How to Prevent Overuse Injuries from Derailing Your Workouts

Above all, workouts are one of the best ways to get rid of fat (see infographic). So the last thing you need, is an overuse injury to stop your workouts and coming in the way of reaching your goal.

But, what is an overuse injury anyway? Say you are overweight. And, one day, you decide you want to get rid of all that excess fat and weight. Moreover, you read that jogging is one of the best ways to get rid of fat. So you started jogging.

And, soon you got hooked. Consequently, you went jogging almost every day of the week. Also you started jogging farther and farther. Then, one day you felt the pain of shin splints. All of a sudden you had to drastically cut back on your jogging.

In fact, shin splints are an example of an overuse injury. Most of all, an overuse injury is a muscle or joint injury that is caused by repetitive stress for weeks and months. And, one reason they occur is because you do too much physical activity too quickly.

For example, running too fast, exercising too long strains your muscles and results in overuse injury. Also, when you use incorrect technique or form, such as when you swing a golf club, or do a set of strength training exercises are other examples. Indeed, overuse injuries are more prone to occur as you get older.

So, what can you do to prevent these overuse injuries. Well, first use the correct technique when you exercise or take up a sport for the first time. And, you can do that by taking lessons.

Also, don’t become a weekend warrior. Compressing your weekly workouts into two weekend days leads to overuse injury. Instead, spread your workouts over the week. And, if you don’t have 30 minutes during the day for a workout, break up the workout into smaller chunks of time. Also don’t forget to warm up.

Moreover, if you want to increase your workout intensity or duration, do so gradually.

Yet another way to avoid overuse injuries, is to use different kinds of workouts. Because, different workouts spread activities across multiple muscle groups, there is less possibility of overuse injuries.

Finally, the best way to recover from an overuse injury is to take a break from the workout, which caused the injury, in the first place. On the other hand, you can also start another workout which uses a different set of muscles.