Common gym injuries are called ‘common’ because they can happen to anyone and at any time. However, there are a few ways to reduce the risks, particularly by taking fortifying supplements, doing special exercises, and wearing quality gear. If those tools didn’t help you avoid an injury, it’s imperative to treat it right away as to avoid complications.
List of Common Gym Injuries: Causes & Solutions
- Sprained or twisted ankle.
Many people might be surprised to find out that the main cause behind common ankle injuries is sedentary lifestyle. Sitting for hours hunched over a keyboard messes with a person’s center of gravity. Rounded shoulders tip you a bit forward, so weight falls onto the front of the foot. Uneven weight distribution puts more pressure on the ankle muscles, which leads to injury triggered by over-tension.
Fix: Improve your posture and always wear proper running shoes if you plan to work your legs. Consider wearing tennis shoes if your heel is much higher than the front of the foot and consult an orthopedist. - Twisted knee.
Any type of knee injury is agonizing and potentially dangerous as it often leads to joint inflammation. It’s not surprising that various problems with knees, which are some of the most common gym injuries, are also caused by long hours sitting in the office. In this case, your hip muscles are the culprit. Sitting all the time weakens them greatly. When you get up, your shifted center of gravity combines with this issue and makes your knees bear the burnt of your weight. This prevents proper balancing and your knees simply can’t take so much abuse.
Fix: Choose exercises easy on the joints until you strengthen all your muscles and fix your posture. Consider taking Glucosamine 500mg as it strengthens the joints and helps prevent inflammation. - Lover back injury.
Your lower back can get hurt in a great number of ways, and sedentary lifestyle is again the reason for its weakness. Once more, the main issue is associated with poor posture as being ‘rounded’ forward all day long means you won’t be able to arch your back and ‘open’ the chest area right. The problem here is that when trying to straighten your spine and shoulders, you are actually arching from lower back upwards. This puts much stress onto it and can lead to some serious injuries or a variety of lumbar conditions. If left untreated, discomfort in the lower back can lead to disability and torturous chronic pains. This definitely is one of the most dangerous types of common gym injuries.
Fix: There is no easy and 100% effective fix for the lower back problem. The best you can do is to strengthen the muscles of your entire spine. You will also need to put more stress on the upper back during workouts. Yoga and Pilates would be good choices for general muscle strengthening and improving your flexibility. You also should stand up at work as often as possible. Make a 10 minute break every hour and flex your upper back muscles during those times. - Shoulder tendonitis.
This is another injury caused by office work. Typing on a keyboard for hours at a time causes not only carpal tunnel syndrome. This also leads to overuse of your shoulder joints as they rotate all the time when you type. The movement is minimal so you don’t really notice it while working. However, compounding the stress with pushups, chest, and shoulder presses during a workout leads to supraspinatus tendonitis. It’s a painful condition that can cause permanent damage to the rotator cuff.
Fix: Strangely enough, external arm rotations are the best method of prevention for this type of common gym injuries. So, be sure to simulate rowing motions during your regular ‘walking’ breaks.
There are quite a few other common gym injuries caused mainly by exercising while stiff. The best prevention for them is to do a warm up and cool down routine before and after workout respectively.
