|
The Question: We all know that if you get injured while working out, it could crush your bodybuilding dreams, permanently. Even if you simply get a chronic injury that will not go away (like a rotator cuff injury), you could have pain for the rest of your life. What can you do during your workouts to be sure you do not get injured? What can you do outside of the gym to help? BONUS QUESTIONS: 1. Name a few of the injuries that either you or somebody you know has suffered. How did it affect you/them? How fast did you/they recover? How could it have been prevented? The Winners:
The best response will get $50 in credit to use in our online store!
Injuries, can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Or can you? Injury is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) concerns when lifting weights. Injuries can be short term, or long term. You can usually shake off short term injures within a week or two, and be good to go after that. Long term injuries however can keep you out of the Iron Game for a long time, and sometimes indefinately. Many short term injuries can build up to a long term or chronic injury. So staying as far away from injuries as possible is the right coice, right? Right. So now let's talk about some general things you can do to prevent injuries from occuring.
So what things can you do to ensure that your workout today will be a plesant, injury free one?
1 x 5 @ 95 ~warmup~ 1 x 5 @ 115 ~warmup~ 3 x 8 @ 135 - WORK Notice that the warmup reps are kept low. You can use higher reps (12-15), but make sure for those to be your first warmup sets, and that they are very light. High rep warmup sets close to work set weight will fatigue you too much. Now if this is chest day, and you do 3 chest movements, you don't have to warmup for all three of them. If there is 1 exercise that isolates a spot, you should take maybe 1 set to warmup that movement. I personally take 3-5 sets to initially warmup, then for each other movement, I'll warmup with 1 set.
First off, before you ever include any movement into your schedule, practice it with just the bar for a few days before you add weight. Learn how to correctly perform the movement, and keep doing it over and over again with the bar. Starting with poor form is a very bad choice. One of the biggest reasons people tend to demonstrate poor form is because they are trying to use too much weight. Only use a weight in which you can maintain near perfect form for the entire set. DO NOT let your shoulders slump forward and round your back during any back movement (ie squat, deadlift, good morning). This could lead to serious lower back injury. To help stabilize the back, perform abdominal/oblique exercises with resistance. I do not recommend using a belt all of the time, it will limit stabilizer growth, which could lead to a lower back injury when you're not wearing it. DO NOT arch your lower back when bench pressing. This is another big killer. People tend to do this when they're using too much weight.
One way to do this is to have a training partner. If you get stuck on any movement, they can lift the bar off, or help you finish the rep. Being stuck alone when you fail on bench press or squats is NOT a good thing.
Another way to do this is to invest in a power rack. This way, if you can't complete the rep, you'll just be able to lower the weight onto the pins.
Bodybuilding.com is a good source of articles, and you can find many more by simply searching.
Person A does his sets and gets a nice stretch in his hamstrings. Person B loads up the weight, starts his rep, and tries to go down as far as Person A. He's not flexible enough, and once he starts going down further, the weight pulls him down. This leads to a torn hamstring, ouch. Stretch only after you're warmed up. Stretching when cold can also tear a muscle. Here is a great link on stretching : http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp...rec/stretching/
If you have a non-preventable injury, it's most likely that it's genetic. Everybody is different, and different people can do different things. Some people have really bad knees, and go and squat, and end up injuring their knees. Was this non-preventable? No. The person didn't know themself enough to know not to do squats. This is why you should consult your doctor before starting any serious lifting routine.
There are many common injuries, and they can all be prevented by following the steps I have already provided. I'll name a couple:
This will probably take 1-2 weeks to fully recover. If it doesn't recover after 1-2 weeks, go see a doctor. A lot of times people think they sprained their wrist/ankle, when infact they broke it. Stretch your wrists and ankles before working out, and perform resistance exercises to build their strength up. If you do sprain something, follow the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compress, Evelate). Buy some wraps and wrap the area up.
Name a few of the injuries that either you or somebody you know has suffered. How did it affect you/them? How fast did you/they recover? How could it have been prevented? I'll use myself as the only example here, because I have sustained a few of the injuries I listed.
When you work out, you're literally beating your body to death. Breaking the muscle fibers in half to rebuild them again in a new and bigger way, but when you do not stretch, use bad form, lifting too heavy, or not wearing safety equipment is when injuries happen. According to THE PHYSICIAN AND SPORTSMEDICINE - VOL 26 - NO. 3 - MARCH 98: "The repetitive nature of weight training and the often heavy loads involved provide fertile ground for chronic injuries. Common chronic injuries include rotator cuff tendinopathy and stress injuries to the vertebrae, clavicles, and upper extremities. In addition, muscle hypertrophy, poor technique, or overuse can contribute to nerve injuries such as thoracic outlet syndrome or suprascapular neuropathy. Chronic medical conditions that are known to occur in weight trainers include vascular stenosis and weight lifter's cephalgia. Management of chronic problems will vary by condition, but relative rest and correction of poor technique are important for many." Now we will look at the aspects of why injuries happen.
Something that I have noticed in the past is that there is a lot of muscles that you don't know you use when lifting weights. For the longest time in the middle of my reps while doing bench press my back would start cramping. I know that you use most of your upper body when performing this exercise and now I am stretching my back out before I do bench press, and it is really helping me now.
You should always do warmup sets before weight training also. This should always be considered stretching since it loosens you up before doing high reps. I bench 240, and when I do chest, I start off with 2 light sets of 135 with reps between 12-15 to start off, to get me loose. I never do a single rep without fully stretching!
This caused me to not lift for about 2 months. Whenever you lift, make sure you remain safe and handle wait that you can control at all times. Always have a great spotter on hand at all times to prevent further injury.
Some of the exercises that can be useful with a belt are: squats and deadlifts. Weight lifting gloves are gloves that protect your hands when using heavy weight. They help prevent minor hand injuries like calluses. Knee wraps and wrist wraps can protect your knees and wrists when squatting or benching heavy weight.
After having a good lift, it is always important to stretch. I always stretch right before I go to bed. This keeps your muscles from cramping up and hurting so bad when you wake up the next morning. Also, it is never bad to research on new stretching theories and protective measures while lifting. Bodybuilding.com has numerous articles on stretching that can keep you from hurting in the long run.
1. Name a few of the injuries that either you or somebody you know has suffered. How did it affect you/them? How fast did you/they recover? How could it have been prevented? Some of the injuries that I have had that have hurt me in lifting are:
Working out has many wonderful effects on not just our bodies, but also our lifestyles. These is why we must also take precautions in order to avoid injuries that could in fact last throughout our lifespan.
By just jogging, power walking, or doing some sort of light-to-medium cardiovascular exercise for 5-10 minutes you are getting your muscles warmed up as well as increasing your heart rate for the battle you are about to begin whether it is to build muscle or just stay slim.
You must properly stretch whatever muscle group you are going to workout and all other muscles that also contribute to the exercise. An example of this when bench pressing would be stretching the chest, triceps, back, shoulders, forearms, and maybe your quads if you press your feet into the ground when benching. Also do not get carried away and stretch for more than 10-15 seconds each part, as too much stretching may rip a muscle layer.
Second you feel threaten by another guy/girl who is doing more than you so feel the need to challange them by seeing who can lift more or for how many times even though they may not even know you are even there. These reasons specially involve barbell curls and the bench press. I can't count how many times I see a guy no matter how small or big using more than they can lift or just trying the get more reps when curling and all they are doing is bending back and forth like the novelty bird drinking from a cup.
Once you got both these thing on check, start by using a weight you know you can use properly for whatever # of reps you're going for and start lifting it using only the specific muscles the exercise requires in order to get the maximal results of the exercise. Another form to workout safely that is also popular is doing 3/4 of reps in workouts. This especially works on compound movements such as when benching, instead of bringing the bar to your chest, bring it down low enough to be 1-2 inches above your chest so as to not stress out your rotator cuffs, and pecs. Another example of this is when deadlifting using the power rack and putting the racks below knee level so as to not use too much leg movement and stressing the knees on this back exercise.
Sometimes these things are not needed if their core's are properly toughened such as the back and abs core, but even then I thing they are still needed to prevent any mishaps. Like I say better safe than sorry.
Just think about it, our bodies are made up of 80% water, so it is obvious that we should maintain a constant flow in order to prevent dehydration and other problems, especially when under major stress of working out.
 If you are tired, sick, or feel that you are overtraining, then rather than worsen your condition by going to the gym, stay home and get better. Start sleeping more having a minimum of 8 hours, eat more if nutritiously and get 1-2g of protein per lbs. of weight.
Supplement with vitamin C and E as well as multivitamins and any other things if necessary in order to get better. Trust me by allowing your body to recover fully you will not only prevent any major injuries but you will actually come back stronger than before.
INJURIES I'VE HAD! Yay the good part: I can honestly say that I have had many of my injuries because of not taking care of myself as much as I should have had.
So the only way I can squat and deadlift is by going wide and havind my feet pointing outward, and even then my back still bends more than I would like. Because of my body strutcture I have suffered from not being able to lift as much as I could and after injuring my back I wasn't able to squat and deadlift or even do any movements standing up for the whole summer and a little bit of fall. Now I can finally squat again, but even then sometimes I get aches which still affect what I can do in the gym. Finally I have had shint splints and felt like a sharp pain underneath my right foot but this was more because of the pressure I had when I was in Rugby (I was a lock which meant that when I was in a ruck I was the one that had to push alot with my legs and that brought on alot of stress to these parts of my body). Some of these injuries could have been prevented and others were not, but at least now I am more educated on taking better care of myself so that these as well others don't occur again. Hopefully you guys will take into cosideration my tips and prevent unneccessary injuries.
Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here! Visitor Reviews Of This Article!
Related Articles
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Injury Prevention
Perform A General Warmup
Sign in for more FREE features and tools!
|
|
Give Us Feedback:
Report A ProblemSite Feedback |
Follow Us:
|
Bodybuilding.com Newsletter
Receive exciting features, |
