If you work out with any kind of regularity, then you’re going to settle into a groove. While this is a great place to be at in terms of fitness, one worry is that you’ll get so comfortable that you’re unwilling to change things up when necessary. An ongoing workout will create challenges that you may not be expecting, and you’ll want to roll with the punches to protect your body from injury. A new report offers some hints on how to protect yourself as you set out on an ongoing fitness foray.
First, strive for perfection in your movements. This is something that a lot of people are attentive to at the outset but that they tend to let dwindle as the weeks, months, and years go by. The reason is because the longer you go, the further out you get from training.
When you first start using weight machines and engaging in various stretches, you’re paying a lot of attention to your body, maybe even working with a personal trainer to ensure you’re doing things right. Then, once you get things down to a science, those motions become automatic. But this “automatic” movement is actually anything but. When you’re not paying proper attention to body positioning and technique, you could be privy to minute changes that have a big impact on the value of a workout.
No matter how adept you feel you are at a given exercise, always go through the proper steps. One way to ensure you’re doing things correctly is to work with a personal trainer on a regular basis. Every couple months, work with a trainer to basically just go over everything you’re used to doing. He or she can watch your movements and help you correct any problems you’ve encountered. Plus, they could have great advice for how you can alter your workout to further benefit your body.
The other big danger once you’ve grown comfortable in a routine is that you’re focusing too much on certain lifts and motions to the detriment of other parts of your body. You may find that you love an exercise regimen that focuses on a number of pulling motions. Well, that means that the muscles responsible for pushing aren’t getting attention. You want to spend at least a little bit of time engaging in motions designed to balance things out. That way, you’ll be able to avoid overuse injuries pertaining to the muscles you stress a lot and underuse injuries to the muscles that don’t get attention.
And if there’s an exercise that you really don’t like, make yourself spend a little bit of time working with a trainer on that particular action. Even a couple minutes every couple days will serve to aid your body drastically, and over time, you won’t come to think of that particular move as a chore.
About the author