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Blog 1
Resuming sports or fitness
Things to keep in mind
Start slow
Adequate warm up and Cool Down
Increase gradually
Build on it
Go full on
We see numerous patients with various complaint specially after resuming fitness regime or sports after a break.
The break can be of any duration, the important thing to remember is that it becomes significant if its more than 2 weeks.
For the ease of understanding we will take Marathon running as an example.Slow Start - The first day of resuming your work out should be a getting acquainted with the work-out again and enjoying the Start. Marathon runners can start with stretching and warm-up followed by a leisure walk of 30 minutes.
Adequate warm up and Cool-Down - The most important aspect of training to remain injury free. This should start right from day 1 with full vigor so that you can perform at your optimal in a very short duration of time.
Recover - as one starts training one starts exhausting too. Our body needs time to recover from exhaustion. Best approach is 2 days of work-out 1 day break and 3 day workout and 1 day break. This makes it 5 days of work-out and 2 days of rest. You body and mind is more prepared to tackle the stress and increase on workout post rest.
Increase Gradually - every day one can increase either the duration of the training or the intensity of the training. It should be a gradual increase. From leisure walk to brisk walk in weeks duration and jogging and running from week 2 or 3 depending on the progress.
Build On It - Increase gradually and continue to enjoy your run. Following this will come a phase in 4-8 weeks time where in you will feel more fit and athletic and then you can be more aggressive in increasing your limits.
Go Full On - Finally enjoy an injury free full marathon
Prevent Sports Injury
Before moving into the treatment of Injuries lets know some basics about how to prevent sports Injury. The very old saying that prevention is better that cure stands true in every aspect of life.
And this saying holds very true in Sports too. You must be getting lot of advice about how to prevent injury. Here I will focus on 3 most important factors
1. Warm up prior to and cool down post sports or fitness.
2. Training to learn the basics and tips and tricks of the game and improving the techniques of the game with a good coach.
3. Work-out to improve your Strength and Stamina.
A simple warm up of 10 minutes doesn’t just increases the blood supply in the muscles and brain but also prepares you for the game. After warm up you are better prepared for a quick movement and a better smash. Maximum cases of pulled muscles happen because of less/no warm up at all. And cool-down post sports is equally important as muscles have tendency to get stiff post exertion so cool down by stretching help prevents muscle pull or strain post exhaustive sports.
Training is one of the least thought of and sought of things specifically for leisure players who play for fun and fitness. I recommend a bit of training even for such players as one really doesn’t know how to hit a free flow tennis forehand or a badminton smash until someone teaches. In the zeal to hit a powerful smash/shot without the right technique one ends up with injury. So one should always learn right techniques of the game to hit a perfect effortless shot which does not require energy but just the right technique and timing.
Work-out to improve your strength and stamina again help to conquer the opponent as strength determines how powerful your smash/shot is and stamina determines whether you can sustain a set of 5 or not.
No-body play to loose and in the race to win if you lack stamina and strength there are high chances of sustaining sports injuries as you try to push beyond your capacity and supportive structures of joints can give way leading to major injury. Maximum knee and Ankle sprains and twisting injury of joints occur due to this very reason. So improving your fitness can do wonders for your game and definitely prevent injuries.
