FitSugar

Injury Prevention: Flexible Feet to Avoid Plantar Fasciitis

FitSugar — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:30:00 PDT

Runners, walkers, bikers, and hikers rely heavily on their feet. Feet allow us to do the things we love, but all that stepping, jumping, and pounding can cause damage to the plantar fascia. It's a thick band of tissue that covers and protects the bones on the bottom of your feet. When put under too much stress, these tissues can tear, causing a painful condition called plantar fasciitis. The tears cause inflammation and scar tissue, which can make your feet even less flexible. To prevent this problem in the first place, it's a good idea to stretch your plantar fascia regularly, so you can keep doing the activities you love.

Stretching your feet is one of the best preventative activities you can do. To see a foot stretch I like to do when barefoot before and after a run, just

Avoid Shin Splints With Heel Walks

FitSugar — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:18:54 PDT

One of the dreaded side affects from starting a new walking or running routine is shin splints. The pain down the outside of your lower leg may be caused by a variety of issues, but the calf muscle tends to get stronger before the muscles on the front of the shin. While stretching the calves is intuitive post run, strengthening the opposing muscles on the front of the shin is not. A simple exercise to do just that is heel walks.

The exercise name describes the action quite well. Walk about 20 yards on your heels with toes lifted off the ground. Take small steps and keep your toes, even though they are up off the ground, pointed forward (don't let your toes rotate outward). You can do this exercise barefoot or in your sneakers.

Fit's Tip: This is a great exercise to incorporate into your dynamic warm-up.

Source

Injury Prevention: Strong Hips = Strong Knees

FitSugar — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:30:00 PDT

We all know that men and women are different, even in how we exercise. Add to those differences the fact that women are more likely to suffer knee injuries. The difference is structural; the width of our child bearing hips angles the thigh bone (femur) in such a way that it creates some laxity and instability in the knee joint. Not to mention the ebb and flow of hormones women experience monthly can affect knee stability too.

One way to protect your knees is to strengthen your hips, or anatomically speaking your glute med – the muscle that fills in the side of your pelvis (see an image of the muscle here). Having strong glute meds helps to control the thigh bone, which then helps to stabilize the knee joint. Sounds like a win/win situation to me.

To see how to strengthen your hips, just

read more. Side Squats with Theraband

Tie a resistance band around your ankles. Start with red/medium band and work your way up to green/heavy.
Begin standing with feet directly underneath your hips.
Squat halfway down and side step to the right as far as you can manage.
Bring left leg toward right, returning to your starting position.
Step to the right 10 times, then reverse stepping to the left 10 times. Repeat for 3 sets.

Fit's Tips: This is a great exercise for runners and can help prevent patellofemoral pain, aka pain on the outside of the knee. Couple this with rolling out your IT band and you will be good to go. Preventing injuries means you log more miles and stay on the road! Source

Keep Running: Prevent Plantar Fasciitis With These Tips

Susi May — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:06:42 PST

From pounding the pavement running to spending a day in fashionable shoes that lack proper support, feet take a beating. If you're training for a race this Spring and upping your mileage, it pays to show your peds some love. You can do some preventive prehab to avoid coming down with a case of plantar fasciitis. This painful condition, which can be common in new runners and affects women more than men, occurs when the the fibrous band that runs from the heel bone to the base of the toes stretches too far and tears. These micro tears cause inflammation of the fascia and the tissues surrounding it, making every footstep painful and abruptly stalling your training schedule. If you're experiencing some unexplainable heel pain, try these methods to keep plantar fasciitis at bay.

5 Common Injury-Making Mistakes

Leta Shy — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:07:31 PST

Working out is beneficial for so many reasons, but an active body is one that can be more prone to injuries. Every exercise has its own risks if you don't perform it correctly, but these five common mistakes can happen in a wide variety of moves. Read on to find out what they are, and learn about the fixes that will help prevent injuries.

From the Community: the Best Exercise You Aren't Doing

Fit Community — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:10:46 PST

FitSugar community member (and fitness instructor) livinginthin has shared a how-to on an overlooked exercise that everyone should be doing.

Running, cycling, squatting, jumping, curling, crunches, and lunging - you do it all, right? Well, the one move you aren’t doing is probably the one that can keep you doing all those things (and more), pain and injury-free for a lifetime.

What is it? Dorsiflexion. In layperson’s terms, dorsiflexion is the action of the foot that occurs when you pull your toes back toward your shin, engaging the foot and ankle muscles (the tibialis anterior, extensor hallucis longus, and extensor digitorum longus).

Weak muscles in this part of the leg can cause everything from muscular imbalances to an impaired gait and even tripping and falling (as we age, we lose even more strength in this area, which makes it harder to step properly), says Dr. Yoav Suprun, PT, Dip. MDT, a certified personal trainer, physical therapist, and owner of SOBE Spine in Miami Beach, FL.

Learn what exercises you should be doing to combat these muscle strains, after the break!

High Heels Can Give You Barbie Feet

Jenny Sugar — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:41:45 PST

High heels. You either love them or hate them, but you can't deny they are chic. We love the height boost and illusion of longer legs they offer, but we do realize they're not the best things for our feet. Unfortunately, recent research shows that these lovely shoes may be worse than previously thought.

In a study of longtime high heel wearers, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found wearing heels actually shortens the fibers of the calf muscle, making the Achilles tendon stiffen instead of flex when walking. High heels keep feet in a pointed position, so even when habitual high heel wearers (those who wore heels at least 40 hours a week) slipped off the pumps, their feet were so used to walking with the heels raised that it became the new norm for their muscles and joints - think permanent Barbie feet. The constantly engaged calve suffers from serious muscle fatigue, but switching abruptly from heels to flat shoes, like sneakers, puts stiletto wearers at a greater risk for injury.

Keep reading to find out what you can do to heal your heel-wearing legs.

From the Community: a Total-Body Toning Circuit

Fit Community — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:57:49 PST

FitSugar reader FitFabCities has a circuit workout that works your entire body. She shared the video with us in our Fit Community.

Grab a resistance band and a pair of dumbbells, and you're good to go for this full-body circuit-training workout . . . and the best part is you don't even have to leave your living room to do it. That said, this is also a great workout to try at the gym if you're looking to switch up your regular routine.

Circuit training means you move from exercise to exercise and take minimal breaks between the moves so you keep your heart rate up the entire time. This helps to burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time, something I love. There are eight exercises total in this workout, and we are going for about 15 reps per exercise. You'll notice there are a lot of multimuscle group exercises meaning you'll work more than one muscle at once, which is perfect if you're short on time. Let's be honest, who's isn't?

Strength training is so important since it helps to prevent injury, increase bone density, increase muscle mass (meaning you burn more calories just doing things like driving your car or watching Bravo) and, of course, it helps you feel fab in your jeans.

You might want to watch this workout video once to preview the exercises then follow along for a kick-butt, total body workout sure to burn lots of calories and tighten and tone every muscle in your body!

Keep reading for the video and workout breakdown.

Preventative Exercises Every New Runner Should Learn

FitSugar — Thu, 05 May 2011 01:55:05 PDT

If you've got a spring in your step because of the nice weather, you may want to enjoy the fresh air by starting a new running hobby. But being a runner isn't just about lacing up fancy new kicks and hitting the pavement. By incorporating a few exercises into your workout routine, you can help prevent some injuries that are common in the running world. Here are a few of them to start doing now.

Strengthen those quads. Running is a great way to work out your hamstrings, so working on your quads is key to keeping your leg muscles balanced and for preventing injuries like runner's knee. To strengthen your quads, try adding squats to your routine.
Stretch your IT band. If you've talked to regular runners, chances are you've heard them complain about IT band injuries or knee pain. Be proactive about these injuries by making sure you stretch out your IT band regularly, even if you aren't feeling any pain. Use a foam roller on the outside of your quads or do this standing exercise after a run to ensure you keep your IT band loose.
Move laterally. Counteract all that forward-moving motion you're doing with exercises that get you moving side to side. Exercises like side lunges and side planks help strengthen stabilizing muscles, which are important for ensuring you're running correctly and efficiently. Doing skater's lunges are also beneficial.

Read on for three more important exercises for runners after the break.

The Best Indoor Workout Classes (Because It's Freezing Outside!)

Self — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:35:01 PST

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Self here on FitSugar!

There are lots (and I mean, lots) of reasons why my motivation to work out during the Winter plummets - from the snowy commute to freezing cold winds to the cold, dry air that hits my chest with such force that it becomes hard to breathe. (Ahem, there's a reason I sign up for races that are after September - this born-and-raised Floridian prefers to train outdoors during the Summer.)

But it is possible to sculpt, strengthen, and sweat (majorly sweat) without having to be freezing cold during the winter. So when the weather outside is frightful, head indoors for these top full-body workouts that will help ward off Winter weight:

Indoor cycling: Ruth Zukerman, cofounder of NYC's FlyWheel cycling studio, is heating things up indoors with her 45-minute, heart-racing classes. (Self favorite Jillian Michaels is even a recent investor in the company). "I wanted to be part of the most innovative and effective indoor cycling program, and that is FlyWheel. I am thrilled to join the FlyWheel team," Michaels said in a press release. What makes cycling such an effective alternative is that it's taking the fun full-body workout people love indoors, and instead of scenery, you'll stay motivated to challenge yourself thanks to encouraging instructors and a killer playlist. Flywheel has an awesome on-bike technology board that lets you compete against other riders in the class. Plus if you're looking to shape up before hitting the slopes, "indoor cycling is great preparation for all Winter sports, especially skiing and snowboarding. I know from personal experience that when I hit the slopes I don't tire out easily or suffer from the kind of après-ski muscle pain that most people do, and it's because of indoor cycling," Zukerman says.

Try this move: If you're riding an exercise bike at home or the gym, try some interval training. One thing we often do at Flywheel is a "Sprint Chorus," meaning we increase our RPMs to a sprint during the song's chorus and then revert to a cadence on the beat of the music as the chorus ends.

More best indoor workouts after the break.