Overstress injuries send countless of patients to emergency rooms and urgent care facilities each and every day. From milder conditions like shin splints to more serious tissue ruptures like an Achilles tear, overstress injuries can affect individuals in all walks of life.
One of the easiest ways to avoid overstress injuries is to greatly back off your activity levels, but if you’re like a lot of people, you don’t want to willingly slow down or miss out on your favorite active hobbies simply because you’re trying to curtail your injury risk. So what can you do to decrease your overstress injury risk without greatly ramping down your activity level? We take a closer look at how you can stay active and avoid overstress injuries in today’s blog.
Avoiding Overstress Injuries Without Stopping
Rest is a great way to prevent overstress injuries by giving the body more time to recover after stressful activity. You should always listen to your body and take time to recharge if you’ve been putting a lot of stress on your body, but if you want to stay active while also preventing lower-body overstress injuries, we have some recommendations for you:
1. Find The Right Footwear – Foot and ankle overstress injury likelihood can be reduced by ensuring your feet are in a comfortable and supportive shoe. If your footwear can’t help absorb or disperse stress in a healthy manner, then it won’t take as much stress on the foot to overload it. Get your feet in an athletic shoe that is comfortable, supportive and designed for the activities at hand.
2. Strengthen – The stronger your feet are, the easier they will be able to handle the stress that you throw at them. Use targeted exercises or physical therapy programs to strengthen areas like your calf muscles or your ankle ligaments to help your feet become stronger and better able to handle stress appropriately.
3. Cross train – Vary your workouts so that the same areas of your body aren’t always handling the stress of activity. You may enjoy running, but consider adding in an upper body lifting routine or a swimming session each week to take some strain off your feet and ankles. Try not to always target the same areas with exercise, because not only will you be at a heightened risk for overstress injuries, but you may also be creating muscle strength discrepancies that further increase your risk of injury.
4. Stop Small Injuries – If you suffer an acute injury or start to notice some dull discomfort, step away from activity for a little bit and proactively treat the problem. You don’t necessarily need to sync up with a specialist for all issues, but pursue some helpful conservative techniques, like rest, physical therapy, stretching, ice/heat and anti-inflammatories. Help your body get back to 100 percent instead of fighting a losing battle because of a chronic injury. Many problems will snowball without proactive treatment, so managing problems in the short-term can help prevent a long-term injury from manifesting.
5. Weight Management – Finally, you can take some stress off you feet with every step you take by working to shed some weight. Diet and exercise are two ways you can work towards a healthier weight, and every pound you lose takes even greater loads of strain off your feet. Strive to lose a little weight this year, and your feet will be under less stress as you stay active.
Keep these tips in mind and connect with Dr. Silverman if you have specific questions or needs. Connect with his office by sending him a message.