Some of the most common injuries occur to those parts of the body that are also the hardest to repair. Many people who are using resistance training as their preferred form of fitness, will injure their shoulders or lower back more often than other parts of the body.
The shoulders are quite susceptible to injury as they are activated with many different exercises and some of these exercises such as the bench press can involve the use of substantial weight.
It is imperative that you do sufficient warm up exercises for your shoulders before you even start to lift the lightest of weights. Shoulder injuries can take a very long time to mend and as they are used in so many exercises it will stop or hinder you from doing most upper body workouts.
Using weight machines can reduce the incidence of injury as the movement is controlled but you will be missing out in the strengthening the occurs will all the other muscles that are used for balance and control when using free weights such as dumbbells and barbells.
As you age it could be more beneficial to move from free weights to weight machines as we become more susceptible to injury as we age.
The lower back is another area of concern for many people both with resistance training and aerobic training.
Some of the mass building exercises such as squats can place big loads on the lower back and unless you are performing the exercises with the correct movements you will always be exposed to the risk of injury.
This is where a professional fitness trainer can help to ensure you are doing the exercises correctly.
Strengthening the abdominal muscles will help to support your lower back and this will also help to reduce the chance of injury to your back.
