What Happens during an Exercise-Related Injury?
An exercise-related injury occurs generally because a person has strained their muscles beyond what they can handle. For instance, if a runner decides to run at a steep incline, their muscles will quickly try to adapt and meet the challenge. In the process, certain muscles become overstressed and fatigued. Nearby muscles may try to step in to help support the efforts
Injury Prevention Techniques
A lot of injuries are the result of the body overcorrecting due to an attempt to protect oneself. When an injured, fatigued muscle or tendon gets help from another muscle, that helping muscle is quickly strained as well, because it's not often used. Muscle-strengthening exercises are one of the best injury prevention techniques. Athletes should target muscles in areas that they use often, or areas especially prone to injury like the knees. Some knee strengthening exercises, like wall squats and leg presses, are a great way to strengthen those areas.
Anyone can benefit from creating a routine of regular muscle strengthening. Strengthening exercises and other injury prevention techniques are not just for active athletes. Neck pain is one of the most common types of pain that occurs. Doing shoulder exercises can help prevent neck pain and core strengthening exercises help to protect the back. These are good for any lifestyle whether you’re doing manual labor or sitting at a desk at the office.
Warm-Ups
A very important way of preventing injury is by using light exercise to warm up before you start your training. Warming up the muscles helps prepare them to take on the demands. It increases the blood flow to the muscles, putting them in a good physical condition for hard work. Pushing the muscles without first warming them up is never a good idea. Follow a warm-up with light stretching to loosen the body up in preparation for physical activity.
TENS Electrotherapy to Prevent Further Injuries
TENS electrotherapy is useful for this purpose, and can even be used while you’re in the midst of exercising. TENS works by sending gentle electrical impulses to the nerve endings to block pain signals from the brain. Athletes can use a portable TENS machine during exercise for pain relief on the go. This helps to prevent additional muscles from overcorrecting to protect them from pain, in turn keeping them from injury as well.
EMS, which uses electrical impulses to stimulate the muscles, increases blood flow to the muscles. Thus, EMS acts as its own type of warm-up, perfect for athletes before a performance and may not have time to get warmed up.
Give your body time to prepare for the physical demands of your athleticism, and it will treat you well in return.
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