But
sometimes an injury can be more serious such a as tear in the muscles,
tendons, ligaments, hernia, etc. And it's usually only a serious injury,
like a tear, that will require medical attention. The
more experienced you get with working out, and the more in tune you get
with your body, the easier it will be to know when it's ok to push
yourself - and when you need to back off, call it quits, and live to
life another day. The
old saying "No Pain - No Gain" may sound cool and hardcore, but you
need to understand the difference between GOOD Pain and BAD Pain. Good
Pain - is the feeling you get when working the muscles and they get
pumped up, feeling tight, and that lactic acid burn. It also involves
DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness - that you often feel after a hard
workout. This presents itself as a dull ache and stiffness in the
muscles you trained. Which usually subsides within a few days of rest
and recovery. Bad
Pain - is a very sharp, shooting, uncomfortable pain or sensation that
you get in the muscles, joints, tendons, or ligaments. It's beyond just
feeling the burn, feeling stiff, or having dull ache in the muscles. Bad
pain usually prevents you from doing certain movements because you'll
get a very intense shooting pain when you try to move the injured area. The main thing you need to focus on for dealing with gym injuries, is to learn to feel the warning signs before they happen. To Prevent Workout Injuries Follow These Tips...
Always Warm Up Before Your Workout! The
most important part of your workout routine is the warm up. I recommend
doing a general total body warm up such as 5-10 minutes of cardio to
elevate your core temperature and get the blood flow circulating
throughout your body. Then get into doing some specific joint mobility exercises for the body parts that you're going to train during that workout. And
most importantly, do progressively heavier warm up sets for each
exercise. Start with a light weight and go through the motions, and then
gradually increase the weight with each set until you build up to your
top heavy working weight for that exercise. I
understand that doing a proper warm up will add an extra 20 minutes to
your workouts. But it's time well invested for your long term progress
in the gym, because nothing will hinder your gains more than getting
injured.
Train For Balance And Proportion!
Another major cause of injuries in the gym are muscle imbalances, usually from poor workout design. Some of the more common imbalances that you'll see are when guys do... - Too much work for the chest and front delts - and not enough work for the back and rear delts.
- Too much work for the biceps, and not enough for the triceps.
- Too much work for the quads, and not enough for the hamstrings.
- Too much work for the abs, and not enough for the lower back.
- Too much work for the forearm flexors, and not enough for the forearm extensors.
- Not doing enough stretching and mobility work.
These things are the root cause of most injuries guys experience in the gym. So,
if you focus on warming up properly, listening to your body and knowing
when enough is enough, and train all your major muscle groups in
balance and proportion, along with including stretching and flexibility work...
You'll greatly reduce your risk of getting injured and enjoy more
productive workouts. If
you'd like some help with planning out a proper workout program to help
achieve your personal fitness goals, just contact me through my website and we can schedule a time to chat and discuss a plan that's right for you.
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