1. Check with Your Doctor

Before you begin any new fitness regimen, always check with your doctor, especially if you’ve suffered a recent injury. Your doctor can tell you if you’re healthy enough for your new fitness plan, and help you make modifications to avoid another injury.

2. Know How to Use the Equipment

Here’s a safety tip for exercise I wish everyone knew from the start - before you use any piece of gym equipment, make sure you know the right, safe way to use it. For example, my trainer says most people use the rowing machine incorrectly, causing countless trips to the ER for strained backs. The proper way to use it is to pull with your arms and abs, keeping a straight back, but most people injure themselves when they lean back to complete the rowing motion. Learn the right way to use a machine before you use it, and you’ll avoid injury.

3. Wear the Right Trainers

Many more injuries are caused by wearing the wrong shoes to work out. This is an exercise safety tip we need to think about constantly, because even if you have the right trainers, they’ll need to be replaced as they wear, typically every few months.

4. Push, but Not Too Hard

You’re only getting a good workout if you’re pushing yourself, sweating and heart-pounding and short of breath. But you can injure yourself by pushing yourself too hard, so listen to your body and bow out when you feel it’s time. And never, ever work through sharp pain. I personally think Tony Horton and his P90X plan are trying to kill me - the first time I did the abs workout, I threw up. Don’t do that to yourself… stop before you keel over.

5. Fuel and Hydrate the Machine

It’s flat-out dangerous to work out without keeping hydrated, and even worse, perhaps, to work out without the calories to burn. Don’t starve yourself, and don’t forget your bottle of water. Chances are, you don’t need expensive, sugar-rich sports drinks, but you do need to stay hydrated, and you do need a diet with lean proteins and carbs to burn. Fuel and hydrate your machine!

6. Get Plenty of Rest

If you’re exhausted, you’re not going to be able to give your workout your all, and you’re bound to make careless mistakes besides. So here’s another exercise safety tip that will help prevent injury - get plenty of rest (8 to 10 hours a night), and remember to take a “rest day” from your workout every week.

7. Seek Help for an Injury

If you are injured in the process of your workout (or any other time, for that matter), seek professional medical attention right away! My doctor has told me horror stories of athletes losing an entire season because a fractured bone had healed incorrectly, due to lack of treatment, and had to be re-broken. Double-whammy, double ouch!

I know some of these safety tips for exercise sound frightening (re-breaking bones?!) but they’re so necessary for preventing training-related injuries… so please keep them in mind at the gym, on the track, and on the street! Which of these tips do you follow, and which do you usually forget? Do you have any other exercise safety tips to share? Please do… and stay safe, sweeties!

Top Image Source: SHAPEd for Fitness