Dr. George's Fantastic Five
Tips for Preventing Injury This Spring
THURS, MARCH 11 @ 5:30PM - You can join us and Dr. George at our next Winter Wellness talk on Work From Home Mobility! Presented free on Zoom.
This season, our friend Dr. George M. Nicolopoulos has generously joined us for our Winter Wellness online series, providing tips and tricks to keep us safe and active this season.
Now as we transition out of winter, Dr. George shares his “Fantastic Five” top tips for preventing injury this spring!
Hydrate like crazy!
Yes, this may seem obvious - but from my experiences at numerous athletic events, most notably the Chicago Marathon, most athletes severely under-hydrate in mild conditions. By far, the most common issues I’ve seen at the Marathon (where water is handed out everywhere) have been either dehydration or heat exhaustion/heat stroke. Carrying extra water is a burden, but fainting on a run or while playing basketball would be far worse.
Do a proper warm up.
Running, jumping, squatting, whatever it may be… doing so on cold muscles is setting yourself up for failure. A quick 200-400m jog, for example, can significantly increase your muscular activation to help you increase speed and decrease the likelihood of injury.
Stretching - Yes, everyone needs to stretch, but after.
Not 30 minutes of static stretching before running, but after. You don’t necessarily want to do static stretching one hour prior to working out as it has been shown to decrease performance to some extent. You want to do it after working out. Continued mobility will increase blood flow to commonly utilized muscles and ligaments, allowing for them to function and heal properly.
Don’t run on an empty stomach.
I can’t begin to describe how important it is to have calories in your system when you exercise. I have seen people faint numerous times at CrossFit events, for example. More often than not, people are working on an empty stomach. Without gas in the tank, there’s nothing for the engine to run on!
Give yourself time to ramp up.
Many, if not most, of the people reading this likely didn’t keep up with their routine as much during the brutal short winter we had this year. And that’s okay! Giving yourself adequate time to get back to last year’s pace or tempo will vastly decrease your likelihood for any issues.
Thank You, Dr. George!
You can join us and Dr. George at our next Winter Wellness talk on Thursday, March 11th, free on Zoom. Save your free spot here.
Dr. George M. Nicolopoulos is a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician and Owner of the Spine & Sports Center of Chicago.
KEEP MOVING WITH THE CHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION
Stay tuned for our new WE Walk community walking program coming to the parks this spring.
