Answer: Get stronger and move well!

Obviously this would be a pretty short article if it finished there.  So let me elaborate.

Injuries generally happen when you overload yourself.  This can mean doing something

• faster than before
• for longer than you have before
• Like lifting heavier than you have before
• when you are fatigued and tired

In essence when you take any tissue in your body beyond what it can tolerate, you get injured.  This applies to muscle, tendon, ligament, bone, intervertebral discs.

A way it can be phrased is one of 2 ways

• large force and normal tissue
• normal force and weak (or sub optimal) tissue

So why get stronger?  

Well good training, specific to your needs, makes your tissues stronger and more resilient to forces.  We always talk about ‘load’.  The load can be an arm, a leg, all of you, or an external load like a dumbbell, kettlebell or another person!  Training with a load appropriate to your specific sport or activity is important.

I gave someone a 10kg dumbbell the other day and the person said ‘that’s heavy!’ and i replied, ‘you have a 2 year old son who will weigh at least 15kg so no this is not heavy!’.  My point is, it is all relative to what you do or want to do.

Why move well?

Well your body is a machine.  Bits of it are designed to move in certain directions and put stress through the bits that are designed to take it.  If you move poorly – e.g.when doing a squat your knees move inwards towards one another – then you put stress through bits of your body that are not designed to take it.  And eventually…the tissue will say “enough is enough, DANGER!” and you will feel pain.

It can be something innocuous. I am sure you have heard a friend say “ well i just bent over to pick up my sock and my back went”.  This is just the straw that breaks the camel’s back (We are not calling you a camel by the way).

So if you would like to not break the camel’s back come and see us for some injury prevention screening and preventative rehab.  Or if you have been injured and want to get back to training and competing get in touch!