Don’t Make These Mistakes In The Gym

We are very proud of our onsite rehabilitation gym. We see it as one of the most important parts of our Newmarket physio clinic because it helps our patients achieve their goals of injury recovery, gaining strength and maintaining general well-being. While they’re using our gym, we can keep a watchful eye on our patients and help them avoid mistakes that can cause further injury and hamper their progress. Believe us, mistakes are very common in gyms all around the world, especially when training with weights. These are some of the most common ones for you to avoid at your next workout:

• Skipping the warm-up. Warm-ups heat up muscle tissue, enhance tissue extensibility (the ability for tissue to be extended or stretched) decrease internal tissue resistance, and increase the amount of tissue deformation that can occur before you break the injury threshold. Not warming up properly before a workout deprives you of all of these crucial benefits. Full-body exercises like jumping jacks, light cardio, and stretching are essential to get your body ready before a workout.
• Working out without eating enough. Exercising in the gym on an empty stomach means less stamina and more fatigue during your session. If you exercise for long periods or do workouts with high intensity, you’ll more likely suffer from low blood sugar and fatigue if you have not eaten for several hours. Plus, if your food intake is consistently low, you can even lose muscle mass due to your body burning muscle tissue as an energy source. You must always eat sufficiently before exercise, ideally a balance of protein and carbohydrates.
• Not giving your body a chance to recover. While you may be in a rush to get fit by working out as much as you can, patience is a virtue that can actually have better results in the long run. Overtraining can have the opposite effect of what you’re trying to achieve and can leave your body weaker than it was due to your muscles being overworked. This can see you lose enthusiasm for your weight training, as well as ongoing fatigue and muscle soreness, irritation, and increased risk of injury. For all these reasons, rest days are vital.
• Holding your breath. Holding your breath while you’re lifting weights can cause a rapid increase in your blood pressure, which can lead to a range of problems including a hernia. In some cases, holding your breath while lifting weights can even cause you to pass out.

These are just a few of the most common mistakes made in a gym. But the biggest mistake of all is not following the advice of your gym instructor, or anyone in charge of your exercise programme. Of course, injuries can happen whenever you physically exert yourself, and if it happens to you, contact us and we’ll get you back in shape for more workouts. And if part of your recovery is in the onsite gym at our physio clinic in Newmarket, rest assured we’ll keep a watchful eye on you so you don’t make a painful mistake!