When you’re training to enhance your athletic performance or reach new fitness goals, you have to take care to avoid injuries. Pushing Your endurance and strength to new heights makes you susceptible to strains, sprains, and tears. A few simple measures aimed at proactively protecting your muscles and joints from soft tissue injury can help you avoid considerable discomfort. Here are some things that you can do to stay on the right track and avoid setbacks.
Hydrate Before You Train
Good hydration the night before you’re training can mitigate the risk of soft tissue injuries. Keeping your body well-hydrated makes your muscles more malleable and resistant to strains.
If any of your activities in advance of an intense workout have a dehydrating effect, make it a point to compensate by drinking plenty of water. Bear in mind that drinking alcohol can be slightly dehydrating. Also, you have to drink extra water right when you get up if you’ll be training in the morning. You aren’t getting any hydration into your body during the hours that you’re asleep. Get your fill of water as soon as you wake so you’ll be less likely to get dehydrated after an intense morning workout.
Take Supplements to Support Tissue Repair
Your body has to repair its muscles after you experience a slight strain and also after regular strength training. Although the situations of a strain and a regular workout feel very different to you, the cellular process that takes place during repair is largely the same.
Your muscles need to expend a sizable amount of energy to repair themselves, and they also need a lot of raw materials. After an intense workout, your body’s energy reserves are depleted, and your body needs to allocate a lot of its reserves towards cooling down. Professional athletes put a strong emphasis on the post-workout recovery process to maximize the benefits of all the hard work that they’ve just done. Supplements are a key component of proper recovery. Supplements such as those used by USANA Athletes can help support muscle repair and help maintain strength in areas of the body that tend to feel weaker.
Give Your Body Essential Rest
The weakness and fatigue that people tend to experience after intense exertion can hinder coordination, and those awkward movements could trigger a strain. Give yourself time to let the repair process run its course. Don’t put tears on top of tears, because the slight damage that your muscles sustain after being put to the test can become a lot more substantial if you don’t give it sufficient time to heal. Know your limits, and recognize that rest is essential if you want to be able to continue pushing yourself farther and defining new limits.
Use Ice to Stop Inflammation Before It Starts
Swelling and inflammation are extremely problematic for athletes. At the moment that you tear or strain something, it may not feel painful at all. Instead, you may just feel a strange type of movement when you tweak a joint or pull a muscle. You don’t necessarily feel discomfort until after inflammation sets in. Ice should be one of your go-to remedies when you’ve worked your muscles really hard. Likewise, any time that you aggravate an old injury site when you’re training, be sure to ice it as soon as possible. Using ice to fend off inflammation before it starts can enable you to avert pain or discomfort that lingers for days.
Wear a Supportive Brace
If a joint has been bothering you at all, don’t dismiss it as a minor injury that you can just shake off. Putting on a brace before you start your training regimen for the day is an excellent way to stabilize the area and stop a little discomfort from becoming a serious issue.
Simple but effective steps to prevent training injuries can make a big difference in how you feel. Be conscientious about your training prep and recovery to feel and perform at your best.
