Do you want to be the fittest person you know? Do you want to look and feel your best? Great! But don’t let a lack of preparation get in your way. Exercise and workout routine injuries are common if you execute them incorrectly, so take steps to prevent them from happening in the first place.
Stretch and foam roll regularly
You can prevent many injuries by stretching and foam rolling regularly. Stretching can help you improve your range of motion and flexibility, while foam rolling can help you relieve muscle tension. Make these things a part of your daily routine before and after your workout to keep yourself in good shape for the long haul.
Warm up correctly
How do you know if your warm-up routine is effective? Generally, the best way to warm up is by doing light cardiovascular activity (like walking on a treadmill) followed by dynamic stretches involving movement and full range of motion—for example, running in place or jumping jacks.
Rest between workouts
It’s important for you to rest between your workouts. Resting is one of the most important things you can do for your body, mind and muscles. Resting allows your muscles to recover from the previous workout and grow stronger. It also helps with healing any injuries that may have occurred during exercise.
Resting also gives your mind time off from thinking about exercising so much. Your brain needs time away from a specific activity to function at its best level. This means that if you’re constantly thinking about working out or planning how to work out in the future, it will be hard for your brain to rest or relax when needed.
Practice self-massage to keep muscles and joints healthy
Self-massage is a great way to help prevent injuries and keep your muscles and joints healthy. It’s also a good way to relieve stress, which can be helpful on days when you’re feeling sore or stiff. You can use your hands or a foam roller for self-massage.
The following are examples of muscle groups that can benefit from regular self-massage:
- hamstrings—located at the back of your thigh
- calves—located behind your knee
- quadriceps—the front part of your thigh muscles
Wear appropriate shoes for the exercise you are doing.
- Wear appropriate shoes for the exercise you are doing.
- Always assess the quality and health of your shoes. Even if they look fine, they may be wearing away at the sole, making them unsafe to use.
- Look into getting a quality pair of shoes made specifically for working out. These will have features that help support your foot during high-impact exercises. These will also keep you comfortable throughout your exercise session or workout routine.
- Find a shoe store near where you live and go there so they can measure your feet and ensure they’re sized correctly before picking out a pair!
Go through the motions of your workout routines before you actually do them.
It’s important to go through the motions of your workout routines before you actually do them. If you don’t, it’s easy to get injured.
One way of doing this is at home, in front of a mirror. Practice the motions and make sure they’re correct. If you’re not sure about something, ask an expert.
Go through each motion slowly until it feels comfortable—then speed up gradually until full speed! As always with exercise routines, stop immediately if something doesn’t feel right!
Increase your training volume in small increments
Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced lifter, increasing your training volume from your workout routine in small increments is important. In fact, many strength coaches suggest that beginners should only increase their weekly training volume by 5% per week. More experienced athletes can safely increase their training by 10%.
Breathe throughout your workout routines.
- Breathing can help you stay focused on what you’re doing rather than worrying about how sore or tired you’ll be tomorrow—or if the guy next to you is judging your form.
- Breathing can keep oxygen flowing through your body so that every muscle has enough energy to perform its function: powering a squat or running an extra mile.
- How we breathe can also directly impact how quickly our muscles recover after an intense training session. Breathing deeply and slowly allows more oxygen into our bloodstream, speeding up the recovery process so we can enjoy more workouts between injuries!
Use proper technique
Proper technique is an important part of any exercise routine. Practice in front of a mirror and then practice it again and again until you have the correct form down pat. Seek help from a professional if necessary. The less stress you put on your body, the better. The perfect technique is also important because it keeps your muscles balanced and prevents them from getting injured. If you don’t use proper form, any exercise can cause injury. Even if it’s something as simple as breathing wrong while running or lifting weights with bad technique.
Avoid locking joints when exercising.
A sudden movement can cause your joints to lock when you’re not expecting it. This can happen when doing something as simple as bending over to pick up your keys or even when stretching. The problem is that when muscles are activated, and joints are locked, the muscles can fail before the joints and cause injury.
To prevent this from happening, you should try to keep all of your joints relaxed and loose at all times during exercise. This means that when lifting weights or doing cardio, your muscles should be fully engaged but never locked into place—and likewise with stretching exercises like yoga or Pilates.
Stop a workout routine as soon as you feel pain.
It is easy to push through the pain while at the gym or working out. You have a goal, and it is tempting to keep going even if your muscles are telling you they need a break. However, if you ignore warning signs and keep pushing yourself, then you’re putting yourself at risk for injury.
The better option is always to stop when you feel pain in any area of your body. Don’t try to push through it—if something feels wrong during your workout routine, take some time off until the pain subsides before returning to training again (and make sure you tell a trainer about what happened so they can help).
If an injury does occur and causes significant enough pain that prevents further exercise, seek medical attention immediately.
Rely on technology that can track your progress and warn you if you are over-training.
Technology can help you track the progress of your workouts and avoid overtraining. There are a variety of fitness trackers on the market, including watches and bracelets that can measure heart rate, distance travelled, and calories burned. They also have apps that allow you to analyze your workout data, helping you see how many repetitions you completed during each exercise or how long it took for your heart rate to reach its recovery level between sets.
Some fitness trackers include GPS technology, showing where you’ve been running or cycling by pinpointing the routes taken during each workout session. No matter which type of tracker you choose, it’s important to make sure all personal information is removed from any device before working out in public places like gyms or parks—especially if there are people around who could peek at their screen when using communal equipment such as treadmills or elliptical machines!
Take the proper steps to prevent injuries that could interfere with your workout routine.
There are several types of exercise that you should avoid if you want to prevent injuries. The first is weightlifting. Weightlifting can strain muscles and joints, causing them to be sore for some time after the workout. If you have arthritis or back pain, it may be better for you not to lift weights at all.
If your doctor recommends using weights in your workout routine, try doing resistance band training instead of barbells at home or a gym. Resistance bands work well because they’re light enough for seniors and people with limited mobility issues but still provide enough resistance, so they count as legitimate strength-building exercises.
Another exercise that causes problems is running on concrete surfaces like sidewalks or streets—especially if these areas are unevenly maintained! This puts extra stress on joints over time because there’s no give when we land our feet on hard surfaces like asphalt and concrete roads. This leads us toward joint pain and injury more than the softer ground. Consider switching up where/how often we run outdoors, so it doesn’t hurt anymore due to how much force was exerted against hard surfaces every day before heading out onto those kinds of terrains again later down the road.
A good workout technique can help prevent injuries
Good form is important to prevent injuries from happening. It’s not only about doing the exercises correctly but also about using good technique when doing them. There are some easy ways you can improve your technique and prevent injury:
- Maintain a straight line between your head, neck and spine while doing squats. Don’t arch your back or lean forward with your torso too much (it’ll make you look like Frankenstein). Instead, keep everything aligned with straight posture throughout the exercise.
- If you’re doing pull-ups, make sure to use an overhand grip rather than underhand because this will help strengthen the muscles in your upper back more effectively than an underhand grip would do so—and it reduces torque on the shoulders as well!
- When lifting weights overhead, don’t let go of them before they’re down at shoulder level; otherwise, someone might get hurt by falling onto them! Make sure that when lowering weights into position for each rep, both arms move simultaneously at a controlled rate without rushing into place too quickly since this creates momentum, which could cause injury if done incorrectly (if possible).
We hope this article has encouraged you to take some time to develop a healthy workout routine, but also that it has helped you be more aware of what injuries are likely to occur during the course of your workouts. If you follow the tips we’ve outlined here, you should be able to stay safe and get in a great workout without any injuries slowing you down!
There is no need to be embarrassed or uncertain when doing an exercise incorrectly. Instead, you can reach out to Dr. Erica for help by submitting a Critiq request. Dr. Erica will analyze your form and advise you of your options to make the exercise safer and more effective.
Featured Expert
Dr. Erica Rodriguez
Doctor of Physical Therapy for Professional Athletes, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Sports Recovery Specialist
