Weight training and exercise in general are good for you. Sometimes however, you can get injured, but most of the time, these injuries could have been avoided.
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Pain in your back
This very common pain often occurs from poor posture or poorly executing certain exercises. It can also appear if you try and do exercises with too much weight.
In order to avoid hurting your back, you have to support your spine. Just like for your muscles, sit-ups are excellent for that. Try to keep a correct posture all throughout the day as well, especially if you work in an office.
Hamstring tears
Very common in exercise, particularly when you need to use explosive force in your lower body. Most of the time, these tears occur when the muscles are solicited too violently.
So as not to tear your hamstrings and suffer because of it (because yes, they are quite bad), make sure you warm up well and stretch your legs beforehand. If you don’t, you’re looking at 2 to 6 weeks for the tear to heal.
Pubalgia
This injury, which sounds quite a lot like a disease, is also known as groin strain and can occur in several muscles, your hips, pelvis or even the tendons around your groin. However, these injuries are associated with lateral movements, often due to excessive stretching of the muscles in this part of the body.
To avoid pubalgia, you should do some dynamic stretches and use resistance bands. Focus on reinforcing the inside of your thighs and your hips as well.
Rotator cuff tendonitis
This area of your shoulder is often the target for tendonitis that occurs after repeating certain movements or doing them with poor technique (bench presses for example). The rotator cuff is made up of four muscles and tendons that allow you to move it in all directions. So, make sure you take care of it.
Therefore, to avoid being out of the gym for weeks, use an elastic band to work on your resistance. Also, pay attention to your execution technique when you do your upper body exercises.
Elbow pain (epicondylitis)
Finally, the last common sport injury is elbow pain. As occurs with the knees for example, the elbow is submitted to pressure put on the muscles and joints around it. Most come from the forearm and wrists.
Make sure you warm up your joints before starting any exercise that needs you to grip something and an elbow strap can also be a very effective accessory. If not, you could always do this very simple exercise.
Take a look at the video above for more tips on how to avoid these pesky injuries...
