Transcript of
Preventing injuries while exercising
So here are the best five ways of preventing injuries while exercising.
It's always really important to warm up first before exercising
as this increases your body temperature,
which means it warms through your muscles, preventing any sprains
or strains through muscles or ligaments.
A really good way of warming up is simply just marching on the spot
and then you can add some shoulder rolls.
This helps increase your mobility through the shoulder joint,
working through the arms, and you'd aim to do that
for between two to three minutes.
It's always important to stretch after you've warmed up
and when you're stretching, you want to spend eight to ten seconds
holding each stretch. You do your lower-body stretches
and your upper-body stretches.
Stretching is really important while exercising
and it's important to remember, you stretch after you've warmed up.
The benefit of stretching is it creates more mobility
through the muscles, so we have a fuller range of movement
while we exercise, which gives us better mobility,
and this can help prevent injuries.
It's always really important, at the end of exercising, to cool down,
so we don't just suddenly stop. Just do the reverse of a warm up
and simply march on the spot for two to three minutes
and this just slowly brings the heart rate back down to a resting level.
A really important thing to remember is always to wear layers,
as when we exercise, our body temperature increases,
and when we cool down, it decreases.
So if you're wearing layers, you can adjust to your body temperature.
Another really important thing to do is to wear bright colours,
especially if you're outdoors training,
and in the darker evenings, aim to wear light-reflective clothing.
It's really important for women to always wear a sports bra
as this is more comfortable and it offers a lot more support.
Invest in a pair of trainers that have really good cushioning.
It's the cushioning in the heel of the trainers
that takes out any impact,
and the impact, if we don't have trainers on,
can cause shin splinters and problems to our knee, hip and back joints.
A good thing we can do to prevent back injuries when we're exercising
is to work our core muscles, and we do this
by simply pulling our bellybutton in tight to the spine.
This activates our transverse abdominis muscle,
which is a corset muscle that runs the whole way round our back
and our lower abdominals. And simply by pulling in your bellybutton
tight to your spine, whether you're walking, running or even swimming,
this protects your back and also helps with your posture and balance.
Incorrect posture can lead to injuries,
so remember, when you're exercising, always land on your heels,
always keep your joints nice and soft, keep your knee joints soft,
keep your abdominals pulled in tight, keep your shoulders back,
and always focus on having good alignment.
It's important not to rush into it and do too much too soon
because you'll end up over-training and you can create problems
with your muscles. So start off slowly.
It's essential to always have a day's period of rest
in between a training session.
The most important thing to do is actually really enjoy the exercise,
and this just means you're more likely to stay healthy and fit.
