The benefits of sports in human life are known to everyone. Physical activity provides great health benefits, improves the cardiorespiratory and muscular system, and extends life expectancy. You can compare it to Bob Casino gambling. It’s fun and even profitable if you gamble two hours a week, but if it takes over 5 hours to gamble daily, it gets dangerous.
In the process of performing various exercises, millions of nerve impulses are sent from the musculature to the brain. This causes activation of the internal organs, increases the efficiency of the person, gives a burst of strength and vigor.
But fitness as any system has its own rules. Let’s consider the four most popular mistakes.
Excessive Load
Swiss scientists, having conducted many experiments, proved that fitness can cause great harm to health if you do it over 14 hours a week.
Even professional sports teams don’t train 14 hours a week all year round. 14 hours a week is a daily two-hour workout with no days off. This type of timing isn’t exercise, it’s a real sport. If your goal is to be in good physical shape, you don’t need to work out hard. Remember that the main work and psychological stresses, also require your strength. First, overwork will occur, the cardiovascular and nervous systems, and the musculoskeletal system will begin to suffer. All this can contribute to the occurrence of colds and more serious pathologies. The body will work to exhaustion in such conditions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults include at least 75 minutes of vigorous exercise or 150 minutes of quieter activity per week.
Professional trainers and medical professionals believe that swinging daily is undesirable. If you swing more than four times a week, your nervous and bone systems will be harmed. The speed of nerve impulses will be low, which will lead to a decrease in the strength of muscle contraction.
Training Without Warming Up
Many people consider warming up a waste of time. But it’s dangerous to train without preparation. According to fitness coaches, many people think that warming up is useless because it doesn’t burn fat and doesn’t build muscle mass. But its purpose is different. Warm-up is a simple set of exercises that wake up the body, improve range of motion, reduce the risk of injuries and sprains. Before any workout in the gym, you can’t do without a warm-up.
Warming up warms up the muscles for the upcoming exercises, makes them warm and elastic. It’s also a great benefit for the joints. When you warm up, your joints release intra-articular fluid, which makes your joints more flexible and protects them from tearing. Warming up helps prepare the cardiovascular system for exertion, gradually increasing blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature. It increases adrenaline and testosterone production and boosts metabolism.
Insecure Grip and Improper Body Posture
Almost all fitness instructors unanimously state that the wrong grip and body position is done by almost half of people. Whatever you are exercising on, whether it’s a bike, treadmill, barbells, or weight machines, you should have your entire palm, foot, or back tightly and completely touching the equipment, safety features, bench, floor, bike handles and so on. The body position must also be stably fixed and be as comfortable as possible for you. This is a banal rule, which is violated by almost everyone who exercises without a trainer. Firstly, it’s dangerous and can cause injury, secondly, it reduces the effectiveness of the exercise, and thirdly, it’s an excessive load on some organs.
Training on an Empty Stomach
If hunger is a stress for the body, then hunger during exercise in the gym is a double stress. The truth is that it threatens to put on extra pounds. The human body is an intelligent system. It feels that the stomach is completely empty and translates the fuel consumption into economy mode. That is, while exercising, you burn fewer calories than nutritionists would claim. And at the next meal, the body will put aside, let’s say, not 20 percent of the eaten, but thirty or more.
How to Exercise Without Harming Your Health
When you first start going to a gym, you should follow the alternation of workouts and rest periods to avoid overtraining, which can lead to rejection of workouts. The main thing at the first stage is to master the technique of performing the exercises and not to chase big weights. The recommended time for a workout session is at least 75 minutes of vigorous exercise or 150 minutes of more moderate activity per week. You shouldn’t exercise on an empty stomach. Prefer a light meal one hour before training.
If you are exercising without an instructor, consider the grip of the exercise bike, treadmill, barbell, or strength machine. You should have a firm, confident grip. For the first few sessions, take lessons with an instructor so that they can teach you the skills of a confident grip. Avoid taking coffee or energy drinks before training to avoid putting too much strain on your heart. The most important thing is that sports training should be enjoyable.
Here are some extra tips for exercising safely:
- Listen to your body. If you feel pain, stop and rest.
- Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water before, during, and after your workout.
- Wear comfortable clothing and shoes that are appropriate for the type of exercise you are doing.
- Warm up before exercising and cool down afterwards.
- Start slowly and gradually increase the intensity and duration of your workouts over time.
- If you have any health concerns, talk to your doctor before starting an exercise program.
By following these tips, you can enjoy the benefits of exercise without putting your health at risk.