HC

By this point in time, a lot of us are between the ages of 18 and 22. Some of us may have played sports throughout high school just about everyday, while others may have just worked out regularly to stay fit. No matter what, one thing you cannot control is getting old and your body feeling that effect sometimes when you go to work out! This article will give you tips on how to prevent the overuse of muscle injuries that may occur since we are not as active as we used to be and our bodies are a little older!

 

I’m writing this from a personal angle, because I myself currently have an injury due to overuse. For six plus years, I practiced at least five days a week and had tournaments on a lot of the weekends during the summer. Of course injuries happened, but nothing like the injury I acquired in the past two weeks. I was told by a sports medicine doctor that I have chondromalacia patella which is just a fancy word for an overuse injury in the knee. This was a shock to me, but I believed him because I have been jumping as high as I could and running as fast as I can since I was little but not as consistently the past three years I have been in college. It sucks to find this out, but there are ways to get better and hopefully be able to still exercise and continue to play club basketball. I do not want you to go through what I have, so I want to provide you with a few tips to avoid muscle overuse. 

 

Tip 1: Perform proper warm-up activities before and after exercise activities

 

I failed to do these things a lot of the time because I would be late for practice or just thought I could jump into things and then leave afterwards. Turn out that is not the case and most likely led to my injury. PLEASE PLEASE warm up at least before and possibly after, so that your muscles do not become tight and you do not become injured.

 

Tip 2: Ice after an activity for minor aches and pain

 

I also did not do this because I thought the pain would just go away. Ice helps a lot more than we notice and keeps our muscles from becoming too inflamed. Also a side note, I recently gave myself frost bite on my injured knee so NEVER apply a gel pack directly to your knee for more than 20 minutes no matter how great it feels because frost bite from an ice pack is a real thing and really hurts and could be really dangerous!

 

Tip 3: Try to Alternate Between Hard and Easy Days

 

You need to rest after a hard workout so doing another hard work out may make you feel like you are getting results, but ultimately you are just wearing out and hurting your body more. Give your body a break and strive to do one day of hard workouts and then a light or easy workout the next day!

 

Those are all the tips I have for you today and I know they seem like common sense, but how many of those things do you actually do when you exercise?!

 

Good Luck and try not to hurt yourself and have to use a cane for a week as I had to do in these past two weeks!!!