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Injury Prevention: Where Less Can Lead to More

What’s the number one rule in injury prevention? Listen to your body.


There’s a difference between being sore from an increase in exercise and feeling the onset of a potential injury. When your body is giving you red flags, you’d better listen to it, especially when increasing volume, intensity or time/distance of exercise.


That’s exactly what I had this weekend. A Red flag.


Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I had three solid run/walks, and was into my Run Disney Springtime Virtual Challenge Weekend. Friday night I felt a weird pain in my right foot that persisted into the morning…like the bone was out of place or something. I haven’t experienced anything like it before, and I wasn’t sure I should run on it.


And while it wasn’t that bad, I could imagine that if there was something slightly wrong I could probably make it worse, and maybe make it really worse if I tried to run on it. I waited to do my 10k until later in the day Saturday, and finally made the call to wait until Sunday to continue my challenge.


You see, it’s better to give yourself an extra day of rest to recover fully before going for another BIG push, than it is to muscle through pain and injury. You’ll probably only make it worse, and may make the recovery period exponentially longer. I didn’t know if walking it out would warm it up and make it feel better, but it wasn’t a risk I was willing to take considering how much running is in my future. I had been sticking to my regular workouts for weeks, so I made the call to rest.


When you’ve got a big workout planned but have an unexpected body quirk, illness, or emergency event interfere, take the time you need to work it out, then get back on track with your regularly scheduled training.


I took the day off, then walked my 10 miler on Sunday with no problem, albeit slower than I normally would have. And I’m all good today! I’m pretty sure that would not have been the case if I had pushed it on my tweaked foot.




Now, just because you can’t do your normal workout, try and still do something active. Get in a core workout, swim, spin, do physical therapy exercises…just stay on track with your movement so you don’t lose your momentum, and you can still get the energy expenditure and stress relief that comes with exercise.


And if you feel like you can’t even start to exercise because of previous injuries, or really need help to reverse nagging body issues to get on track, that’s what your fitness professionals are for!


Just remember, sometimes less is more when it comes to injury prevention.

Sometimes you need to stretch, go to a chiropractor, get a massage instead of doing your HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout. There’s a time to HIIT and a time to R&R. Make sure you have a balance.


I’ll do my Monsters 10k tomorrow for 10k Tuesday, completing my Springtime Surprise Challenge and all will be well. I’m still on track for my Coast to Coast Challenge and will increase the volume at the rate my body can tolerate. Remember, this is for fun! I don’t need to break records, just stick with my consistency and I’ll make it. That’s how it works! It’s all part of the process of training.


Keep moving guys and until next time, Be Elefit!


Xo,

Coach Kelsie Wehren


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