Lean and Hard

Almost nothing will knock your exercise routine out of commission like an injury. If you hate going to the gym, that can seem like a blessing: Finally, a good excuse not to go! But if you like your exercise or count it as important to your quality of life, hurting yourself in the gym is not a happy event. Here are 5 major causes of gym injury. Avoid them and be well!

1. No Warm-up

Warm, limber muscles and joints are conducive to great workouts. Cold, locked-up muscles and joints lead to injuries. Pulled muscles and tendons, strained joints and the like can easily result from no or inadequate warm-up, so take some time to stretch and get the blood flowing before hitting the big weights.

2. Over-Repetition

It's important to switch things up every so often, not only to avoid boredom and fitness plateaus, but also to avoid injuries. Repetitive movements can, over time, cause muscle imbalances and damage, so just like a balanced diet, make sure your workouts are balanced and hit all major muscle groups; and think about changing routines once in a while.

3. Distractions

The gym can be a distracting place, and it can be dangerous to lose focus in the middle of a heavy lift. The stronger you get, the heavier weights you'll be lifting, and heavy weights can quickly get out of your control. Avoid this by keeping your mind on what you're doing. Once the weight is down and the set it over, then you can drift for a bit before the next set.

4. Bad Form

Remember what you're trying to accomplish at the gym. The goal of lifting weights is not to lift the weight by any means possible. It's to increase muscle mass and strength. To that end, proper form is everything. Swinging the weight and putting your entire body into getting it up can not only minimize the benefit of the movement, it can also break something vital. So concentrate on the muscle you're trying to work, use it to lift the weight by sticking to good form, and avoid the mistake of trying to lift...

5. Too Much Weight

Strength and mass are increased by putting tension on the muscle, so you have to lift enough weight to shock the muscle into getting bigger and stronger. But pushing the pounds up too quickly can lead to bad form and serious injury. If you can't lift it using good form, back down the weight a bit.



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This is what my own experience tells me, not what you'll often read on the web. What are the typical reasons given for why losing the last 10 or 15 pounds seems so hard to do?

I've read the following:

1. Your metabolism slows down as you lose weight so your body resists your weight loss efforts more and more as you approach your goal weight.

Reality: While it's true that you need fewer calories to maintain a lower weight than a higher one, the difference just isn't big enough to significantly put the brakes on your weight loss progress. You've heard that your body goes into a so-called starvation mode, and clings tightly to every calorie. You'd think, hearing this, that your cells are somehow able to hunker down and survive on almost no energy at all. The truth is, you need calories to live, and your cells will continue to burn them as needed to get through the day. So that's not the real reason for your halting forward motion as you try to shed those last few pounds.



2. Your body starts stocking away fat like nobody's business when it senses that its days of plenty are coming to an end.

Again, the reality is that this effect may exist, but it's just not big enough to account for the fact that the last few pounds are holding on to your frame like the movie aliens that wrap their spidery fingers around the heads of their ill-fated victims. You can't seem to pry them loose no matter what you try, but this isn't the fault of some amazing, souped up fat-creating stocking mechanism, No, the culprit tends to be a phenomenon that's far more prosaic.

Here's what happens when you get close to your goal: You start to let up. The psychology of it is easy to understand. It's the same temptation faced by anyone who's oh-so-close to attaining a hard-earned goal. You feel you can afford to give yourself a break. After all, you've attained so much! You deserve to reward yourself. So, you're not quite there yet, so what? A little indulgence can't hurt. And so on. Sound familiar? It does to me, anyway.

Whether or not you really do need a little break before that final push to the finish line is up to you, but the little breaks easily turn into on long, extended vacation. Hence, your goal lies out there unattained like a sparkling pool of water in a desert, forever moving away as you try to get closer.

Does this sound like you?

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