Health Tip: Protect Your Muscles

(HealthDay News) - It's important to stretch and warm up your muscles before exercise.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons lists these common risk factors for muscle strains and injury:

• Tired muscles that have been worked too hard.

• Tight muscles that haven't been properly stretched.

• Weak muscles that haven't been strengthened through training and exercise.

• Muscles that haven't been warmed up before exercise, sports or other activities.

• Muscle groups that work together that don't have properly balanced strength. For example, a stronger hamstring than quadriceps, or vice versa.