preventing sprains and strains in the workplace

While sportspersons and their coaches understand the vital role of warm-ups and stretching exercises, other people don’t realize as much. 

The result? Frequent pain, strains,  and sprains.  Frequent injuries, however small, affect both our professional and personal life adversely.  

Warm-ups before a workout, jogging, playing a sport, and also your work( if you do a physical job) are very important. 

Movements in a daily workout, game, and occupation (like playing the guitar or lifting things) are mostly repetitive and put an immense amount of load on the sets of joints and muscles they use. 

Most people just think of it as tiredness, pop a painkiller and forget about it. However, ignoring such injuries makes them serious later on.

The best way out? Follow a daily warm-up schedule to prevent all kinds of sprains and strains.

Sprains and Strains – what’s the difference?

A sprain is a joint injury that tears up the tissues connecting the bones inside a joint ( called ligaments). A sprain may injure one or multiple ligaments at once. 

A strain, on the other hand, is a muscular injury. It tears or stretches the tendons. Tendons are tissues that connect bones to muscles.

Strains and sprains are classified under sporting injuries. Leading Sports Injury Specialist in Ludhiana Dr. Tanveer Bhutani shared that faulty exercise regimes with inadequate warming up make the muscles and joints susceptible to injury.

What exactly does a Warm-Up do?

Warm-up is nothing but a set of light exercises that kick starts your joints & muscles before you put more load on them. 

What a warm-up does: 

• Increases blood circulation 
• Initiates a range of motion in joints before we put rigorous weight on them.
• Heats up muscles to increase their flexibility and strength.  
• Improves performance

Proceeding directly to your game or work most offer results in sprains and strains accompanied by pain.

Effective Daily Warm-up to Prevent Sprains and Strains 

Remember, moderate is the way to go on warm-ups. They are beneficial but it doesn’t mean go overboard. 10-15 minutes of light exercise constitutes a perfect warming routine.

Studies indicate that a lengthy warm-up or one with too many repetitions results in muscle fatigue. 

Commence

Start with brisk walking, spot jogging, jumping jacks, or walking jacks. Brisk walking or spot jogging. Choose whichever but do it lightly, to give your entire body a kick start.

Shoulders/ Arms/ Wrists

1. Shoulders- Put hands on your shoulders. Bring both elbows together to the front of the chest and start rotating back and forth. Hands should rest firmly on the shoulders. Repeat 20 times each clockwise and anticlockwise. Make slow and controlled rotation. Join the
2. Interlock fingers of both hands and lift your arms above the head. Return hands down. Repeat 9 times. The tenth time holds it up for 20 seconds. them.
3. With arms on your sides or in your lap if you are sitting, shrug both shoulders and drop. Repeat the lift and drop ten times.
4. Stretch on arm in front. Hold its wrist with the other hand and rotate the wrist clockwise ten times. Do ten more in the anticlockwise direction. Repeat for the other arm.

Neck

Warming up the neck is very important as it is prone to jerks and strain. Rotate the neck very slowly ten times in both directions. Bend the neck back and hold to a count of ten. Bend down and touch your chest with the chin to a count of ten. Repeat 5 times. 

Legs

1.  Sit on a mat with your legs stretched. Rotate your feet together clockwise and anticlockwise 10 times. Lift and lower each leg ten times one by one. 
2. Keep your legs straightened. Contract your knees and hold for 5 seconds. Release. Repeat 5 times.

Sides

1. Stand straight with legs about 30 inches apart & arms on the sides. Bend sideways on the left side, trying to touch your foot. Return. Do the same on the right side. Do this alternate bending 20 to 30 counts.
2. Y pose- Stand with feet together. Lift the arms and hold your hands while bending sideways slowly on the left side. Return and bend on the right side. Keep repeating to a count of 20. On the last count, hold for 10 seconds on each side.

Chest

Stand or sit on the mat. Join both hands together and stretch them in front of you. Now bring the joint hands back to your chest, like a namaste potion. Repeat ten times Excellent warm-up and strengthening for chest muscles.