Overuse or an awkward movement can often lead to muscle injury — trauma or tears in connective muscle fibers. Athletes sometimes experience muscle injuries during competition, often after straining a tendon or tearing a ligament. Over time, repeated muscle injuries can lead to chronic pain and create inflammation in joints, hips and the back.
It’s important to protect yourself against muscle injuries on and off the sports field. Staying injury-free can improve self-confidence, keep your health strong, and help you avoid trips to urgent care. Consider strategies like warming up before exercise, adjusting your sleep position and starting workouts slowly to reduce muscle injury risks.
1. Warm-up
Research identifies several strong benefits to warming up before a workout. An adequate warm-up helps to improve blood flow and muscle temperature, reducing injury risk once your muscles are moving at full speed. Stretching during a warm-up helps to maximize your joints’ range of motion. In one study, warming up was shown to improve athletic performance by 79%.
A thorough warm-up should last more than a few minutes. Your warm-up should last at least 5-10 minutes, focusing on the muscle groups you plan to work out. You can vary your warm-up with activities like jogging, arm swings, lunges and squats. Keep warm-up activities low-intensity and low-impact — enough to prepare you for exercise without spending too much energy.
Here are a few other ways to warm up your muscles before physical exercise:
- Walking;
- High knees or butt kicks;
- Jumping jacks;
- Shadow boxing;
- Yoga;
- Dynamic stretches, like arm swings;
- Side-stepping in place.
Performed correctly, warm-up exercises can offer their own health benefits. For example, walking once a day can improve your muscle strength, balance and sleep. Yoga is known for improving breathing quality and protecting the body from injury.
2. Cool down
Many athletes remember the warm-up before exercise, but they forget to cool down. Cooling down after physical activity helps improve recovery times and prevents immune system depression. It also helps to gradually return your heart rate to a normal pace. Many cool-down exercises are similar to ones you might perform during a warm-up. They can include:
- Walking;
- Stretching;
- Foam rolling;
- Yoga;
- Jogging;
- Deep breathing;
- Lunges.
If possible, cool down while your muscles are still warm. This helps prevent lactic acid buildup, which can cause cramping and other forms of muscle contraction. Repeat stretches 3-5 times to delay, even prevent, muscle soreness after working out.
Many seasoned athletes also include hydration in their cool-down process. Drink water before, during and after exercise to replace fluids and prevent the negative effects of dehydration.
3. Incorporate strength training into your workout
Strength training refers to a group of exercises that improve the quality and capacity of your muscles. They help you build muscle, manage weight and improve joint health. These exercises also offer several benefits unrelated to physical exercise. Certain strength workouts help improve your mental health and preserve the quality of your sleep.
Strength training doesn’t mean lifting the heaviest weights in the gym. Instead, you can see meaningful health benefits by creating resistance. For example, use resistance bands to mimic traditional bodybuilding exercises without the use of dumbbells. Consider activities like push-ups, pull-ups and squats, which use your body as a counterweight to improve strength.
Here are a few other low-strain methods to gain muscle:
- Lift or swing light weights, like a kettlebell;
- Strengthen your core through lunges or sit-ups;
- Challenge your muscles with gymnastic rings or other forms of suspension training;
- Improve control over your body’s weight through Pilates;
- Sit against a wall, hold a plank, or perform other isometric exercises that require you to hold an unmoving position for a set period of time;
- Participate in water exercises to strengthen muscles against water resistance.
Just like regular exercises, low-strain activities also require a warm-up and cool-down period. It’s important to build up your workouts over time, starting with small amounts of weight. This helps your body avoid muscle injuries and acclimate to your workout methods.
4. Readjust your go-to sleeping position
Beauty sleep matters. It protects mental health, reduces inflammation and improves focus during the day. But after a full day, you might struggle to fall asleep. If you can’t get comfortable, sleep might be particularly difficult to come by. Bad sleep posture can lead to a range of issues — from back pain to muscle pressure.
Improving your bed posture is often the first step in achieving better, fuller sleep each night. Make sure to use sleep positions that encourage rest and recovery. Sleep on your back or side, not your stomach. This allows you to avoid back strain while improving gut health.
Here are a few more tips to improve sleep quality:
- Place a pillow between your legs, or under your knees, to relieve back pressure;
- Find a mattress, pillow, and other sleep materials that are soft but supportive;
- Straighten out muscles to avoid curling or sleeping in a prone position;
- Follow a sleep schedule that identifies when you wake and sleep each day;
- Limit time on your phone for at least 60 minutes before you get into bed;
- Participate in yoga, meditation or other stress-relieving activities before sleep.
Waking up relaxed and refreshed isn’t luck. The right evening preparation and sleep posture can protect muscle health and promote daytime productivity.
5. Start workouts slowly
Even after your warm-up, it’s still important to start your workouts at a controlled pace. Start slowly to ease your body into physical activity. This helps gradually elevate your heart rate and gives your muscle time to adjust to any demands. It also helps prevent any muscle strains you might experience from beginning a workout too quickly.
Begin exercise at a low intensity, before gradually increasing the pace. This might mean jogging before sprinting or easing into a pool workout. If you take breaks during a workout or competition, start workouts slowly when you resume activity. Some research even finds that slow, low-impact workouts might be better for the body over time than high-intensity exercise.
6. Listen to your body
You know your physical limits better than anyone else. No matter your exercise goals, it’s important to avoid pushing your body beyond its limit. Overexercising your body can quickly lead to muscle strains and more serious forms of injury. It can also suppress immune system functionality and cause burnout, which actually decreases your performance over time.
Listening to your body is particularly important during exercise. Obvious pain, particularly in your muscles or joints, is a strong sign that a particular workout is doing more harm than good. Inflammation and a reduced range of motion can also indicate a pending injury. End or scale back your exercise habits if you notice that your body is on the verge of injury.
Treat all warning signs of muscle injury seriously. Rest your muscles and apply a heating pad or ice to relieve pain. You should also consult a medical professional who can provide more insight into your condition. They might prescribe a treatment plan of rest, recovery and low-impact exercise. They may also recommend preventative stretches or habits that lower your risk for muscle reinjury.