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Caring for your body means being prepared. Simply jumping into activities without the proper warm-up or preconditioning can leave you in serious trouble. Muscle strains – also known as pulled muscles – often occur due to lack of readiness, or an unwillingness to acknowledge limits. Maybe you were able to swing from the monkey-bars like nobodies business when you were young, but it doesn’t mean you can do it still!

Strength is a large component of being prepared for stress on the body. Building muscles with proper amounts of exercise and a good diet will help, as will stretching before endeavoring to hit the playground. Muscle supplements can help rebuild damaged tissue, but if it is more serious than that, rest is what you need.

Here are a few tips to help you get back into form after straining yourself:

1. Monitor yourself wisely. Don’t just assume because the pain is less today than it was yesterday everything is fine. Be patient and humble. Give your body a rest.

2. When you do go back into things, go slowly. Starting at the same level you were at when you left can cause even more damage. The body recovers former strengths quickly, so enjoy the climb back up.

3. Start with exercises that are low-impact. Swimming, or cycling are great choices, but stay way from hard running.

4. Stretch. Always stretch. Loosening the muscles before hand works as a great preventative measure, and stretching after is a must. Many people don’t stretch following exercise, and wind up getting injured when they could have prevented it.

5. Talk to a doctor. Accept doctor’s advice and don’t go back to it before everything is okay.