One of the most important things to consider when you start working out is how to avoid injury.
Many beginners completely neglect this and unfortunately, their naive enthusiasm often stops their fitness program in its tracks before it has hardly started.
Of course you should always warm up with stretches and light exercise before beginning your workout, but this is not always enough to protect you from injury.
Pulling a tendon, damaging a knee or worst of all, injuring your back, can keep you out of the gym or off the running track for months or even permanently.
When you are planning your fitness program, always take into account any past injuries that you have had. Discuss it with your doctor too.
A joint that you damaged years ago, such as a shoulder or ankle, may not be as fully healed as you thought. It could start to cause pain again if you are not cautious in your fitness program.
This is just as true for bodybuilders as it is for runners.
In fact, bodybuilders are perhaps at even more risk of injury because of the competition that tends to creep into the exercise.
It is very common for guys to ask each other how much they are lifting. And it’s almost certain that out of any two guys who discuss this, the one who is lifting less will feel badly. He will probably increase his weight the next day, even if he’s not completely ready.
Even if you train alone at home, you can get into a competition with yourself over this. You might set up a goal of lifting x pounds by a certain date and then rush to reach it.
But this is not the way to get fit. In fact, it is a fast route to the hospital.
So any time that you are tempted to add weight before your body is fully ready, try something different. Try actually reducing the weight slightly instead, and increasing the number of reps. See how that feels after a couple of days, and next time around you can either stick with that or put the weight back to what it was.
This kind of approach often throws new light and energy into a weight training program.
