Nothing will kill your progress faster than hitting an injury, but yet, it’s an everyday occurrence in gyms across the nation. If you aren’t careful with how you’re working out, injury is practically inevitable.Here’s How To Increase Flexibility.
This is especially the case as you make further and further progress with your routine to build muscle fast. The more muscle you have, the stronger you get, and, the more weight you will be lifting.
With more weight comes more risk for injuries. So it’s time to learn what the most common injuries are and the steps that you can take to prevent them. This way, you can have a long and happy gym career – injury free.Be sure to check out my other blog article that will explain other things that can cripple your workouts.
Improve Flexibility And Stop Low Back Pain
Of all the injuries, perhaps the most common one is lower back pain. This is a particular harmful injury because of the fact you’re going to not only typically experience pain during the workout, but there’s a good chance you’ll experience pain outside of your work out schedule as well.
Oh, and let’s not forget the fact it tends to be chronic.
Once you mess up your back bad enough, you may never fully recover, so if there’s one injury to take extra precaution against, this is it.
The most frequent reason for lower back pain is lifting with an arch in your back. For anyone who has a natural swayback, this can prove to be very problematic if not corrected during the workout.
Double the case when you have weight overhead, such as with the shoulder press. If your back is arching unnaturally, all that weight from the load you’re lifting is coming down on the vertebrae, leading to significant pain down the road.
The easy fix?
Squeeze those abs. By keeping your abs tight whenever you’re in a standing position, you’ll naturally pull the hips up and cut out that swayed position entirely.
This should also be done whenever you’re lying flat as well, such as with a flat bench press. In this move, it’s also very easy to allow the lower back to lift right up off the bench as you execute the exercise. In time, this too can lead to back pain.You can find more information on this topic in the blog article I wrote about core strength.
The added benefit of all this ab squeezing is that in due time, you’ll also have a stronger core because of it as well.
Win-win.
Knee Pain And Weak Knees
The next injury to know about is bad knees. Just like with the back, this can be frustrating as well as this injury will tend to come and go. You’ll be fine one month and next month, you’re in pain again.
Or, it will switch sides. For a while, the left knee hurts. So you baby it, the right taking more of the work.
Then just as the left gets better, the right gives out. Awesome. You’re still injured.
If you’ve been left frustrated with knee problems, check your knee alignment. If you are letting those knees move inwards as you lunge, squat, or step-up, this is what’s causing your problem. Likewise if they move outward instead.
You want them to be moving directly over the toes at all times. This will keep them tracking properly, reducing any excessive grinding against the knee joint and tissues.
Also double check your surface. If you’re exercising on concrete floors, this is also a bad move. Even with heavily cushioned shoes, it can still send too much shock up the leg.
Shin Splints Treatment And Shin Splints Prevention
Shin splints are another injury, typically most common in those who do more running related activities. This pain comes about and will nag at you with each run/walk you do, and may also be present while you do some other strengthening exercises as well.
To overcome shin splints, you’ll want to do a few things. First, check your shoes. If they’re worn out, this could be what’s causing the problem.
Second, also check your arches. If you over or under pronate and don’t have a shoe that’s designed to deal with this, that can also lead to shin splints over time.
After you’ve assessed both of these, look at your gym workouts.
Did you recently bump up the miles or intensity? If you did, you may have gone overboard.
Too much, too soon, is a very likely cause of shin splints.
Finally, look at muscle imbalances. If your inner thigh is much stronger than your outer or vice versa, this too can lead to shin problems over time. Do some strengthening exercises to make sure your muscles are equally strong.
How To Increase Flexibility And Stop Cranky Shoulders
A shoulder injury is the next problem you may face, especially if you are heavy into bench pressing or shoulder pressing – two exercises that tend to bring about shoulder pain.
As the weight gets higher, your risk of injuries does as well, so you really have to be careful as you go about your diet designed to build muscle mass that this doesn’t happen to you.
The big injury prevention tip to know here is to always make sure that you are doing a very thorough warm-up.
One of the biggest causes of shoulder injuries is not warming up sufficiently before lifting the heavy weight and tearing a tendon or ligament in the process. This often happens during a heavy shoulder routine.
Warm up your rotator cuff for a good 5 minutes or more before doing any sort of heavy lifting where the shoulder will be involved.
Tennis Elbow Treatment
Finally, the last injury to know about are painful elbows – sometimes referred to as tennis elbow. This tends to occur if you are doing a repetitive motion over and over again – such as tennis, so assess your program and see if that is at play here.
Another reason painful elbows can develop is if you are hyperextending them as you go about your exercises.
Be very aware of this. Not everyone can hyperextend their elbows, but if you can, you’ll want to keep an eye on how much you extend whenever you are doing a shoulder press, bench press, or incline bench press.
You might have to think of keeping the elbows slightly bent, which will actually keep you in the proper position.
Once you correct this problem and avoid placing excessive strain on the elbows while they are in that hyperextended position, you should notice the pain going away.
So there you have the top bodybuilding related injuries that can occur as you go about your workout program on how to gain muscle. If you are smart with how you train, take good preventative strategies to avoid pain development, and always make sure that you are paying good attention to how you execute each exercise, you should be able to keep up that workout without suffering.
Conclusion
If you do ever notice pain starting to occur, make sure that you rest immediately. Back off for a few days, ice the area, and do any preventative treatment necessary. It’s far easier to recover from a very mild form of injury than it is to let it grow and continue on, getting worse and worse until you can’t exercise at all. If you do that, you could be out for weeks trying to get better.
-Terry Asher
Terry
Latest posts by Terry (see all)
- How Important Are Net Carbs For Building Huge Muscle? - Apr 28, 2017
- The Matt Damon Workout Explained - Apr 27, 2017
- Watercress – Benefits And The Best Way To Consume It - Apr 26, 2017
