You go to the gym to get fitter and healthier but occasionally you will get injured for one reason or another. You can get injured regardless your experience or fitness level when working out. The best you can do is eliminate the risk of getting injured and managing your injury well to hasten the recovery process should you suffer one.
As a general health practice, anyone above the age of 45 should consult their doctor before picking up a workout regimen. This because there are physical changes that happens to the human body past that age that need to checked and an exercise regimen tailored to minimize the risk of injury or exacerbating underlying medical conditions.
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Precautions to prevent injuries
That said, regardless of your age you need to take certain precautions to prevent the risk of injury during your workout.
Warm up
Your body needs to be sufficiently warmed up before you engage in any intense exercise. The purpose of warming up is to gradually elevate your heart rate in preparation for more tasking exercises and also stretch and warm your muscles so they don?t tear when they are put under physical exertion.
Proper form
You need to do your exercises with the correct form. You are better off lifting light weights with the right form than struggling with heavier ones with poor form and risking injury.
While doing any exercise, your spine should be aligned with the rest of your body and no joint should be hyper extend nor any muscle overstretched. If your goal is to improve your flexibility, then slowly ease into it and understand that your muscles will take weeks or even months to stretch as much you want them to do.
Rest
Your muscles grow when you are resting. You need to allow your muscles and body enough time to grow back and replenish your energy levels. Working out too much can lead to injuries because of tired muscles that can no longer keep up with the work you want them to do.
Alternate your exercises such that no single of group of muscles is worked out on two consecutive days and have at least one or two rest days every week.
Resting doesn?t mean that you sleep in all day. You can still do less intensive activities like walking and other hobbies like photography. Check Fpv Drone Reviews.
How to manage injuries
The way you respond to an injury can make it worse and start it off on the road to recovery. First you need to understand the type of injury you have sustained otherwise you run the risk of worsening it.
There are four classes of injuries: scratches and bruises, sprains, tears, and fractures. Confusing a fracture for a sprain can further compound the injury making it more difficult to handle.
Here?s how to manage your workout injuries.
Take a break
It understandable that you don?t want to lose the gains you have made thus far in your fitness journey but working out an injured muscle is counterproductive. You are not only putting yourself at a risk of a permanent deformation or disability but you also reducing the efficiency of your workout sessions when train in pain.
Depending on the severity of your injury, you can still remain active but take a break to allow your injury to completely heal.