Protecting your Knees from Injury during Physical Activity
Your knees; they take more of a beating then you would think. It doesn’t take much to put strain on your knees and cause an injury to them. One of the biggest causes of knee injuries is through physical activity, like sports or working out. A lot of the time, people will injure their knees during activities like these because they don’t take the time to warm up. Warming up is crucial to your overall physical well-being when it comes to participating in different sporting events or working out at the gym. Without warming up, not only do your knees face the risk of injury but the rest of your body does as well.
Park Physical Therapy, located in Massapequa is dedicated to providing exceptional care to all of their patients. Park PT has been providing the residents of Massapequa, Suffolk, and Nassau Counties since 1993. They believe in delivering high quality and compassionate care to all of their patients as well as providing them with the education needed to help move along the rehabilitation process.
Mark Eldred, a professional bodybuilder and personal trainer, wrote an article for bodybuilding.com called Save Your Knees! 5 Tips For Training Legs and Preventing Knee Injury! Eldred gives us five steps one can take to avoid knee injury, or prevent further injury to our knees. The first step is to take the time to warm up. Eldred states that you can’t jump right into heavy weights. Never start a 400-pound leg press without warming up and never squat 200-300 pounds without doing some warm-up sets first.
Secondly, do not lock your knees on any leg exercise. Locking your knee joint transfer all of the weight from the muscle to the joint. This results in stress on the knee which could lead to injury. By not fully locking your knees, you will keep the tension on your muscle and you will experience a more intense set at your current weight.
The third step is to learn to squat with proper form. Eldred says to squat with your heels instead of on the balls of your feet. Do not let your knees come forward as you descend, stick your butt out, and keep your back arched.
Fourth, do not use more weight than you can handle. Make sure you are able to complete the full range of motion for any leg exercise you are performing. If you cannot, you are probably using too much weight. Lower the weight and perform the exercise correctly.
The final step that Eldred gives is to think about your knees when performing cardio. Try to avoid running on pavement and even on a treadmill. The impact against the pavement will irritate an existing injury even more.
Park PT also works very closely with orthopedists, neurologists, sports medicine doctors, dentists, physiatrists, osteopaths and primary care physicians in the surrounding areas of Massapequa to make sure that you receive the exceptional care that you need and deserve.
