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Coach Foreign Guy Fitness Correspondent

If you’ve recently joined a gym or started on the journey of getting fit and healthy, it is important to know a few tips to keep you safe in the gym.

The workout sessions at the gym often get a bit heated, and it is easy to get carried away, especially if you don’t have a personal trainer watching over you. It may lead to totally preventable injuries and put roadblocks in your fitness journey.

Gym injuries do occur but knowing the right tips can help you stay safe in the gym because no physical activity meant to improve your health should put health in danger instead, right?

So, here are a few important tips on how to stay safe in the gym:

Correct Form

The form is tremendously important when it comes to weight training. Don’t try if you don’t know the proper form to lift weights. Combining good form and the right technique with weight training will help you avoid injury.

When you use the right form with every exercise you do at the gym, it will help enhance your strength and stamina. Moreover, it would improve the longevity of your training and reduce the risk of injuries.

Have a Gym Partner or Hire a Personal Trainer for a gym spotter

While there are numerous reasons you should have a gym partner or a personal trainer, the primary reason is to keep you safe. A spotter is essential when lifting weights, performing squats or bench presses, or any other exercise under enormous weight.

A personal trainer or spotter can help you achieve the correct form, ensuring you don’t end up injuring yourself.

Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated while working out in the gym is a no-brainer. You work hard and sweat it out while exercising, and you must keep yourself hydrated to replenish the lost fluids.

Taking a sufficient amount of fluids during a workout session will keep you hydrated, ensuring your body functions smoothly.

Be Aware Of Your Surroundings in the Gym

It’s natural to be zoned out while exercising with your head counting the number of reps, workout music pumping in your ears, brain focused on burning calories and sweating it out.

However, it is important to be aware of your surroundings as you don’t want to stumble on a dumbbell and break your jaw or sprain your feet.

Gyms can be crowded, and many activities are happening around always, so it’s essential to be aware of your surroundings. What you do shouldn’t interfere with others’ workouts and vice versa, so define your space and respect others.

Always Put the Weights Back

One of the ways to make the gym a safer place is by re-racking your weights. When you don’t put weights where it belongs after you’re done, it invites mishaps, accidents, and injuries. It can be you or someone else, and in both cases, you would be responsible, and you don’t want that.

Believe it or not, one of the common accidents happening in the gym is people tripping over a barbell or stubbing their toe on a dumbbell.

The woman at the gym lifting weights

Use a Fresh Towel

This one is more about general hygiene and health than safeguarding yourself against injuries. It’s essential to wipe out the sweat because the longer it stays on you, the more it can hurt your skin in the long run.

Dripping sweat on the equipment and weights you use makes it unsafe not only for you but for others around you.

Also, it is typically a rule in the gyms to stay clean and follow the standard hygiene rules. Considering the situation these days, it’s always a good idea to keep a disinfectant spray with you and spray on it before and after using the equipment/weights – It is safe for you and the others.

Warm-Up the Body

It can’t be pressed enough how important it is to warm up before working out, whether it is at the gym or a freestyle workout at home. It helps your body acclimatize with the intense workout session coming ahead, loosening up the stiff muscles.

So, if you’re planning weight training, it’s a good idea to stretch your arms and legs a bit. You might want to brisk walk for a few minutes before you go running. The idea is to get the blood moving around and pace up your heart rate before you go all guns firing at the gym.

Don’t surprise your body with a sudden surge in heart rate and muscles moving rigorously. Start slow, and pace up gradually so that your body knows what’s next.

Take Your Time Setting Up

It is essential to take your own sweet time when going to the gym and learning the tricks of the trade. In other words, you need to take time to learn how to work out, learn the correct form, and not overdo it while you’re at it.

Don’t compare yourself to others, and if your gym partner or others are having it easy, don’t try to match forcibly. It might lead to workout injury and slow down sustainable growth in the long run.

Take one day at a time, and increase your reps as you go to ensure your body is getting used to it. And, this brings us to our next point.

Don’t Lift More Weights Than You Can Handle

As with everything else, increasing strength, stamina, and endurance can take time. Don’t lift more than what your body can handle, as it may cause muscle sprain and lingering spasms, halting your progress altogether.

These injuries take a long time to recover, and it will put a brake on your workout rhythm.

Remember, lifting weights is not about how much you can lift but how many reps you can do. So, even if you can lift a lot, doing a few sets of it can potentially gift you the injury you don’t want. Focus on lifting weights safely; the strength will follow over time.