Saturday 6 October 2007

Body Building: Safety Measures



Bodybuilding requires hard work and tremendous discipline. To build your body you will have to work extensively with heavyweights and irons, to ensure that neither of these have a detrimental effect on your muscles or injure you in anyway you will have to take a few safety precautions. Start by reading up a lot of material on careful bodybuilding practices like those that instruct you about appropriate weight lifting methods and ways to warm up and cool down etc. In the next section we will discuss a few essential techniques you must exercise at the gym.

Always begin with a proper warm up and end with a warm down session. Each should take no less than 15 minutes. Take 5 minutes to jog and at least 10 minutes to stretch your muscles and prepare them for what’s coming and only then plunge into the exercise regime. Remember to go from low to high. Start with the lighter weights and slowly go up to the really heavy weights. Let your muscles get accustomed to the idea of lifting weights and prepare themselves to use up the body’s strength.

Identify exactly how far you can go. No one except you yourself can decide how far you ought to go, since only you know what your limits are. Its good to challenge your limits but don’t overdo it and end up straining yourself, even the best of bodybuilders can cause terrible damage to their body when they are strained.

Remember, bodybuilding might involve evaluations at contests but the process itself is not a competition so you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone. Take your own sweet time to prepare yourself to take on heavier weights. In case you feel like you are overexerting yourself, simply ease up and take hold of a lighter weight. Definition and muscle amplification is a result of calculated restrain and not uncalculated risks such as those involved in lifting excessively heavyweights.

Get yourself a spotter to watch your moves when you are working with particularly heavy weights. Your spotter should preferably be of your own strength and someone who can help you out with a tough spot in case he/she finds you submerged in a troublesome situation. To ensure that they are loyal to the cause however make sure you act as their spotter as well. Most bodybuilders ask their training partners to spot for them. Spotters are essential for getting you out of a particularly tough weight situation. A number of people hurt themselves while working with weights. If unfortunately you too experience such an accident your spotter will help you out, contact the gym staff and take you to the hospital if required. Even if you do not get caught in such a soup your spotter will help you stay motivated and keep you focused on your immediate goals. You can return him/her the favor by doing the same for him/her.

As soon as you get a basic idea of your training program and know the exact forms you should take in order to ensure that the program proves beneficial for you start working in front of the mirror to see if you are staying true to the forms you have been advised to take.

A number of people hurt themselves simply by assuming the wrong positions while training. Watching yourself on the mirror ought to keep you from making such mistakes.