5 Tips To Help You Avoid Injury While Exercising

You’ve finally made the commitment to get in shape or maybe to take your physical fitness to the next level. Eager to start seeing results, you jump into your new routine feet-first. And the next sound you hear is ouch as a workout injury derails your healthful plans.

# Know Your Body

One of the best ways to avoid fitness injuries is to know your body’s limitations. This isn’t just about avoiding certain fitness activities until you’re in better shape, though that’s part of it. It’s also about knowing what your weak areas are and then avoiding the type of activities that are going to push hard on that weakened area.

# Sex

No, not the kind you have on Saturday night. We’re talking gender. Both men and women have specific gender-related physiologic issues that can set them up for injuries when they do specific types of workouts. This doesn’t mean either gender should avoid certain activities. But it does mean taking certain precautions when you exercise.

# Hire a Pro

One of the best ways to avoid injury is to take a few lessons with a certified trainer. This will help ensure your body is in proper alignment while you’re working out, which can go a long way toward protecting you from exercise injuries. Getting expert advice can also keep you from doing the wrong workouts for your body type and help you moderate your routines so you don’t do too much, too soon.

# Act Your Age

It starts out as a simple desire: You just want to get more exercise. But somehow, a kind of "fitness amnesia" takes over. Before you know it, you’ve blocked out the years -- or sometimes decades since the last time you exercised. The end result is that you do too much too quickly for too long with too much intensity. And injury is often the end result.

# Warm It Up

Whatever type of fitness activity you're doing, you’re less likely to get injured if you warm up before every session and slowly build the pace of your workout over time. The warm-up helps the muscles to handle stress so they are less likely to be injured. And the pacing is just the common sense way to avoid injury.