Life Stress Can Lead To Injury. Here Is How to Prevent It.

Does this sound familiar? Busy work day as well as chauffeuring kids to various activities from 8am-5pm. Then it’s time to get that workout in that helps you feel like you’re finally doing something for you. By the time you have arrived, you’re smoked and tense. You do a quick warm-up…maybe, and get into your workout.

If this is you, you’re not alone. However, this may be one reason so many adults get sidelined by injury. There is a correlation between “life” stress and sport related injury (Anderson and Williams 1999, Salvagioni et al. 2017). I’ve heard countless patients blame their injuries on “getting older” but I wonder how many of these “getting older” aches and pains have more to do with taking the tension of adult life into exercise, preventing mobility and mental presence, leaving the door open for injury.

You’re trying to hold on to the exercise that makes you happy, but getting there is a circus of stress. So what can you do about it? It’s not like you can quit your job and you’re committed to the parent life for the foreseeable future. Don’t worry. The answer is more simple than you might think.

The key is in the transition. If you start exercise with a stiff body that you are still carrying around from your work and family schedule, you are setting yourself up for injury. But if you can take 5 minutes in the first part of your warm-up to focus on letting tension go, you will find that you are more mentally and physically ready to get the most out of your exercise session and lower your injury risk.

The key to the warm-up is gentle movement with focus on your breath. Here is a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An7Khp7Xep4 with several exercises you could do prior to your exercise of choice. Keep in mind that there are many options, just pick movements that help muscles relax and are done with a steady breath.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Andersen, M. B. and J. M. Williams (1999). "Athletic injury, psychosocial factors and perceptual changes during stress." J Sports Sci 17(9): 735-741.

Ivarsson, A., Johnson, U., Andersen, M. B., Tranaeus, U., Stenling, A., & Lindwall, M. (2017). Psychosocial Factors and Sport Injuries: Meta-analyses for Prediction and Prevention. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 47(2), 353–365. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0578-x

Salvagioni, D. A. J., F. N. Melanda, A. E. Mesas, A. D. Gonzalez, F. L. Gabani and S. M. Andrade (2017). "Physical, psychological and occupational consequences of job burnout: A systematic review of prospective studies." PLoS One 12(10): e0185781.