The Best and ONLY Way to Prevent Injury
Stop moving…
Seriously, just stop moving…
”But Mark, I have to move!” Technically, you do not have to do anything. But, if you want to prevent ANY injuries from occurring, then simply stop moving.
The simple answer to preventing ANY injury from occurring is, you cannot. We move on a daily basis to function, eat, shower, use the restroom, drive to work, etc. On a daily basis individuals sprain their ankle walking down the street, pull a muscle running to catch the bus, or fracture a toe catching it on the dining room table. One could argue an injury is an injury is an injury… The professional athlete tearing their meniscus is no different than the 88 year old having the same injury playing boschi ball.
My point is that while injury is not preventable, the risk to injury can be controlled. We utilize resistance training to improve in our sport, reduce pain in our joints, and allow us to perform daily tasks with ease. We increase our flexibility and mobility to make our muscles more efficient and provide our joints the full range of motion they were meant for. The cherry on top is that these tasks not only improve our robustness, but improve our mental health. This invisible, yet powerful component of health can be enriched simply through movement.
The truth is, if your body is not adapted to handle specific movements (Stressors), it will eventually tell you so. Our bodies are so robust they can continually adapt, compensate, and perform until the system fails. We can equate common injuries such as tendon inflammation, soft tissue tears, and common stress fractures to our bodies not being well adapted to a specific movement and the body reacting accordingly.
This is why we preach consistent strengthening, flexibility, mobility, and recovery. These are simple tools to perform at your peak without worry of injury. It does not have to be 90 minute routine every other day. The best way to start is create your goals (Performance/ Pain Reduction/ Health), make it a priority, and just start. Even 15 minutes is more effective than nothing.
A perfect supplement is our SNOGA program. Try it for a month, see how you feel, you may surprise yourself!
At the end of the day, you only get one body, one mind. Why not take care of it?
– Mark
I went over the bars the other day on my bike and all I ended up with is some really bad bruising and road rash. I want to call it luck that this is all that happened, but I actually believe it is the training I’ve done the past couple of years that helped me protect my body in a moment like this.
Wow Marc that’s crazy! Happy you walked away nearly unscathed and stoked that training has made a significant improvement in your performance and injury prevention.