How To Prevent Sports Injuries

Because we help people recover from their injuries, we get asked this question all the time: "How can I prevent sports injuries?"

According to our medical director, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins Medicine and EXOS, here are the top 8 things you can do to prevent injuries:

Exercise Prehab

To get the greatest return on your invested workout time, you need to invest time in what is called "prehab." The purpose of prehab is to warm-up your muscles for more intense work. To get started, use Floor Y's and T's to help protect your upper body, mini band walks for your lower body, and pillar bridges for core stability.

Movement Prep

Movement Prep prepares your body for movement. Also know as dynamic stretching, this is a series of innovative and dynamic movements that increase your core temperature, prepare your nervous system for physical activity and strengthen your body. Try these!

Proper Exercise Technique

Does this need further explanation? How many friends do you know who've injured their backs or shoulders with improper lifting techniques? Or head injury from poor tackling form? You must practice perfect form to prevent injuries.

Proper Hydration and Healthy Nutrition

Just as you cannot drive a race car without high-octane gas, you cannot drive your body without proper fuel. Think in these terms: Refuel, Rehydrate, Rebuild. Ideally you should consume a smoothie, energy bar, piece of fruit, and/or sports drink immediately following a workout or race, with a carbohydrate:protein ration of 2:1 (~0.8 gram of carbs per kilogram of body weight and 0.4 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight). To learn more, read "Recovery Nutrition."

Quality Sleep

Sleep is the most important and most neglected aspect of injury prevention. Youth should get at least 9 hours of sleep, while adults need at least 8 hours of sleep.

Enhanced Recovery

Recovery is a topic unto itself! In addition to what we've been discussing, recovery includes self-myofascial work (TheraGun), Cryotherapy, NormaTec compression therapy, Sports Chiropractic when needed, and regular sports massage therapy. Read "How To Recover for Optimal Performance" for a deeper exploration of recovery.

Cross-train and Use a Variety of Exercises to Reduce Risk of Injury

Change up your workouts, include multi-planar exercises and build diversity into your routine to limit the stress to ligaments, tendons and joints created from a single sport or same workout regimen. To really maximize your performance, you should seek a certified NeuFit practitioner to assess your neuromuscular functionality. This game-changing system allows for identifying and resolving neuromuscular dysfunction, which then leads to optimal performance and minimized risk of injury.

Stretching/Cool-down

After reviving the engine to red-line, spend 5 minutes at the end of your workout to cool down. During this time, perform static stretches to enhance your flexibility and range of motion.

Conclusion

You cannot prevent all injuries, but you can greatly reduce the risk of injury while also maximizing your athletic performance when you prioritize sleep, proper nutrition, adequate hydration, movement prep, proper exercise technique and variety of exercises, and leveraging the innovative performance and recovery tools like NeuFit, TheraGun, Cryotherapy, NormaTec compression, Sports Chiropractic and sports massage.

Champion Performance & Recovery's mission is to is to help you get back to what doing you most love to do--we want to help you thrive! If you have questions, please call 737-212-7104 or visit here. If you are ready to book your first consultation, click here.