Tips for getting the most from your body
and techniques on how to reduce sports injuries
Good Diet, vitamins and supplements
Jaguar cars don't perform well on low grade fuels and nor do our bodies,
especially when doing vigorious excerise and sport. Junk food and missing meals
are a sure way to decrease the body's performance. Add to this an unblanced diet
where either protein, carbohydrates or fat are execessive or too low and the
chances of performing well are reduced. Vitamins and supplements can be used
to make sure the body is getting enough of these important products or where
a sportsperson knows their diet is inadequate.
Reasonable Expectations
Unfortunately because we are human our body sometimes performs well and other
times not as well. This can just be a bad day, a bad week or a bad season. Trying
to push the body when its not ok or worse still when its carrying injuries will
ususally not work and probably cause irritation and annoyance. Understanding that
the body goes through different cycles
Inner Conflicts and Emotional Problems
Although it doesn't seem connected emotional problems and inner conflicts
can reduce your sporting performance. If you have these there is usually no need
to rush off to a therapist and spent many hours on a couch discussing many issues.
There is the middle ground where taking time off to relax, spending time with
wiser (and probably slower) older perople like coaches and retired sports people
where you can talk through issues which is just as likely to sort things out as
going the formal therpapy route.
Illegal Drugs
Most illegal drugs are illegal for a good reason they usually have very unpleasant
side affects. This group includes body building drugs and recreational drugs,
like cocaine. If you use them expect in time your bodt performance's will
deteriorate and you may end up with long term medical problems.
Reducing Sports Injuries
Warm-up and cool-down
A warm-up routine is essential to raise the body tempertaure by using all
the major muscle groups thereby increasing blood flow and elasticity of
muscle tissue and allowing more oxygen to be carried to the working muscles.
This will prepare the body for the activity to follow. This will also
improve performance and reduce the risk of injury.
Just as one gradually increases the amount of work prior to strenuous
exercise it also makes sense to gradually decrease the amount of work
following sports training. Following intense activity blood has been
diverted to working muscles and has a tendency to "pool" in the extremities,
especially the legs. Light rhythmical activity involving the muscle groups
will aid the blood to return to the heart and prevent pooling and consequent
dizziness and nausea. Stretching activities during the cool-down will also
prevent muscle soreness following exercise. Gradually bringing the body
back to normal also helps psychological wind-down and promotes mental
relaxation at the end of the exercise session, allowing time to consider the
feeling of satisfaction and benefit that exercise can bring.
Resting Muscles and not over training
The general purpose of any training session is to improve the performance
and the shape of the body's muscles, organs and systems. To achieve this the
body must be subjected to a load above it's habitual level. Equally
important is recovery after exercise. Without adequate recovery, there can
be no adaption. The body needs time to rest, recover and adapt after
training. The amount of time needed will depend on the intensity and length
of the session, the fitness level of the person, the use of recovery
techniques, and the person's diet.
Balanced training programme
The aim of exercise is to improve the efficiency of the body's systems.
Resistance training refers to the type of exercise where the body's muscles
apply force to an external resistance. This is important for increasing body
strength and endurance. It also plays an important role in increasing bone
density and preventing diseases such as osteoporosis. Resistance exercise
can be achieved with free weights or the resistance machines common in most
gyms. Aerobic exercise is that which increases the body's demand for oxygen
over an extended period of time and provides energy at the same rate it is
used. This produces many longlasting benefits to the heart and lungs.
Aerobic exercise includes cycling, jogging, and swimming. For general
fitness a combination of resistance and aerobic training should be combined.
Muscle Recovery
The greatest cause of injury is lack of fitness and flexibility. Anaerobic
metabolism takes over when exercise intensifies and provides a fast supply
of energy, produced by the breakdown of the carbohydrate glycogen which is
stored in the liver and the muscles. The process of conversion (which does
not involve oxygen) produces lactic acid as a by-product which accumulates
largely in the blood and muscles and will cause fatigue if it builds up.
Pain is a warning that the body has had enough and can indicate a rapid rise
in lactate causing muscle burn, excessive strain on a previous injury, or
perhaps actual tissue and cell damage. At this stage the athlete should slow
down with some loose rhythmical swinging or walking on the spot, accompanied
by controlled breathing, which will restore normality so that the muscles
can continue working.
