Accidents can happen, but we must take the necessary steps to minimize our chances of getting injured in the gym. Most injuries occur when people ignore basic safety measures or push themselves beyond their abilities.
“Prevention is always better than cure.” Rather than being extra cautious after an injury, you must consider ways to minimize them.
This article is not to make you afraid of the gym; we are focusing more on how you can continue your fitness journey without any hassle.
By taking some easy measures, you can reduce the probability of gym injuries to a large extent.
Perform Warm-up Sets
Rather than doing various warmup exercises, you can take two to three lightweight sets of the exercise you are going to perform. This is beneficial in two ways: It saves you a lot of time from doing random warmups or stretching exercises, and it also lowers your chance of injury as you are warming up the targeted muscle with light weights prior to your main workout.
Suppose you are going to perform barbell curls with 40 pounds. Before starting, perform 2 or 3 sets of barbell curls with 20 pounds or less to warm up your bicep muscle and joints properly. After that, you can perform your working sets with 40 pounds. By doing so, the risk of injury will be minimized to a large extent.
Never Ego Lift
Never let your ego become more prominent than your muscular strength. Most gym injuries occur when people try to lift more weight than they are capable of.
Please, when you enter the gym, keep your ego out of it. It will save you big time. Even many professional bodybuilders do not lift that heavy so that they can remain injury-free. Two of the best examples would be Phil Heath and Jay Cutler. Both of them are professional retired bodybuilders who still work out and maintain amazing physiques.
You may think that lifting heavy weights will earn you praise, but in reality, you will only receive the curse of your joints and the laughter of people when you get injured.
Use Proper Supporting Gears
Supporting gears are an excellent investment you can make. Not only do they provide you with body support, but they also help mitigate the risk of injury.
If you are powerlifting or performing compound movements, then supporting gears are a must. The supporting gears that everyone should use are:
Gym Belts: This is a no-brainer for gym-goers. Most injuries occur in the lower back area because of the hunching position. Gym belts provide great stability for the lower back. Compound exercises like squats and deadlifts should always be performed by wearing gym belts.
Knee Sleeves/ Knee Wraps: Another common injury type is leg injuries. Knee wraps or sleeves can prevent that injury to a reasonable extent, as they provide stability and support in the legs.
Elbow Support Guard: When performing upper body exercises, especially pushing movements, the elbow experiences a good amount of stress. The elbow support guard provides support during those exercises and keeps your joints happy.
There are many gym gear like lifting straps, wrist wraps, and more, but for your go-to safety concerns, the gear mentioned above can be considered a must-have for the gym.
Correct Your Exercise Form
Improper form often leads to minor injuries. However, if those minor injuries build up, they can cause inflammation or worsen the injury. How would you know if your exercise form is correct?
There are some simple ways:
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- If you feel joint pain even after properly warming up, it may be an indication of an improper form of exercise.
- If you are moving way too much during the exercise. Record yourself performing exercise and then check if you are moving unnecessarily or not.
- Other muscles get fatigued before your targeted muscle. For example, if you are doing a bench press and your shoulders become more fatigued than your chest, it is a sign that you are doing the exercise incorrectly.
Many of these form ques get fixed over time. We will cover up different exercises with proper form in the future so that you do not suffer much due to poor exercise form.
Take Proper Rest Between Sets
Rushing things is never a wise decision. This also applies in the gym. After each working set, take ample rest until your body recovers for the next set.
Depending on which muscle you are training, you should at least take 2 to 3 minutes rest between each working set. There is a myth that if you rest for more than 1 minute, you will lose all your gains. Remember that it is a muscle you are training, not some leaked balloon that will deflate in a minute.
If you rush to your next set without properly recovering, weight might fall or slip from your hands as your muscles did not recover enough to carry on the same weight. This can cause injury and can hurt others, so be careful and take proper rest between sets.
Let Your Body Be Your Guide
Everyone is built differently. Certain exercises can be good for some individuals, whereas others feel uncomfortable and their joint hurts from a particular exercise.
For example, dips are good exercises that can train the lower chest and triceps by performing them in a certain way. However, I feel my shoulders hurt when I perform dips. The same goes for squats. They are a great exercise, but due to my long femur bone, I cannot do full-depth squats without putting weight plates under my heel.
So, always listen to your body. If you find that your joints are getting hurt from performing a particular exercise, find out why and switch to an alternative exercise. It will keep your joints happy, and the risk probability will decrease by a large mile.
Take At Least a Day Off
Consider our body as dough. If you continue kneading the dough, it will eventually break. The dough requires some rest to form correctly.
The same thing happens with your muscles. If you continue to train your muscles without any rest, the chance of injury will go through the roof. Your muscles will not recover, and at some point, injury will occur.
The dough example is funny, but you can visualize it well.
We suggest training for 3 to 5 days in a week. You should also take at least one rest day a week so that your muscles can recover properly.
It will prevent many unwanted injuries and help your muscles grow optimally.
We hope this article will help you in your fitness journey to prevent injuries.
Tell us in the comments if you have ever experienced an injury and how you recovered. We would love to hear your story, and it would also help other members of the Daily Fitnest community.