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No one plans on getting injured
when they go to workout. But
eventually it will happen,
especially if you do not take
some safety into consideration.
Check out these 6 steps for a
safer workout.
Step 1: Warm-up.
This may
sound like the king of
clichés, but guess what? A
large percentage of the
gym. rats out there,
especially the younger ones,
are so eager to hit the
bench press that they skimp
on or ignore the warm-up
altogether. This is a big
mistake. Properly warming up
will raise your core
temperature, get your
metabolism
into gear and
"pre-lubricate"
your joints
in preparation for the
actual workout. Simply put,
your body is ready to tackle
the big weights. Your warm-up
should consist of 5-10 minutes
of moderate
cardio
on a treadmill or stationary
bike, 5 minutes of light
stretching and, as you get
ready for the weights, 1-2
light sets before your
"real" sets begin.
Step 2: Stretch.
Not stretching will make your
muscle bellies shorten over
time, making you less
flexible. While it may seem like
a minor
aesthetic detail to get that
slightly-hunched, gorilla-look,
your muscles and joints become a
lot more vulnerable Why? If a
supporting muscle stiffens or
becomes shortened, it will start
interfering with the normal
groove of your exercises. Not a
big deal at first, but over time
you train increasingly "wrong"
and put a lot of extra stress on
joints, ligaments and unintended
secondary muscle groups. The
cumulative effect over a couple
of years can throw some serious
curveballs at your bodybuilding
efforts. In addition, stretching
between sets flushes out lactic
acid and byproducts while
bringing in fresh nutrients,
thus making your stronger for
your next set. Finally, the
post-stretching helps you
recover faster between workouts.
Proper stretching is not rocket
science. Click
here
to read more about stretching,
but in a nutshell; you stretch
slowly, without bouncing, for 30
seconds or more taking care not
to inadvertently put undue
stress on the joints
Step 3:
Control.
It can be tempting to load
up the big weights and cheat
your way through the set.
And sure enough, controlled
cheating is a tried-and-true
intensity boosting technique
advocated by Arnold
and many other prominent
bodybuilders. The key word,
however, is controlled. Cheating
should only be done at the
end of a normal set to
squeeze out a few "bonus"
reps. If you have to sway or
use momentum from the second
rep on, you're using too
much weight. Another aspect
of control is avoiding any
type of bouncing, jerking or
partial moves forced by
necessity. In other words,
if you stop halfway down in
the
negative phase
of your
biceps curls
because you wouldn't be able
to curl up otherwise, you're
using too much weight. And
let's not even talk about
the "bench press perverts"
who still, after years of
articles and books
recommending against it,
just love to thrust their
pelvis up as far off the
bench as they can when doing
presses so that the only
point of contact anywhere is
their feet and their
shoulders. I'll put it
really simple: don't. Keep
your back flat against the
bench and use your muscles
to lift the weight as it was
intended.
Step 4:
Strong Abs.
This brings us to the next
point: your midsection is
the stabilizer that holds
you together. Fail to build
a solid, balanced midsection
and you're in the danger
zone, especially from any
type of overhead press. Why? Think about a
barbell military press.
From feet to hips, you're
pretty much standing
straight. Then you lean
backwards so that you can
stay balanced while pushing
up the barbell and the only
thing protecting your spine
is your
abs.
In fact, abdominal tension is a
prerequisite for getting
into the starting position
That's the obvious example.
Less obvious, but perhaps
even more crucial, is the
role of your midsection when
you do rows,
pushdowns
and various leg exercises. In
these examples, your abs is
merely a secondary thing
that doesn't automatically
require tensed abs - you
need to do this consciously.
If you don't, you risk
putting undue stress on your
spine. The big Kahuna of abdominal
power is rectus abdominis,
the "six pack" (actually a
single muscle) that runs
from your rib cage to your
pelvis. However, it is
prudent to include a couple
of exercises for oblique's as
well. You can read more about
well-rounded abdominal
training here, but
as rule you should aim to
get both straight (crunches,
ab machines)
and side/twisted (side
crunches)
exercises into each workout
.
Step 5: Balance
Physical Balance:
The former
is pretty straight-forward.
When you stand and do curls,
pushdowns, presses or
whatnot, don't do so with
locked knees. Stand as you
would stand on a bus in
motion, tense up your abs
and you're in good
shape. When you lie on a
bench, put your feet up on
the bench too. This will
force you to stay balanced
through presses or skull
crushers; otherwise you'd
simply fall off. As you get
into the hack squat,
relax your shoulders,
straighten up your back and
slide up to the pads by
straightening out your knees
(not "duck in"). You get the
idea.
Muscle
Strength Balance:
The
other side of the
coin is equally
important. Most
people are a tad
stronger in one
side, i.e. you can
do two more reps
with your left arm
than your right.
This isn't a big
problem in
day-to-day life, but
when you enter the
gym things get a bit
more complicated. If
you tend to go with
exercises that allow
the stronger side to
overpower and take
over some of the
load from the weak
side, you're in
trouble. Typically,
most barbell
exercises and
machines with a
single bar are
guilty of this. On
the other hand,
dumbbells and
machines where the
two handles operate
independently make
this
impossible. Having
said that, I'm not
advocating you ditch
all barbells from
your workouts.
That'd be stupid, as
you'd miss out on
some of the most
effective exercises
there is (dead lifts
and squats, to name
a few). However, it
is prudent to mix
the two types in
every workout and,
if uneven strength
is already a
problem, consciously
holding the stronger
side back until they
have equalized
Step 6:
Safety Precautions.
You don't buckle up in your
car because you expect
to crash - you do it because
it's a quick and easy
insurance policy for the
slim chance some numbskull
slams into you. However, if
it does happen,
you're very, very happy that
you took the two seconds to
do it. The gym works the same
way. When you do calf presses in the leg
press machine,
odds are very low your feet
will actually slip off the
edge. However, if they do,
and you don't have the stops
engaged, you can kiss you
shins and knees
goodbye. Likewise, attempting
heavy barbell bench presses
to failure without a spotter
is little more than Russian
roulette. You can even up
the ante by using "monkey
grip" (thumbs on the same
side as the rest of the
fingers) for the added
thrill of potentially
dropping 300 lbs on your
face. If you've spent some
time in the gym you know
there are all sorts of minor
safety precautions and good
habits which you would be
well advised to take notice
of. Wipe off your hands
before loading plates. Keep
your feet clear from under
plates and dumbbells. Use a
belt for
heavy lifts and overhead
presses. Use a spotter
whenever you're in a
vulnerable position. And so
on...None of this is
rocket-science. Chances
are good most of your
precautions will be
completely pointless.
However, the one time you DO
mess up, you will be very
happy you took the extra few
seconds to play it safe. Keeping these 6 steps
in mind won't guarantee an
injury-free life, but the
odds and the severity of any
incident should be
drastically reduced. It's
mostly common-sense stuff
anyway; you just have to get
in the habit of doing it.
Good luck
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