Sports scientists have developed special techniques aimed at preventing injuries, that work for both the elite athlete training for 2012 and the weekend warrior looking forward to their regular game of tennis or run.
The human body will function more optimally for a specific task once the subunits of the system, which include muscles, tendons and joints, are adequqately prepared for the movement task.
As explained by sports physiotherapists, one need to prepare before and after exercising to avoid injury. Waming the muscles prior to exercise facilitates greater physiological responses within the structures of the body. Getting greater elasticity or stretch of the muscle and increasing body temperature and levels of oxygenation will help improve mental focus for the task. The specific responses within the body enable greater speed of contraction and quicker relaxation of the exercising muscles.
Increased relaxation and reduced muscle stiffness dramatically reduce the likelihood of overstretching a muscle and causing an injury. By preparing the system in this manner exercise performance can be maximised. Gentle low intensity exercise prior to the movement task in combination with 5 to 10 minutes of dynamic movement patterns has been shown to be the most successful.
Post exercise, the stretching basis should switch to a more passive technique utilising static movement patterns. Primarily the focus is to relax and control breathing thus enabling the muscles to adequately relax following activities.
There is also evidence to suggest light gentle exercise immediately following exercise is a more effective way of clearing lactic acid from the blood than complete rest.
Research has shown that this form of stretching is an ideal post-exercise activity which can stimulate the transport of amino acids into muscle cells, accelerate protein synthesis inside the cells, and inhibit protein degradation rates. Post exercise is the optimal time to restore muscles to their resting length via static stretching due to the muscles elevated temperature and greater relaxation effect.
Static stretching prior to activity can actually decrease performance according to recent evidence.
Adequate sleep patterns are also paramount in order to facilitate maximum recovery.
Overtraining can lead to sleep disturbances. Furthermore, this hinder performance can ultimately hinder performance and lead to more rapid onset of injury if not immediately addressed. Some argue that sleep is one of the most important systems withing the body in order to activate optimally.