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Health & Fitness

Doctors of Physical Therapy-Tips for Reducing Injury During Summer Activities.

Check out our latest tips on how to avoid injury during this season when you are anxious to get back into your spring and summer activities!

Reducing Injury during Summer Activities

As the weather warms up from the not so pleasant Midwest winter, many people will get back outside and return to their favorite warm weather activities. Returning to any sport or activity for which you are not fully trained and/or conditioned may be a cause for concern and an area of potential injury. It is always important to perform proper stretching and general muscle conditioning before any vigorous activity. Now before you go and throw yourself into summer activities such as long distance running, summer softball, hiking and biking, etc. after months of inactivity, let’s talk about 3 key safety tips to prevent or at least reduce your risk of injury.

1: General strength and conditioning program

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When returning to athletics after a long winter of inactivity, it is important to regain all of that strength and flexibility that you lost over the long and cold months.  Each summer activity is different, and your exercise program should be designed specifically with those activities in mind while helping you to meet your goals. Get in touch with a physical therapist, personal trainer or other healthcare professional prior to beginning an exercise program to ensure the program’s specificity as well as your safety.

2: Warm-ups and cool-downs

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Prior to all summer sports or activities, a proper warm-up is essential to ensure your safety and to reduce your injury risk.  You don’t want to show up to your softball game right at game-time, then go out and pull a hamstring on your first sprint down the base paths! A good warm-up consists of dynamic stretching of major muscle groups, a good amount of jumping jacks, and even a light jog to get the blood flowing.  Then following the game or activity, it is important to cool the muscles down so they don’t tighten up.  A few static stretches, followed by a normal-paced walk and rehydration is key.

3: Pace yourself

It is always important to pace yourself when starting up with any exercise program or summer activity.  Don’t go out and run a marathon the first day back!  PACE YOURSELF when it comes to all summer sports.  Start out jogging ¼ of what you would normally do, same goes for biking, kayaking, hiking, etc. Ease into your summer activity comfortably and slowly increase duration and intensity over the course of 4 weeks.  Starting slowly allows your body to build the necessary muscle that it needs in order to safely adjust to the stresses put on it without risking injury.

So before you jump back into the swing of summer sports and activities, think about your safety and preventing risk of injury...  The last thing we want is to be sidelined while the weather is nice!

 

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