I’ve played quite a bit of various sports over the years – all socially and never too serious, at a decent level but nothing too impressive.

Doing so I’ve picked up niggles and injuries along the way but generally reacted as and when to these inconveniences and gotten over them in a fairly expected and normal amount of time.

Over the last few yeas though, I’ve been getting more serious about two sports in particular, Golf & Table Tennis. For each I want to reach what I consider a very good level. I already enjoy both sports immensely & I’m not bad at both so there is an argument to just accept the level I’m at in each and enjoy the process of playing.

I get that. However as I get older these sports are also my main ticket to keeping fit (i.e. as opposed to going to the gym or boring exercise classes which I would get a lot less enjoyment out of).

My 3 reasons to want to improve at both sports are as follows in this order:

1. To stay fit & ideally get a lot fitter
2. Because I love a challenge, I find these two sports in particular very technically challenging (and very frustrating at times as a result) and I am very curious to see just how far I can get in each
3. I enjoy both sports and find that the higher my level the more I enjoy the sport, the more satisfaction I get from the sensations and shots and the more access I get to other players, events, competitions and ways of playing the sport

The main problem I have is actually not the challenge of the sport, of learning or even the frustration that comes with someone of my age trying to keep up with some pretty incredible younger, faster players (particularly in Table Tennis, not as much of an issue in Golf).

My main challenge is: Injuries.

Beyond a certain level (I guess in any sport when you start to take it seriously) you need lots of training – lots of very repetitive training, to train your muscle memory etc. With this repetition – and particularly if you plunge yourself into it with little preparation as I tend to do – comes the risk of injury.

My latest injury is a hip problem (more specifically it seems to be a ‘glute’ problem) which I picked up about 8 months ago now (particularly bad for both sports) and just have not been able to shake.

Top 5 Tips for Staying Injury-Free

I do have a plan of action, discussed yesterday for the nth time with a physio – but I also now want to look more seriously at how to stay injury free. Here are my top tips:

1. Listen to Your Body / Don’t Ignore Pain

Let’s start with the one that gets me into the most trouble.

I am particularly stupid on this point. I get so many little niggles and beat myself up from time to time about perhaps being a bit of a hypochondriac when I feel any discomfort that I don’t always listen to my body (because at my age & physical condition, my body talks too much!!). My current hip injury is exactly this problem – I felt the pain and even felt it intensifying but as I was beating someone I didn’t usually beat, I kept playing like some kind of possessed wounded martyr until I just couldn’t play any more. 8 months later I’m still paying the price for that stupidity. Obviously I should have listened to my body – particularly as the pain in that case was quite apparent and intensifying. One can always stop, explore the pain a little to check how serious it is, walk around and test it before deciding whether to stop or continue. I need to do that more, to listen to my body more. That’s the plan from now on.

A while ago I was in hospital with a relatively serious condition which puzzled the doctors and I was given various theories about what exactly was wrong with me. A doctor got a little annoyed with me when I asked questions and told him what I’d found out from my own internet research but a registrar told me quietly just after to keep doing my research and not to worry too much about what the doctor said – nobody knows your body like you do.

Our bodies are very good at giving us information, we just have to listen. It’s quite impressive to think that we all have these amazing inbuilt, always ready early warning systems. As I have done too many times, we tend to hit the override switch a lot. One day missed because you are feeling below par, have a cold, or have a niggling pain you think could risk injury probably won’t make a huge difference, ignore and you may miss days, weeks or even months from your schedule.

Listening to your body also means learning where your body is tight, inflexible or less responsive. Yoga, Pilates, Gym Work, Tai-Chi, Qi-Gong are all exceptional training tools that give you strength, balance and body awareness that you just won’t find through sport alone. There’s nothing more powerful than feeling like you have control over your body.

Lastly, once you have decided to miss an event or training session (or likewise if you are in the middle of something and decide to stop), give yourself a break, don’t feel guilty.  Trust your training decisions and treat these with authority and leadership.

2. Warming Up, Stretching & Warming Down

Something else I have to admit I’m pretty poor at is warming up properly and I’m even worse at warming down.

What is the point of warming up & warming down – is it really necessary?

A proper five minute warm-up and cool-down period will elevate the heart rate and keep muscles warm and flexible – which of course, in turn helps to prevent injury.

I have tried various warm-up approaches, running around, stretching & even Qi-gong. I have also tried warming up using the sport itself for a warm up. Before I golf, I usually make sure I stretch out my back, my arms and my shoulders as these are the areas that are going to be put under the most tension. I also have a 6 minute Qi-Gong routine that does just this. If I’m on the course, the same can be achieved using a few golf clubs as props.

Think about what the most appropriate warm-up is for you and make it easy for yourself, this may be as important as the warm-up itself. Beware skipping it because you’ve made it too complex or can’t be bothered.

Warming up and warming down are important parts of your exercise & a quick simple warm-up/warm-down is better than none at all. Make it a habit and you can always gradually refine your routine as you go along.

3. Cross-Training / Mixing It Up

One thing that I’m now very conscious of as I improve in my two favourite sports is that when I train, I am often repeating the same exercise over and over and over. This means I am putting a localised strain on a particular part of my body and muscle group.

Cross training is the perfect solution to this and far more interesting for me than going to the gym to work alternative muscle groups which is something I could never sustain.

Playing multiple sports or participating in different activities or exercises gives your muscles and joints a break from doing the same motions respectively.

4. Diet

It goes without saying that if you want to get the most out of your body in terms of health and fitness, then any exercise should be coupled with a healthy diet. So then diet has to be on my list.

My diet is by no means perfect, bit it’s not bad & I am fully aware that eating the right foods can help my fitness goals.

Actually it’s more like I am fully aware that eating a load of crap is not great for my fitness goals (not least it puts on weight).

A healthy, well-balanced diet along with proper hydration is key for any athlete. Adequate protein intake can be lacking in some runner’s diets because of the obvious importance and emphasis placed on carbohydrates for energy. Be sure you are consuming enough protein per your body weight. Choose whole grain, complex, carbohydrates and lots of fruits and vegetables. Stay away from processed foods as much as you can. Hydration is also a must. A general rule of thumb can be a gallon of water a day and depending upon your size, duration of exercise, and weather conditions, you may even need more water than this.

5. Exercise Properly – Tension & Correct Form During Warm-Up & Exercise

Tai-chi and Qi-Gong are great references for this point as they emphasize slow movement and a containment of energy (Chi) through the body and through correct posture. Bad posture and/or laziness during training can cause problems.

It’s very important to do exercises properly including using the right technique during sports.

For example, keeping tension on the muscle is very important. Muscles support joints so you want to have tension on the muscle when you are training, you don’t want to be just falling into your joints. You want to slowly lower into a squat, not just drop down and bounce out of the bottom. Keeping the tension on will strengthen the muscle and help to protect your joints.

During exercise (and particularly during training which is where you practice and hone your technique), focus on the muscle that is working and the form. Don’t just go through the motions, know what muscle groups you are using and the proper form for the exercise. If you feel lower back pain, it’s likely that your form is off or your back is compensating for other muscle groups that should be working. Be educated and start slowly until you have mastered the form.

Some Other Considerations

So those are my top 5, but there are plenty of other considerations, here are some more:

• Stay flexible – i.e. be prepared to adapt and work around ‘away from sport stresses’ – we all have them & if you want to be successful the key consideration is not the stress (whatever it is) but how you react to it. Stay flexible.
• Play at the right skill level
• Wear appropriate gear – also make sure that the gear you are wearing is still offering the support you need and functional (as well as fitting and being comfortable).
• Stay hydrated
• Rest – Injuries will happen and rest is an important part of recovery, don’t skip this bit (or over-shorten it)
• Get annual physicals
• Get some sleep – It’s important to get the right amount of sleep (7 to 9 hours) to allow your body to repair itself naturally.
• Work on general muscular strength and flexibility
• Stick to your plan – this means don’t under or over train e.g. just before a major event it may be tempting to over-do it. Better to have a good, correctly balanced plan, trust it and stick to it.
• Schedule a sports massage – you can also do a bit of your own massaging at home either with the help of a friend or partner or a device such as a foam roller or even a tennis ball (I’m currently rolling around on a tennis ball every now and then to try and manage a stubborn glute injury).
• Don’t try and make up for lost time (overtrain)
• Don’t go from low intensity to high intensity without any steps in between
• Be aware of the impact – Almost every form of activity has an impact on your body.
• Do your research and know your body
• Counter rotate your upper – The ability to counter rotate your upper and lower back (that is, upper back rotate left, lower back rotate right) is a vital component of normal movement that’s often lost in endurance athletes, and has many adverse effects on performance, technique, breathing and muscle function.
• Find the root – It may be that the root cause of your injury is a long way from the area that’s sore. This also applies to analysing bad technique. There may be a number of problems with your bad technique – find the root cause as one problem can often lead to others. Fix that one.
• Give flexibility as much priority as strength – flexibility, particularly core flexibility is really important. Increasing intensity without building core flexibility – without ‘putting in the floor work’ – can be very dangerous.
• Beware of trends – lots of sports have ‘quick fixes’ for things but there is no real substitute for hard work and proper focused training.

Final Thought – Sneaky Syndrome

I’m not so young any more. This is something I don’t want to psychologically hold me back but I do need to be mindful of to the extent of the stresses and expectations I put on my body.

Age-related changes occur slowly over tine and I’m certainly guilty of behaving in the same way I did many years ago when it comes to my general approach to sport and exercise (e.g. diving into sporting activity without warming up then getting all put-out when I pick up an injury).

Examples of such age related changes are thinning cartilage and weakening connective tissues. If you treat 50-year-old muscles and joints like they’re 20, you could end up with tendonitis, bursitis, or arthritis, as well as sprains and pulls.

My 5 top tips above which I already mentioned are the main focus for me personally will hopefully take sneaky syndrome into consideration, particularly the idea of variety and cross training which will avoid overuse of particular body parts and focus on the right technique.

So those are my top 5 tips, what would yours be?