Stand Up & Move More- A Physio’s Guide to your New Year Resolution

How many times, ironically at this time of the year, do we hear this. New year, new me. People always want to get fitter especially in the summer months but they do not always understand how or where to begin. So here is a bit of information and some tips for you regarding load management in exercise.

We all have different aspects of our life we want to improve, but when it comes to the load management, people do not know where to begin. You firstly have to take into account:

1) when was the last time you participated in activities/sport,

2) what injuries and/or known weaknesses you have,

3) sleep hygiene and how to prevent injuries,

4) active recovery and how many rest days have been implemented into your schedule.

When it comes to exercising and referring to load, this is in context to where the amount of stress is put on the body during one session or the volume of stress over a certain period of time. As a rule of thumb, for performance to occur/improve, you have to apply an appropriate training load for the body to adapt and change/improve. Yet the incorrect load management can increase the stress on multiple joints/muscles causing injury, affecting their performance. Therefore, it is important to consider when the event is or what the end goal is to be able to establish an appropriate training plan. It is equally as important to consider the rest time, sleep, hydration and nutrition when considering load management. Thus will aid tissue healing and adaption phases to occur, resulting in progression with increased loading, reducing the risk of injuries where possible.

Physio can help with this progress in returning or commencing a new activity/sport to reduce the risk of injuries. We can implement an individualised load management programme taking into any current or previous injuries/surgeries. Here at the Physio Pilates clinic we are highly experienced and trained to complete injury assessments, biomechanicals, breathing assessments, and complete return to sport measurements within National guidelines where appropriate. If this sounds like something you feel is appropriate, please contact the clinic to make an appointment. Our amazing team at Physio Pilates NP, based at Frontrunner. We would love to have you on board to assist you in any way needed for you to achieve your goal, no matter how big or small you think your issue may be.

Here are some tips to consider for load management:

#1 – increments should be a maximum of 10%, and these can be weekly adaptations. You need to ensure your body has adjusted without any consequences before considering another increment or changing another variable i.e. terrain, intensity etc. to avoid injury or burnout.

#2 – remember load before speed. You need strength and endurance before you can improve your speed.

#3 – any niggles or recurrent injuries ensure you get them assessed. This will avoid any significant changes to your training programme and prevent a compensatory movement pattern. Or avoiding the worst situation of having to stop training for a period of time. Our bodies are amazing at adapting and compensating without us realising until pain may develop elsewhere.

#4 – sleep hygiene, hydration and nutrition are undervalued but are EQUALLY as important as training load and injury prevention.

Let’s be having you 2022.

Let the training begin.

Stay tuned for some up and coming videos this month for extra info on how to impart this info into your New Year Resolution.