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4 Tips to Avoiding Common Summer Injuries

June 23, 2014 6:19am

Summer starts this weekend (fingers crossed) and that means more pickup basketball games, baseball and who knows what else. Summer time is a more active time for many of us. So we asked Green Lake’s Flat Rock Health Seattle for a few tips for avoiding common sports/summertime injuries.

Dr. Ariban Das recommends 4 tips that will help keep you injury free:

1. Hydrate: We are about 70% water composition.  Hydrating BEFORE you workout is key-  It takes a few days to really fill up your tank properly.  Goal amount of fluids per day is about 2 liters.  Stay hydrated and your body will thank you.

2. Warm up and then stretch: Most injuries we see, no matter what the age, is a lack of warming up muscles, no stretching, and then BOOM, someone pulls somethings in their favorite sport.  Take 5 minutes, get your heart rate up, then stretch- hamstrings, shoulders, calves, etc. Look at what happenend to Josie Altidore from USA soccer.

3. Understand your limitations: It’s nice out but you have spent all winter doing little training.  Check your ego based on what you want to do and think about your activity.  For example- if you are going to play beach volleyball but haven’t spent anytime working on jumping, hitting, spiking, then take it easy on your first few days.  Your body will adapt, but it takes time!

4. Cool down: This is key!!  Take the 5 minutes after your activity and stretch the muscles out.  This helps getting the lactic acid moving and you will feel much better the next day.  Many of us think that we are still teenagers and we feel young, but your body knows exactly how old you really are.  Be smart- cool down.  It will keep you out of our office.

For more information, check out Flat Rock Health’s monthly “ask the doctor” free lectures from 7-9 p.m. on June 25.

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