Regular physical activity is vital for good health. While there is a risk of injury with any type of physical activity, the benefits of staying active far outweigh the risks.
You can reduce your risk of exercise injury by:
- Wearing the right shoes, gear and equipment
- Drinking lots of water
- Warming up and stretching properly.
Exercise safety advice
You can obtain information and advice about exercise safety from your doctor, a sports medicine doctor, physiotherapist or an exercise physiologist – or see a sporting association about correct sporting technique and equipment. Some guidelines for general exercise safety include:
- When deciding if any exercise is safe, you need to consider the technique used and the load, as well as your individual condition, such as injury history and fitness level.
- Be guided by a qualified fitness instructor. If you have a pre-existing injury or medical condition, consult a sports medicine doctor, exercise physiologist or physiotherapist.
- There are many changes during pregnancy such as changes in body shape and size that pose potential risk of increased injury. It is essential that all women discuss their exercise plans with their doctor, as each pregnancy is different.
- Increasing the speed of any exercise can increase the risk of injury.
- Avoid or modify any exercise that causes you pain or discomfort. Don’t ignore your body’s signals of fatigue, discomfort and pain.
- Cross-train with other sports and exercises to reduce the risk of overtraining.
- Make sure you have at least one recovery day, and preferably two, every week.
- Injuries need rest – trying to ‘work through’ the pain will cause more damage to soft muscle tissue and delay healing.
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