Health Report: Foundation Health Partners offer tips to avoid injury during spring exercise

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - As the weather continues to get warmer, some residents may feel inclined to get out, enjoy the outdoors, and be active. But according to healthcare officials, it may be beneficial to take a moment to properly prepare to avoid potential injury.

According to Dr. Savannah Winner, Doctor of Physical Therapy for Foundation Health Partners (FHP) Outpatient Rehab, health experts caution residents to ease into workouts rather than jumping in head first, to avoid potential injury.

“I would say the biggest risk is injury because people go from doing not a whole lot during the winter to trying to jump back right in where they left off last summer,” Dr. Winner explained. “Things to avoid would be, don’t try to jump right back to 100%. We want to do a slow ramp up back to your previous activity level. You want to do stretches and warmups, and then kind of just implement a little bit more physical activity into your everyday life as a buildup to full summer activities.”

While different activities will require different warmups, there are techniques one can do at home to help prepare for their favorite outdoor activities.

“It totally depends on what you’re going to do,” Dr. Winner elaborated. “It’s not just sports, it can be recreational things like if you want to go golfing or if you want to start getting back into jogging- things like that. You want some type of dynamic warmup that’s going to mimic the activity you’re doing and kind of go through the motions that you’re going to ask your body to do as kind of a reminder of what you need before you go full effort.”

For those with previous injuries or who are unsure where to start, consulting an expert can be a good way to avoid potential harm to your muscles according to Dr. Winner. ”If you’re not quite sure where to start, or if you’re worried about having an injury, or an injury that you’ve had two years ago that you want to avoid coming back, come and see us because we can have you go through your movements and we can tell you some things that will be easy to work on to help you get back to doing what you want to do.”

Copyright 2022 KTVF. All rights reserved.