Don’t Ignore Pain and Soreness

Whenever an exercise causes pain, PAY ATTENTION!!!
Your response to pain can be the difference between a temporary annoyance, and a serious injury.

Muscle Soreness

When you start a resistance training program, or change some aspect of your routine, it’s normal to feel some soreness in 24-48 hours in the muscles that were used.  The pain is caused by microscopic tears in the muscles and connective tissue in your body.  This may sound harmful, but this microtrauma is a natural response of your body when you demand that it do more work than it’s accustomed to doing.  This is why it’s so important to get enough rest before working a muscle again.  Each time you lift weights and cause this microtrauma, your body needs enough down time to recover and rebuild a bigger and stronger muscle.  Without sufficient rest, you will be in a constant state of overtraining.

Cramps

Muscle cramps are intense, involuntary, contractions of muscles, quite often in the calves and hamstrings.  Cramps are often caused by dehydration, but can also be the result of intense voluntary contractions during a particularly challenging set of an exercise.  One of the best defenses against cramps is to stay hydrated, but if you do cramp, stop what you’re doing (like you really have a choice) and gently stretch the affected muscle.

Pain Just After or During Exercise

Repeated contractions during a workout cause a build up of lactic acid in the muscle tissue.  This may cause the ‘burn’ that many lifters experience without any actual injury.  If, however, you feel any sharp pain, stop exercising and have the pain checked by a doctor.

Injury

You always need to be in control of the weights, and not let them control you.  Failure to maintain control can, and will, result in injury.  Bad form, using momentum, jerking the weights around, not warming up, dropping the weights, trying to lift too much, or not concentrating on what you’re doing can result in some of the following injuries:

Sprains—a stretching or tearing of ligaments.
Strains—a stretching or tearing of a muscle, tendon, or fascia.
Tendonitis—inflammation of the tendon which may be caused by lifting too heavy on the first set, or not warming up properly.
Ligament injuries—may be caused by jerking the weights.

When such injuries occur, use the R.I.C.E. method of treating the swelling and inflammation:

• Rest—stop what you are doing and rest the affected area.
• Ice—wrap some ice in a towel (never put ice directly on the skin) and place it on the wounded area for 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times a day.
• Compress—wrap the injured area snugly, but not too tight, with an elastic bandage.
• Elevate—raise the injured area to help reduce swelling.

Resistance training has many benefits and can be a healthy and rewarding pursuit, but you need to pay attention to pain and soreness and how your body responds to different exercises.  If something doesn't feel right, don’t do it----either find a different exercise to work the muscle or ask for assistance to see if you’re doing something wrong.

© 2015 TOPFIT

www.topfitonline.com

TOPFIT Daily Activities --- Heavy Bag
Today, after a couple of active hours with Mason, I made time for a 30 minute heavy bag workout.  Overall, a rather low-key day.

~Feelin' Alive!~