We have all experienced injury, soreness or lingering pain. These are a natural part of life, and they are often heightened when performing a physical activity. However, these risks should not cause you to shy away from daily movement.
There are some obvious missteps that increase your risk of injury, such as lifting with bad form/too much weight or not warming up/cooling down. Aside from avoiding these known risks, you can implement other tricks to decrease your risk of injury, improve the way you feel, increase your performance and help you maintain a solid exercise routine for life.
What Is the Purpose of Having a Strong Core?
Spoiler alert: It doesn’t involve how many crunches you can do or how long you can hold a plank. The core musculature is the powerhouse of the body; it propels daily movements in every direction and braces us when we need to stop our motions. Its main purposes are to stabilize the spine and transfer energy to arms and legs.
Having a strong core makes your body more capable of doing awesome things and lessens your risk for back pain, slips, trips and falls.
Pro tip: Don’t worry about squeezing your core during exercises. Maintaining natural breath and movement will naturally engage your core.
What About Breathing?
We need to breathe to function properly, and optimal breathing has huge benefits for performance and injury prevention. Many of us, however, have poor breathing mechanics, which throw off our breathing and lessen its benefits. Poor breathing mechanics can arise from a variety of issues, such as sitting too much, lifting one muscle group too often or spending too much time doing the same activity.
Other than sitting less and changing up your routine, completing a simple breathing exercise prior to every workout will help you maximize your performance. Lie on your back on a mat in a comfortable position (knees bent or legs straight). Place your hands on your stomach, and position your thumbs on the bottom of your rib cage. Close your eyes, and inhale and exhale through your nose five times. Focus on expanding your stomach and ribcage with every breath.
Pro tip: Do this when you’re feeling stressed, and your focus will become much clearer. This is because diaphragmatic breathing (aka belly breathing) encourages full oxygen exchange, slowing your heart rate and lowering your blood pressure.
Should I Switch Up My Routine?
Absolutely, especially if you do too much high-impact activity (e.g., running, high intensity interval training and playing sports that involve jumping, cutting and turning) or weight lifting. While the body can handle a lot of stress and needs physical demand to stay healthy, too much of any exercise can have a negative effect.
It’s best to change up your routine every three to four weeks, even if that change is as simple as increasing or decreasing the amount of time for each exercise session. It’s also a good idea to limit high impact activity to no more than three days per week and to avoid lifting the same muscle group on consecutive days.
Pro tip: Always incorporate a warmup and a cooldown into your routine. These help prepare the body to move and jump-start its recovery.
Does Exercise Provide as Much of a Benefit for Your Mind as It Does for Your Body?
Yes! Exercising regularly helps your muscles and bones get strong and (more importantly) greatly impacts your mental state. All exercises help your body release feel-good endorphins and hormones (such as serotonin) that enhance your mood, confidence and sense of well-being. These feel-good hormones also naturally reduce anxiety and stress, enhance your brain function and help you sleep better at night! Instead of only focusing on the results you see in the mirror, make sure to take note of the results you feel and the small victories that assist you in building your success story of a long, healthy life.
Pro tip: The deeper purpose of exercise is to improve your overall health and help you live your longest, fullest life.
Exercise prepares us to do the things we love to do. Stay consistent, and listen to your body. Being mindful of the above techniques will help you stay consistent with physical activity. Don’t let exercise be the thing holding you back — let it propel you toward your best life!