.  You’ll see your game performance will be much better!
• Cardio fanatics:  Repetitive stress injuries from people who do the same exercise (working a limited number of muscles and joints) again and again with little rest in between.  Distance runners and cyclists usually fall into this category  The Fix:  Cross train.  One group of athletes I almost never see in my practice are triathletes.  I recommend doing something different each day for example, one day run on the treadmill, the next day use the elliptical machine, and the day after do some cycling or swimming.  This helps you work different muscles (which leads to more stability) and allows your muscles and joints to rest in between intense workouts.  
• Aging athlete:  This is someone who may have played sports in high school or college, but has not played for years (maybe gained 20 or 30 pounds over the years) and feels a sudden inspiration to play again with people half his/her age.  The Fix:  you should gradually work up to the level of intensity desired.  Start off slow and track your goals each week.  For example, if you were a track star in high school but haven’t run on pavement for years, start off with some brisk walking for 2 weeks, then advance to a light jog, and then increase the distance.  As mentioned above, cross training is important for this type of athlete.
• Gym watcher and doer.  This is someone who goes to a gym and watches others do exercises and then tries to do them himself without personal instruction.  He may have read about the exercises in an illustrated magazine but has never done them himself.  Injuries usually result from improper form or using excessive weight that is not matched to his physical ability.  Many workouts with weights need instruction and guidance of a trained professional.  You wouldn’t try to learn how to drive a car by just reading books or watching people driving, would you?  The Fix:  Hire a trainer or enlist a friend who works out regularly at the gym and have them show you how to do the exercises and critique your form.  If you feel severe pain in your muscles the next day, that could be a sign you may be doing the exercises improperly.  With any exercise, always start out with the lowest resistance/weight when you first start to do it and build up gradually to heavier weights/resistance.