We see a lot of athletes come through the clinic asking how they can prevent further injuries. We see a great deal of patients with injuries due to poor prevention techniques, so today I really want to shed some light on the topic, to help you get back to the game or activity that you love.

So why am I telling you this?

Well, as anyone knows, incurring an injury is never fun – you have to sit on the side line, struggling with muscle soreness and slowly back tracking all the fitness that you’ve built up.

And I don’t want you to be in that place, in fact I want you to keep fit and healthy throughout your sporting season, I want you to enjoy the sport you love and I want you to be pain free!

And that’s why today I’m going to share five of the best techniques for injury prevention – they are really going to help you get back on track and continue to grow yourself as a player!

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So, what do you need to do?

The first of the five techniques is insuring you are Warming Up correctly!

The importance of warming up is often over looked, but it will not only help avoid injury but it will also improve your overall performance. Your warm up should consist of a gentle jog to circulate blood and oxygen, to help supply the muscles with more energy. The warm up should also include dynamic or active stretching drills and sports specific exercises to warm up the muscles.

My second must do technique is Cooling Down.

Being winter, it can be hard to motivate yourself to cool down when there are warm showers awaiting you, and there is temptation to hit the bar after a hard game. But cooling down can actually boost your performance and avoid future injuries. The aim of cooling down is to gradually lower the heart rate, to remove waste products like lactic acid, reducing the risk of muscle soreness and many more great benefits. Just like the warm up, the cool down should include a gentle jog followed by some light stretching.

Sports Massages is my next tip. Getting regular sport massages can help flush the muscles of waste products and release tight knots, lumps and bumps in your muscles. When these are left un-treated it can lead to muscle strains and tears.

The importance of Nutrition if often over looked when linking it to injury prevention, but it is just as important as a warm up! Having a bad diet will prevent you from recovering from a training session, and hence making you more prone to injury. Aiming for a balanced diet is so important.

My last tip for today is making sure you factor in Recovery!

Not allowing your body to recover properly from training will eventually result in injury. Your body needs time to rebuild itself stronger before the next training session. Remember – you are not training when you are training, you are training when you recover! Sleep is also an important part of your training. If you are not getting enough, get it sorted.

So there you have it, five really important techniques that will help you prevent injury!

All the top players have physiotherapists on hand to help keep them at a top fitness level. It is important to follow these injury prevention techniques to make sure you also stay injury free this sporting season.

If you have any questions about this routine, or find yourself with sporting injuries don’t hesitate to contact our clinic to arrange an appointment to get you back to the sport you love!

That’s all from me today!

Vinnie