Dr. P is a guest blogger on TheNewHustle.net. As a preface to the variety of fitness related posts to come – he has written this great post on managing common exercise injuries for us. He is a physician and an accomplished athlete (currently competing in triathlons) with a great deal of personal and professional experience in sports health and nutrition, as well as injury prevention and treatment. He has persevered through a variety of sports-related injuries, including a broken hand, wrist, and ankle, two shoulder surgeries, chronic shin splints, and bouts of plantar fasciitis and ITB syndrome. But most importantly: he’s my brother.
Nothing will kill your motivation and determination to exercise faster than an injury! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone get fired up and excited about getting in shape, only to fall into despair and frustration because of an injury.
Some people most susceptible to injuries are those that start with sedentary lifestyles, or those “getting back into it” after a long hiatus.
We are remarkable creatures, capable of pushing ourselves to extraordinary levels when motivated. But this can work against us! We often end up doing too much, pushing ourselves beyond our limits.
If you’ve ever tweaked a joint weight lifting, or started getting nagging knee pain 2 weeks into your new jogging routine, you’ve been there. Injuries usually come in two flavors, acute and chronic. Acute injuries are usually associated with improper technique, inadequate warm-up, or pushing yourself beyond your limits. Chronic injuries, sneak up on you slowly, but arrive at just the precise moment your initial motivation to workout may start to wane.
Today I’ll discuss chronic overuse injuries and how to prevent them. Shin splints, patellar tendonitis, ITB syndrome, plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, heel spurs… sound familiar? Here are 5 tips to avoid overuse injuries!
1) Easy does it! New workout fervor MUST be focused. Your 2nd thought after “I’m going to get in shape!” should be the mantra “I’m NOT going to get injured doing it!” You need to repeat this mantra over and over again during your first workouts. Any new workout regimen, be it weight-lifting, jogging, or pickup basketball, should be smartly planned out and phased in over the course of 2-3 weeks, gradually increasing intensity and frequency. No single workout should be a maximum or prolonged effort. Plan for a 2-3 month buildup to the intensity level you would like to end up with.
2) Don’t underestimate the negative, destructive force of pain. It’s hard enough to get yourself out the door or to the gym some days. Even a hint of pain is enough to snuff out what remnant of fire you have left to workout. This constant respect for pain repeats the mantra from #1.
3) Crosstrain. You might always get shin splints if you run over 20 miles a week. If you’re a bit overweight, you might always get that knee tweak or plantar foot pain when your run or play ball. Try different sports and activities. Check out some of the newer cross training or muscle confusion workouts. This will give you the variety you need to help stave off workout boredom and reduce the chance of getting an overuse injury.
4) Learn your pain. There’s healthy pain, and injury pain. Learn to know the difference in your body. The only thing I hate more than seeing people stop working out due to injury, is when quit when they *think* they have an injury. Muscle soreness, fatigue, and joint pain are not always harbingers of injury. In fact, to dramatically increase your fitness level, some level of discomfort is unavoidable. See your physician if you are unsure if the pain you are experiencing is healthy or destructive.
5) Know your body, know your limits. We have a remarkable ability to forget the painful past. Injuries of old easily become recurrent nightmares. And the sobering fact is that our bodies will place physical limits on the goals we can achieve. Learn to accept your physical limitations and discover new activities to get work around them.
Note From G: Great news – Dr. P will be a regular contributor to TheNewHustle.net. His advice and knowledge give us a look inside the mind of a physician on a wide variety of topics. Feel free to leave comments with any questions you may have and he’ll do his best to answer them for you. Further, if you enjoyed this post consider leaving a comment or subscribing to my rss feed for automatic delivery to your favorite RSS reader or email inbox. You can also find us on twitter quite regularly, follow @thenewhustle- thanks for your support.
