Most of the people that come into my office have no clue what they did to injure themselves. A lot of the injuries that do happen are due to lack of recovery whether you are active or not.
Lets first go into two categories of injuries that are considered overuse. We will talk about these categories and give you our tips on what you can do to help prevent injuries from happening.
1. Prolonged sustained postures- Whether you are sitting with a poor posture, or bending over working in the yard for hours, this can lead to potential injuries and here is why.. Lets go over some terminology first.
CREEP– the constant force applied to a collagenous structure which rearranges the collagen fibers and water squeezes out of the tissue
HYSTERESIS– release of the force the structure will begin to recover (the rate at which recovery happens between the loading and unloading of the structure)
If you do not have enough time to recover between you loading the structure again and again in a position that is not its normal resting position, your tissue will become susceptible to fatigue failure. Loading a structure and not allowing it to recover fully, over time produces degenerative changes and leads to injuries.
TIP #1
Take frequent breaks from prolonged sustained postures and move in the reverse direction. For example, if you are sitting all day, standing and bending backwards will help. If you are typing a lot on the computer, bend your fingers and wrist backwards to stretch. This will help with prevention of injuries.
Repetitive Over use– When you do something repetitive and you do not recover between the loads, again you will eventually injure yourself. This initially can start an inflammatory process, but can also lead to degenerative changes. These changes can happen to tendons and joints.
Examples of injuries
- Tendonitis
- Arthritis/OA
- Muscle strain
- Joint issues- derangements/impingement
Tip #2
Listen to the body– If you are training and your body is exhausted maybe you need to take a day off. Maybe your training schedule is ramping up to fast. Have someone check out your workout program. I often have people coming into my office injured while training for a marathon. I often have to cut back on the amount of days they are running and have them doing more cross training.
TIP #3
Get to someone who can evaluate you to see where the breakdown is coming from. Finding someone who specializes in Sports Injuries and understands the whole body to check out where your break down is coming from. You could be weak in one area, or tight in other areas. At mPower Physical Therapy in Dallas, we specialize in Sports Therapy and understand the body, so if you would like to have a consultation for free to see if we can help, just CLICK HERE
TIP #4
Diet plays a huge roll in recovery. (and no it is not all about protein). Alkalizing foods (Fruits and Veggies) are an integral part of repair and recovery. Acid forming foods (animal foods and processed foods) along with lactic acid build up from exercise will lead to muscular stiffness, general stress, fatigue and joint pain If an acid system becomes chronic, it will show signs of aging and will eventually cause cellular tissue degeneration more rapidly. Eating a more plant based diet will make a huge difference in recovery. At mPower Physical Therapy we put our clients on a program and help them move to a more plant based diet to help them with their recovery and performance.
If you would like to learn more about this program, again just CLICK HERE and you can talk to one of our physical therapists who specializes in setting you up on a program specifically for you.
These are just some of the most common tips I have to help with recovery and prevention of injuries. If you would like to learn more and see how we might be able to help you, feel free to reach out. You can call our office to talk learn more on how we can help at 214-538-2559.
