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Injury Prevention - Smart Training To Avoid Injuries

As a trainer and athlete I feel it is so important to address the issue of injury prevention. To many people train for their goal discounting that injury prevention training will get them there faster and safer. If you get hurt because your helper muscles were not strong enough then you are actually delayed in achieving your goals since now you have to heal first and rehab the area.

You will know what area to address best by the chosen sport or goal you have but some of the most common areas ignored are the postural muscles, knee stabilizers, hip to lower back and transverse abdominals.

The muscle attachments also need special care but they are triggered during the conditioning of the above mentioned muscle groups. You also want to keep in mind that conditioning for injury prevention utilizes lighter weight, body weight and higher reps or timed intervals. Control and proper form must be abided but the rep speed can vary from pulses to super slow. A combo of cycling these rep speeds is sometimes best but relative to certain exercises, you would not want to do pulsed with cable inner or outer thigh.

Postural muscles include the rotator cuff and rhomboid muscles. The rotator cuff is also known as the SITS muscles given by their names: Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor and Supscapularis. People with very weak rotators will usually have shoulder blades which stick out at the lower point. Keeping the chest stretched is also crucial to aid in this injury prevention process.

Internal and external rotation exercises done with the elbow at hip and arm bent at 90 degrees are the most common. You can use a band or cable. For dumbbells you would want to be side lying and ensure your cervical spine is straight.

Standing rotation is also popular with arms up and straight out to side, bent at elbows 90 degrees, you slowly lower the dumbbell forward down then slowly up again ensuring to keep the elbow perfectly inline with the shoulder joint.

Working on the pec dec facing the back back, called reverse pec DEC, is an ideal way to hit the rhomboids but make sure your arms are soft throughout exercise but not bent nor straight at any point throughout the movement.

Knee stabilizers generally are medial and lateral collateral running on either side of the knee (inside and outside of knee). Working on a slide board is a great option but for those with no access to that you can simple do inner and outer thigh work using a cable or exercise band.

• Cable Inner Thighs Pulls

Hip hikes are great for the hip to lower back area. Standing on a step with the foot closest to the step (standing latterly to the step, your side to step rather than facing or back to them), slower lower the foot not standing on the step, toward the ground using only your hips then back up and down for desired reps. The movement is all directed by the hip. Don't forget to do the other side.

Transverse abdominals are widely used in Pilates but some simple exercises you can try are pelvic tilts lying on your back and reverse crunches lifting feet toward ceiling.

By Linda Cusmano