Lift Weights Without Injury
Edited by Robbi, Jerry Rivers, Eng, Lynn
The focus of this tutorial is how to lift weights without injury. It is so easy to give up any regular exercise beyond the good old high school days, yet this is when your body will need it progressively more as you go through life. You need a balance in life for your well-being.Follow the steps below, and for just a few minutes a day, a few days a week, you will benefit immensely from weight lifting without injury.
With the busy schedule for post secondary education, later a career and family, it is so convenient to forget about taking care of your body. You may feel that you do not have time to work out, or that you will only get injured. My friend, these are excuses. Take a few minutes each day for the short weight lifting program provided below. You can lift weights without injury and you can make time for this. You will have a healthier, longer life if you follow the steps in this tutorial. You will reap other benefits, too. You will sleep better, look better, become stronger, more dynamic, and have better posture! Sounds good? OK, get ready for it! Here you go for a better quality of life, and a longer one!
- 1You should know that most injuries from a weight lifting program are from carelessness and lack of common sense.Use a weight lifting program that fits your schedule and goals. If you want to get fit, and not be involved in a competitive sport, you do not need an intense program that consumes a lot of time daily.
- Use proper care in weight lifting.
- Use common sense.
- Become knowledgeable for the weight lifting program to achieve and maintain your personal goals.
- 2Most injuries reported are from carelessness resulting in hand and feet injuries, so help yourself by wearing the fitness gloves and shoes! Weight training is also the safest of sports, and if you are into recreational sport the 15-minute workout below will help your performance. It will benefit you in so many other ways, also. By the way, today, professional athletes train intensively, but only in short workouts. This is called interval training. It will work for you, too.The equipment recommended is weight lifting gloves and comfortable lace-up cross-training, or sports shoes.
- 3Stay with a basic routine:
- Wear weight lifting gloves for optimal comfort and safety. The cost is from $10-35.
- Wear fitness shoes that lace up. Shoes from other sports, such as tennis, running or basketball will suffice unless you become a serious weight lifter.
- 4Stay with all the basics in your routine to prevent injury and health problems:
- Eat the proper foods from the Food Plate program.
- Sleep eight hours per day. Research has shown that you will not only function better daily, but will live a longer life.
- Take time to rest (deload). You get stronger, and stay injury free if you have rest time daily. If you are in a weight training program, you need recovery time for your muscle tissues to rebuild. It is during those rest periods when you gain strength. During the workouts you are actually breaking down muscle. The harder and longer you workout, the more deload time you need.
- Start with light weights. It is imperative that you begin your weight lifting program by not taxing your limbs or core with the maximum weights you can lift and work out for a long spell. Follow the program outlined below, and your body will gain strength and endurance. Stay with 10-15 minutes total time, but just increase the weight per exercise slightly every six weeks.
- Do lifts with partial movements for strength and to stay injury free. For example, rather than a full range-of-motion while performing a standard curl, lift the barbell only till it is parallel with the floor, then bring it down. This is a lift, not a swing. DO NOT SWING WEIGHTS!
- 5Stretch.Your arms, legs, and core for a minute minimum after workouts - Stretching is essential for a few reasons:
- Injury prevention
- Better flexibility
- Rids the lactic acid, and reduces soreness
- Helps build strength, speed, and jumping ability
- Helps calm nerves
- 6Warm up a minute to begin each workout
- This will improve circulation
- It clears the mind to focus on your weight lifting
- It warms all of your muscles and connective parts to joints for an optimal, safe workout
- It builds lung capacity, and helps build endurance
15-minutes weight lifting program
- 1It will keep off the excess fat and increase your body metabolism. Here is a weekly starting weight-training program that will reduce risk of injury while lifting weights. If you want to work out longer, remember it is much better for you to break it up into 10-minute intervals rather than one hour continuously. Just increase intensity if you are also into a competitive sport.Along with strengthening, improving muscle tone, reducing risk of diseases, and other benefits, your hormone (endocrine) and immune systems will begin functioning better.
- Begin with a warm-up cardiovascular (CV) exercise. This may include a stationary bike, jumping rope, jogging, jumping jacks, or treadmill jogging. Do any exercise that will get your heart pumping faster for at least a minute.
- End workout with stretching for one minute minimum.
- Increase the sets by one more set, and the weight of your barbell and kettle bell every six weeks to progress.
- Rest for five seconds between sets, and 30 seconds between exercises.
- Inhale between lifts and exhale as you lift.
- Vary sets to partial range of motion on lifts from day to day. Take one day for full range of motion for each lifting exercise.
- Your abdominal muscles recover rapidly. This is why you are doing them each day of the workout.
- Keep proper form. Do not exceed the max weight that you can lift with proper form to stay injury free.
- Begin with a warm-up cardiovascular (CV) exercise.
Daily Programs
Monday
- 1Three sets of eight reps.Deadlifts:
- Hold barbell with hands shoulder width apart.
- Keep your back straight as you lift with your legs.
- Keep your head up and look straight ahead as you lift.
- 2Use a pull-up bar for two sets of five reps the first six weeks. Increase by one rep every six weeks.Chin-ups:
- 3Two sets of 15-25. This is only a partial sit up.Crunches:
- Have hands behind head unlocked.
- Lift back off the floor.
Tuesday
- 1Standard curl with palms under the barbell. Two sets of eight reps. This can be done with kettle bells, also. Do partial curls of the same rep rather than full range.Curls:
- 2Use the barbell for two sets of eight reps.Overhead presses:
- 3Two sets of 20 reps.Burpees:
- 4Two sets of 15-25 reps.Crunches:
Wednesday
- 1Two sets of eight reps.Deadlifts:
- 2Using barbell or kettle bells at your sides, do two sets of eight.Squat thrusts:
- 3Just as with dead lifting, keep your back straight and keep your head up by looking straight ahead.
- Bend no deeper than thighs parallel with the floor.
- Do not lock knees when you are standing up.
- 4Two sets of 15-25.Crunches:
Thursday
- 1Two sets of eight reps.French curls:
- Have a barbell disk or other weight that you can grip comfortably.
- While standing, using both arms, have your hands on disk at the sides.
- Take the weight behind your head bend your arms back and lift the weight till arms are straight above your head.
- Chin Ups: Two sets of five reps.
- Crunches: Two sets of 15-25.
Friday
- 1Two to three sets of eight reps.Goblet squats with a weight:
- Have your feet a bit more than shoulder width apart.
- Hold a kettle bell or barbell disk against your upper chest.
- Keep the kettle bell against your upper chest during each rep.
- Keep your head up, and back straight as you squat as far down as comfortably possible.
- Stand up then repeat the squat.
- 2Two to three sets of eight reps.Lunges with a weight:
- 3Two sets of five to seven reps.Chin ups:
Saturday
- 1If you can run, get outdoors and run short sprints in 10 second intervals for five minutes total.
- 2Do a fun activity or sport for an hour or more today.
- 3Two sets of 15-25.Crunches:
Sunday
This is your day for resting.
Follow this program for 15 minutes each workout total, and you will see results already within a few weeks. If you use common sense, lifting the weights properly without swinging them, and use correct form you will continue improving. Follow the basics above, and no smoking! If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation. This will give you the quality life that you deserve.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
Comments
Article Info
Categories : Sports
Recent edits by: Eng, Jerry Rivers, Robbi
