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3 STEPS TO REDUCING EXERCISE INJURIES

Injuries are a part of life. As long as you’re alive, active, and routinely exercising the chances are you will experience some sort of injury along the way. However, there are ways to prevent injury and keep working out safely.

At Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness, CrossFit is our primary exercise methodology. With CrossFit comes huge misconceptions about injury rates. Many believe it is too dangerous and only for the younger generation. Contrary to this belief, when compared to other exercise regimens like running, there are fewer instances of injury. 

As a coach whose life is centralized around the health and fitness of others, it’s disappointing to see so many fall for this lie. My goal today is NOT to sell you on the benefits of CrossFit, but help you prevent exercise induced injury no matter what exercise routine you choose. 

First, injuries can be caused by a variety of factors: 

  • Genetics
  • Previous injuries
  • Flexibility and mobility issues
  • Training intensity before mechanics and consistency are in place, etc
  • Overtraining
  • Imbalances of exercises between the upper and lower body and pressing and pulling

You can do the following to prevent injury in your exercise regimen:

STEP #1 – FOCUS ON MECHANICS

Using proper mechanics and techniques in any exercise regimen are paramount to preventing injury. 

A regimen as simple as running is no exception. If you run miles upon miles with poor running technique you’re more likely to incur injuries.

The same goes for an exercise regimen like CrossFit. If you constantly perform sub optimal technique on squats for reps on reps, you’re more likely to get injured.

The key to improving mechanics is to slow down and work with a coach. Take the weeks and months or even years to dial in the foundations of the exercise program to decrease your risk of injury significantly in the long term.

Schedule a time with one of our coaches at Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness HERE to see how we can help you improve your mechanics and decrease your risk of injury.

STEP #2 – CONSISTENCY

Once you have mastered the mechanics in your exercise routine, it’s important to be consistent in performing those mechanics daily, weekly, and yearly. 

For example, if you perform 3 out of 10 of your bodyweight squats perfectly and 7 out of 10 imperfectly, you have a higher chance of performing a higher skilled exercise like an overhead squat or snatch with less than perfect form, and possibly injuring yourself. The same goes for running. Running 400 meters with great technique doesn’t help much if you perform the final 3 miles with imperfect technique.

When you can consistently perform 100% of the basic exercises perfectly, you’ve set a foundation for success when it comes to moving forward to higher skilled exercises, which also reduces the chances of injury. 

This is paralleled with consistency in walking into the gym on a daily basis. The more you step in the door and practice the movements with a coach, the more efficient you’ll become in the exercises. 

Coming to the gym three to four times a week will yield faster and safer results than one to two times per week. 

Our coaches help you set goals and keep you accountable with those goals with quarterly goal sessions and daily in person sessions. 

To see if we can help keep you motivated in your exercise program, schedule a free session with one of our coaches HERE.

STEP #3 – FOLLOW A PROGRAM

Injuries commonly happen when clients program for themselves, perform too much volume or perform too much of a single movement pattern on a frequent basis. Coaches are professionals. They’ve dedicated their lives to studying and perfecting their craft, and part of this craft includes exercise programs.

Exercise programs are intended to keep balance between lower body and upper body coupled with pushing and pulling exercises. CrossFit, although it can seem random from the naked eye, takes all of those things into consideration and attempts to build a safe, variable exercise program.

Straying away from a program or following multiple programs at once is a recipe for disaster and often leads to injury. 

It’s important to have a coach lead you through a program and help you balance any sport specific training that may go along with it. 

Schedule a No Sweat Intro HERE to find out if our program is a good fit for you.

Figuring out what to do, how to safely perform exercises and when to workout can be as mind-boggling as trigonometry. A coach takes the guesswork out of it for you  and will help you identify your goals, and set up a game-plan to reach them.

Coaching, goal setting, game-planning, accountability and injury prevention is what our coaching staff is all about at Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness. 

Our personal trainers and group coaches value lifting weights, and using multi-jointed, functional exercises performed at high intensity. You don’t have to guess about what to do! Schedule a free consultation with a coach to see how we can help you with your goals! →  I’M READY TO MEET WITH A COACH!

COACH PHIL KNIEP – Owner & CEO of Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness

Precision Nutrition L1 Coach

CrossFit Level 2 Trainer

Endurance Certified

Mobility Certified

Scaling Certified

3x CrossFit Games Qualifier

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