Whether you’re a professional athlete or a regular at the local gym, you know that protecting your body from injury is vital in order to continue training at your desired level. Muscle strains, pulls, and stress injuries are all too common. Research has found an injury rate of approximately 20-80% among runners alone, and a similar rate in those who participate in CrossFit training. These injuries can delay your training as you take time out to heal and then even more time to build back up to your previous stamina level.

Ways to Protect Yourself from Injury. 

There are some steps you can take to minimize the chances of sustaining damage while working out. These include:

• Do dynamic stretches before and after a workout session: increasing flexibility and warming the muscles reduces the chances of tearing and strains during your workout.Stretching also increases blood flow, which delivers vital oxygen to muscles, which is needed to power your activities.
• Start out slow: gradually increase your time, intensity, and frequency rather than starting out at a high level of training. Over time, enzymes in the blood increase which assists in building endurance for longer, stronger workouts.
• Vary your activities: putting too much strain on one muscle group is a major culprit in repetitive stress injury. Alternating your workouts between weight training, running, cycling, swimming, and other cardio can prevent tendinitis, shin splints, and joint stress.
• Baby your problem areas: if you have bad knees, take it more slowly in activities that put strain on them, and treat them afterwards with cold and compression to reduce the chance of further injury. Don’t push too hard, this will only increase the risk of causing additional damage.
• Stay hydrated: dehydration puts muscles at risk of ripping and inflammation. Drink water at least every 20 minutes during your workout.
• Get proper rest: your muscles need sleep just like the rest of your body; it can make all the difference between a bad workout and a good one.

Cryotherapy and Compression for Maintenance

Cold therapy has long been known to reduce swelling and alleviate pain and inflammation. Bringing down the temperature of your muscles and ligaments after a workout can prevent soreness and speed healing of minor tears that may have occurred even without you knowing. Compression also helps swelling, and encourages lymph flow to rid the body of toxins that are produced as byproducts of activity and injury.

It’s tempting to just pop some NSAIDs to relieve the soreness of a tough workout, but these can have side effects on the stomach, liver, and kidneys. Cryotherapy and compression are safe, non-invasive ways to treat muscle strain and even shin splints, reducing recovery time and relieving pain so that you can get moving again more quickly.

With a Portable Cold Compression System you can quickly and easily treat your sore muscles after overdoing it, without all the mess and hassle of wrapping ice bags onto your problem areas. The ICE COMPRESSION MOOVE allows you to choose the amount of time that icy cold water and pneumatic air travel through the perfectly shaped wraps, so that you can customize your treatment and experience full coverage rather than trying to force a bag of ice to stay on the area.

Minimize workout injuries and downtime by taking good care of your body, feeding and hydrating your muscles, and applying cold and compression following a tough activity session.