Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your Amarillo personal trainer. Today we’re going to be wrapping up the two part series on injury around activity. Now be sure to read part one if you haven’t already at the link here: And as always, if you have any questions about today’s blog then please give us a call at (806)-322-3188
So when we go from a sedentary lifestyle where we’re sitting all day not doing anything into an active lifestyle, our body has certain requirements that maybe it’s adapted to not doing.
Example of this is a friend of mine who’s a trainer outside of Texas. We were talking one day, and he was telling me about a few years back whenever he had started training. This woman came straight from work, so she blew in for this workout, managed to get a little bit warmed up, went straight into a side shuffle series, which is like a side step with a hop type of movement like you would do, say, in football conditioning, things like that, went into a side shuffle series, and on the third shuffle, her ankle buckled and she fell down, broke her wrist.
Well, obviously a terrible situation for both the woman and the trainer, didn’t go well, but as we look into that, we figure out the body and the brain aren’t connected in that realm. Moving side to side is not something that we do during the day, which is a reason that I make my clients work on side-to-side movements and front-to-back movements because all the time we’re moving from rear to forward, but we rarely move backward. We rarely move to the side. Rarely do we move at a diagonal.
If we walk out to our car, get in our car, we walk forward. We turn to the side, we sit down, we stand up out of our car to walk into the building. We stand up, turn around, walk forward. And we might go up some stairs if we’re lucky, but, for the most part, we move forward all day long, and when we’re not moving forward, we’re sitting still. So what does that tell our brain?
Well, our brain sends messages through nerves to every muscle in our body, and it adapts very easily, just like the rest of our body, to whatever our current situation is, so if more often than not you’re sitting down at a desk not doing movement in different patterns, then more often than not the brain is going to turn off those responses to help your body know what to do if you start to go sideways. That was exactly what happened to this woman. More often than not, as we sit still all day long, our neuroreceptors are turned off, and it prevents our body from knowing what to do should we need to move laterally quickly or diagonally or to the rear. Our body just doesn’t know how to move quickly and respond to that setting.
So we want to make sure that we’re always warming up through the body the right way and that’s preparing for the movements that we’re about to do. That’s something that we work with on our clients. We know what program they’re about to do. We make sure that the body’s warmed up, not only physically through the muscles but also through the neuroreceptors to make sure that everything is ready to go to move the body. Had that woman done a little bit of neuroreceptor warmup type movements, which would be more like a dynamic warm up, then it would be less likely that she would have gotten injured.
Now, never say that it’s 100%. We really try very hard as fitness professionals in general to keep people safe. That’s our job, but injuries can happen. So, yes, you can get hurt, but can you keep from getting hurt? Yes. What are three top things that you need to look for? We need to make sure that we have appropriate programming, that the programming is meant for you and your body, not 50 other people. We’ve got to make sure that where you’re starting from makes sense for you to be at, that we’re not trying to push you beyond your own limitations.
We have to make sure that we have appropriate intensity for your workout, that you’re not starting out from sitting at a desk all day long to, “This is your first workout, and we’re having you jump through hoops.” We want to make sure that the intensity is appropriate for where you’re starting from and, again, customized to your specific level at this moment in time. We need to make sure that it’s got appropriate frequency. This is something that a lot of people don’t think about. They think, “I’m going to hit the gym hard. I’m going to lose this weight, so I’m going to go every day.”
Well, if you haven’t been doing anything recently, going every day at full-blast intensity may not be your best bet. Now, if you’re alternating between, say, a high intensity day and something lower intensity like a recovery workout, maybe like yoga or Pilates, that’s one thing, but whenever you’re going in and you’re doing hit training five days a week, six days a week, seven days a week, we’ve got to make sure and lighten that up. If you’re doing the elliptical every day, same thing. We’re getting a movement pattern forward all the time. It might be too much for the body. We definitely need to change up the pattern. We might need to change up the frequency.
So keeping those three things in mind whenever you’re starting to get into a new routine, “Do I have appropriate programming, do I have appropriate intensity, and do I have appropriate frequency,” making sure that you’re kept safe as you start to build your body to being healthy and fit.
That is going to wrap up our series on injury around activity! I hoped that you got something great out of this series and that it will help you to pursue exercise with the right professionals to help you if you are concerned about injury.
So, if you are wanting the accountability and help with creating an action plan to see results, or are wanting to someone to help create a workout plan to push you to your greatest potential, then that’s what we’re here for. We work with our clients not just on fitness, but also nutrition. What we do is we will ensure that you are supported throughout every aspect of your health and wellness journey, and that includes making those eating changes. We have an entire team of dedicated professionals to help you with your health and fitness goals. To get your consultation set up, give us a call at 806-322-3188 or email us at info@customfitness.biz At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day.