4 Exercises To Bulletproof Your Joints And Prevent Injury

Exercises are meant to keep us healthy and fit but sometimes we are impeded from being able to have a good exercise routine because of an injury.

Incorporating these exercises listed below into your routine can help to ensure that you don’t have to worry about injuries as being a barrier to exercising.

Lateral Band Walk

Lateral band walk with resistance band | Photo – Getty Images

The lateral band walk helps to strengthen the hips as it targets the abductor muscles, which control how the hips turn out. Strong abductors keep the knees in good alignment and protect them from caving in or flaring in any activity in which they have to bend.
How-to:
At the end of your warmup, get a mini-band of at least medium tension and wrap it around both legs, just above the knees. Sit back into a quarter squat and take sideways steps in one direction, keeping toes forward and not letting the legs fully come together. You can do sets of 10 to one direction, then switch, for three sets.

Individual Cable Lat Pulldown

Lat pulldown behind the neck | Photo – Tiger Fitness

You build your body to be stronger when you do the cable lat pulldown.
How-to:
Raise the cable handles all the way to the top. Kneel and sit your butt back on your heels or sit on a low box in a position your arms can come to full extension overhead without letting the weight stacks rest. As you pull the handles down and elbows toward your sides, think about pulling with your armpits to better engage the lats and raise your sternum to the sky. Replace your usual lat pulldowns with sets of these, but go a little lighter than half your usual weight on each stack.

Thoracic Mobility

A Thoracic mobility exercise | Photo – Flickr

No one likes a hunchback look hence why you should consider doing the thoracic mobility.
How-to:
Come to all fours on a mat. Place one hand behind your head. Rotate the bent elbow toward the crease of the straight arm, then rotate it up toward the ceiling, opening up your chest as much as you can. Rotate back down.

Reverse Hyper

This exercise is a glute extension as it gets lazy glute muscles all fired up. The reverse hyper works your glutes, hamstrings, and lower back all at once.
How-to:
Lie face down the long way on a bench and support your upper body so your hip crease is aligned along the bench’s back edge. Flex your toes and firm your legs, squeezing your butt to raise them together as a unit so they are in line with your torso. Squeeze and hold for up to five seconds, then release without letting your feet come fully to the floor.