Reduce Injury Risk

Picking up an injury is like getting the flu – it stops us in our tracks and derails our normal routine, both in life and in our training.

However, just like you can take precautions to avoid the flu, you can also reduce your risk of injury.

It’s an important consideration, because whenever we’re active we impose a certain amount of stress and strain on our bodies. While the right amount of stress will elicit a beneficial response, too much stress can break down the body. And the amount of stress you can impose on a structure, muscle group, or the body as a whole depends on numerous and varied factors.

That’s why, when it comes to stressing the body through exercise, I apply what I call the ‘Goldilocks principle’ – not too much, not too little, but just the right amount! But how, exactly, do you do that?:

1. Prepare your body with a warm up

Just like you warm up your oven before baking a tasty treat, you also need to prepare your body for what you’re about to serve up during an impending exercise session. This is particularly important if you train first thing in the morning, after 8 hours spent in bed, or after 8 hours of sitting at a desk at work.

During these extended periods of inactivity or movement, muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons tend to tighten up and we lose mobility. As such, hopping straight out of bed to bang out a few weighted lunges, or a 5km time trail will likely lead to injury.

But who has time to spend 10 minutes warming up before a 45 minute HIT workout? Well, consider that those 10 minutes could save you 6 or more weeks of recovery time and it no longer seems like such an effort, does it?