If you were to take a good look at your health and fitness status right now, at the start of 2014, what conclusions would you draw? Take the opportunity of a new year to look at weaknesses you face and also consider past physical problems which have played a part in your life in the last year. With these ideas in mind, you can put in place a protection plan for the year ahead, to prevent injuries in the future, and strengthen weak areas too.
Goals and resolutions tend to focus on being better, and becoming a more improved version of yourself. They are about ratcheting up your fitness levels and becoming healthier, or reaching a specific sporting or athletic achievement. While commendable, to ensure that you are creating a solid fitness base to work from, you need to strengthen your position to begin with. To do this, you need to think about proactive protection.
Do your own body scan
You might not be a health or fitness expert, but in many respects you are an expert on yourself. After all you live with yourself each day and experience first-hand how what you do feels and affects you physically. Take time to sit or lie down in a quiet room and literally scan your body with your mind. Imagine that this scanner is travelling slowly throughout your body, looking at every part of you in detail, to really get a clear picture of your physical status.
Note down injuries, weak points and nagging problems
From your body scan, as well as your own personal history and experiences, make a note of injuries you’ve sustained over the last year, and perhaps before this too. Also include areas where you often ache or feel pain when you work out or are active, and any parts of the body which seem weaker and more prone to problems.
Get professional opinions
Whenever you are looking at exercise in connection with injury and recovery, it’s also important to ensure that you have some idea about the cause behind ailments or why certain areas are weaker. Is there an underlying health concern, or is the issue a result of a previous injury? To find the cause don’t just look at the symptoms but get a deeper understanding of what dynamics are at play.
Identify what aggravates your problems
If you suffer from a knee injury then hours on the bike might be the worse remedy. Create an exercise regime for 2014 that does not include movements or types of training that make your physical problems worse or put undue pressure and strain on yourself. The idea of a quality exercise plan is to improve your fitness levels and performance, not overly-challenge weak areas to the point of collapse.
Identify what strengthens your weaknesses
To really guard against future injury, your protection plan should include training and exercises that ultimately strengthen your weaknesses. Without this proactive approach, you may find that further problems are created through muscle imbalance. If weakness in your knee is preventing other parts of your body from benefiting from certain types of workouts then you need to work against this as it ultimately might be detracting from your overall fitness.
With the right protection you will go from strength to strength in 2014!
