SAN ANTONIO — When the coronavirus pandemic hit more people started working out at home. Many of the moves we did at home gave us a muscle meltdown.
When doing any kind of work out you have to make sure you are doing it the right way, and with the right equipment. If you don't, you'll may have even more work to do to fix your body, before you can progress further. Dr. Francisco Melendez from Texas Physical Therapy Specialists told us, "In the early stages of the pandemic, we saw people working out more at home because the gyms were closed. As a result, their injuries went up by 48%."
Here are five of the big working out at home hazards. The first one, poor form. Dr. Melendez said, "If your technique or form is not optimal or ideal, that's that can lead to injuries. You're not working out the muscles the way you should, and so you're not reaping the benefit as well."
Many of us skip the warmup. Dr. Melendez said, "You just want to get your muscles loosened up. You want some good blood flow going into your system, You want your heart rate to elevate, and know you know you're ready to go."
Up next, going too hard, too fast. Dr. Melendez told us, "People try to do too much and then they come back. They're a little bit flared up. Things are swollen, things got strained a little bit. And so we just need to progress one step at a time."
What about doing too much of one exercise? Dr. Melendez said, "If you do the same workout day after day, you're not allowing your muscles enough time to recover and build back up."
And finally, neglecting back exercises. Dr. Melendez added, "Sometimes we neglect our back muscles like our lats from voids and traps. there are different exercises that you can do to help those back muscles up that can improve your posture and just your overall standing or walking endurance."
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Here are some dynamic warmups to start our workout right:
-Hip openers and closures: Bring knee up and open to one side, then opposite.
-Quad stretch with overhead reach: Flex knee, raise heel on opposite foot.
-Frankensteins: Walking toe touches.
-Ankle scoops: Flex knee, bend at waist, scoop arms by ankle, alternate legs as you walk.
-Lateral lunges: Alternating right-side, left-side lunges.