Podiatry & Sports Injury                 

Sports Injury


Prevention is better than a cure.

Most athletes recognize the need for a good warm up prior to activity.
The aims of a good warm up are.
To prepare the body for the activity.
To increase/improve performance
To prevent injury.
A good warm up would normally take around 20-25 minutes and can be divided into 3 stages.
Stage 1: Initial pulse raiser to ease mobility and extensibility . Perform lightweight activities such as arm swinging, shoulder rolling, slow controlled jogging,skipping, forwards backwards sideways. Vary the activities to make it interesting  ¼ pace, ½ pace ect.  This should take around 5-6 mins. 
Once the body temperature as begun to raise some short hold stretching can begin. For 1-2 minutes holding the stretch for 5-6 seconds working the major muscle groups of the lower extremity. This should only be carried out after the initial pulse raiser.
Stage 2: Aim. to further increase the heart rate through higher intensity work. involve changes of direction greater distances to cover, faster jogging, high knee, heel flicks to buttocks ect ect, again this should be 5-6 minutes. stretching should be now done with more purpose slowly taking the stretch through a full range and hold for 15-20 seconds
Stage 3: final working level
sprinting, jumping, turning, running backwards, quick change of direction if playing football introduce the ball.
The easiest and safest way to perform a stretch.
Always warm up the muscle.
Slowly take up the stretch, the stretch should never be painful, the tension should be felt in the muscle belly, adjust your position if you feel pain, you should sustain the stretch for 15 seconds. This is the approximate time required to remove the muscle stretch reflex, which is a contraction of the muscle in response to stretch. Never bounce into a stretch and always slowly release, repeat the stretch 3/4 times for each muscle group.

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