Lifting and Staying Healthy
Whether you are into Cross Fit, Power lifting, Olympic weightlifting, or starting to use free weights at your local gym, there are a few important considerations to take into account prior to commencing your training.
1. Adequate warm up
Although an adequate warm up tends to be routinely underestimated, we can not stress its’ importance enough.
Either dynamic or static stretching before hand will greatly reduce each athlete’s chance of a soft tissue injury and prime the body for the required movements to come. Make sure you work with your trainer, coach, or local physio to get the best possible warm up in, prior to commencing your workout. Your body and muscles will thank you!
2. Hydration
To keep your muscles supple before and after a workout and to prevent peripheral nerve compressions, often accompanied by cutting water weight before a contest, make sure you keep your body properly hydrated.
Most people tend to be pretty good about staying hydrated during the warm summer months but it is as equally important in the winter as your body will be working harder to stay warm.
A good rule to follow is roughly 1L of water per 50lbs of body weight. This may feel like allot at first if your body has gotten used to being less than hydrated.
As an aside, make sure to take into account diuretics. A diuretic is something that dehydrates your body. Any drink that contains caffeine; tea, coffee, soda etc. will be a diuretic and contribute to dehydration.
3. Caloric Intake
As your training ramps up in frequency (ie. more days per week) or in intensity (ie. an increase in weight) it is important to make sure that your caloric intake reflects this. Meaning the harder you work the more nutrients you are going to need to give your body. If you are able to supply your body with the proper ‘building blocks’ that it needs to recover and build new muscle you will avoid fatigue and injury.
It’s important to not increase frequency and intensity at the same time.
4. Rest
If there is anything we can pass along today or challenge your perspective on, please start to include and view rest as part of the training process. It is just as important as your active training times.
Getting at least 7 hours of quality rest each night is essential for optimal health. Less than 7 hours of rest each night has been positively correlated to weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, and an increase in body aches and pains.
I hope these considerations are helpful and can definitely be applied to more sports than just weightlifting!
Physiotherapist