Preventing muscular, tendon, and bone injuries begin with a combination of proper warm-up, conditioning, and proper technique. The foot and ankle not only absorb all the shock and impact from strenuous activities but also distribute all your bodyweight back down to the ground.
Due to the high demand on your feet and ankles, guidance is required to prevent or decrease the chance of injury.
Warm-up
Whether you’re casually shooting hoops or participating in an intense match, warm-up is an essential step in injury prevention. Stretching and warming up your muscles and loosening the bones and joints of the foot and ankle will enhance performance. Warm-up might consist of a mixture of light jogging and stretching.
Strengthen & Condition
Conditioning is a slow process that helps one grow muscle, develop a sense of balance, enhance elasticity and range of motion, and increase the stability of our joints to keep away from injury.
Protect Your Feet
Your feet are your foundation. To properly carry out activities, they require footwear that corresponds to the movement. The correct shoe will give support and be designed to specifically meet the demands of your activity. Besides enhancing your ability to perform the activity, a proper shoe can help prevent injuries like sprains, stress fractures and tendinitis.
Start Slow
If you aren’t regularly engaged in sports or activities, slowly increasing your activity level is recommended. Playing a sport at an elevated level after a long period of inactivity places a lot of pressure on the unconditioned muscles and joints in the feet.
Build Up YOUR Muscles
Strengthening the ankle muscles and tendons is a key preventative measure. Exercises such as squats, lunges, dips and band strengthening workouts can greatly improve muscular strength.
Improve Flexibility
Stability is essential. Simple stretches for 30-60 seconds after a light warm-up can help reduce stiffness and increase lower leg mobility.
Avoid Overuse
Activity and exercising is great for your mind and body but you can have too much of a good thing. If you are participating in intense activities for several consecutive days, your muscles do not have time to recover. This can lead to careless injuries due to fatigue or repetitive trauma which can turn into tendinitis and stress fractures. As a general rule, you should not be engaging in the same intense activities on two consecutive days. It is good for your body to get rest. Resting, icing, and elevating your extremities helps reduce inflammation after activity. For your body to be ready to go for your next adventure, it must be given time to recover.
Dr Raymond Delpak works with patients to determine the best course of action for treating foot and ankle problems. We use the most advanced techniques possible. If you would like to learn more, please visit us-TX Foot and Ankle Consultants or schedule an appointment.