Day 6: Injury Prevention

Any beginner needs to learn about the importance of injury prevention early on as injuries can happen to anyone. The true art of growing every year is staying injury free so that you never have to compromise your intensity due to injuries.

Here are a few tips for injury prevention:

1. Understand the difference between good pain and bad pain. I’ve always told you to chase the pain and embrace it, but that’s “good” pain from the lactic acid pooling in your muscles. “Bad” pain would be something like a joint that is damaged or a muscle which is strained. You need to be able to distinguish between the two and seek medical advice if you’ve got an injury.
2. If you’ve been susceptible to a specific injury all of your life, or your joints are prone to being dry, I’d recommend you warm up with some cardio before you lift weights. This doesn’t have to be strenuous, just enough to get the blood pumping into your muscles, increase the elasticity of the muscle, and promote the production of synovial fluid which lubricates the joints.
3. Always seek medical advice if you’re ever in doubt. Injuries don’t mean you have to stop everything - you can usually work around them. The worst thing you can do is ignore them, allowing them to get worse over time.