Working Out in Injury - An Ounce of Prevention is Better Than a Pound of Cure!

It's essential to adopt a gym philosophy guided by at least an ounce of prevention (avoid the extra, irrational weight!) in order to avoid grim consequences, and the uprisings of injuries that can strike both long-term impacts, and short-term burst of pain.

Warm up and cool down
Before you begin your workout session it is important that you perform a warm-up first. Warming up prepares your body for the physical aggravation it is to go through, which inevitably avoids muscle injury during exercise. A warm-up effectively increases your heart rate, and loosens your muscles and joints. Some basic warm-up routines can include jogging for five to ten minutes, skip roping or cycling.


Cooling down is the complete opposite of a warm-up: it gradually slowls your metabolism back to normal, especially your heart rate. One way to cool down is to take a five to ten minute walk.

Warm up with stretching
Stretching before and after exercise is also a way to prevent muscle injury. Stretching increases flexibility and thus avoids any muscle strain or injury during exercise.

Pace yourself
It's imperative you don't push yourself to a breaking point as soon as you begin your workout session. You should instead start slowly, and then steadily increase the intensity as well as the frequency.

Don’t over-use muscles
Many workout injuries are caused due to intense stress to a single muscle. It is thus essential to vary your workout routine. When you move the same muscle over and over again, a muscle injury becomes quite inevitable. Overuse of a single muscle can result in injuries such as shin splints: a terrible, crippling pain that seems to roar in fits from the core of your bones. It might also be a good idea to give your muscles a complete rest during some days of the week. During those days you can engage in other healthy activities such as jogging or swimming.

Don’t push yourself too far
Even though working out requires a lot of determination and will power, you can at times do with a little less resolve. For injury prevention it is important that you do not push yourself to the point of pain. If you feel pain it might be because you have already suffered an injury, to continue working out will further aggravate the injury and make matters worse for you.

Take a healthy diet
A healthy diet can work wonders on your fitness level, and also help you to prevent workout injuries. It is important that you keep yourself hydrated and drink sufficient water during, before, and after a workout. More important yet, you should have a snack after every few hours; and especially after working out in order to restock the energy you burned.

Always see a Trainer
The safest option at your disposal is to employthe services of a trained professional, who can guide and assist you throughout your workout routine. A trainer can effectively guide you on the do’s and dont's of exercising. Such guidance will ultimately steer you clear from happening upon the more major of injuries.