Both casual gym-goers and hardcore athletes have something in common: they both get injured. In fact, over 8.6 million sports injuries occur in the U.S. every year. Sprains, muscle strains, and back injuries are the most common culprits, but overtraining injuries like tendinitis are also a challenge for seasoned athletes.
Proper rehab is key once you’re injured, but the real goal is to prevent injury from happening in the first place. Discover how to incorporate injury prevention exercises into your routine and understand why they’re essential for long-term health.
What Is the Best Type of Exercise for Injury Prevention?
Pro athletes get injured, but sports injuries don’t just happen to NFL players. Twenty-one percent of adults report experiencing a sports injury annually, so injury prevention isn’t just for the diehard workout fanatics.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a daily gym-goer, easing back into workouts after some time off, or trying a new type of exercise and want to avoid tweaks and strains. Whether you’re playing in the kickball league or are a self-described gym rat, injury prevention is for you. Injury prevention should always be on your mind, even if you’re doing well or haven’t been injured before.
Think of injury prevention exercises as changing the oil in your car. You do it regularly to avoid bigger problems down the line. Plus, investing a little time in injury prevention can also tackle aches or twinges, setting you up for less pain in the long run.
You might hear people push exercises like yoga or stretching to reduce injury, whether from improper form or over-training, and there’s value in those approaches. Still, flexibility alone won’t prevent injury. The best type of exercise for injury prevention touches on three key areas:
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Range of motion and flexibility: Flexibility improves muscle elasticity and reduces the risk of injury, especially for high-risk joints like knees and ankles. Dynamic stretches, yoga, or mobility drills reduce the likelihood of pulling something.
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Strength: Strong muscles provide more stability for your joints. The more stable your joints are, the more resilient they are to sprains. Add exercises like squats or planks to steadily build muscle mass around your joints.
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Balance: Falls are a one-way ticket to injury. Slow, careful movements like split squats can help you improve your balance and proprioception (your sense of where your body is in space). Improved awareness and coordination can help you catch yourself before you twist your ankle, which is key to preventing injury.
Injury prevention starts before you even tackle these exercises. Always incorporate a warmup to get the blood flowing and prepare your body for these movements. Going from zero to 60 can lead to injury, so warm up with modified jumping jacks, marching in place, leg swings, or arm circles.
Once it’s time for the main workout, rep counts will vary depending on your program. If you’re using weights, it could be three reps for three sets. If you’re doing body weight exercises, you can go for higher reps.
Don’t forget the cool-down, either. Some light stretching can reduce next-day soreness while also improving flexibility and blood flow. Cap off your workout with static stretches, like toe touches, spinal twists, or low lunges.
10 Best Injury Prevention Exercises
A well-rounded workout that combines flexibility, strength, and balance is the best defense against injury. To safeguard yourself from injury, incorporate these 10 injury prevention exercises into your regular routine.
1. Cable Internal and External Rotation
Rotator cuff injuries are difficult to recover from, so protect yourself with proactive movement. Try internal and external rotations on a cable machine like the Speediance Gym Monster 2, which makes it easy to complete training in less space.
How to do this exercise:
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Standing with your side to the machine, grab the handle at elbow height.
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For internal rotation, your arm should be at a 90-degree angle, with your palm facing out.
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Rotate your arm inward toward your stomach. Repeat on both sides.
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For external rotation, start with your arm at a 90-degree angle, at elbow height, over your stomach. Rotate your arm outward and repeat on both sides.
2. Band Walks
Band walks work your glutes and hips, which are your powerhouse muscles. Start with a lighter band weight and add more weight as you get stronger.
How to do this exercise:
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Put a resistance band above your knees. Bend slightly into a squat position.
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Take small steps to one side while keeping tension on the band.
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Repeat on the other side.
3. Single-Leg Bridge
Got lower back pain? Work on your single-leg bridges to strengthen glutes and hamstrings, which will help protect your lower back.
How to do this exercise:
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Lie on your back. Bend one knee and extend your other leg up.
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Press through your heel to lift your hips off the ground. Hold for three seconds.
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Slowly lower yourself back down.
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Repeat on the other side.
4. Single-Leg Deadlift
Single-leg deadlifts both build strength and test your sense of balance. More specifically, they help with posterior-chain strength, which can prevent sprained ankles.
How to do this exercise:
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Stand with one leg bent slightly and the other lifted behind you.
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Hinge forward at the hips while keeping your back flat.
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Lower your torso until you’re parallel to the ground.
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Squeeze your glutes to return to standing. Repeat on the other side.
You can add weights to this deadlift for more of a challenge. Just be sure you’re confident in your balance before upping the difficulty.
5. Goblet Squat
Goblet squats are deeper, weighted squats that strengthen your core, quads, and glutes. Not only do they help you look great in tight jeans, but goblet squats can also protect your knees and hips.
How to do this exercise:
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Hold a dumbbell or the rope attachment of your cable machine with both hands at your chest.
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Position your feet wider than hip-width apart.
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Push your hips back and bend your knees to squat. Your chest should face the front of the room, not the ground.
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Drive through your heels to return to standing. Repeat.
6. Walking Lunge
Walking lunges can be challenging, but these injury prevention exercises help you work on hip mobility and balance simultaneously.
How to do this exercise:
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Step forward with one foot.
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Lower your hips until both legs make a 90-degree angle. Make sure your front knee doesn’t go over your ankle (you should be able to see your toes).
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Push through your front heel to bring your back foot to your front foot.
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Repeat on the other side, moving across the floor.
7. Lateral Raise
Lateral raises are another great injury prevention exercise that protects your shoulders. Specifically, they target the deltoid muscles around the shoulder, reducing strain during weight-bearing exercise.
How to do this exercise:
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Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, at your sides.
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Slightly bend your elbows and lift your arms to your sides, up to shoulder height.
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Slowly lower your arms. Repeat.
8. Plank
Love them or hate them, planks are one of the best exercises for preventing injury. They strengthen your core, which protects your spine, especially your lower back.
How to do this exercise:
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Place your hands on the ground wider than shoulder-width apart. Spread your fingers out to distribute weight. Your body should be in a straight line, from your heels to your head.
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Hold for 20 to 60 seconds without letting your hips sag.
If you have sensitive wrists, try a forearm plank instead.
9. Split Squats
Split squats are a stationary version of walking lunges. With this exercise, you focus on the quads, hamstrings, and glutes while testing your balance.
How to do this exercise:
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Stand with one foot forward and one back.
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Lower yourself into a squat position until your back knee hovers two inches above the ground.
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Drive through your front heel to rise back up. Repeat on the other side.
10. Bird Dog
Bird dogs help you improve your core strength and coordination in one fluid movement. They also train your back muscles, which are necessary for spinal stability.
How to do this exercise:
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Start on your hands and knees. Keep your back flat.
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Extend your right arm forward while extending your left leg back. Keep your hips level and engage your core.
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Hold for two seconds before returning to the start position. Repeat on the other side.
The Benefits of Implementing Injury Prevention Into Your Workouts
Injury prevention exercises might not look as exciting or challenging as your regular programming, but they’re a must-have for any exercise regimen. If you aren’t sold yet, consider the benefits of adding these simple exercises to your routine.
Prevent Injury
Avoid six-week (or more) recovery times, doctor’s visits, and long-term health problems by investing in injury prevention. Injury prevention programs can reduce injuries by at least 40%. For ankle injuries, improved proprioception decreases injury anywhere from 31% to 46%.
Being aware of the potential for injury is a good start, but that won’t keep you safe. In fact, having a previous injury makes you 8.1 times more likely to reinjure that same area.
And no, you’re not off the hook if you just exercise casually, either. In fact, people with fewer than six months of experience in exercising are 2.5 times more likely to get injured.
These statistics make a strong case for exercises that prevent injury. Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or a casual gym-goer, you need to incorporate some injury prevention exercises into your routine to stay healthy.
Improve Strength, Balance, and Flexibility
Preventing injury is the biggest perk, but proactively making your body more resilient to injury has other benefits. Strength supports stable joints, balance reduces falls, and flexibility helps keep you pain-free for longer.
The 10 exercises in our guide help you create the muscular and joint stability required to withstand both training and everyday activities, like lifting heavy objects or reaching for something on a high shelf.
Age Well
Maybe you sprained your ankle a few times, but could bounce back. That’s great, but unfortunately, you may still pay for your injuries later.
Depending on the injury, you could be setting yourself up for bone fractures, arthritis, and pain in your golden years. By implementing preventive training now, you can protect your body from setbacks that could limit your independence as you get older.
Frequently Asked Questions
How To Prevent Injury From Exercise?
Careful planning will prevent most exercise-related injuries. Start with a warm-up to prepare your muscles for movement. Incorporate flexibility, strength, and balance exercises for a well-rounded workout. Always cool down with stretches to help your body recover and to boost flexibility.
How Do I Become Less Injury-Prone?
Most injuries happen because of issues with stability, flexibility, or strength. You can become less injury-prone by strengthening your core, practicing single-leg movements, starting with body-weight exercises before adding weight, and adding warm-ups and cool-downs to all workouts.
Injury Prevention Training Builds Strength and Resilience
Don’t wait to do these exercises until you’ve already had an injury. Injury prevention exercises are a must for everyone, whether you’re in the gym 24/7 or you just work out casually.
Injury prevention is proactive. The ten exercises in this guide will help you move better, get stronger, and experience fewer setbacks. Incorporating strength, flexibility, balance, and proper warm-up and cool-down routines can dramatically reduce your risk of injuries while improving overall fitness.
Consistency is key. The more you do these exercises, the better off you’ll be. Combine strength, balance, and flexibility training without the hassle of going to the gym. Try the Speediance Gym Monster 2 to bring a smart, compact gym to your living room.
