| If you're an athlete, I know you'll understand it | | | | increase the range of motion of the muscles and |
| perfectly when I say that injuries are the bane of | | | | joints that you stretch. And what happens when you |
| any athlete. Injuries can side line you for a few days | | | | increase the range of motion of these areas? You |
| to weeks, while major ones – and those that | | | | got that right, it helps prevent injuries. |
| recur – could spell the end of your athletic career | | | | What's more having more flexible muscles can help |
| altogether. | | | | you run faster, something that's important if you |
| But there's hope. You can at least protect yourself | | | | want to steal more bases. |
| and lessen the impact of injuries on your body. In | | | | In fact, this was confirmed by a study conducted by |
| fact, I'll be sharing with you some exercises that will | | | | Caplan, Rogers, Parr and Hayes published in July at |
| help prevent softball-related injuries, so you can play | | | | the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. |
| the game for a lot longer. | | | | The study's entitled "The effect of proprioceptive |
| Practice Yoga | | | | neuromuscular facilitation and static stretch training on |
| Wait, yoga? Yes, some poses in yoga can help you | | | | running mechanics" and it found that stretching |
| prevent injuries in certain areas of your body. Put | | | | improves the joint's range of movement and running |
| particular focus on poses that help increase the | | | | mechanics, thus, an improve in your performance. |
| flexibility of your spine. Doing this for around 2-3 | | | | Softball-Specific Dynamic Warm Ups |
| times per week for several months would give your | | | | Warm ups are intended to help loosen up your |
| trunk an added range of motion that could greatly | | | | muscles before doing an intense physical activity. But |
| help in preventing injuries in that part of your body. | | | | if you're warming up the wrong muscle groups, then |
| And there's an added benefit to practicing those | | | | the muscles that you're going to use but have not |
| poses. Golfers know for a fact that making their | | | | warmed up might get injured come game time. |
| spine and trunk flexible helps them hit the ball further. | | | | That's why I recommend that you do softball-specific |
| And because the swinging motion in golf shares a lot | | | | dynamic warm ups because it focus on the muscles |
| of similarities with swinging the bat, yoga can also | | | | that you will actually need to use in the game such |
| help improve your bat speed and power. | | | | as you your arm and shoulder muscles. No more |
| So go out and try yoga today and see how it | | | | pulled muscles after you thought you've had a good |
| changes your game. | | | | warm up. |
| Post-Game Stretches | | | | Injuries are a part of an athlete's life because you |
| I wouldn't recommend you to go stretches before a | | | | push your body to the limits. But performing the |
| game, and do dynamic stretches instead. However, I | | | | exercises I have recommended for you above will |
| would recommend you to do your stretches after a | | | | help lessen the impact of these injuries and help you |
| game. | | | | prevent them before they happen. |
| Just like practicing yoga, post-game stretches help | | | | |