Prevention is the Key to Avoiding the Most Common Weight Lifting Injuries

Anyone considering a weight lifting regimen should make sure they are well versed in the proper way to go about weight training. Online research, reading books and articles; as well as the consideration of hiring a personal trainer should come before you hit the gym hard and heavy. Always perform the proper stretching and warm-up before your workout.

The most common weight lifting injuries occur because of improper technique while performing the exercises, the use of weight that is too heavy for your level of skill and ability, and because you are not aware of the right way to use the equipment. Some people just starting out with weight training overestimate their strength and begin with weights that are too heavy, they do too many repetitions or sets, or they over train certain muscle groups while neglecting others; creating an imbalance in their body.

Muscle soreness is going to occur to some extent with everyone trying to make gains in muscle strength because you are pushing your body beyond its limits to create larger, stronger muscles. When that soreness goes beyond the normal and into the realm of chronic pain for long periods of time or acute, intense pain during your workout, then you should consider the possibility that you may have a strain, sprain or a torn muscle.

Overtraining, while not an injury, can lead to injuries because you are not allowing your muscles the proper time needed to heal and repair between intense workouts. You want to balance out your workouts and train all your muscle groups so you have a balanced body and your opposing muscle groups are equally strong. For example, one of the most common poses stuck by body building athletes is the one showing off the double biceps. But if you only worked your biceps and not the triceps, which is the opposite muscle group and is used in extending the arm as opposed to bending it, you would soon experience problems with imbalance as one set of muscles would be strong while the other lagged behind.