Do These 3 Things Before Every Workout And You’ll Never Suffer Another Injury Again
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As fitness buffs and exercise junkies, we often get pumped at the single glance of a Shape or Bodybuilding magazine, feeling a rush of adrenaline surge through our veins while envisioning ourselves to be just as fit and healthy as the cover model.
But getting in shape doesn’t come without it’s share of bruises and injuries: a pulled muscle, strained ligament, and tendinitis are just a few of the most common injuries that occur during a workout.
Before you start any workout, complete these steps to save yourself the pain of an unnecessary injury.
Warm-up and cool-down. Despite common belief, warming up your muscles before rigorously exerting them is equally important as the workout itself. A proper warm-up loosens your cold, tight muscles and safely elevates your heart rate. You can warm-up by:
- Jog lightly on the treadmill for 5–10 minutes
- Ride a stationary bike at moderate pace for 5–10 minutes
- Jump rope, push-ups, air squats, or jumping jacks 100 times
A cool-down is necessary in order to give your elevated heart rate a chance to bring itself back down to a normal pace (this is especially true if you’ve just completed a cardio workout). Simply exhaling deeply and slowly while casually walking for five minutes is enough to bring your heart rate back to safe levels.
Stretch. Another activity most avid exercisers often skip is stretching those muscles. Stretching allows your body to be more flexible during your workout. When your muscles are tight, they’re more prone to injury due to being incapable of maneuvering quickly and effectively. Stretching is best performed after your warm-up, but before your main workout–never stretch cold muscles.
Take it easy. We’ve all seen that photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Universe, and sometimes we allow that fantasy to motivate us into pushing harder. But such a motivator can sometimes do more harm than good. When committing yourself to staying fit, it then becomes a lifelong endeavor, not a fling. Ease into it. Take your time. Build up your muscles, strength, and stamina. Once you feel confident enough, take your workouts to the next level.
Remedying injuries. The terminology “no pain, no gain” is rarely the correct way to tailor your workouts. Pushing your body beyond its limits can lead to serious injury. However, if an injury happens to occur, the best start to curing it will be to follow the R.I.C.E method.
R.I.C.E is an acronym mainly suited for professional and minor athletes, which stands for rest, ice, compression, elevate, but can be utilized by anyone engaging in physical activities. If done early on, this method can mitigate the severity of the injury, as well as the pain.
Depending on the severity of the injury, it may be wise to cease exercising that particular muscle for at least two weeks, or cease to exercise entirely until the injury has fully healed.
At the end of the day, it’s always better to play it safe rather than push your body past its limits and suffer an injury. Perform these quick and easy steps before each workout and you’ll drastically lessen the possibility of an exercise injury.
