As a personal trainer for over 20 years, I know that exercising regularly dramatically improves your overall health and quality of life. I also know that exercising regularly does not prevent you from having aches, pains and injuries. In fact, I expect all of my clients who work out on a regular basis to have about one injury a year. However, I expect that injury to be a fairly minor, soft tissue injury, like tendonitis.
Sound strange? Did you think that exercise is supposed to prevent you from injury? Keep you from feeling stiff in the morning when you get up? Keep you from having any aches and pains? Well, it doesn’t, but it helps.
What exercise does do is minimize a lot of issues that happen as we age and decrease the chances of you having major injuries, like broken bones from a fall or blowing out your knee or shoulder.
Here are few common injuries or conditions that you may experience if you work out on a regular basis. Remember, these are common ailments that are just part of what comes with working your body out. If you ignore the small problems, you could have big ones very soon.
Plantar Fasciitis. This is a very common condition that is caused by the overstretching of the plantar fascia (tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot), resulting in inflammation and noticeable pain in your heel, especially when you first get out of bed. The fix: at the first sign of any pain in your heel or arch, go to the local running shop and have a knowledgeable person look at your foot, shoes and your stride. First line of defense will be over-the-counter inserts for your shoes, along with some prescribed stretching and strengthening exercises. If you don’t address it immediately, you may need custom (more expensive) orthotics, as well as physical therapy treatment.
Biceps tendonitis. This is also a very common injury, especially for anyone that lifts weights regularly. The biceps tendon sits inside a little groove on the humerus. Often times, repeated demand on the biceps muscle causes “rubbing” of the tendon in that groove. The rubbing causes swelling; the swelling then causes pain. This is another injury that is best dealt with sooner rather than later. The recommended treatment for mild biceps tendonitis is a series of stretches that need to be done several times a day for several weeks. The stretches are not hard, but don’t produce immediate relief. Results come over time and with consistency of the stretching exercises.
Low back pain. There is no magic cure for low back pain and several causes. If you are suffering from occasional low back pain, then your best bet is a program that involves stretching and strengthening. Your stretching should not concentrate on your back muscles, but the muscles that run along the front of your body. Back pain is more a result of over stretching your back muscles than it is of tight back muscles. Pain in your low back often results in muscles in the front side of your body (your anterior chain) being too tight. Increasing the strength of your “core” is also important.
These are three of the most common issues that can arise from regular activity. Again, perfect form and regular exercise is no guarantee that you will not have any of these issues. These ailments arise just because of how we are built, how old we are, and how much wear and tear we have put on things. The important thing to remember is that you need to address mild pain immediately and not let it get to a point where stretching and strengthening exercises are not adequate to reverse things.
Never guess what the problem is; always seek advice from a professional to get a proper diagnosis. If you don’t know what the problem is, the likelihood of fixing it is not very good.