Top 5 Physio Tips to Prevent Injury

Injuries are painful, debilitating, and have the potential to set you back weeks or months from your exercise goals. We have spoken to some of the best physios to find out the most important ways to prevent injuries.

1. Warning Signs

A common occurrence for most people when practising any form of fitness is tiny niggles - as the body keeps adjusting to the load. Hence it is important to have an appropriate recovery period to allow your body to adapt by building muscle mass and making your bones stronger. There is however a fine balance on what you are making your body adapt to. If the niggles do not go away they are like an early warning sign, which should not be ignored. Take an extra recovery day to give your body time to recuperate before you get back on track. Reach out to a professional if a niggle keeps coming back, as it may be an underlying condition. 

2. Don't Suddenly Change Your Fitness Regiment

There have been so many instances where an individual has become injured trying to change their fitness regime suddenly or changed them too often. Whilst it is important to change your exercise routines so you are not overworking parts of your body, changing your routine too quickly when your body is not ready can result in injury. In order to prevent common injuries. It is advised to seek advice on changing your fitness regime so that you can go into your new regime naturally and efficiently, not forced and inefficiently.

3. Always Listen To The Advice Given To You By Your Physiotherapist. 

Sometimes what the physiotherapist is telling you may not be what you want to hear but they are the professionals and they are telling you what you need. Seek out a physiotherapist who specialises in treating individuals for the type of exercise you are doing as it does make a huge difference in the kind of the advice you will be given, especially focusing on the type of and amount of training you should do if you are injured.

4. Ensure You Have The Correct Shoe Size

An important preventative measure for running injuries is ensuring that your shoe is the correct size. Your shoe should fit you with at least, a centimetre gap at the front. This small gap allows your foot to swell, move naturally and your plantar fascia to work to its very best. Without having a properly fitted shoe to your feet, it can become increasingly painful when performing any cardiovascular exercise.

5. Vitamin D 

Like many of us who work in offices and rarely see daylight, you are likely to have Low Vitamin D levels whilst running. Factors such as frequent muscle and joint pain, tiredness and low mood are all associated with low Vitamin D and can result in injury too! To increase your levels of Vitamin D try to get outdoors for a minimum of 15 minutes at lunchtime for a walk and have your Vitamin D levels checked by your doctor if you’re ever in doubt.