Gym Safety: A Complete Guide

Gym Safety: A Well-constructed Guide

Are you pumped up to hit the gym increasingly often? Whether inspired by the new year or just carpe-ing the diem, congratulations on your resolve. Knowing how to create a workout routine is one of the weightier things you can do for yourself.

Before you go full steam ahead on your fitness goals, however, it’s important to know how to do so safely. Exercising improperly or not using gym equipment correctly can not only get in the way of the results you’re hoping for, but can moreover result in injury. On the other hand, knowing proper habits and techniques can help to alimony you unscratched from harm and optimize your workout for plane largest outcomes.

Whether you’re looking to start exercising at a fitness part-way or once have some wits under your (lifting) belt, we’ll discuss some gym safety tips that can help to ensure your fitness regimen is all gain, no pain.

Prepare Surpassing You Get to the Gym

Gym safety starts well surpassing you overly pick up a barbell. It starts plane surpassing you walk in the door! Follow these steps to make sure you’re in good shape to get in shape.

Talk to Your Doctor

An yearly health checkup from a physician is recommended for everyone, and can reveal conditions that could stupefy your exercise ambitions.

And while it’s not mandatory to consult with a doctor well-nigh your fitness plans if you’re in good health, you veritably should if you:¹

• Haven’t been zippy in a long time
• Have upper thoroughbred pressure
• Have diabetes
• Have heart disease
• Have asthma
• Have osteoporosis or flipside unorthodoxy or joint disease
• Have a neurological illness
• Have flipside preexisting condition
• Are pregnant
• Smoke 
• Are on medication

If you have these or any other unaddressed health symptoms, it’s wise to consult your physician surpassing starting a new workout routine—especially a rigorous one.

Acquire the Proper Equipment

You should use proper equipment in good condition designed for the sport or worriedness you intend to take up. This includes:²

• Well-fitting shoes that you replace every 6 months, or as they wear out 
• Comfortable, light, loose gown that breathe, expressly in hot weather
• Easily-removable layers for unprepossessed weather
• Whatever protective gear is recommended for your sport, including mouthguards, shin pads, and helmets

Find a Gym Buddy

Some people prefer to exercise by themselves, but in wing to uneaten encouragement to stick to the program, working out with a friend can modernize gym safety by providing:³

• An uneaten set of vision to watch out for environmental hazards
• Feedback to unzip proper form
• Encouragement to drink and breathe
• A spotter for weight lifting

Follow Gym Etiquette (And Help to Prevent Hazards)

Being enlightened of yourself and others can go a long way toward gym safety surpassing you overly set foot on a treadmill. Following these gym etiquette practices can prevent injuries for yourself and others:⁴

• Be mindful of your surroundings—noticing who is nearby, and what they are doing—and requite people the space they need.
• Make sure your shoelaces are tied and your long hair is put up.⁵
• Scan for trip hazards surpassing you work out, and pick up your towel, water bottle, or any other items from the gym floor surpassing you move on to flipside part of the gym.
• Wipe up any water you may have spilled or excessive sweat from the gym floor. 
• Wipe your sweat off any fitness equipment without you use it.
• Don’t exercise in the sauna or steam room. It’s worrying to others and could be harmful to you.⁴

Warm Up, Stretch, and Tomfool Down

There’s some debate as to whether warming up and stretching surpassing a workout and cooling lanugo supervenient actually prevent injuries, but it is still recommended. It may reduce soreness and, at the very least, can prepare your soul to move and help you focus on your workout.

Warm Up

The first part of your workout, plane surpassing you stretch, should be to warm up.⁵ There are many benefits of warming up surpassing a workout. Not only does it get your thoroughbred flowing, but it moreover prepares your joints and muscles for the increasingly intense physical worriedness to come.

Warming up doesn’t need to last long—it can be as short as 3 to 5 minutes, and can include light exercises like:

• Walking in place or on a treadmill
• Running or lightly jogging in place or on a treadmill
• Using an elliptical or stationary trundling at a relaxed pace with minimal exertion surpassing you try for your target level 
• Rehearsing the movements in the exercises you intend to do to signal those muscle groups that it’s time to engage
• Ten pushups, ten knee lifts, and ten squats

Stretch

Stretching at least twice a week can help you to increase your flexibility and range of motion, which can lead to a safer workout.⁵ Stretch without you warm up and follow these guidelines: 

• Move slowly and deliberately, with control, into and out of a stretch. Don’t make jerky movements.
• Hold the stretch for 10 to 30 seconds.
• Don’t vellicate into a stretch. Over-stretching makes muscles contract, and pushing them remoter can tear the muscle tissue. If you finger pain, release the stretch.

Cool Down

Cooling lanugo is the last step of your workout, and helps you to bring your temperature and heart rate slowly when to baseline. You can tomfool lanugo by simply reducing the speed, intensity, or weight of your workout for 3 to 10 minutes surpassing you come to a well-constructed stop.⁵ 

Use Equipment Correctly

A gym is full of fitness equipment with heavy, fast-moving parts that can injure your fingers, toes, and other soul parts. Many have easy-to-read visual instructions. Familiarize yourself with their operation surpassing you use them, and ask gym staff for help if you need it.

Here are some safety tips to alimony in mind for worldwide gym equipment:

Bench Press

Though it’s one of the simplest pieces of exercise equipment, with hundreds of pounds of self-ruling weight getting thrust into the air over your body, the seat printing is moreover one of the most dangerous. Follow these tips to use one safely:⁶

• Recruit someone to spot for you.
• Make sure the collars (the clips that alimony the weight plates in place) are used correctly.
• Keep your feet on the ground.
• Hold your chest out and your shoulder blades back.
• Keep a firm grip on the bar.
• Look straight superiority at the ceiling.
• Don’t use your chest to stop or vellicate the bar on the way down.
• Return the bar and plates to their proper places when done.

Pulley Machines

Pulley machines are safer than self-ruling weights, but can still have their own hazards. Follow these tips to help prevent injury:⁶

• Learn each machine’s operation surpassing using it.
• Check for wear and tear on the cables.
• Set the machine’s positions in vibrations with your exercise targets.
• Make sure the pins are used correctly.

Rowing Machines

Likewise, a rowing machine should be used properly to ensure safety. Follow these tips to safely operate rowing machines:⁶

• Check the stability of the machine surpassing you start.
• Secure your feet tightly in the straps.
• Point your toes up, not curled in or out.
• Keep your when straight and be sure not to arch.
• Keep the handle parallel to the floor and don’t twist or turn it.

If you are using this machine for the first time, trammels out these row machine workouts for beginners to make sure you are using this piece of equipment virtuously and efficiently.

Other Equipment

Some gym equipment is increasingly self-explanatory, but still needs to be used with respect and care. Examples include:⁶

• Stationary bike – Trammels that you and the velocipede are the right fit for each other, adjusting the seat and handlebars as needed. Wait until the pedals stop completely surpassing you dismount the bike.
• Ab-crunch – Alimony your stovepipe wilting at 90 degrees. Start light and move with the same tenancy you would for lifting weights.
• Elliptical – Maintain an upright position and don’t lean forward over the bars. Confirm that your lower soul is supporting your whole weight. Wait until the machine comes to a well-constructed stop surpassing stepping off.

Practice Unstipulated Workout Safety

There are a few unstipulated principles you can bring to any type of workout that will modernize the safety and efficacy of your performance.

• Be patient – Despite what you might have heard, go nonflexible or go home does not unchangingly wield to the gym. Finding a wastefulness between what challenges you and what’s unscratched for your soul is essential to preventing injury. Build up gradually in intensity, frequency, and duration, but never all at the same time.
• Listen to your soul – Working out can be strenuous, and you should expect (and may plane come to enjoy) a little soreness a day or two without exercise. But it shouldn’t be painful. Be kind to yourself and unclose your limitations. If you wits pain during your workout, stop. If you are tired all the time, you may be working out too often. 
• Learn proper techniques – Proper form can uplift your performance and alimony you safer. Techniques can include everything from proper posture to making sure you outbreathe in between reps. If you’re not sure what the proper technique is for the exercise you’re performing, ask gym staff or a regular to help you out with a form check.
• Seek help when you need it – We all start somewhere. Don’t be wrung to ask for translating when you’re not sure what you’re doing. A personal trainer can help make sure that you move correctly and in a way that won’t strain your lower when or other problem areas, but the price point can be a non-starter. Consider fitness classes or team training if you want to unravel your record but not unravel the bank.
• Diversify – Develop a well-turned program that includes cardio, strength, and flexibility, and vary your workouts to prevent overuse injuries. This moreover keeps you mentally engaged so you don’t lose concentration.
• Hydrate – We lose 1.5L of fluid per hour of exercise.⁷ To prevent dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke, drink 1 pint of water fifteen minutes surpassing you start, half a cup every 15 to 20 minutes during, and flipside pint without you tomfool down. 
• Rest – Some exercise is largest than none, but working out increasingly than five days a week can lead to diminishing returns. Requite yourself one or two days off to recover and rest when you’re tired.

Chuze Fitness: A Unscratched Flex

With these safety tips in mind, you can confidently start or resume your fitness journey with a safer and increasingly efficient gym experience. But when it comes to working out safely and getting help when you need it, it moreover helps to have a gym polity that has your back.

At Chuze Fitness, our mission is to build healthier communities through human connections and kindness. That starts with self-kindness and extends to our gyms stuff a welcoming place where you’ll finger like you vest and never pressured to push yourself too hard.

It moreover extends to our astonishingly low price point. Because we believe that we all deserve unconfined results when we search for “gyms near me.”

 

Reviewed By:

Ani is the Vice President of Fitness at Chuze Fitness and oversees the group fitness and team training departments. She’s had a 25 year career in club management, personal training, group exercise and instructor training. Ani lives with her husband and son in San Diego, CA and loves hot yoga, snowboarding and all things wellness.

 

 

Sources:

1. Mayo Clinic. Exercise: When to trammels with your doctor first. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20047414
2. OrthoInfo. Safe Exercise. https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/safe-exercise/
3. Verywell Fit. 7 Gym Safety Tips for Healthy Workouts. https://www.verywellfit.com/gym-safety-tips-3435211
4. Healthline. Know the Code: Gym Etiquette for Every Situation.  https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/gym-etiquette#in-group-fitness
5. MedlinePlus. How to stave exercise injuries. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000859.htm
6. SF Healthtech. Exercise Safety Checklist: How to Use Gym Equipment Safely. https://sfhealthtech.com/blogs/post/exercise-safety-checklist
7. Better Health Channel. Exercise safety. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/exercise-safety
8. Harvard Health Publishing. 10 tips for exercising safely. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/10-tips-for-exercising-safely
9. USA Today. Working Out From Home: Safety tips from sturdy trainers for exercising while staying home. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2020/03/30/coronavirus-athletic-trainers-advice-workout-safely-from-home/2937439001/
10. Kaiser Permanente. 6 tips to alimony moving and stave injury. https://wa-health.kaiserpermanente.org/6-tips-keep-moving-avoid-injury/

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