Let’s talk about how we are going to get back out there playing sports and being active whilst avoiding injuries…
South Australia has been going well while other parts of the world, even other parts of Australia, are still needing to stay home and refrain from organized group activities. However, as things continue to go well in South Australia, people are getting back out there enjoying activities we couldn’t do for some time – including playing sport. While this is great, it also means now is going to be a big-time of people getting injured. We want to get out there, we want to get exercising, but we don’t do it properly. So, what we want to talk about today is how to get back out there playing sports enthusiastically while avoiding injuries.
We have 3 simple tips with regards to exercise and avoiding injuries right now
Don’t spike your activity load
What do we mean? During isolation, some of you may have been going for a few walks a week to pass the time and stay active. Some of you may not have even done that, let alone done any running, cardio or strength work.
The worst thing to do right now would be to feel you have to go to the gym five days a week, or do intense training for returning to competitive sport every day. Even going from exercising once a week to exercising twice a week is a 100% increase in activity load, and those of you who have spoken to us before may know that tendons in particular don’t like sudden, rapid spikes in activity. The body may handle it for a couple of weeks, but if you continue doing too much too fast, you will experience injuries.
Try to work on a principle of increasing your load by about 20-30% at a time. If you’ve been walking two or three times a week, add one extra walk at a time. So effectively, our first tip is to be sensible before rushing into too much exercise.
Be consistent
Assess how often you want to exercise in a week, and try not to drastically vary from that amount on any week.
The inconsistency can be just as bad as a drastic spike. The body will respond to consistent training. Our aerobic capacity will build at a faster rate to our muscles, so although we feel fitter, we must continue to exercise consistently.
Mix it up
While it’s important for our activity load to remain consistent, mix up the content of your exercise. If you’re a runner or a walker, take different routes. Go left where you’d usually go right. Run-on the grass if recently you’ve just been running on the pavement. Work on your strength if last time you worked on your cardio.
We don’t have the answers for completely eliminating the possibility of getting injured, but if you follow these 3 tips, we can help you reduce your risk.
Good luck, and enjoy getting back to all the activities we’ve missed!
The team at AC Podiatry
