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Three Tips to Avoid Injury at the Gym

Each time you visit a gym, you will find yourself surrounded by a unique assortment of people at various levels of physical fitness. The variety of people at gyms is what makes them awesome, but it can also be a bad thing.

When you combine super fit bodybuilders with beginners that have never touched free weights in their life, injuries are bound to happen. Men and women that are new to the gym often try to replicate what they see others do, which often puts them in dangerous positions that often end in injury.

To help prevent these injuries, the Falls orthopedic team at Biddulph, Huntsman & Dalling offer the following three tips to avoid injury at the gym:

Be sure to use proper technique

Whether you are doing floor workouts or using free weights, if you do the exercise incorrectly, you are setting yourself up for failure. Doing a workout wrong will not provide the results you are looking for, and it could lead you to an injury.

If you are doing curls with dumbbells, your arms should be the only part of your body moving; however, people often use too much weight and are forced to contort their body to complete the curl. When doing this, you look like a novice, but you are putting unnecessary strain on parts of your body, and if you do it too much, you will get hurt.

If you are trying a workout you have never done before, ask a member of the gymâ?Ts staff to show you how to complete the workout properly

Donâ?Tt ever lift more weight that you can handle

As an extension of using proper technique, donâ?Tt ever lift more than you can handle. If you are attempting to lift something that is too heavy, it will often come crashing down, and the ending will never be pretty.

If you are about to try to bench press an absurd amount of weight, you need to be aware that if your arms cannot maintain the weight, gravity will carry them right towards your chest, and this is not just a problem for beginners. In 2009, the starting running back at the University of Southern California, lost control of the bar, and his neck was crushed by the falling weights. Luckily, he was able to recovery. Though Johnson was not reckless, one slip caused a life-threatening injury.

If an athlete who is in his prime can make a mistake, so can you, the new guy at the gym. If you choose to lift heavy weights, be sure to have a spotter who can help you when things get tough.

Always warm up and cool down

If you expect your body to perform at the highest level possible, you have to treat it like the well-primed machine it is. When starting a workout, you have to get the motor going with a warm up.

A proper warm up consists of five to ten minutes of full-body motion. You need to get the blood pumping through your body so your muscles can be prepared for the stress you are about to put them through. If you do not warm up, your body might not be able to perform at the same level as your workout, and they could give out, which could leave you in a high-risk situation.

Once you have completed your workout, you need to cool down and stretch. Why is stretching important? Well, the muscles you just worked out are exhausted, and the easiest way to help them recover is stretching. Without stretching, your muscles will tighten up and cramp, and if you are not careful, you might tear a muscle and cause a serious injury.

Three tips to avoid injury at the gym

Each time you go to the gym, whether you are a seasoned pro or a newbie, be sure to follow the three tips above to avoid injury.



Article kindly provided by bhdorthopedics.com

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