Ways To Prevent A Gym Related Injury

Injuries can derail your fitness goals faster than you think. Improper form, lack of rest, and even minor mistakes can significantly impact your results and health.

If you want to exercise and not work with a personal trainer, you need to practice injury prevention.

Daily, 10,000 people go to the emergency room for an injury relating to exercise, recreation or sports.

When we narrow down the statistics, data from 1990 – 2007 found that nearly a million people were treated in the emergency room because of injuries stemming from weight training. However, if you follow our tips below, you can avoid being a part of these statistics.

How a Personal Trainer Recommends Preventing Gym Injuries

1. Learn Proper Form

One of the benefits of a personal trainer is that you’re taught how to perform exercises correctly. Unfortunately, even when using machines, we see people performing exercises improperly. There are more than enough videos on YouTube that show how to maintain proper form when exercising.

You might be able to twist your back and jerk the weight upward during a deadlift, but you’ll eventually injure yourself.

Remember: it’s better to lift less weight with proper form than more weight improperly.

And if you’re not maintaining proper form, you’re going to create muscle imbalances that can further lead to injuries.

2. Listen to Your Body

You know your body better than anyone. There is this idea that we should push through soreness and challenging workouts, and you should, but you need to listen to your body if you’re in pain.

For example, if you have bad knees or are experiencing pain in your knees when running on the treadmill, switch to low-impact exercises, such as:

• Elliptical

• Stationary bike

• Rowing

When your body tells you that something isn’t right, work on your muscle weaknesses and avoid exercises that can amplify your injuries.

3. Warm Up Before Exercising

If you go into the gym, put 300 pounds on the bar and start benching, you’re putting yourself at risk of injury. Even when you go straight on the treadmill, be sure to start slow and gradually increase your speed rather than sprinting at 8 MPH right away.

Muscles and tendons need time to warm up, and you can warm up in a few ways:

• Stretching

• Performing low weight reps

• Using resistance bands

Warming up the muscle group(s) you’ll be working will help prevent injuries.

4. Start Slow

Many people remember their golden days in high school, where they had no problem squatting 400 pounds and benching 350 pounds. You were built like an ox, but your body needs to start slow after ten years of being inactive.

Be realistic when you go to the gym and find a weight that is right for each exercise.

You should try and find your one-rep maximum by adding weight until you find a weight that is:

• Doable at proper form

• You can lift one time properly

You can then adjust your weight correctly and gradually increase your weight over time. Once a weight causes you to lose proper form, it’s too heavy and can lead to injuries.

If you follow the advice above, you’ll be able to reduce your risk of injury.