Weight machine safety tips

One of the selling points of weight machines is that they’re safer than free weights. And it’s true — you’re in no danger of being crushed by a 100-pound barbell. The way that machines create a safer environment is that they put your body in the correct position and direct the movement pattern. Still, if you’re not careful, you can injure yourself.

Follow these safety tips to keep yourself (and others) out of harm’s way:

• Custom fit each machine. Some machines require a single adjustment, such as the seat height. Others require two or more adjustments: For instance, with some versions of the leg extension machine exercise, , you have to adjust the back rest as well as the leg bar. Don’t worry; you don’t need a mechanic’s license to adapt these machines to your body. Usually, you just pull a pin out of the hole, lower or raise the seat, and then put the pin back in place. Some machines are so simple to adjust that they don’t even involve a pin. With practice, fitting the machine to your body becomes second nature. Don’t get lazy about making adjustments. Using a weight machine that doesn’t fit your body is like driving a car while sitting in the back seat: uncomfortable, if not downright dangerous. When you strain to reach a handle or sit with your knees digging into your chest, you’re at risk for pulling a muscle or wrenching a joint. After you make an adjustment, jiggle the seat or the backrest to make sure that you’ve locked it securely in place. You don’t want the seat to drop suddenly to the floor with you on it.
• Watch your fingers. Occasionally, a machine’s weight stack gets stuck in midair. Don’t try to rectify the situation yourself by fiddling with the plates. Instead, call a staff member for help. We once saw a gym member try to fix a weight stack himself. The stack came crashing down, sandwiching his fingers between the weight plates. We’ve seen other people get clumps of hair caught in the stacks, and even one guy got his genitals stuck between the weight plates. We don’t know the details and don’t want to, but we did hear the story from a reliable equipment dealer who witnessed the ordeal.
• Buckle up. If a machine has a seat belt, use it. The belts are there for a reason. Use them! The seat belt prevents you from wasting muscle power squirming around to stay in place as you move the bar or lever of the machine. You’re most likely to find seat belts on older models of the inner/outer thigh, pullover, seated leg curl, and triceps dip machines.
• Don’t invent new uses for the machinery. You wouldn’t use your favorite sweater to dust the house, right? You wouldn’t use your television as a step-stool to reach the top cupboard. So don’t use a chest machine to strengthen your legs.

People are constantly inventing new — and unsafe — ways to use weight machines. For example: In order to release the chest bar on the vertical chest press machine, you must use your feet to press down on a bar near the floor. Well, we’ve seen people ignore the chest press altogether and use this floor bar to exercise their thighs or arms. If you dream up new uses for a machine, you may be asking for injuries.

Free weight safety tips

We know a police officer who arched his back so severely over years of bench-pressing that he finally was forced to retire. So keep in mind the following during your free weight workouts:

• Use proper form when you lift a weight off the rack. When you lift a dumbbell or barbell off a rack or when you lift a weight plate off a weight tree, always
• Bend from your knees — not from your hips.
• Get in close to the rack.
• Keep your arms bent.
• Pay attention when carrying weights around.
• Hold heavier weight plates with two hands.
• Keep the plates close to your body when you carry them.
• Watch where you’re going when you carry barbells.
• Making a U-turn while hauling around a 7-foot bar can cause serious destruction.
• Keep your elbows slightly bent when carrying a dumbbell in each hand.
• Use collars. A collar is a clamplike device that you use to secure a weight plate onto a bar. Often, when you perform a barbell exercise, the bar tilts slightly to one side; without a collar, the plates may slide right off and land on somebody’s toes or crash into the mirrors on the wall. We know one woman who was knocked unconscious when a collar flew off a guy’s weight bar and hit her in the head.
• Don’t drop weights on the floor. After you complete a dumbbell exercise on a bench (such as the chest fly or dumbbell chest press):
• Bring the weights to your chest.
• Gently rock yourself up into a sitting position.
• Some people simply let go of the weights, which isn’t only unnerving to the other gym members but also unsafe because they can land anywhere, roll, and create hazards for others. Weights always need to be controlled.
• Safely return weights to the rack. When you finish using dumbbells, barbells, or weight plates, don’t just lean straight over with locked knees and plunk the weights back on the rack.
• Bend your knees.
• Pull your abdominals in.
• Hold the weights close to your body before you release them.

Be careful not to smash your fingers when placing the weights back on the rack. We’ve done that. Ouch!

Resting your muscles

You can lift weights on consecutive days — just don’t exercise the same muscle two days in a row. Forty-eight hours is usually the ideal waiting period before exercising the same muscle group again. Lifting weights tears apart your muscle cells. Your muscles need a day to rest and repair so they come back even stronger.
If you ignore this rule, weight lifting may make you weaker rather than stronger. At the very least, your muscles feel too tired to perform at peak operating levels.

Cooling down

If you’ve done a fairly fast-paced weight workout, complete the workout with five minutes of slow aerobic exercise. The aerobic cool-down gives your pulse, blood pressure, and breathing a chance to slow down before you hit the showers. If you’ve been lifting weights at more of a plodding pace, with plenty of rest between sets, a few minutes of stretching suffices as a cool-down. Ending your workout with an easy set also helps you cool down.

Signs and symptoms of dehydration

Drink at least two 8-ounce glasses of water before starting your weight lifting routine and two–four glasses while working out. In order to move your muscles, you need water. Muscle is considered an active tissue and water is found in the highest concentrations in active tissue. Your muscles are 72 percent water. If your body is only slightly dehydrated, your performance will decline.
Signs and symptoms of dehydration include the following:

• Dry mouth
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Lightheadedness
• Headache
• Dry cough
• Dark yellow urine

Weight training proper form

In addition to heeding the general safety tips we present here, be sure to follow the specific tips we give you for each exercise. Even subtle form mistakes, such as overarching your back or cocking your wrist the wrong way, can lead to injury.
The main goal is to adjust your body so that when you move you don’t place any undue strain on any of your joints or muscles. It’s important that you understand that form is everything in weight lifting. Poor form ultimately leads to injuries.

Before you start building muscle, you need to establish correct form and balance — and especially before you add more weight. When you start using heavy poundage, bad form ultimately leads to injuries to muscles and joints. Don’t get discouraged because form adjustment is something all weight lifters must do. If you start with bad form, you carry that form forward, until you find out the hard way that you’ve been moving incorrectly. Old habits are hard to break!
Follow these tips:

• Don’t jerk or bounce any weight around.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help while you’re in the gym.
• Ask gym employees for help if you’re having trouble with certain exercises. Staff is usually helpful and answers any questions you may have.
• Follow a beginners’ weight lifting routine consistently for two to three months before moving on to more challenging exercises. Be patient, you’ll eventually start to pile on weight plates; but for now, think form and balance.

You have to train your neuromuscular system before you start increasing muscle tone and size. In other words, you need to improve the connection between your brain and your body so that more muscle fibers will fire with each contraction. This process of developing muscular control simply takes time. Star quarterbacks weren’t born throwing touchdown passes in the Super Bowl. Excellent form took many, many years of disciplined practice and training to develop that level of skill and expertise. Training takes time.

Breathing Properly during Weight Training

Breathing is often the most overlooked and least understood component of weight training. If you’re a competitive lifter, you probably already know that your breathing can either make you or break you come contest time. We’re not suggesting that you’re a competitive or powerlifter, but we also don’t suggest inhaling and exhaling with the gusto of a Lamaze student. Relaxed breathing while exercising is the best technique. Don’t hold your breath either.

Lifting weights temporarily causes your blood pressure to shoot up, which normally isn’t a problem. But when you hold your breath, your blood pressure rises even higher — and then suddenly comes crashing down. Holding your breath creates intra-thoracic pressure — pressure in the chest cavity —that stops the circulation of blood from your muscles, but can increase blood pressure. When you relax, the muscle relaxes, the blood begins to flow again, and your blood pressure drops. This drastic drop may cause you to pass out and drop your weight. And if you have a heart condition, you could be in serious jeopardy.