It’s really easy to injure yourself while exercising, but a small injury can put a serious damper on your exercise routine.  Here are the 5 most common gym injuries and what you can do to prevent them.

Muscle Pull

With our sedentary lifestyle, it’s easy to pull a muscle when exercising.  If you’re the type who is usually sitting at a desk all day, there’s a good chance you’ll put too much strain on your muscle and pull it.  There are three degrees of muscle tear and the third can cause serious injury.

The way to avoid pulling a muscle is to spend plenty of time stretching before you start, and make sure that each muscle group gets some.  When lifting weights, do it at a natural angle that doesn’t put too much stress on your muscles. Also, be sure to start slow and build your way up.

Sprains

A sprain is when the head bone comes out of a joint’s capsule.  It causes considerable pain and restricts your movement.  The knees and ankles tend to get the worst.  Sprains are caused by working too hard without properly warming up.  They’re usually caused by a sudden, awkward movement such as tripping or falling.  If you get a sprain, you’ll have to get a splint and refrain from exercising for a while.

Frozen Shoulder

There are lots of small delicate muscles in the shoulder.  It has a narrow socket and very low ligament strength.  Your shoulders can easily be overstressed when you’re doing a workout that puts your arms over your head, such as swimming, weight training and certain sports.  The condition causes pain in the shoulders, especially when you lift your arms.  It’s treated by prescription anti-inflammatory drugs.

Contusions

A contusion is caused by a blow to the muscle.  When your muscle gets struck, it swells and it may bleed internally.  When this blood coagulates it becomes hard and difficult to move naturally.  If you get a contusion, you won’t be exercising for a while.  You’ll have to get plenty of rest.  Putting ice on it will help it heal faster and also make it feel better.  A little muscle massage will also help.

Lower Back Strain

Lower back strain is caused by spending all day sitting down in a rounded-back position, and then having a vigorous workout that works the upper back.  Like the shoulders, the back has lots of delicate muscle tissue.  A lower back injury can really make your life difficult for a while, so it’s important to make sure that you’re doing some stretching exercises that emphasize the lower back.

To prevent getting hurt while exercising, make sure that you stretch and warm-up properly.  Cooling down after your workout before you hit the showers is also important for your muscles.  Finally, make sure that you’re not doing a workout that’s too difficult for you.  Putting too much stress on your body leads to getting hurt!

For people who suffer from diabetes, regular exercise is absolutely essential.  It helps to regulate your weight and this reduces the body’s need for insulin.  It also helps your body to use the glucose you take in more efficiently by increasing your cells’ sensitivity to insulin.  Exercising regularly also reduces health risks associated with diabetes such as high blood pressure and heart problems.

Exercising The Right Way

However, there are also risks in exercising with diabetes.  It’s important to choose your exercise routine carefully.  Sports that are too rigorous or involve lots of standing, such as heavy weight lifting, can actually worsen your condition.  If you have diabetes, you should create an exercise plan that is light but effective.

Elements Of A Good Diabetes Exercise Routine

A good and safe exercise program for diabetics has three elements – aerobic exercise, weight training and flexibility exercise.  Aerobic exercise gets your heart pumping, which is good for your circulation, heart rate and heart muscles.  Weight training helps to build lean muscles, which raises your rate of metabolism.  It also makes your bones stronger.  Flexibility exercises such as stretching and yoga help by preventing the risk of injury as well as improving overall quality of life.

Good exercises include fast walking, swimming laps and bicycling.  If you like a more rigorous exercise, talk to your doctor.  They will give you some guidelines about how much is too much so that you don’t strain.  They’ll also tell you some other tips to stay safe, such as how to stay hydrated and when it’s too hot and humid to exercise outside.

Guidelines For Safe Exercise

In order to exercise safely with diabetes, you’ll have to monitor your blood sugar level carefully.  Check your blood sugar level 30 minutes before you exercise.  When it is more than 300mg/dl, or when it is more than 250mg/dl and there are positive ketones in urine, you should refrain from exercise.  You should also avoid exercise if your blood sugar level is too low.  If it is below 100mg/dl, you should eat a small snack that’s high in carbohydrates before you begin working out.  Your body doesn’t have enough sugar to burn.

Before you start any exercise program, talk to your doctor.  They’ll tell you when you’re ready to start working out again, and they’ll give you their own guidelines for when and where you should exercise.  They’ll also tell you some warning signs to let you know if you’re pushing it too hard.  You can always ask them your questions if you’re unsure about anything.

Obesity

Recent research has confirmed what doctors have always known – that obesity leads to serious, and sometimes even fatal health conditions.  According to the CDC, around 300,000 Americans die each year because of obesity-related problems.  Studies show that the more obese you are, the higher your risk for a number of health problems, such as:

Heart Disease

Obesity greatly increases your risk of heart attack, sudden cardiac death, congestive heart failure and other heart problems.  People who are obese often have high blood pressure, sometimes as much as twice that of an average person.  In the past, medical professionals felt that it had an indirect relation to heart problems, but now it is known that obesity leads directly to heart problems.

Diabetes

People who are overweight are much more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.  This type of diabetes prevents your body from naturally controlling its blood sugar content.  It can lead to heart disease, stroke, blindness and death.  The incidence of type 2 diabetes has grown along with the increase in obesity.

Cancer

The exact relationship between obesity and cancer isn’t clearly known, but those who are overweight have a higher chance of getting cancer.  Studies have shown that it is related to colon, breast, uterine, kidney and esophageal cancers.  It may also be related to cancers of the ovaries, pancreas and gallbladder.  According to the National Cancer Institute, it may be responsible for one quarter of all of these types of cancer.

Hypertension

Population studies have shown that nearly 70% of those who are obese are at risk for developing hypertension.  The exact causes are not known, but doctors believe it is related to the body’s neuroendocrine mechanism.  Hypertension is caused by the heart having to work hard to pump blood throughout the body, and it can cause a number of other serious health risks which can be fatal.

Stroke

Stroke occurs when the brain doesn’t get the blood it needs and this causes permanent damage.  One cause of stroke is the narrowing of arteries, which forms a blood clot.  This narrowing of arteries can be caused by high blood pressure, lack of exercise, high cholesterol levels and obesity.  It is reportedly caused by elevated body mass index (BMI), and the risk increases with the amount of weight.

Sleep Apnea

Although not fatal, sleep apnea can cause major disruptions in your life.  This is a condition where the air passages are restricted, resulting in a less-than-restful sleep.  Sleep apnea sufferers have headaches, mood swings and a constant feeling of fatigue no matter how many hours of sleep they got.  Obesity has been shown to be the number one cause of this condition.

If you are overweight, you should begin dieting and exercising immediately.  There is more at stake than just your figure.  Obesity can lead to a variety of health problems, some of which are deadly.  Talk to your doctor about what you can do.

Muscle confusion is the secret that makes P90X and other high impact workouts work so well.  It is a technique that turbocharges your workout routine to get results effectively and quickly.  The basic principle is to vary your routines during your workout.  Instead of focusing on one muscle group, you work out as many as possible.  You can change up your exercises, exercise order, number of sets and number of repetitions.

The Trouble With Steady Exercise

Traditional weight training focuses on working one muscle group for a set period of time.  The problem with this is that you end up plateauing.  When you do the same exercise over and over, you hit a point where there is no more increase.  Then, you switch to another muscle group and work on this until, again, you stop seeing results.  This puts you on a kind of vicious cycle where you keep plateauing.  Muscle confusion breaks through all of that by constantly switching up your exercises.

Speed Training

One of the great advantages to muscle confusion is that it gets results quickly.  Traditional weight training is good for those who make it a lifetime habit of working out, but for people who want to get in shape fast, muscle confusion gets much quicker results.  Some people in the exercise world scoff at it, saying that it’s just another trend that they’re trying to sell you.  But for people who have little time for a complex and involved exercise routine, it’s ideal.

Disadvantages Of Muscle Confusion

There are a few downsides to muscle confusion.  The main one is that this technique creates quite a rigorous workout.  It’s sort of like weight training on crack.  However, this high intensity is one reason why it gets results so quickly.  It may not be ideal for people who are obese, injured or disabled.  For people who are very sedentary and out of shape, it might be a good idea to work up to it.

There Is No Magic Bullet

Lots of products promise that muscle confusion is the one trick that will effortlessly give you the body you want.  It’s finally the one thing that will give you results with no pain.  Unfortunately, this isn’t true.  While muscle confusion does get phenomenal results in a much shorter period of time, there’s no magic to it.  You still need to put in the hours at the gym, and also make sure you’re getting a properly balanced diet.  But if you use it together with a balanced routine, it will get results quick.

Muscle confusion isn’t the only way to slim down and build muscle.  However, it’s regarded as the way to best maximize your workout routine.  It gets the most dramatic results possible in the shortest period of time.  This is why it’s important for people who want to get into shape.