Warm up and cool down Warming up before exercise gets your blood flowing, warms your muscles and helps prevent injuries. See the latest information on visitor policies, safety procedures, vaccines and more in the COVID-19 Resource Center. Only you know how it feels to exercise. Listen to your body and don't try to exercise to endure pain.
Pay attention to areas of special personal risk, such as damaged knees or a chronic back problem. Age can influence the risk of injury, and you may want to adjust your exercise routine to adapt to changes in your body. Different activities can put you at different risks of injury. Running can cause problems with your knees and feet, which you can avoid by wearing supportive shoes and applying ice to your knees.
Circuit training can cause shoulder damage, which can be prevented when you rest and listen to what your body is saying. Don't do the same routine or the same exercises every day. Combine your week with routines such as cardiovascular exercises for the upper body, HIIT for the lower body and cardiovascular exercises. Avoid doing routines that focus on the same muscles and the same exercises on consecutive days.
By changing things up, you're continuously focusing on different muscles and not overusing the same movement patterns that can lead to overuse injuries. Increasing your activity level is great for diabetes and for overall health, but it should be a pleasant and safe experience. Children should always be closely supervised around animals and taught how to behave safely when they are around pets. Cross-training can improve your overall performance and, at the same time, ensure that all muscle groups work out.
Defining why you're going to the gym or going for a run can help guide your training plan and can influence technique. You'll want to know which are the right stretches to do before and after your workouts, and they're likely to be different. If you change your training routine from time to time, or even break the types of training you do every other day, you will activate and strengthen your muscles more, which will allow you to perform a better overall workout and improve your strength. But just as not drinking enough water can be a bad idea, so can drinking too much, since that feeling of laziness in your stomach during a workout can cause nausea and distract you.
Here are six simple tips to help you stay safe, fit and injury-free while working out on your own at home. A personal trainer can recommend safety tips appropriate to your fitness level and, if you're starting a new activity, ensure that you're practicing the right way. Cold muscles are less flexible and more likely to break, which can spell disaster for your training plans. Men, on the other hand, may be at risk of injury with training in multiple planes of movement, such as yoga, stair climbing machines or cycling.
Eating a light, balanced meal or snack two hours before training will help boost your performance, as will a snack or meal shortly after training. They can also recommend the best workouts for your body type, which can further reduce your risk of injury.
