Whether you’re an athlete trying to improve your performance or you’re simply trying to stay in shape, there’s a good chance that you get regular exercise or head to the gym a couple times a week. It’s great that you want to strengthen your body through exercise, but pushing yourself physically also increases your risk of an injury. It’s the price we pay to help keep ourselves healthy, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave your injury risk up to chance.
There are a number of ways you can work to reduce your risk of suffering an injury while going through a workout at the gym. In today’s blog, we share some tips on how you can lower your risk of developing an injury during your gym routine.
Preventing Injuries While Exercising
No two workouts are the same, so not all of these tips will apply perfectly to your situation. With that said, we’re confident that at least a few of these tips can be adopted to help reduce your risk of suffering an injury during your gym routine or exercise program.
- Warm Up – Take things slow and ease into your workout routine by stretching and warming up. Your muscles will perform better and are less likely to become injured if you help them transition from an inactive to an active state. Putting an excessive amount of stress on your muscles and soft tissues before they have had time to warm up can increase your risk of a strain or a tear.
- Stay Hydrated – Similarly, our muscles function optimally when they are adequately hydrated and receiving plenty of oxygenated blood from our heart. If we’re dehydrated, blood vessels constrict and this nutrient-rich blood can’t move around our bodies as easily. Dehydrated muscles are also more likely to cramp or spasm, which can lead to muscle injuries. Make it a point to hydrate before, during and after your workout.
- Correct Technique – A lot of injuries during exercise can be traced back to one of two underlying causes, overstress or poor form. We’ll touch on preventing overstress injuries in a bit, but injuries as a result of bad form can oftentimes be prevented by learning about proper lifting techniques. You can look for information online, ask for assistance from a personal trainer or you can connect with a physical therapist to ensure that your lifting techniques and movement patterns are as efficient as possible. The team at OrthoRehab Specialists has a number of technologies that can help break down your form frame by frame and highlight key inefficiencies. Let our team help ensure that your form is on point.
- Slow Progression – When it comes to preventing overstress injuries, one thing you’ll want to keep in mind is your exercise or gym routine progression. It’s normal to want to take on greater physical challenges, but if you are too quick to try and set new personal records or run longer distances, you can overstress key muscles and joints. Slowly take on bigger challenges so that your body isn’t overloaded by the greater levels of stress.
- Learn How To Recover – Finally, you’ll want to give your body some time off to recover from the rigors of athletic activity. If you are in the gym every day testing the same muscle groups, your body may not be able to fully heal from the stress of activity. These weakened muscle groups are now at an increased risk of injury because they are still damaged from the last exercise session. Listen to your body, vary your workouts and give muscle groups some time off to recover after intense exercise, otherwise you’ll be at an elevated risk for injury.
If you want help developing an exercise routine that suits your needs or you want to safely take on greater physical challenges with your workout, consider connecting with a professional physical therapist from OrthoRehab Specialists. We can help take your workout to the next level without increasing your risk of injury. For more information, or for help with a different physical issue, give our team a call today at (612) 339-2041.