Weightlifting is a must if you desire to have a bigger body frame, but if not done properly, it is a sure-fire way to hurt yourself.
Following basic guidelines and weight safety techniques would help prevent you from getting injured during weightlifting.
Here are a few tips that you should have stored up in your mind if you want to get the best out of weightlifting.
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Strengthen Your Core Muscles
Strong muscles are the key protectors of the spinal cord. That means if your muscles are weak or un-complying, it would be difficult for it to provide the support your body needs. Here are a few core-building exercises:
Water Therapy
This is particularly for exercises that engage the legs, and it provides a great deal of motion because of water’s buoyancy. Water also creates resistance due to its gentle friction, and this would help in strengthening an already injured muscle.
Water therapy is essential if you have chronic back pain or if you find it difficult to exercise without needing the support water provides.
Low Impact Cardiovascular Exercise
This involves activities as simple as brisk walking or walking up and down the steps frequently. It helps to stimulate the flow of blood to the spine, thereby stretching the muscles. When there is enough blood flow to the muscles, it supplies hydration and healing nutrients to the lower back region.
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Use Your Core
One of the best moves to make when lifting weights is to make use of your core, hence the importance of strengthening your core muscles. Using your core would protect your back from any injuries. Also, you should engage your abdominal muscles and keep it tense while lifting weight, because this would help in correcting your posture. Making use of your core muscles while lifting weights would prevent you from using the wrong muscles, and this is very important, or else you are putting your spine in the line of danger.
However, at any point when you get to feel stressed or unbearable pain in your abdominal muscles while lifting weights, it is time to drop the weights and call it a day.
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Straighten Your Back
When lifting weight, never arch your back. It’s very important to keep your back straight at all times. We get that it can feel extremely comfortable arching your back, but you are only causing yourself nerve damages and tingling in both your arms and legs.
Ensure that you don’t twist your back either, because this would cause you to engage muscles that you shouldn’t, making you work out more than required.
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Know When To Stop
This is perhaps the most important thing you should know if you are trying to prevent yourself from having injuries while weightlifting. The moment when you feel exhausted physically, that’s the moment to stop. However, you should stop your weightlifting session before this point because when you are physically drained, you have a higher risk of getting injured.
Most times, people still push themselves to lift more weight after being physically exhausted by engaging other muscle groups in lifting the weights. However, this isn’t right because it can cause serious injury to your lower back and the other muscles as well.
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Choose The Right Weight
The majority of the injuries that happen during weight lifting occurs because the person is using the wrong size of weights for their weight lifting sessions. You should remember that carrying heavier weights doesn’t guarantee that you are going to tone and build your muscles faster. If you carry more weight than your body can handle, you would only end up causing more harm to yourself.
You can still get the maximum benefits from weightlifting while using lighter weights; heavier weights aren’t always better.
If you realize that the weight is too much for you, do not push yourself further because you feel you will achieve better results. You can use lighter weights and still get great results, plus it significantly reduces your risks.
Other tips include:
- Ensure that your muscles are properly warmed up before all your weightlifting sessions
- Build up your strength, by starting from lower weights and then progressing to heavier weights
- Have full control over your form, and avoid sudden movements while lifting weights
- Don’t rush your way through the weightlifting session as this can cause you to flail about, resulting in back injuries
Keeping all of these tips in mind would prevent you from making certain mistakes in your upcoming workouts. And now, you are confident that your back is protected from unnecessary pain and potential injuries, which can lead to long-term damage.
