One of the most common fears that plague powerlifters, fitness enthusiasts, bodybuilders, and any other type of gym goer is gym injuries. Injuring yourself in the gym is painful for your body, can be mentally challenging to get over, and will set you back weeks from meeting your goals.

There are few things as detrimental to your workout experience as a training injury, and in today’s post, we will be looking at several ways that you can avoid getting injured at the gym. Here are 4 things you can do to reduce the risk of having a training injury during your workout.

Leave Your Ego at the Door

While lifting huge amounts of weight feels really good and may impress the people around you, it can also cause injuries very quickly. While it’s good to push yourself in the gym to make progress, there is a big difference between pushing yourself and trying to show off. Leave the ego at the door and never try to lift more weight than you know you can handle.

Warm Up

It’s never a great idea to go from 0 to 100 mph instantly in your workout. Your muscles should be warmed up so they’re ready to handle the strain you put on them. Start off with 5-10 minutes of stretching followed by a couple of lighter weight warm-up sets before you really get going with the heavier weight. Doing all this might seem like a hassle, but it will protect your muscles from injury and provide a better all-around workout.

Use Proper Form

Probably the number one reason for training injuries in the gym is improper form. Whether it’s on a squat, deadlift, bench press, or any other movement, poor form can lead to some nasty injuries. Make sure you’re educated on what proper form should look like. If you’re not completely confident in your form, you shouldn’t be lifting heavy. Lower the weight on the bar to what you can lift properly and work your way up from there. This goes hand in hand with leaving your ego at the door.

Deadlifting heavy and with bad form is a surefire way to throw out your back or tear a bicep, and similarly gruesome injuries can happen with many other exercises if not done properly. If the concept isn’t clear enough yet, MAKE SURE YOU’RE LIFTING WITH PROPER FORM!!!

Don’t Overtrain

It’s a temptation for many people to overtrain their muscles. After all, the more work you do, the better the results, right? Not necessarily. When it comes to your muscles, they need proper rest after being exercised in order to recover and rebuild stronger than they were before. If you’re constantly straining and tearing them and not giving them the opportunity to rebuild, you can end up damaging them in the long run and leaving yourself open to training injuries.

While putting these 4 tips into practice doesn’t guarantee you won’t have a training injury, these practices will definitely diminish the chances. Stay in the gym and increase your health and fitness by avoiding training injuries! If you need more training advice, would like to hire a personal trainer, or need gym equipment of any kind, Balance Fitness is here to help you out! Just contact us online or give us a call to chat today!