INJURY PREVENTION, CAUSE AND RECOVERY: PART I
PART I: PREVENTION
1) Warm-up. This doesn’t have to be a long time, maybe 5-10 minutes. Warming up means getting the blood flowing. Blood carries oxygen to the muscles, so that the muscles can breathe and function properly without injury! I recommend something mildly aerobic- bicycling, walking rapidly, gentle jog, gentle jumping jacks, anything that gets the blood flowing. Simple stretching is not aerobic enough and thus will not get blood flowing rapidly enough to oxygenate the muscles. And stretching a “cold” muscle could cause injury. In other words we must prep our muscles before we challenge them.
2) Use Proper form. Know the muscle and muscle groups you are working. Agonists are the main muscles you are trying to build with a specific exercise. Synergists are the muscles that assist in the same action. Antagonists are the muscles that perform the opposite action, and work to stabilize the joint that is being acted upon in order to prevent injury. For example, Curls: The biceps is the agonist, the main muscle that flexes the elbow/forearm. The brachioradialis, is the synergist, assisting flexion, and triceps, the antagonist, extend the forearm/elbow.
3) Have your mind in the muscle. If you don’t know precisely what muscles you are training with a specific exercise, if you can’t visualize the muscle, ask a trainer, or look at a book/photo or video. Trainer is best.
4) Exercise deliberately. This means being fully present in your body. Take it slow. The slower you lift the weight the more resistance you create and the stronger your muscles will become. If you have to hoist the weight, or use inertia, you will likely be recruiting other muscles and therefore not building as efficiently the muscle or muscle group you were intending to build. And once again, you may cause injury.
5) Make the most of your workout. Exercise efficiently. One need not be in the gym for 2 hours/day, 5 days/week. Interval training stimulates the release of Insulin Growth Factor (IGF), which increases one’s metabolic rate, thereby increasing fat burn. I have had many a patient tell me they bike, or run for an hour every day and still have not lost weight. One of two things is happening. Either they are getting their heart rate too high and therefore are not exercising aerobically, only anaerobically, so will not burn fat as well, OR they are exercising efficiently and are building muscle. As we all know, muscle weighs more than fat. So one’s weight may not change, but one’s body composition may have shifted, more muscle, less fat. In my office I check every patient’s body composition using bio-impedance analysis, this involves hooking my patients up to a device that measures percent muscle, percent fat, intracellular water, extracellular water, and basal metabolic rate. Then I can track whether or not someone is exercising efficiently, i.e. building muscle and burning fat.
6) Warm-down. It can be just for 10-15 minutes in order to get the blood flowing through the muscles and pump the lactic acid out. Lactic acid helps your muscles build, but if it doesn’t move through fast enough, can cause inflammation and prolonged pain. One can warm down the same way that one warms up.
7) Stretch after the warm-down. A stretched/elongated muscle has greater strength of contraction. If the muscle is short it doesn’t have far to go in contraction. We want long muscle fibers. And one can stretch daily as long as one warms up a little. I also like to stretch a little between resistance exercises.