How To Prevent Exercise Injuries

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No matter how old you are, or how high your skill level is in fitness, an injury caused by a workout can happen to anyone at any given time. Being injured doing exercise can be a jolting and unpleasant experience, but it is reassuring to know that accidents can be easily prevented by taking forward the correct knowledge and mindset into your future workouts. Here are four top tips on how to smoothly avoid workout injuries, so that you can safely enjoy your exercise routine to your maximum potential.

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Always Warm Up

Many people choose to skip this step as part of their exercise routine, whether it be a lack of time or uncertainty of how to correctly warm up, however it is vital to follow to ensure a lower chance of injury. Warming up prepares your body for the strenuous exercise that you are about to experience by increasing the body’s core as well as major muscle group temperatures, which in turn help to increase your reflexes. For cardio workouts at the gym, you may wish to practice gentle body exercises on a soft mat before using machines, or take a brisk walk before an outdoor run to gradually increase your heartbeat. For strength training, it’s advised that you stretch before lifting weights, immediately before and after exercise.

Practice Form

Whenever you decide to learn a new workout routine or technique, always make sure you take the time to learn “"proper" form. Maintaining correct form means that you are using all units of your body that are involved in the exercise correctly for optimal performance. Logically, this hugely minimises your risk for injury, particularly with strength training. With precise and correct output, the process of seeing visible results in your body and achieving your personal goals can come faster.

Don’t Ignore What Your Body is Telling You

Common exercise injuries including muscle pulls, strains, tears, as well as bone injuries, which can be treated at expert services such as Texas Orthopedics. To some extent, exercise does involve discomfort, however the well-known phrase “no pain, no gain”, is not strictly true and can often be a dangerous way of thinking for new gym goers or fitness fanatics. During exercise, pain is a warning your body gives you when something isn’t right - this may indicate that you may need to adjust your form, take a rest, or lower the intensity of the workout.

Rest Days

When you’re committed to fitness to lose weight or to work towards a particular goal, taking a rest day can seem counterintuitive, however the importance and benefits of actively taking breaks from the gym or your exercise routine should not be underestimated. Rest days shouldn’t be viewed as a day of defeat or of laziness, but rather a day where you can spend time recovering your body. This can allow your next workout to be seamlessly completed with 100% of your effort, giving you an incredibly rewarding feeling of accomplishment without the unnecessary aches and pains that come with overworking yourself during exercise.