Why People Get Hurt and the Best Exercises to Avoid Injury

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If you find yourself having trouble doing simple things at work or simple things at home or trouble getting back to the activities that you love once that season comes around again, and you find yourself feeling tight, injured, this is for you. You go out to play that game for the first time of the year. You go out to do that yard for the first time in a year, and you’re extremely sore beyond just muscle sore. That’s probably because your body hasn’t been trained functionally to be ready to do those activities. So functional training is going to be extremely important before you go out to do those activities, to make sure you’re ready to go out and enjoy those activities.

We’re all looking for the perfect workout, the perfect exercise program and the perfect exercise or stretch to help us feel better. But there’s thousands and thousands of exercises and thousands of thousands of stretches. So the important thing to know is there isn’t just necessarily one perfect exercise for everybody. There has to be something else that we take into account, and that has to be you.

So, number one, there’s basic exercises. Those are the exercises that work one body part in a specific way, in a controlled environment, like a bench press or a curl or a squat. Second there’s fundamental exercises, which are exercises that are based on the fundamental movements that we do like a squat or like a squat into arms over the head. Some type of movement that incorporates multiple characteristics of a movement, not just one in a controlled environment, but one that sort of is a basic movement that meets the fundamental needs of all other movements. Next is functional exercise and functional exercise is very important because functional exercise is actually an exercise that promotes the kind of lifestyle you live.

There are functional exercises for golfers, functional exercises for people who walk, functional exercises for people who do yard work, functional exercises for people who are afraid of falling, or if they fall, they’re afraid that they can’t get up. These are specific exercises designed to meet a functional need that you have in your life. Here’s the important thing to know about your body. Your body will not be strong or flexible in an area that you don’t train it in. So we can’t expect it to be everything we want it to be and do the jobs that we ask it to do without having any problems at all. Especially if we don’t ask our body to do that function or that type of movement for a year, that’s why so many people get hurt shoveling the snow or many people get hurt doing the yard work for the first time of the year or the second time of the year or these are also things like the first time of the year golfing.

Again, these are all things that we don’t do all year long or regularly. Our body has already moved those functions and moved those abilities to other areas of our life that we’re training in every day(consciously or unconsciously), because our body is like clay. It’s always working on and getting better at whatever we’re asking it to do. But when we don’t ask it to do something for a while, we don’t train it in that area, we don’t strengthen it in that area, we don’t create movement and flexibility in that area, and then we go to do that activity, we can be vulnerable to injury. It’s like we’re starting all over again, not from the very beginning, but we’re not starting from where we left off last year and we go right back to the activity at that level and our body isn’t prepared for it and it makes us vulnerable to injury.

So what we want to do is prepare our bodies and make them ready for the things we do in a way that allows for mobility of the joints, flexibility of the muscles, strengthening the muscles and balance, not only as a basic exercise, not only as a fundamental exercise that feeds most of our movements, but in a functional way, that specifically feeds our body with the movements and the type of movements that we need to perform and our body requires to do each specific task so we can enjoy living our life. Whether that be bike riding or playing tennis or playing pickleball or whatever it is, you can train your body specifically to be ready for those types of activities.

I tell people as much of the year as you can stay as functional as possible, but sometimes people’s years change. So, maybe a couple of weeks or a couple of months would even be better before golf season, start introducing those movements to your body again, before you add strengthening, before you add all this other stuff, just get your body used to going through those movements again, and from there, build it back up. So when you go out and play, you can play longer, you can play stronger, you can avoid injury, you can recover faster, and you can play again the next day. It makes your body ready for all the different activities you want to do.

So once again, there’s basic movements, there’s fundamental movements that feed most of the type of movements we do and there’s functional training. And we have to get to the level of functional training if we want our body to be ready and at its best to live the kind of life we enjoy living. Where we can avoid injury and get the most enjoyment out of the activities that we love to do. So here’s the formula for building functional movement. First determine the type of activities you like to do, or you can even determine the type of activities you need to do each day, like sitting a long time or shoveling at work or leaning over a lot at work, whatever it may be. You can use this in your work life and you can use it in your active life. When you’re outside of work, first determine the activities, then determine the basic muscles that you’re using for that activity. You could work those individually to make them strong, basic exercises, so they’re always ready to go. Second, look for fundamental movements that not only work those muscles, but work those muscles in combination with other muscles in a controlled way that builds up the fundamental muscles involved in that movement. Then third, functional training, is specifically doing the type of movements that exactly mimics the work or activity that you’re doing. You can work on form first by just moving your body, then maybe add light weight or a resistance band in time.

A great place to start is making sure you have good form, your core is contracted and moving your body, without any weights, like you’re moving it through peanut butter. In addition, find stretches that go along with the type of movements you’re doing to maintain flexibility, which is extremely important. If you’re always turning to one side and shortening on one side, make sure that you’re also strengthening and lengthening the other side to make sure you create balance. Strengthening and stretching both sides of your body will avoid too much stress from building up in any area day after day after day. It will give you a way to unwind stress before you feel it and to keep the tension low in the muscles so they can always stay healthy and ready for activity.

Once again, if you need help with any of these things, because it’s very hard to be specific and do one thing and have it be the exact thing that everybody needs, you can send me an email at drjohnfresh@gmail.com. In this blog, I’m trying to give you the formula to fish for health, instead of just feeding you the fish. So to make this specific for you, look at the components that make up the movements that you perform each day, and the movements of the activities you love to do each year. Create basic, fundamental, and functional exercises that will feed those movements. Start slow, working on form, muscle and core engagement. Utilize consistency and time for maximum results.

If you need help with anything, you can always leave a comment in the section below or email me at drjohnfresh@gmail.com. My book, The Health Equation has tons of great information about getting and staying healthy, active, and young. It is also very practical with things like how to sit, how to sleep, how to do all the things we all do in a day, how to set up your workstation, …including how to live in a functional way. This is very important, because all day long you can be promoting health in your body, while avoiding the things that cause your body to break down and that cause your body injury over time. When we can flip that around and take what you are already doing each day and prevent injury, but instead do those same things in a way that promotes health, then each day you can be getting healthier with the same activities you’re already doing before you even need to add any extra workouts to your day.

So the book is available to you The Health Equation (The Link is Below). You can also go to drjohnfresh.com and sign up for 4 Days to a Better Back Video series, and also get Simple Ways to Solve Neck and Back Problems, AND the first chapter of my book, The Health Equation (The Link is Below).

The Health Equation has The Health Equation book, Winning Moments and Health is practically Free all in that ONE book. Winning Moments is how you turn everything you do in a day that may be causing your body stress, breaking you down and taking withdrawals from your health account and learning how to turn those things into positive things that improve your health and deposit into your health account each day. So that book is available to you on Amazon. I’ll put the link below.

Link: The Health Equation

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