Home Exercise Tips-Part 1
We have seen an increase of home work out related injuries in the clinic all related to home exercise work out stations, over the next few weeks- we will include our top do’s and don’t when exercising at home!
Do:
Workout in front of a mirror: A mirror can provide visual feedback that is important to allow yourself to self-monitor your form during home workouts. Without the usual presence of a mirror inside the gym it is easy to perform exercises with improper form. Your body quickly finds a way to compensate when your muscles start to fatigue, not correcting these compensatory movements can often be the source of overuse or chronic injuries.
Don’t:
Don’t workout on hard surfaces such as cement. Hard cement floors don’t absorb the impact of your body very well when participating in plyometric exercises involving jumping, pushing off, and landing. Concrete floors are hard, and not shock-absorbent thus the force from during quick cutting and jumping movements during plyometric workouts can travel back from the hard surface up your feet and legs leading to injuries like shin pain, knee, foot, and even low back pain. Interlocking foam pads used for exercise are often a great option to buy if cement floors are your only space to exercise.