Have you just started to do physical activity? Four tips to avoid injuries

When people give up their sedentary lifestyle and start a new healthy life, they can increase the number of injuries caused by physical activity. The reasons are many and we will try to elucidate them to know what we should avoid.

First, there is a belief that indicates that starting to exercise means buying sports equipment and going running. However, if we have a history of sedentary lifestyle – for example, if we sit in an office for 8 hours – that would not be desirable. We could easily hurt ourselves if we run on hard floors such as asphalt, if we do not respect the duration and intensity of the effort, if we wear inappropriate footwear, if we do not perform no warm-up and stretching or if we are overweight.

If we are sedentary, another disadvantage is to join the teams that face each other. cross-country, in sports such as football or field hockey. Even if, at some point in our lives, we could have practiced these disciplines, we must understand that unusual inactivity for the body. In addition, during this type of competition, the training is generally not correct (once or twice a week and at inappropriate times, because we arrived tired from work). This explains injury statistics, which refer to muscles and tendons as most affected, followed by ligaments and menisci.

As you can see, exercise does not mean getting up one day, dusting off your shoes and starting. It is imperative Measure efforts to gradually increase the intensity of activity. Otherwise, we will suffer from what we call late muscle pain. These are the discomforts that appear 24 hours after the movement and increase until the second day. Why are they happening? Because the myofibrils (which give the muscles their elasticity) undergo microlesions.

In this sense, if we have just started to exercise – or if we think about it – consider these Four tips to prevent (or at least minimize) injuries:

– lengthen all muscle groups;

– if we are sedentary who start in the sport, start with a walk then run on turf (avoid asphalt); after a few days, increase the intensity and duration of the exercise;

– If we prefer to go to a gym, it is important to seek the advice of the responsible teachers so that they can evaluate us and indicate the correct load and number of repetitions in the devices;

– Choose exercises with elastic bands or elliptical machines. If we opt for eccentric exercises, seek professional advice (never do it alone), thus decreasing the appearance of muscle tears.

Starting in a progressive way is then the best way to take advantage of benefits provided by physical activity Among them, the release of endorphins, which improve the mood.

But is it lonely enough? Of course not: the diet must be complementary. If we think of adopting a healthy lifestyle, we must be aware that this involves not only physical activity, but also food.

At this point, we should avoid junk food, incorporate fatty acids deemed good for health (such as olive oil or those rich in omega 3 and 6) and do it in a balanced way, like the Mediterranean cuisine. So, what we ingest it will also help us to protect some chronic diseases non-transmissible

In short, the combination of an active lifestyle, nail Healthy eating and the dosage of efforts they will avoid injuries or unpleasant situations that occur when we do not follow a program or do not use professional advice.

(*) The author is a sports doctor, former director of CENARD and director of sports medicine at the UBA (AWM: 44.271, MP: 33.627).