Injury prevention guidelines

Exercise is one of the most important things you can do for your health. It brings down high blood pressure and lowers your risks for heart attacks, strokes, and a variety of cancers. It helps prevent type 2 diabetes and helps you manage your weight. It promotes better sleep. It even improves your mood and eases depression, stress, and anxiety. Exercise is also an essential habit for bone health.

Assuming you have the all-clear and are ready to start, it's wise to know some basic safety rules. There's always a risk of injury with exercise—and the risks go up dramatically with the intensity of your workout

Following are some guidelines to ensure a safe workout:

Warm up: Warming up for five to 10 minutes prepares your body for exercise by providing more oxygen to your muscles, lubricating your joints, and increasing range of motion. 

Don't overdo it. Unless you already exercise frequently and vigorously, plan to work your way up to high-intensity activities over time. Going too hard or doing too much too soon can cause overuse injuries like stress fractures, stiff or sore joints and muscles, and inflamed tendons and ligaments. 

Practice good form. Never sacrifice good form and posture. With good form, the different parts of your body work more efficiently with one another, and you are able to derive greater benefits from exercise. Good form also helps you avoid injuries. For example, allowing your knee to extend farther forward than the ends of your toes when you do a lunge can strain your knee; using proper form prevents that. Never force yourself to go farther, lift more weight, or do more reps unless you can maintain good form while doing so.

Don't forget to cool down and stretch afterward. Gradually slowing your activity at the end of a workout instead of stopping abruptly will prevent you from feeling lightheaded or dizzy, which could lead to a fall. Finishing off with some stretches after your cool-down will improve your flexibility and range of motion.

Allow time for rest and recovery. Don't attempt high-intensity or high-impact workouts every day of the week. Instead, allow a rest day (which might include low- or moderate-intensity activity to ensure that you get at least five days of exercise in a week) between vigorous workouts to avoid burnout and injuries. 

Choose shoes designed for your type of exercise. Activity-specific footwear is designed to meet the unique demands of a particular sport—for example, providing more cushioning in the right spots for running or more lateral support in tennis shoes.

Replace shoes every six to 12 months depending on how often you work out and how quickly the cushioning wears out. 

For tips on workouts that maximize bone strengthening while minimizing the risk of injury, check out  Exercises for Bone Strength , a Special Health Report by Harvard Medical School. 

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