Gym etiquette and safety tips

By Dr Monda Ang’awa

The New Year has come with fresh resolutions that might include joining a gym to improve your health and fitness. When working out in the gym, there are certain ways to behave to maximise your gym experience.

Every one is in the gym to workout and have fun and the attitude you adopt may help facilitate an easy-going relationship with fellow fitness buffs. A smile goes a long way and a friendly word or words of encouragement go even further.

• Duale suspends all licenses, import clearances for nicotine products
• Eat early, sleep tight and ditch the chilly drinkyour body will thank you!
• Meet mental health coach 'Hummingbird,' healing hearts and saving one soul at a time
• Deadly parasite mimics malaria, quietly claiming lives undetected

They are there to help you so make full use of them. If they are not helpful or you have a problem, report it to the manager. Always consult the instructor as to how to use a particular machine, especially if you are not familiar with it because not all equipment is the same. Also consult on how to perform a particular exercise. That is what the instructor is there for — to give you qualified professional advice.

Overtraining

Gains in strength, size and endurance need to be achieved in a sensible manner. We also tend to cheat when the weight we are lifting load is too heavy and this does more harm than good.

Keep a clean technique and don’t do too much too soon because you will injure yourself if you put too much strain and pressure on your body.

Concentrate on technique because it is not how much you can lift but the way in which you lift it that matters.

The lower back is weak. Arching it when curling, pressing the bar or benching may add momentum but this a very poor technique because it puts undue pressure on the lower back causing injury and reducing the effectiveness of the exercise.

Lack of symmetry is another problem.

Most of us are stronger on one side of the body and this pus a strain on the body especially the lower back when lifting weights above the head. Always consult the instructor on how to do a particular exercise and always warm up, cool down and stretch after a workout.

More than 50 per cent of those who start a weight-training programme quit before the end of the first month. For most, it is due to lack of quick results yet the process is a long, slow one. Don’t give up on your training and make sure you evaluate it and your targets with your instructor every six weeks.

Always fix weights in place and check the bar yourself before you start a workout. Always be careful and replace your own weights because dropping a weight, for example, may seem a small matter but these weights can cause nasty injuries including breaking bones.

Abide by the time limits on equipment like the treadmills because they are not there for your personal use. Leave the equipment as you found it by wiping it clean and replacing it.

The changing rooms should be used as you would those at home so don’t do anything in them that you wouldn’t do at home.

Drugs

Never cheat by using steroids because you are doing yourself more harm than good. Combine the right supplement with the right exercise depending on what you want to achieve. Drugs are not really the way to go with exercise.