Preventing injury vs recovering from injury

After the tale of my thumb injury in last week's email it turns out I am, as my family would say, in the wars

We went for a little wander last week before school started again

I went to cross the road and stepped off the kerb - not realising it was a double kerb

So my foot landed too heavy too soon, my ankle gave way and I fell onto both knees into the road

Luckily it was a Sunday and there was no traffic!

But I hurt my ankles, knees and feet - and my pride!

I was worried that it would hamper my first full week back teaching classes

Everything was very stiff and achy, and my movement was a little bit limited - especially with lunges

But WalkFit and mobility work helped to ease the stiffness and I was right as rain by Wednesday

It could've been much worse...

I believe that all the mobility work I do (especially foot and ankle) made the difference

We tend to stay within a very narrow range of movement for most of our joints

And we are probably stiffer than we should be

So if we then suddenly take that joint through a much bigger range of movement, such as falling, twisting or grabbling quickly, it's unable to respond and damage is done

Whereas mobility work helps you get back to a normal range of movement AND go through more variations in movement

So that when an extreme of motion is experienced, the joint is more used to it and less affected by it

So mobility work can act as a PRE-hab tool (preventing injury), not just RE-hab (recovering from injury)

And it is cumulative - little and often is enough to start seeing some differences

That's why I'm including mobility work in my new Fit in Fifteen course

• feel less stiff and achy
• improve posture
• improve back and shoulder pain, headaches, pelvic floor dysfunction
• prevent injury
• exercise feels easier
• body feels lighter

The best thing is, there are movements that you can do whilst you're doing something else - which makes it even easier to fit in!

If you would like to join us, all the information is here

Fit in Fifteen