As New Year’s fitness resolutions begin, a local fitness expert said starting too fast can lead to injury, a common reason that resolutions fail. .
Fitness Expert Joseph Looker said you can avoid injury by drinking lots of water as you begin your routine. He said stretching is also very important when beginning a new routine.
“If you just do that prior to working out in addition to warming up on like a treadmill or an elliptical for about five minutes to get the blood flowing, get your body warmed up, those all are great fits that help out tremendously before you get on the floor and start challenging yourself with some weights and machines,” Looker said.
Looker said being prepared is also key to avoiding injury. Looker said a lot of times, people do not put a lot of thought into a plan before they start working out.
“It’s really a matter of you know, doing some optimal research before going into such a change in lifestyle, especially when you go from being like sedentary to trying to be really active in the gym,” Looker said. “You know if you go full throttle, it’s really easy to not only hurt yourself, but just feel completely overwhelmed.”
Looker said there is good pain from working out, which is your muscles breaking down to become stronger. Looker said there can also be bad pain from working out by overworking your body, which is what a good portion of starters do.
Looker said he advises starters to ease in to a workout routine. Looker said one way to do that is to increase the number of reps but use lighter weights.
“You don’t want to try to go in there and try to hit personal records every single exercise and every single lift that you are doing,” Looker said. “You just want to go in there and get the blood flowing. Obviously, sweat a little bit and burn those calories.”
Looker said he suggested working out twice a week for starters. Looker said he advises people to listen to their bodies, meaning if workout day arrives and you can hardly move because of soreness, it is okay to take that day off.
Looker said people can safely work out by themselves, but if they have not worked out in a while or have never worked out, he advises working with a fitness trainer just to get comfortable around the gym.