8 Ways to Avoid Injuries During Workout

While exercising regularly is the key to stay fit, but getting injuries while working out whether in gym or somewhere else is fairly common. No matter what the exercise regime is, most of the fitness injuries result from the overuse r overloading of joints and muscles. The best way and the key to stay injury free is to listen to your body and never push it too hard. Do not try to go too far too soon. Go through the following passage to understand the injury prone areas while exercising and how can you avoid the injuries:

WALKING

Risk Zones Feet, knees, ankle, calf muscles, and lower back.

Injury happens when you walk on hard surfaces it make your knees vulnerable and prone to injuries. It happens because when your foot strikes hard surface, strong shock waves are produced and a jerk is felt on the knees. Continuous jerking results in knee injury.

To prevent injury  – Never walk or run on concrete surfaces, and get a pair of shoes that support your heel and ankles.

RUNNING

Risk Zones Knees, ankles, shin and lower back.

Injury happens when Running injury occurs most likely when you excessively roll your ankle inwards, as it increases stress on the muscles and ligaments of foot leading to injury. A sudden increase in speed and duration of running can cause injury.

To prevent injury  Start slowly and increase the speed and duration gradually. Also grab the right running shoes which provide necessary arch support and cushion to absorb the vertical forces generated during running.

CROSS-TRAINER AND STAIR-CLIMBER

Risk Zones  Knees, ankle, calf muscles, and lower back.

Injury occurs when You may hurt your knees if your ankles and knees are not aligned with each other during cross training You may also hurt your upper limb moves more than your lower limb.

To prevent injury  – Always use your full feet while exercising, and never move only with your toes or heels. Also ensure that your lower limb is equally active or moves more than your upper limb.

CYCLING

Risk Zones Knees, ankle, calf muscles, and lower back.

Injury occurs when – You start cycling by placing the cycle seat either too low or too high from your pelvis , or when you step with only your toes and heels.

To prevent injury -Always stick your feet on the surface of the cycle paddle, and place the cycle seat at appropriate height relative to your pelvis.

DUMBBELLS

Risk Zones  Wrist, Metacarpal, Phalanges, Elbows and Lower back

Injury occurs when you do very fast movements with dumbbells and when the Proximal joints (middle digits) of your fingers are not fixed. You can hurt your elbows while doing bicep curls if the resistance you carry is too heavy. You also hurt your lower back by lifting heavy weight with jerky movements.

To prevent injury –Always use weight lifting gloves to protect your hands.Ensure that you move to heavier  weights after practicing enough repetitions with lighter weights. Also have a gradual progress with dumbbell weights and ensure that your proximal joints are fixed while carrying dumbbells.Try to avoid jerks while lifting very heavy weights.

 MACHINE WEIGHTS

Risk Zones  Neck, Shoulders, lower back, hamstrings and quadriceps

Injury occurs when Machine weights on smith machine, pectoral machine can lead to injuries if workout is done without supervision and injuries can be very severe.

To prevent injury Always ensure that you workut within proper supervision. Work on muscle groups on atleast alternate days, as muscles need proper rest. Never stiffen your neck while exercising and also avoid neck movement while carrying weights.

 PUSH UPS

Risk Zones  Neck, Shoulders,elbows and wrists

Injury occurs - When performing push-ups, varying degrees of muscle strain can occur, causing pain in the underarm area. Your shoulder joints may get hurt if you place your wrists a lot wider than your shoulder width.

To prevent injury Always place hand and wrists at shoulder width. Always focus on making your static balance good. Ensure that when we doing repetition arms make angle of 90 degree and leave the exercise as soon as your shoulders start hurting. Keep your neck aligned to your spine.

 SQUATS

Risk Zones  Neck, Shoulders, lower back, knees and quadriceps.

Injury occurs when your back is not arched and your knees lean at an angle more than 90 degrees.

To prevent injury Ensure that your back is arched. While doing heavy  weightlifting with the barbell rod,  keep a towel to provide a cushion between your neck and barbell road to avoid stiffness in the shoulder. Never lean your forward knee more than 90 degree and your forward leg should be at right angle with the ground.

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