WEEK 8: Preventing Injuries

WEEK Eight: “Preventing Injuries“

Fitness Coach Kmaru

Good morning,

Have you taken your breakfast yet?

You should because it is the most important nutritional meal of the day. A healthy diet plan can promote weight loss, reduce the risk of coronary artery disease, reduce the risk for stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, aids your body for training and the prevention of injuries.

In our previous session we focused on resistance training, by combining them with your favourite outdoor activities it can be fun, but they can also be dangerous if you are not careful. You can help prevent injuries by:

Getting a physical test to make sure you are healthy before you start playing your sport.
Wearing/ choosing the right shoes, gear and equipment.
Drinking lots of water.
Warming up and stretching.
Adequate recovery.
Nutrition

Injury to the body is painful and often a debilitating experience. It affects you psychologically as well as physiologically, impacting significantly on your work and lifestyle. An injury can range from a simple acute haematoma to a chronic, constant pain injury such as tennis elbow.

Common Injuries

Exercise should provide a moderate and gradual increase of stress to the skeletal muscle system. Overuse can lead to a variety of common injuries because you are not allowing time for your body to heal. You can increase the progress towards your fitness goals by avoiding injuries that will become obstacles in your training regime. Some common injuries can include:

Muscle Soreness
Sprains
Fracture
Tendonitis
Lower back pain

Managing Injuries

If you get hurt, stop exercising! Continuing to exercise can cause more harm. Treatment often begins with the RICER (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, Referral) method to relieve pain, reduce swelling and speed healing. Other possible treatments include pain relievers, keeping the injured area from moving, rehabilitation and sometimes surgery.

If you have already hurt yourself from training/playing a sport in the past, make sure you recover completely before you start up again. If possible, protect the injured part of your body with padding, a brace or special equipment. When you do start training again, start slowly.