At Thrive Health Co. injury prevention is key, as it means you are supporting your body to exercise adequately and recover to avoid injuries and extended periods of inactivity or stopping exercise.
A few keys to injury prevention:
- Magnesium: at Thrive we stock magnesium in a powder to drink or a cream to put directly onto your muscles. Magnesium is a completely natural muscle relaxant that helps recovery. It also has other benefits like helping you sleep better and reducing pain.
- Stretching, trigger balling and foam rolling: a thorough warm up, cool down and recovery including stretching, trigger balling and foam rolling are all vital to help you get through your training. Our qualified health professionals can help you with a recovery plan and show you how to use these tools correctly for optimal results.
- Maintenance treatments: athletes and anyone participating in regular physical exercise can benefit from regular maintenance treatments being either Physiotherapy, Chiropractic, Massage or Myotherapy. This helps keep your body in optimal shape and avoid the need to see a health practitioner by getting injured. The best practice is prevention!
- Slow progression: your body needs time to adapt and will not cope if you put an extremely high load on it in a short period of time. We advise when you first start (if you haven’t done any similar training previously) to do 2-3x sessions per week, the next week 3-4x sessions, then 4-5x sessions and up to 6x sessions if that is your desired amount. Going from little or no exercise to 5x week your body will be overloaded, won’t cope and injuries will occur. Slow and steady wins the race and is the key to longevity instead of burning out too quickly.
- Rest days: rest days are just as important as exercise days! It is recommended to take 1-2 days weekly to let your body rest and recover. On these days, you could still go for a long walk or take a magnesium bath to help your body and muscles recover. Resetting and letting your body rest and recuperate will mean it is in the best shape to start a new week and hit more goals at training.
What to do if you do get injured:
- Movement: is key during this time. Movement is what helps aid healing by keeping those lymphatics vessels working properly. A healthy joint is one that is mobile. A joint lacking mobility is an unhealthy joint. All joints need movement, that is its purpose.
- Mobilisation: Chiropractic/Physio/Myotherapy/Remedial Massage can help keep the joints mobile and healthy as well as keeping any scar tissue to a minimum.
- Taping: The elastic properties of kinesiology tape is what makes this tape the best to use for injuries. It provides functional support while still allowing normal movement. By decompressing the layers of tissue beneath the tape, it allows for better circulation and movement of fluid.
- See a health professional for advice and the best possible recovery: our health practitioners are here to help you no matter what the injury and want to get you on the road to recovery and training as soon as possible. In most cases we can even keep you training and modify your activity so you don’t have to completely rest through an injury. Unfortunately, a lot of the time injuries don’t improve by themselves and need a little helping hand from a professional.
If you have any questions about injury prevention or treatment, don’t hesitate in calling or emailing the clinic to speak to one of our friendly health professionals.
Or if you would like to come in and be assessed by one of our practitioners, bookings 07 3716 0199 or online HERE
Written by Simone Richter, Physiotherapist
