A Safety Check For Weight Training
Here are some tips on how to stay safe and injury-free when you train.
An increase in Weight-Training Injuries
Injuries related to weight-training are on the rise. In fact, a 35% increase in weight-training injuries has been reported to emergency rooms between 1978 and 1998.
Significant increases occurred in people older than 45, young adults between 15 and 24, and home exercisers. Men accounted for 80% of the injuries.
Soft tissue injuries such as bruises, abrasions, strains, and sprains were the most common injuries reported in the study. Some of the causes included unsafe behavior, equipment malfunction, lack of supervision, and inattention.
A Safe Activity Overall
However, this doesn’t mean strength training is unsafe. Strength training is still one of the safest activities, as long as it’s performed with safety in mind.
Safeguarding Your Workout
You don’t have to be a newcomer to fitness to be concerned about safety. No matter what your fitness level, you should give your strength-training program a safety check-up.
The best strategy is to hire a qualified, certified personal trainer. Although regular sessions with a trainer can be costly, you can still get a lot of benefit from one or two sessions.
If you’re new to strength training, ask to be introduced to exercises and equipment. If you’re a veteran, ask to have your form checked. Also, if you exercise at home, ask the trainer to evaluate your equipment.
Guidelines
Experts also recommend following these guidelines:
Wear protective gear for your hands and feet. Always wear gym shoes and never strength train in bare feet. Wear gloves to prevent your hands from becoming rough and callused and to improve your grip.
Warm up before beginning a strength session. Walk on a treadmill or ride a stationary bike for five to seven minutes to increase blood flow to your muscles.
Start slowly and progress wisely with light weights that you can lift comfortably for eight to 15 repetitions. Increase the weight no more than 3-5% at a time. This goes for experienced exercisers, too, who have spent two to three weeks away from strength training. Get back into your routine slowly.
Lift slowly and think two counts up and four counts down.
Understand each exercise and know which muscles should be working and which muscles should be stabilizing your body. Also, identify the correct range of motion for each exercises. In a lunge, for example, know whether you should take a small step or a giant step.
Always make sure you use good posture. With bad posture, you could activate and injure a muscle group that’s not supposed to be working. Use the "athletic ready stance" with your head and shoulders up, knees bent, and shoulders and hips in line. If you can’t maintain correct posture, you’re either lifting a weight that’s too heavy or doing the exercise incorrectly. Check your posture by lifting in front of a mirror.
Don’t forget to breathe! Take a full breath with every repetition. And don’t ever hold your breath.
It is very important that you recognize bad pain. It’s okay if you experience light soreness in your muscles 24 to 48 hours after your training. But deep soreness, especially in the joints, indicates that you’ve overdone it.
Work front-to-back and side-to-side. Every muscle has an opposing muscle, such as quadriceps and hamstrings or abdominals and lower back. If you train one muscle, train the opposing muscle to avoid creating imbalances in your body that can lead to injury.
Position yourself properly when using machines and know where you should adjust your seat and align your joints. Beware of home equipment that is more than five years old. It may not have safety features like adjustability and lumbar support.
When using free weights, use a spotter and proceed cautiously because you don’t have a pre-selected range of motion and there’s greater risk of dropping a weight or over-stretching a joint.
Be careful when using rubber tubing and bands. Make sure they have no cuts or tears and keep them out of extreme heat or cold, and secure them well.
Stretching after your workout is always a good idea. When muscles are contracted, they shorten. "Stretching lengthens muscles and allows them to release tension," Wood says. Hold each stretch 30 to 60 seconds.
Always make sure you allow 48 hours of rest between strength sessions. Your muscles need the time to rebuild and repair themselves. That goes for abdominals muscles, too. Your abs are a muscle and should be given adequate recovery time as well.
By: Sean Lombardo
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
About The Author: Sean Lombardo is a fitness enthusiast whose aim is to help people achieve their fitness goals. His website at BellyFatBurning.com offers weight training, fat loss and nutrition advice for beginner and advanced fitness levels. Subscribe to Sean’s FREE weekly newsletter at BellyFatBurning.com and get the report "Top Secret Fat Loss Strategies Revealed" as a gift. They are both jam packed with tips and techniques guaranteed to help anyone achieve their fitness goals.
Safety Daily Advisor : Serve Your Wellness Training
Our Safety Training Tips editor says that now, as we near the middle of National Nutrition Month, is a good time to talk to employees about the importance of good nutrition.
The Healthy Way » Be A Man of Fitness
One’s fitness can be improved by ngaging in aerobic exercises and through strength training. There are three components of overall fitness that every man must focus on working out.
The Future of Strength Training?
Just to be on the safe side I’m going to buy a bucket to keep next to the machine. By: Drew Baye on March 3, 2009 at 10:39 am.
Mail this post
2 Responses 
Leave a Reply 
[...] are some leg exercises using the bodyweight training method, and these exercises will have more emphasis on the back [...]
[...] Elliptical exercise machines are soaring in popularity, and for good reason. They are among the most effective pieces of fitness equipment on the market today. The ‘all over’ workout you get with elliptical cross trainers is well suited to many different fitness levels and it is easy to learn the proper techniques for using one. [...]