I see it all the time. People start working out consistently and pushing their body to the limit. It’s all good until they get hurt. Then it’s game over — at least for a little while. It can be relatively easy to get hurt at the gym, especially if you’re new to working out. That said, there are a few precautions you can take to reduce the chance of injury:
1. Know your body: Be mindful of your body and its limitations. For example, if you know you have knee problems you won’t want to do a lot of jumping, which can exacerbate issues. Instead, you might consider low-impact movement like strength training.
2. Hire a pro: Shameless plug alert! A trained professional like a certified personal trainer can help ensure you aren’t doing the wrong workouts for you goals and help you pace your workouts so you don’t do too much, too soon. He or she will know what’s appropriate for you in terms of exercises, amount of weights, and rest periods. A balanced program will allow muscles to heal properly, which in turn can reduce the chance of many common injuries.
3. Don’t skip the warm up and cooldown: Whatever the nature of your workout, warming up and cooling down helps your muscles adjust to exercise, especially if it’s intense.
4. Mix it up: Vary the types of workouts to avoid overuse of muscle groups. For example, you might try a spinning class one day and lifting weights the next.
5. Rest: In today’s culture that’s obsessed with productivity and output, it’s easy to forget that rest has its place in a fitness routine. The relationship between activity and rest are akin to yin and yang. Our bodies respond in kind to occasional breaks from workouts. So don’t feel guilty about taking a day off or doing something low intensity, like yoga.
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