Exercise is the best thing that you can do for your health no matter how old you are, how fit you are or what your goals are. If you do not avoid some of the most important fitness faux pas, however, exercise can be dangerous and harmful to your health. If you engage in a workout program without enough planning or foresight, you can lead to frustration, injury, burnout and many other things that will prevent you from getting the most out of what fitness has to offer you. If you want to maximize the capabilities of your workout, you need to avoid these seven deadly fitness faux pas.
1 - You must never skip your warm up. If you do too much too quickly, you're going to get hurt. The purpose of the warm up is to get your muscles and joints prepared for the workout. Warm up before you stretch, before you run, before you do anything that is labor intensive, otherwise you are going to get hurt.
2 - You must never jump into a hot tub or sauna right after working out. This can be detrimental to your body if your temperature is already elevated, so calm down and cool down first or you could be putting yourself at serious risk of injury. You need to let your body dissipate some heat following a workout before you add more heat to the equation.
3 - You must never hold your breath while you are lifting weights or strength training. Holding your breath when you lift weights will increase your blood pressure, and this can cause hernia, stroke, heart attack, dizziness, nausea and light headedness. Why do it, then? Make sure that you are inhaling and exhaling with every lift. Breathe naturally for the best results.
4 - You must never begin an exercise program without first receiving a proper physical examination. This is the best way to make sure that you are not putting yourself at risk when you are working out. Get a complete and thorough checkup before you work out to make sure that your body is ready for the rigors of the workout.
5 - You must never exercise beyond your determined range for your heart rate. You don't have to push yourself to extreme limits to lose weight or get healthy. The best way to push yourself is just to fall in the right heart rate limit, not to exceed it.
6 - You are going to want to avoid using hand weights or ankle weights while doing aerobics or while walking. These actually increase the risk of injury during these activities without giving any real benefits, so why bother with them?
7 - You must absolutely listen to what your body is telling you when you work out. If your heart is beating abnormally, if you are experiencing dizziness, nausea, pain, fatigue or other issues, you need to listen to your body. You do not want to have a heart attack or become injured because you pushed yourself too hard, it simply makes no sense.
Photo Credits: Daquella manera
Originally posted 2009-08-11 05:45:14. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related Posts -
Wii Fit: Healthy Weight Loss? Have you ever wondered if those video game exercise programs work? Can you achieve healthy weight loss playing a video game? The Wii Fit is the most popular of the weight loss programs that are on the market today. It has sold many thousands of units, but some wonder if...... -
4 Ways to Injury Proof Your Next Workout If you are just getting into exercising or you are an old pro, injuries can happen at any time. It doesn’t take much to injure our joints or muscles and exercising improperly only contributes to the problem. Before you go out to do your next workout, remember these tips to...... -
How to Get Exercise When You Don't Have Time Just because you do not have a lot of time on your hands, that does not mean that you will not be able to sneak exercise in to your daily schedule in order to get healthier and lose weight. Most people think that if they do not have an hour...... -
Roundup for Week of June 01 Here is the weekly roundup of the Fitness Health Network. The following are my personal favorites for this week: Journal of Healthy Living writes Diet Coke Drops Sodium Benzoate (E211). Sodium Benzoate is said to be linked to DNA damage, so this can only be a good sign for diet...... - Roundup for the Week Thank you Weight Master for including Weight Ladder in the weight management and fitness forum. Best posts from the Fitness Health Network blogs for the week: Most of us have been there; down to those last few pounds to reach our goal weight. Sometimes when we're there it's frustrating because we......
Related Websites -
Triathlon Tips Which Really Work Competing in a triathlon is one of the most challenging experiences you can hope for. This is why so many people look for good triathlon tips. This is because while many will be happy just to finish, others would like to move up in the rankings as they compete in...... -
How to Make Deer Hunting Videos If you've ever thought of making your own deer hunting videos but wondered who would want to watch them, you should consider the enjoyment you'll get from making them. You may be surprised at who would enjoy watching your videos. But even if no one did, you would have the...... -
Making the Most of Your Trip to the Coin Collector Shop If you are heading to a coin collector shop you are going to want to make sure that you get as much out of the trip as possible. You will want to make sure that you are going to be able to get the coins that you want, and that...... -
Rush 2 Perfume Review This is a review of the Rush 2 perfume, a perfume intended for use by women and designed by the Gucci design house. The Rush 2 perfume by Gucci is both a fresh and a flowery fragrance that opens up with accords of musk, rose and freesia. The Rush 2...... -
Real Reasons for Warming Up pt 2 Unfortunately, a warm up is not something that you can simply gloss over when it comes to preparing for a triathlon. This two part series seeks to look at why. We were talking about abnormal ECG changes, right? These abnormal changes in the ECG were not related to fitness level......
- Schwinn 231 Recumbent Exercise Bikes Cardiovascular Equipment Gym, Workout & Yoga Exercise & Fitness
- Clothing, Shoes & Accessories Gym, Workout & Yoga Exercise & Fitness
- Lifegear Megahertz Ml Magnetic Tension 28117 Recumbent Exercise Bikes Cardiovascular Equipment Gym, Workout & Yoga Exercise & Fitness
- Butt Thigh Exercisers Fitness Equipment Gym, Workout & Yoga Exercise & Fitness
- Portable Step/Riser Sets Fitness Equipment Gym, Workout & Yoga Exercise & Fitness
Categories:
exercise, Weight Loss Journal, wellness
Tags:
4 comments ↓
While I’d agree with most of these, #5 is complete and utter BS. Who “determines” what your range is for your heart rate? Some fitness machine that says at 40, 80% of my maximum HR is 144? Except that I’ve been exercising for 3 years, and when I run, my average heart rate is around 165. That’s w/out gasping and dying, just a nice steady running pace.
Pre determined heart rates are garbage. The best way to judge your workouts is to use the Perceived Exertion Scale (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/strengthening/a/030904.htm).
I have to wonder how many people actually follow #4. Most people (including me) just jump right into it. We often see this disclaimer on workout products, because the lawyers told them they needed to put that.
Don’t get me wrong, regular check-ups are important but I think that not a lot of people will follow this one.
The most difficult one for me is breathing while lifting weights. I have to consciously make myself breathe because holding my breath is what comes naturally.
I will definitely agree with number 7!
You have to listen to what your body is telling you at all times. If a muscle felt stiff that last lift then stop. There is nothing wrong with taking a day or two off for preventative measures. Why make a small problem bigger…
Also, often the quality of one workout will tell you a lot about what is going wrong currently. If you feel like you are having a less than stellar day at the gym than you had last week maybe your body is telling you that you need more rest. So yes, listen to your body.
-Sam
Leave a Comment