This Secret Hack Prevents Injuries
Got tendinitis, soreness, knots, joint pain?
Shifting your focus in midlife to “strong over skinny” (see Tuesday’s newsletter for more on that) changes HOW you care for your body.
It’s not about blasting your body and breaking it down anymore.
It’s about building it up. 💪
It’s about taking the extra step to make your muscles, tendons and fascia happy.
It’s about preventing the pain and injuries that too often derail your progress.
It’s about “prehab”.
Haven’t heard of prehab?
No worries, let’s break it down…
JUST ONE THING
You’ve probably heard of rehab.“Rehab” or rehabilitation is intentional care following an injury to help it to heal properly.
But prehab is intentional care to prevent injuries from happening in the first place.
And you need this now more than ever!
Your JUST ONE THING to Build Strength Safely
Incorporate ‘prehab’ moves
Building “prehab” moves into your workouts (like during your warm-up, cool down and recovery days) can help ease unnecessary stresses on your body and ensure that you continue to build your strength without injuries.
Prehab includes:
• Soft tissue work (massage/foam rolling) - improving the blood flow to your soft tissues for better healing and applying targeted pressure for muscle tension release
• Joint mobility work - building flexibility and control through functional ranges of motion.
• Targeted strengthening - for weak or underperforming muscle groups (like glutes, rotator cuff muscles, or even your core.)
Here’s a great example of “prehab” style moves that can help your shoulders and upper body posture:
Total Shoulder & Upper Back Prehab Care
- Eagle Arm Stretch - If you can’t cross your arms, that’s ok, just squeeze your elbows together. Then lift your arms, tuck your chin down and fully exhale. Do 1-2 per side.
- Foam Roll Rhomboids & Traps - Self-massage can encourage those muscles to release their tension so you can feel instant relief. (💥 I love my Rollga foam roller! It’s magic for this. Go to www.rollga.com and use my coupon code MEGAN15 at checkout.)
- Thoracic Rotations - These will stretch and strengthen at the same time. Do 6-8 reps per arm.
- Shoulder blade circles - Go forward and backwards, getting your shoulder blades to make as big of circles as possibe. Do 5 circles in each direction.
- Thoracic Extension Stretch - This encourages your spine to release out of that hunched forward position and stretches your chest. Hold for 6-8 deep breaths.
Extra Tip: Pick two or three “prehab” style moves to do everyday for each major area of your body: shoulders and upper back, hips and core, knees and ankles.
Did You Know...
- Resistance bands (like minibands), foam rollers (Rollga is my go-to), massage balls, and balance pads are all excellent additions to your “prehab” toolkit.
- On a heavy lifting day, instead of fully resting in between sets, add complimentary “prehab” style moves to your rest breaks. Grab a roller and massage your hip flexors, or stick a miniband around your ankles and do sidestepping.
- Compensation patterns - we ALL have them. Prehab exercises can help you overcome compensation patterns, which almost always lead to overuse injuries like plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, or SI joint pain.
Until next week... Be strong💪
