Lifting Weights Safely

1. Warm up before you lift

Take 5 to 10 minutes doing some light aerobic exercise before you workout. By doing this your muscles will become warmed up. Warming up you muscles makes them more limber and less susceptible to injury.

2. Do a warm-up set for each exercise

Start by performing 8 to 10 repetitions of each exercise before you do each exercise. This will get you in the groove for each exercise.

3. Lift the weight slowly

Don't go balistic when you lift the weight. You could throw yourself off-balance and drop it on yourself. A good rule of thumb is to take 2 seconds to lift the weight and 2 seconds to lower it.

4. Don't hold your breath

Holding your breath is bad for your blood pressure. Holding your breath makes your blood pressure rise high. When you exhale you could pass out and hurt yourself.

5. Use proper form

Be careful when performing exercises. Don't swing the weight around. Use controlled movements.

6. Cool down

After working out take 5 to 10 minutes to cool down with some light aerobic exericse. This gives your body a change to come back down to normal. Your blood pressure comes back down, and your breathing slows down.

7. Give yourself time to rest

After working out a muscle group, take 48 to 72 hours to recuperate. Working out more than this, will cause overtraining so that you won't grow.