Become injury resilient!!

That's what you call a hook. Some catchy title that gets you to click. Too often we see those

titles on social media: "become pain-free" "bulletproof your back" "get healthy shoulders".

Bottom line: No one will ever, always be pain-free. You are human, you move and

you don't.

You will likely experience pain at some point in your life: knee, shoulder, back, and that dreaded headache. Pain is a complex process involving chemicals, mood and emotions, physical aspects, and psychological expectations.

With so many components going into dealing with pain and injury, we know we can't prevent it. However, we have enough research to present daily things we can do to significant reduce our likelihood of getting hurt. Try to implement just 1 a week until you have developed a good habit. (Some aren't as hard as you think or as time consuming- get off TikTok!)

Step 1: Work-out

1-2 days of resistance training (lifting weights at relatively high loads >60% of your maximum) 3-5 days of aerobic conditioning: walking, running or whatever floats your boat. Just move!

Step 2: Eat better

I didn't say eat less. I said better. Yes, less may be appropriate but that can seem so daunting sometimes. So let's just make little changes. Add 1 serving of vegetables or fruit to each meal. That's it. Your body needs fuel and it needs the right kind of fuel. So start with added 1 serving to your meals then when that is habit maybe swap out the bread/simple carbs in your meal with something more complex (veggies, rice, quinoa). Then when you start to feel good about that, take it up another notch and cut out added sugar. Sometimes it is better to walk down the steps rather than jump off the cliff.

And finally Step 3: Sleep

The most important step... Get BETTER sleep. Ha, gotcha! You thought I was going to say get MORE sleep! Again, we are starting small. I know you don't have time to sleep more. So let's make what you are sleeping count. Keep your room cold, no phone or blue light within an hour, blackout your room (absolutely no light), consistent sleep and wake times even on the weekend. These are little steps you can take to capitalize on getting a higher quality sleep. The higher quality sleep you can achieve, the better your body recovers.

For a more in depth look at fixing your sleep check out this post:

<https://www.facebook.com/bodyfix180/photos/pcb.161005692038958/161005495372311/?type=3&theater>

Just for the record that magic number of sleep in a minimum of 7 hours.

Studies show that people who get less than 7 hours of sleep a night have a lower threshold and higher sensitivity to pain. That means what normally would cause there body pain, now all of the sudden is painful. Your body cannot adapt as well and perceives more threat. In fact, that was one of the main predictors of injury rates in runners: a lack of 7 hours of sleep resulted in a window of 14 days of more likely to develop an injury! 14 DAYS!!

11:00pm to 6:00am

10:00pm to 5:00am

Just proving 7 hours in possible. But your quality has to be there too! Little changes add up!

So in summary, your 3 steps to reducing your pain and injury rates: work-out consistently, eat better foods, sleep better!

Be Unstoppable!