Being an athlete comes with risk of injury. It is 100% impossible to avoid all injury. There are many potential injuries that can occur from unplanned circumstances. We are not here to tell you that you will never be injured!
However...
There are a lot of ways to avoid injury. Want to know how?
We believe there are several different things every athlete can do to reduce their injury risk and perform optimally. Mostly, these are the things you really don't like to do or have not been trained on how to properly do. Athletes want to play their sport and train for the skills they believe are directly related to competition. Most don't buy into the small things that actually contribute to them being a better athlete.
Do you want to be a better athlete and reduce your injury risk?
Here are some of our secrets:
STRENGTH TRAINI ! If you are a athlete you need to keep strength training a part of your life. 2-3 times a week is what we recommend. Your strength training sessions should focus on compound movements (squats, deadlifts, pushing, pulling, pressing and carrying), single arm and leg work, movement training (agility and ladder work), power training (jumps, hops, med ball upper body work), and linear and lateral acceleration training. All of these things will keep your body resilient and prepared for the forces that come against you in sport.
DO THE SMALL STUFF. Train mobility, flexibility, stability in your whole body. This can seem overwhelming but really all you need to do is check in with your body and do a handful of things as warm ups prior to your practices or training sessions. Checking in with your body will tell you what is sore, tight, stiff prior to your training session.
LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Your body is smart. It has built in mechanisms that tell you when you are going to far or when you need to stop. SO LISTEN TO IT! Ignoring pain, pushing through soreness, and repeating movements that don't feel good are recipes for injury. Be a smart athlete. Your body knows how it feels and what is needs so don't ignore it.
GET PROPER REST. Sleeping is how your body repairs and recovers. If you don't get enough of it then your are gypping yourself from recovery time. 7-8 hours is the recommended amount.
RECOVER. You need to take time off and take breaks. Make sure you are recovering between competitions and your season. Do things that you feel help reduce your stress and anxiety and hard work. Take care of your body so you don't burn out.
STOP OVERTRAINING. So many injuries come from overtraining. Train once a day. Take a minimum of 1 rest day. Overtraining does not give the body time to recover and puts stress on your body.
BE CONSISTENT. Your inconsistency is killing you. Training 2 days one week, 6 days the next, none for 3 weeks and then you try and go back and hit a PR from 6 months ago when you have not trained it in 6 months. You are asking for an injury and honestly you are treating your body very poorly. Capacity needs to be built over time. The body has good muscle memory but it still needs to be reintroduced to what you want it to do. Consistency is key in avoiding injury.
GET HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT. There is a time a a place when you honestly don't know what the heck to do. GET HELP! Waiting to get help wastes time and just makes matters worse. If you have an injury only so much rest is going to help it. You still need to rehabilitate to problem and guess what? You're not an injury specialist just like we are not tax consultants. If you are struggling on your own reach out for some help. Injury specialists like us are everywhere!
Becoming the "Un-injured" Athlete does not happen over nigh. It is something you learn to do over time. You need to become a person that invests in themselves by slowing doing these things. But you have to start somewhere. The reality is that most of us wait until we are injured to get help. DON'T BE THAT GUY. Take care of your temple and it will take care of you. And if you need help you know where to find us. We can help you in person or virtually :)
<3,
Dr. Brown & the PTSP Team
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