You have just started exercising again, you start progressing, and you are loving it, which is amazing. Keep that going. But in the back of your mind, there is the fear of injury, or experiencing niggling pains whilst you exercise.
Let us discuss some ways to be able to continue exercising and quiet this fear whilst avoiding some of these pains.
So here are my six ideas that can help you stay pain-free throughout your time exercising.
Slow down
Take a step back and assess where the pain is coming from in our body. Is it when you are only going fast in a certain exercise? Is it when you only lift something a certain way? By taking that step back and slowing things down, you can figure out what is causing these pains, correct them and let your body catch up.
It’s important to remember, when returning to exercise to not go too hard, too fast, or too soon.
Warm-ups are key
Whether it is led by a trainer, in a class or at home by yourself, always ensure that you have done a warm-up. The warm-up is about preparing our body for the workout. Thinking about it mentally, but also preparing our body physically. What we aim to do is increase our core temperature in our body to make sure our muscles, our joints and our body are able to move. This will slowly start to reduce any pains that may arise.
Assess your form
Take a moment to revisit your movement pattern or your technique in the exercise itself. Whether it is continuous movement, or it is a single repetition like a bicep curl. By taking a step back to think about how you are moving, you allow time to improve on its effectiveness. If it is continuous, for example take freestyle swimming as the exercise. Is your arm dragging in the water whilst attempting to stretch out? Are you rolling too much whilst starting the action? etc
Go back to the basics, where you can continue going over the steps to master it. By assessing and getting the technique correct, it will allow you to pick up your speed, intensity and increase the load in your workouts.
Practice not just train
Following this one, is practice your movement patterns. Take the example of swimming again, now you find that your arm is dragging in the water. The correction is to make sure you lift your elbow high enough so the hand is out of the water, extended, with fingers down so you can pull backwards with those arms in a 45-degree angle.
Now practice this movement out of the water. Start off on land. Get used to moving your arm high first and practice that action repeatedly. Then progress to the water and only do one side, having a kick board supporting the other hand. By practising it, step by step you are allowing your mind to connect the neurological pathways that allow this happen smoothly. Practice is that key word.
Hydrate; drink water
Next one is more general. Before, after and during your workout, drink plenty of water. Stay hydrated. The big reason why water is so important is our body is made up of a huge amount of water. I believe it is 70%. Once moving, whether it is our arms in a bicep curl or swimming, or when we are sleeping and recovering, it requires water to do this. Water is needed to create the energy required to explode out nice and quickly with your arms in swimming. Your body requires water to change and repair itself when you are sleeping. So, keep up the water intake throughout the day and during your session.
Recovery
Final point is rest and recover. You have got back into exercise, celebrate this. The fact you are loving it is something to be proud of. Now, you might also be starting to pick up steam inside your workouts and the frequency of them. In reaction, your body is probably thinking, whoa, okay, I am not used to this yet. Remember I am not 10-20 years younger than I was when I first was doing exercising. Allow your body the time to recover and rest. Your body will appreciate it as you progress in your workouts.
Well done though, you are doing great in exercising regularly.
You have now got these six ideas in your mind. Keep them in the forefront when you are exercising to avoid any pains or hurting yourself whilst you are exercising.
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