A very common adage shared about exercise is the saying, “No pain, no gain.” While this actually is intended to refer to the “muscle burn” one feels after working out with heavy weights for muscle development, some people misinterpret this to mean all forms of pain during a vigorous workout session are normal.
Do not become one of those people! As important as exercise is in staying fit and healthy, improperly doing your exercise is certain to do more harm than good.
And pain beyond the typical muscle burn of a workout most likely means you are doing something really wrong.
Something painful as you work out? STOP
The very moment you feel the wrong kind of pain during your work out, stop immediately. Give your body a few seconds to work the pain through and see if it fades away.
If not, then check immediately for any signs of discoloration and the like. If you are at a gym, best you approach someone who works there and ask for immediate assistance. They should be able to tell if it is something serious or just a pulled muscle.
At the most basic, remember to stretch
Almost all work outs are done best if you allowed your body some time to warm up. For most people, the basic warm up session would be a few minutes on the treadmill. For others, a full stretching session is done with the trainer even helping them do some of the harder stretches.
Regardless of whether or not you have a personal trainer guiding you, take some minutes at the start of your work out to stretch your body and get it ready for the exercise session. A good stretch also helped minimize the chances of you having any cramping during your work out.
Stay focused
Lots of people listen to their mp3 player while they work out, or watch a movie being played on the gym’s television screens. Some have gym sessions with their friends.
While that is all well and good, you should never cease to remain focused during your workout. By staying focused, you not only do you minimize the risk of any kinds of accidents occurring, be it those of a slipped weight or of turning into a blind spot and hitting someone nearby, but you also end up practicing proper form and posture as you burn those calories.
Try to limit attempting to change mp3 tracks, or having longer engaged conversations to during breaks between sets.
While it may seem easy to reach for your mp3 player, draw it from your pocket, and finger the dial to the next track while you’re running on the treadmill, it would be far better to just switch tracks during a breather than to fail the attempt and find yourself losing your balance and hurting yourself.
Keep the tomfoolery to a minimum
When working out with friends, a typical scenario that happens is when friends start trading jokes with each other.
Antics such as weighing down the free weights more, or suddenly speeding up another’s treadmill might seem amusing, but are actually dangerous and should be avoided. Keep in mind that a gymnasium is a room filled with heavy weights, lots of metal objects, and machines that have parts locked in a tense position.
Fooling around such objects can lead to disastrous accidents that can even become life-threatening. So if possible, save all the joking around for after the work out. But while among the machines, focus on the work out instead.
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