Remember your glory days when you spent hours upon hours playing ball with your friends or on a team representing your school?
Your ability to keep going and play game after game is not only attributed to youth but also attributed to taking good care of your body with a comprehensive stretching plan. Fast forward 5-10 years and now your focus is on providing for yourself and your family.
Essentially your sport has become your job which requires the same attention to stay healthy.
Your line leaders or managers are doing their best to keep you from experiencing an injury when they start and end each shift with a stretching routine. Regardless of their best efforts, you most likely experienced an injury.
At the time of your injury, you likely heard instructions on starting a comprehensive stretching program as one part of your recovery from the injury. When your injury heals, your natural tendency is to return to your normal day-to-day activities and abandon all stretching routines.
This is a recipe for disaster.
You should continue your routine! The benefits of stretching are numerous. One reason stretching is always recommended is because it provides pain relief to the affected area. Your pain is relieved by increasing your flexibility and bettering your range of motion. Add a strengthening program to your routine and your risk of re-injury is greatly decreased!
Don’t be fooled.
A common mistake when it comes to a stretching routine is believing only an active individual needs to stretch. This is false. Everyone should stretch daily especially when your job duties are physically demanding. Whether you are healthy and pain-free, have slight discomfort, or you’re returning from an injury a stretching regimen is beneficial. In theory, you are now treating your job as you once treated your sport.
When starting a stretching routine think outside the box. Your job responsibilities may require all day use of your hands and shoulders but don’t forget about your feet and legs supporting you while you stand performing your job duties. Here are a few areas to consider stretching each day regardless of your job duties:
- Hamstrings
- Quadriceps
- Calf/Achilles Tendon
- Low Back
- Neck
- Shoulders
- Hand/Wrist
A stretching program does not have to be time consuming. In fact, just 15 minutes a day of stretching will allow you to reap the benefits. These benefits will not only help reduce your risk of injury but increase your overall well-being. Get everyone involved in a pre-shift stretching program and you’ll show you value your role in your company and you value health and wellness.
If you are experiencing any pain in their feet, call our office at 859-264-1411 or make an online appointment.
Have you downloaded Dr. Freels’ FREE Heel Pain e-Book? It’s a great resource complete with great stretches and at-home pain relief remedies.