One Big Health Nut

Avoiding injuries is an important part of exercise.  It is difficult to attain the maximum benefit from your efforts if you are nursing an injury.  But injury is an imminent risk when working with heavy weights or performing high intensity exercises.  And since you receive maximum benefits from heavier weights and higher intensity exercises, it would seem counterproductive to reduce either in order to lower your risk of injury.  So how can you avoid injury and still see results? 

The key is to work all of your muscles, not just the muscles you want to show off.  Most people tend to concentrate on specific muscles.  Whether the purpose is to increase strength or for aesthetic reasons, working only particular muscles could lead to injury.  Most activities require groups of muscles to work together to perform.  One set of muscles contracts and the other extends to allow your body to move properly.  If one muscle group is more fit, those muscles will react quicker.  When the opposing muscle group’s reaction time is slower, an injury will occur.  The resulting injury could be a muscle pull or strain.  Even worse, a muscle tear could occur. 

The bulk of your weight lifting exercises should be compound.  Compound exercises work multiple muscle groups at once.  This will strengthen all of the muscles at once.  Isolation exercises can be used to improve the strength of the weaker muscles.  Perform isolation exercises in addition to the compound movements, not instead of them.  If you perform multiple isolation exercises for one muscle group, you will risk suffering a joint injury. Also, adding yoga or pilates to your weekly work out schedule is also beneficial.  Both forms of exercise improve flexibility, reducing the risk of muscle injury.   The exercises also help improve overall performance by increasing core strength.