The bodybuilding community has a famous saying that in order to get the most from your workouts, it must be "no pain, no gain". Unfortunately, anybody who abides by that is likely to cause long term and irreversible damage to their bodies through painful injuries. The only benefit pain has for us is telling us that we are doing something wrong and that it must be corrected, including bad form and dangerous exercises.
In order to always benefit from your workouts, safety must be observed. This includes proper exercises and routines that do not lead to excessive injuries. Here are some precautions to observe in order to achieve safer bodybuilding workouts.
1. Use free weight exercises as they are the only true safe movements that your body was made for. Exercises done using machines are mostly dangerous in a subversive way and it does not help that most mainstream exercise literature promote them. Machines force your body to move in unnatural motion planes that lead to injuries, while free weights force your body to adapt to pressure using movements that it is familiar with.
2. Concentrate your efforts on major movements such as the squats, deadlifts, chin ups and bench presses. These exercises utilize all your major muscle groups which are really what your body is built on. They also encourage a more balanced body to be built.
3. The minor muscle groups like biceps and triceps need to be worked on, but not as much. The major exercises will expose them to considerable amount of training. You can include a low number of sets of specialized exercises like bicep curls if required, but not too many so as to avoid overtraining.
4. Ensure that your body gets sufficient rest in between workouts. This must be done in tandem by having a sensible number of workouts per week, instead of training everyday. Having proper rest and nutrition is crucial to maximizing returns from bodybuilding, instead of doing too much.
5. Never go into a workout set with cold muscles. Perform a few warm up sets to get blood flowing to the muscles and keep them warm. This will also help your mind and body get in focus for the proper sets when the heavier weights are in place. Again, all this is done to avoid injuries that might result from ill preparation and a lack of concentration.
Having safe workouts should be the priority for any bodybuilder. The above measures should be observed by both the beginner and advanced trainee or ugly consequences might result. If pain is experienced during any training session, be sure to stop and assess the damage first before making an informed decision to proceed or rest. - 15438
In order to always benefit from your workouts, safety must be observed. This includes proper exercises and routines that do not lead to excessive injuries. Here are some precautions to observe in order to achieve safer bodybuilding workouts.
1. Use free weight exercises as they are the only true safe movements that your body was made for. Exercises done using machines are mostly dangerous in a subversive way and it does not help that most mainstream exercise literature promote them. Machines force your body to move in unnatural motion planes that lead to injuries, while free weights force your body to adapt to pressure using movements that it is familiar with.
2. Concentrate your efforts on major movements such as the squats, deadlifts, chin ups and bench presses. These exercises utilize all your major muscle groups which are really what your body is built on. They also encourage a more balanced body to be built.
3. The minor muscle groups like biceps and triceps need to be worked on, but not as much. The major exercises will expose them to considerable amount of training. You can include a low number of sets of specialized exercises like bicep curls if required, but not too many so as to avoid overtraining.
4. Ensure that your body gets sufficient rest in between workouts. This must be done in tandem by having a sensible number of workouts per week, instead of training everyday. Having proper rest and nutrition is crucial to maximizing returns from bodybuilding, instead of doing too much.
5. Never go into a workout set with cold muscles. Perform a few warm up sets to get blood flowing to the muscles and keep them warm. This will also help your mind and body get in focus for the proper sets when the heavier weights are in place. Again, all this is done to avoid injuries that might result from ill preparation and a lack of concentration.
Having safe workouts should be the priority for any bodybuilder. The above measures should be observed by both the beginner and advanced trainee or ugly consequences might result. If pain is experienced during any training session, be sure to stop and assess the damage first before making an informed decision to proceed or rest. - 15438
About the Author:
Colin Zane has quality bodybuilding diets built on natural foods on his site. You can learn more about the benefits of natural bodybuilding on Colin's page about the sport.
