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Summer/Fall 2013 • FitnessX.com 75. Prevention of Injury: The First Steps N o one ever wants to get injured when exercising. You work too hard to get in- jured and have a setback, major or minor. Don’t we work out to get strong, stay strong, and to prevent injury? Of course! So, what do you do when you do get injured? What types of injuries seem to be the most prevalent? What should you concentrate on to prevent the most injuries? There are so many questions that arise with injury. However, today we want to discuss ways to pre- vent injury. There are obviously the basics, nutrition, hydration, stretching, and proper warm up. A lot of injuries that we tend to get are directly related to the sport or activity that you enjoy doing the most. So many injuries can be pre- vented with a small amount of planning and time. Planning for your meals, your hydration, your workouts, and just a little extra time with warm up and cool down. Nutrition is huge to the prevention of injury. The proper nutrition can eliminate tradi- tional muscle soreness, give you energy to increase or maintain your intensity throughout the en- tire workout and day, and reduce the risk of overuse injuries. Our bodies are made up of 65-80% of water, depending on which lit- erature you reference. So, the ob- vious choice for hydration should be water to rehydrate your body. Do the electrolyte replenishing drinks have some benefit? Of course, however, we should keep these to a minimum due to the large amounts of sugar in most of them. You should try to maintain a balanced diet with proper vitamins and minerals. The most proficient way for your body to do this is to eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day with a bal- ance between carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. This type of eating helps to keep your body’s metabolic rate stable. This makes your workouts more effective and allows your muscles to recover more efficiently. Muscle recovery is critical to the prevention of injuries. Stretching and warm up…I know, I know…we all know that it is important, but we only have small window of time to get our workout in the day. So, my sug- gestion would be to make your warm up part of your workout routine. Have you heard of a dy- namic warm up? Dynamic warm ups allow you to get your blood pumping, heart rate increased, and warms up the ligaments and tendons of your joints. The basics of dynamic warm ups include light plyometrics, with stretch- ing simultaneously, and this is combined with a quick pace. Your dynamic warm up should only last about 10 minutes. This will do wonders for the rest of your work- out and your overall recovery. Your post work out stretching should last about 5-10 minutes. This should be done with long relaxing stretches concentrating on the muscles you focused on for the workout. Your body has a stretch reflex that lasts about six seconds to protect your muscles and tendons from harm. So, long stretches would last over 15 seconds up to 30 seconds. This is the best cool down that your body yearns for at the end of a workout. These small tips are just the beginning to prevention of injuries. They seem so insignifi- cant; however they produce great attributes to your workout and your overall well-being. Racheal Lawler, MS, ATC, LAT, Sports Medicine Professional with 12 years experience. by Racheal Lawler TRAINING