When you’re striving to improve, there’s always the chance that you could push yourself a little too much. Fortunately, there are ways to keep the odds of you sustaining an injury low. Here are seven ways to minimise the chances and effects of an injury...

Rest.

Often the main cause of injuries are errors that are performed during training. Many of these include people trying to do too much, maybe too soon or too often. Our bodies need time to recover after each and every session, no matter what that session involves. We’re often told that the path to success, to improve, is to run faster, run further, lift more weight – but this only works to a certain extent. This should be balanced with distances or weights that are manageable to ensure that you don’t do more than your body can handle.

Warm-up.

Beginning a workout without warming up increases the chances of an injury being sustained during the start of a session. If you’re going running, for example, it’s beneficial to begin with a walk which progresses into a slow jog. This can help to loosen your muscles without the risk of over-stretching. To stretch all of your leg muscles at once, lunging both forwards, backwards and sideways will certainly do that.

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Keep a diary.

Continuing to make a note of the contents of every workout session will help you keep track of what you have done and when, as well as the progress that you’ve made. As well as allowing you to note what you have done previously, you can also plan ahead, where you can make sure that you give yourself a good amount of rest time. To make sure that you do keep a note, leave a diary or calendar next to something that you use every day, such as the kettle. If you’d prefer to update it straight after a workout, use an app such as Google Docs on your phone.

Self-assess.

After you have completed your warm-up, you need to ask yourself whether or not you’re ready to begin the session. If there’s any pain after you’ve completed your warm-up, whether it was sustained during or before, it might be best to stop. It may not be anything major but it could be muscle soreness which might mean that you haven’t recovered fully from your last session. If you continue with your usual workout it could make the problem worse, so a much lighter session should be the maximum that you do.

Wear comfy shoes.

When you’re running, it’s important that you are wearing suitable footwear. You may be influenced by family, friends, companies or experts but it’s difficult to tell which shoes are best for you until you try them for yourself. A study was run in Canada where soldiers were asked to test out various inserts and wear the ones that they felt were the most comfortable. It was then found that fifty-three percent of them had a lower injury rate, perhaps adding more reliability to the idea that your body knows best when it comes to footwear.

Be active.

Staying active when injured is a great way for our bodies to remain fit. Of course, these should be light sessions which do not put too much strain onto any existing injuries. Our bodies are adapted to be able to heal on the move, so any additional exercise that gets us moving and increasing our heart rates for an extended period of time will be beneficial.

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Don’t rush your injury.

Injuries are often made worse, as they are not treated straight away. Something as simple as ice can be very beneficial in helping to aid it during the early stages. As tempting as it can be, try to avoid testing the injury, as you will only delay the healing process. When you’re coming back from an injury, come back slowly and don’t try to instantly make up for the lost time. If you do too much, or you start too early, your chances of suffering a setback increase meaning you’ll be out of action for longer.

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