Injury avoidance for Exercise Beginners
Common traits of beginners
- Lack of experience.
- Weak muscles.
- Over enthusiasm.
- Weak core muscles (abdominal, obliques & lower back).
Common running injuries
- Achilles pain.
- Knee pain.
- Shin pain.
- Side stitches while running.
Common strength training injuries
- Lower back.
- Over strained muscles.
Preventing common running injuries
- Warm up for at least 10 min by running slowly till the muscles get ready for greater intensity.
- Do stretching exercises after run.
- Incorporate strength building exercises to strengthen leg, abdominal, obliques & lower back muscles.
- Prefer running on softer surfaces.
- Be well hydrated.
- Consume only light food before, preferably one hour, or a little more prior to the run.
- Do not train at over 80% of maximum speed possible.
- Allow adequate rest & recovery time (do not train for more than 4 days in a week).
Preventing common strength training injuries
- Warm up the muscle groups being trained with light exercises of at least 10 min.
- Develop strong core muscles as the highest priority muscles (abdominal, obliques & lower back) before training other muscle groups with greater intensity.
- Do stretching exercises after work out.
- Avoid lifting weights higher than 8 repetitions capacity for upper body exercises, 12 repetitions capacity for leg exercises & 15 repetitions for core muscles’ exercises.
- Be well hydrated.
- Consume only light food before, preferably one hour, or a little earlier prior to exercise.
- Stop when there is serious pain in the muscles group being exercised. Do not believe the saying, “No pain and no gain”.
- Muscles grow at rest & not when being trained. Allow adequate rest & recovery time- for most muscle groups it is 48 hours.
