"How To Prevent Getting Injured When Working Out!"

by Javon Taylor March 12, 2023

You want to get in shape and start hitting the gym but every time you start exercising you end up tweaking your back or start feeling discomfort in your joints!

This can be very frustrating but I want to let you know that you can prevent this from happening & these tips will get you back in the gym feeling pain free!

I want to share with you how to properly warm up your body to ensure that the right muscles are activated to help relieve stiffness and support your body more effectively!

My 3 Step Philosophy to Warming Up

The main reason why people experience injuries when they are working out is due to lack of activation in certain muscles and/or lack of range of motion.

Example: Low back pain is caused by tight/weak glutes from increased amounts of sitting

To help open your body before your workouts, there are 3 main things we want to focus on during our warm ups

Open joint: Stretch muscles around stiff joints to help release the joint
Create motion in the joint: after the muscles around the joints are stretched, you want to create motion within the joint to improve range of motion
Stabilize the joint: now that your range of motion is greater, you want to stabilize muscles that support the joint to make sure the joint is secure

Warm Up Routines

Here are the warm up routines I have all of my clients do before their sessions:

(perform 2 sets of the given exercises) | (click links for video demonstrations)

Lower Body

With the lower body, you want to focus on opening the hips & activating/stabilizing the glutes

Hip Shift - 5 reps w/ 5 second hold

Band Steps - 10 reps each side

Banded Squats - 10 reps

Upper Body

With the upper body, you want to focus on opening the shoulder/lats & the back side of the shoulder activating/stabilizing

Lat Stretch - 5 reps w/ 5 second hold

Dumbbell Shoulder Rotations - 10 each side

Band Shoulder Pull Apart - 10 reps

BONUS TIP
Doing core stability exercises also supports your low back

The exercises I have my clients perform are:

Dead Bugs
1 Arm Farmer Carry