Injury Prevention Concepts

Granville_Cocteau

I tore a calf muscle about two years ago, and when I started getting back into exercise after 3 mos. of physical therapy, I looked around to see how I could prevent further injuries. While my PT rehab was specific to my legs, when I read this article I realized I had been overtraining on the same moves and not taking rest days when my body told me it needed to.

An article for the American College of Sports Medicine advises:
--Sufficient warm up and flexibility before the workout; sufficient cool down.
--1-2 rest days a week
--Varying exercise types to avoid repetitive stress. (e.g. cross-training).

Here's the article:
Basic Injury Prevention Concepts:
http://www.acsm.org/docs/fit-society-page/2010-spring-fspn_fitness-assessment-injury-prevention.pdf

Hope it helps!