How To Minimise Your Risk Of Getting An Injury In Military Training?

Have you ever gotten an injury that set you back big time? An injury that could’ve easily been prevented only you have took the necessary precautions?

Lets be clear — injuries suck! And there is nothing worse than sustaining an injury throughout regular training, not even talking about the possibility of getting dropped from the course if injured in military training…

I am here to talk about the risks as well as what you should be doing to prevent them.

Where Will You Most Likely Sustain An Injury?

What are the parts of your body that are potentially more vulnerable to injuries? It is fairly simple, those that you will be using the most throughout your course of training:

Shoulder Injuries

Rotator cuff injuries are incredibly frequent and can drastically hinder your performance and the ability to execute exercises above shoulder height.

They can occur due to inadequate support from the trapezius and rotator cuff muscles, making the shoulder very fragile and vulnerable.

Solution: Strengthen your trapezium ( mainly the lower and middle traps ) and rotator cuff muscles to increase stabilisation in the shoulder. Click here to check out a video by Jeremy Ethier on rotator cuff strengthening exercises, and here for his best science-based trap workout!

Wrist Injuries

Straining the wrist as well as injuring its tendons doesn’t seem like much, until you actually have to face it. Were you planning to do a push training session sometime this week? Forget it. This annoying pain won’t let you focus on the target muscle groups, taking all of the attention to itself.

These injuries will be predominant in those with weak grip strength and range of wrist flexibility.

Solution: Focus on increasing both your range of motion and grip strength. Combined they will help you fortify that wrist and minimise the risk of injury. Click here to check out a video by Calisthenicmovement on wrist strengthening exercises.

Knee Injuries

Throughout the miles of marching and running through various terrain, with heavy duty boots and a rucksack filled with weight — your knee health should be of upmost priority.

They tend to occur due to the lack of stabilisation given by the stabiliser muscles being the hamstrings and the quadriceps.

Solution: Target those quadricep and hamstring muscles to increase the stabilisation and steadiness of the knee during each movement. Click here to check out a video by GuerrillaZen Fitness on knee strengthening and stabilisation exercises.

How Many Times A Week?

I like to dedicate at least one day per week towards injury proofing my body. It doesn’t necessarily have to be one, or two days. If you do not wish or cannot afford to dedicate a whole day towards this. Do the exercises in the videos as a warm up to your workout.

As long as you are consistent in your preparation — you will minimise the possible chances of getting injured.

Stretching

Stretching is sadly greatly overlooked by a lot of athletes around the world. Stretching is essential if one seeks to minimise his or her chances of sustaining an injury.

Sadly, I have previously fallen into the category of “I’m not stretching today, I feel good to go” . Guilty as charged! Hopefully sometime soon I’ll get my head together and start properly stretching again, and I hope like hell you guys will do it with me.

Conclusion

The shoulders, wrists and knees can be easily prone to injury if not looked after. Combine the strength training routine with stretching and you’ll reap the rewards of being able to continue with training injury free!

Remember, consistency is key!

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