Muscle Growth - Build Muscle Mass Without Pain

Building muscles is an amazing way to achieve health and strength. Muscle building is now being advised as a part of rehabilitation to get the body in healthy condition. But there are also people who complain that their muscle building exercises cause them pain. Many people cite the fear of injury as a number one reason for not weight training. So, on the one hand we have rehabilitation patients advised by physicians and physiotherapists to weight train and on the other complaints of pain during workouts. What's the deal?

The deal is that the people who complain of pain are making some serious violations of the basics. Muscle building is serious work; you can't approach it with an irresponsible air. To avoid pain or injury you have to take care of the following;

1. Proper Warm Up: warm exercises for 10-15 minutes before beginning to exercise are crucial for a healthy, safe and efficient workout. Just like you can't kick start a car from cold, you can't kick start a human body either. Warm ups ready your body for the workout ahead, they stretch your muscles and get the blood circulation running. Failing to warm up before a workout, no matter what kind, will DEFINATLY lead to muscle spasms and may even cause severe muscle injury.

2. Warm up sets: every muscle building exercise has a slightly lighter warm up set that precede the actual workout sets. Performing these sets with the lighter weights and the necessary reps is important if you are to get the most out of your workout.

3. Proper form: a common mistake that weight trainers make is giving into their ego and trying to lift the greatest weight without taking care of form. Granted that lifting the maximum possible weight is the core principle of weigh training, but maintaining proper form is a partner principle. If you sacrifice your form for greater weights, your body will pay the price. Not only will you have muscle pain, but your workout will result in uneven muscle gains and possible deformations of shape.

4. Water: the abundance of water within the body of a weigh trainer is as critical to his or her success as fertilizer is to a crop. The human body is 75% and blood is 90% water. If you're not properly hydrated while you workout, your body will not have good circulation, your muscles will lose their flexibility and the excess perspiration will cause muscle pain and muscle damage. On the whole you should drink at least 1.5 liters of water a day and even more if the weather is hotter than usual. Take 2 glasses of water 10 minutes before you start your warm up exercises.

5. Rest and Sleep: weight training causes the muscles to wear out and get exhausted. You will recall feeling a burning sensation that is the mark of a good workout. After this, your muscles feel sore. Going back to the gym, before this soreness goes away means that you've not given your body, muscles, the time they needed to recuperate. Get 8-10 hours of sleep a day and a day's rest between workouts.

• Cassandra Bagley
• 13/02/2009, 4:59 AM
• 0 Comments