We’ve discussed before the importance of making sure to always get in your fair share of weekly cardio workouts for optimal results, no matter your fitness goal; which you can read more about why it’s so important in our previous post here.
Yet there are many things that can get in the way of a good cardio workout such as lack of motivation, lack of time, or coming down with sickness. Getting an injury while working out can also prevent you from getting in future workout sessions and having to take a break from your cardio, which will only derail your fitness goals.
Now unfortunately not all workout injuries are preventable, few are just bad luck of the draw, yet there are others that you can surely prevent. The more injuries we are able to prevent and avoid the closer and faster we can get to reaching our fitness goals.
So here at NordicTrackCoupons.com we want to help our readers avoid any obstacle that may get in their way of reaching their goals, especially when it comes to helping prevent any cardio workout injuries. We found a few tips from FitSugar.com, you can find the full article here, to help you prevent workout injuries and help you achieve your results faster:
- Don’t Skip the Warm-Up: Many are always in a rush to squeeze in workouts whenever they can, yet this does not mean you should overlook your warm-up to get in more intense workout time. Going right into the workout, especially cardio workouts, will put you at risk for muscle strain or pulling a muscle, which can also lead to a higher risk of falling. Warming up for 5 minutes is all it takes to be sure your muscles are warm and ready.
- Switch Up Your Cardio: Although we are big fans of running on your treadmill, pounding the belt 4 times a week will cause you to use the same muscles for every workout and can cause strain on these overworked muscles. Try switching it up with elliptical workouts, biking, or swimming for your cardio a couple days a week. Check out this article here for some great low-impact cardio workouts you can substitute once a week to give your body a break, you can also do these cardio workouts if in the unfortunate case you do get injured.
- Balance Your Workouts: If running or cycling are your main forms of cardio, then it’s safe to say your legs are very well trained and strong; yet what about the rest of your body, such as your arms? FitSugar.com states that “when certain muscles are strong and others are weak, it causes muscular imbalances that can mess with your posture and put strain on parts of your body, leading to injury.” To help prevent this be sure that during your strength training workouts that you focus on the parts of your body that may not be getting as much attention during your cardio workouts.
- Importance of Stretching: We’ve told before in this article here, but we’ll say it again, stretching is crucial to any exercise and overlooking its importance will only lead to a series of injuries. Stretching before your workout is going to warm up your muscles and increase your flexibility, reducing your risk of pulling or straining a muscle. Gentle stretching after a cardio workout is also going to help loosen your hard working muscles and making them less prone to pain and injury after the intense strain you just placed on them during your workout.
- Schedule Rest: Be sure to set a said a day to three days each week for lighter workouts or breaks from workouts entirely. Your muscles need time to recover and heal to become stronger, which is many of our goals, stronger muscles. Allowing your muscles this time to recover and become stronger also helps to decreases chances of future workout injuries as well.
Another great tip that SportsMedicine.About.com shares in this article here is to listen to your body. If at all during your workout you begin to experience any sharp pain, weakness or light-headedness then you should stop exercising. These are signs your body is signaling to you that something is wrong. Trying to push through these pains is only going to lead to a more severe injury.
Follow these tips to help you avoid unnecessary cardio workout injuries that could derail your workout progress. Avoiding these injuries will help you achieve your fitness goals faster!
