Iif the time or energy you have to move your body is limited—or maybe you’re just relaxing all over the gym—rather than rushing through a complex multi-segment workout, a better strategy might be to hone in on just a few specific exercises to preventing injuries and common problems such as back pain. Because even though there are hundreds of moves out there with different benefits for your body, you don’t have to do them all to stay healthy and pain-free.
But how to choose? Should you go for cardio or strength? Stretching or mobility? Body weight or weight? You don’t have to figure it all out on your own, guys. When looking for injury prevention exercises, Mallory Behenna, DPT, a physical therapist with Brooks Restoration in Florida, says you want to do movements that “work the major muscle groups that we see causing people the most problems, whether it’s pain or imbalance.” He calls these the best “bang for the buck” exercises, “because of their efficiency and effectiveness in working many major muscle groups in a short amount of time.”
Dr. Behenna has narrowed the list down to five exercises designed to build strength and balance. And while each is effective on its own, he suggests that doing all of them is important for promoting overall health.
“All of the exercises chosen target muscle groups that must work together to keep us upright against gravity,” says Dr. Behenna. “When one or more of these muscle groups is weak, other muscles must compensate for that weakness to allow you to continue moving, resulting in overall biomechanical failure, muscle and joint dysfunction, and potential pain with over time”.
In addition to building strength, exercises can also promote joint health or mobility.
“Movement in a joint helps distribute and produce more synovial fluid, the fluid inside the joint that helps lubricate the joint surface,” explains Dr. Behenna. “Having adequate synovial fluid allows the bones to move over each other with little friction, reducing overall pain and inflammation and promoting better mobility.”
To make these injury prevention exercises a part of your life, Dr. Behenna recommends making it a habit to stack them with a meal or something else you do each day. But if you want to break it up, do one exercise at a time for the recommended reps and sets, since the goal is to tire the muscle, which builds strength.
“Exercising at all is better than not doing it at all, so if the only way you can do it is to break it up throughout the day, then do it,” says Dr. Behena.
A physical therapist’s top 5 exercises for injury prevention
You can start doing the top five exercises of Dr. Behenna now: All you need is some space to move around, possibly a softer surface (like a mat), and a wall or ledge for support. A sofa can also come in handy.
1. Board
One of the most loved and hated core exercises around top billing on this list. “Planks work on your core stability and strength, which helps with overall balance and stability as well as protecting your spine,” says Dr. Behenna.
Directions: Keep your body at the top of a push-up position. Aim to hold for 60 seconds each time.
Form mistakes to avoid: “Let the hips either rise or drop way down. You want to be in a perfectly straight line from head to toe. If you can’t hold that straight line, you can modify the movement by holding yourself up on your knees or forearms.”
2. Incremental steps
Exaggerating the act of stepping up, working one leg at a time is a great way to build strength and balance. “Strengthening one leg is often neglected, but it’s very important as we do functional activities with one leg every day, including climbing curbs or going up and down stairs,” says Dr. Behenna. “We can develop a preference over time as to which limb leads in these activities, leading to a power asymmetry in the left versus right leg, resulting in an overall imbalance or instability.”
Directions: Using the bottom of a ladder or a sturdy stool four to eight inches high, step up onto one leg. Place your hands on a railing, bench, or other surface if you feel unbalanced. Slowly lower yourself down and then step back. Repeat 10 to 15 times for three sets on each leg. To make this move more difficult, you can bring your bottom knee toward your chest as you come up
Form mistakes to avoid: “Make sure the knee moves over the second toe to properly strengthen the muscles and avoid straining the knee joint and ligaments.”
3. Lateral hip abduction
Dr. Behenna says she’s seen dramatic improvement in clients when they learn to activate and strengthen their glutes, and these leg raises are a great way to specifically target the gluteus medius. Even if you do the movement lying on your side, it can lead to more stability in walking.
“When [the hip abductors] is weak, you can see the hip drop either away or to the weak side, which affects safety with walking and can lead to hip or lower back pain if prolonged over time,” he says Dr. Behenna.
Directions: Lie on one side of your body. Bend the lower knee and keep the upper knee straight. Lift the top, straight leg into the air, keeping your heel slightly behind your hip. Lower the back down. Repeat 10 to 15 times, for three sets.
Form mistakes to avoid: “There are many ways to compensate while doing this exercise, but the most common ones I see are letting the leg move forward, rolling the leg toward the ceiling, rotating the torso back, or hiking the pelvis to move the hip. To activate the gluteus medius, the hip must be slightly extended [meaning, that leg is reaching slightly behind you]. “
4. Heel and leg raises
Working your calves will help you maintain mobility by building strength and lengthening these often tight, knotty muscles. You’ll also activate the small muscles in your feet to create a stable base for walking.
Directions: Stand next to a bench or railing, holding on with both hands only for balance. Rise onto your toes, then lower back down. Repeat 30 times, for two sets. Then keep your heels down and lift your toes up and repeat 30 times, for two sets. To make it more difficult, try doing heel and toe raises with one leg at a time.
Form mistakes to avoid: “Using the arms too much to help you lift. Hands should be for balance only. Get your calf muscles to lift you up to really strengthen them.”
5. Calf and calf stretches
These stretches are the complement to those heel raises and raises you just did. For injury prevention exercises, making sure your muscles don’t wrap up too tightly is just as important as making sure they’re strong. “When the hamstrings are tight, they can pull on the pelvis, putting more stress on the lower back when standing, which can lead to back pain over time,” says Dr. Behenna. “When the [calf] muscles are tight, it can cause pain in the legs and knees or limited mobility, as well as affect overall balance and stability.”
Directions: To stretch your hamstrings, sit sideways on the edge of a couch with your outside foot on the floor and your inside leg straight out in front of you on the couch. Keeping your knee and back straight, lean forward until you feel a stretch in the back of your thigh. Hold this stretch for 15 to 30 seconds and repeat three to five times on each leg.
To stretch your calf, stand facing a wall with both hands on the wall. Step one foot back into a small lunge. Keeping the heel of the back leg on the ground, lean forward until you feel a stretch in the calf of the back leg. Hold for 15 to 30 seconds and repeat three to five times.
Form mistakes to avoid: Don’t end your stretch too early. Stretch for as long as is comfortable, ideally 30 seconds per movement
