In case you didn’t know, bruxism, more commonly known as grinding your teeth, is a fairly common condition that affects nearly every person at some point in their life.
For many the condition is temporary and mild, presenting no real health threat. But whether you do it while you sleep or it occurs during waking hours, you may not realize that it’s happening until you start to notice headaches, pain in your jaw, or wear and tear to your chompers. And by then the situation has likely gotten a little more serious.
As a bodybuilder or athlete, you could be more prone to this issue than most. If you want to keep your smile full, healthy, and white, like the fitness chick to the right, take these tips into consideration sooner rather than later.
A Few Causes of Bruxism
Although many attribute the condition to high stress levels, which can certainly be a contributing factor, the truth is that bruxism is a habitual activity, even though you may do it subconsciously, like twirling your hair, tapping your foot, or jingling change in your pocket. And when you’re lifting you likely clench your teeth, which can definitely lead to the formation of bruxism.
Athletes using performance enhancers are also at a greater risk, especially if you use a strong cycle of steroids or human growth hormone (HGH). Feeling of aggression and stress are exaggerated when you are cycling, are are nighttime conditions such as sleep apnea and, as you may have guessed, bruxism.
If you have been living with arthritis for a while then you probably know that exercise is a key part of fighting the pain, stiffness, and swelling that accompany this chronic condition. And yet, hauling yourself to the gym, hitting the track for a jog, or joining your local sports league can be difficult when you are already suffering from the discomfort and fatigue of arthritis.
You might not want to move, let alone stress your already painful joints. And yet, without your daily workout to increase strength and flexibility, your condition only stands to worsen. This could lead to even less activity, accompanied by increasing stiffness, soreness, and weight gain, all of which could further derail your progress in the fight against arthritic symptoms.
Without exercise you could eventually become incapacitated by the ongoing degeneration of arthritis. Luckily, there are ways to manage your pain in the here and now so that you can continue to follow your workout regimen and hopefully improve your overall condition, ultimately reducing pain and other symptoms.
Regardless of the type of exercise regimen you’ve chosen, chances are that sooner or later you’re going to push yourself too hard and suffer some type of injury. Even if you’re careful, accidents can happen, so you want to be prepared when they do.
Luckily, the most common types of injuries that occur during exercise, such as sprains, strains, muscle cramps, and the like, are not too detrimental, although contact sports, for example, can certainly lead to more serious bodily harm. When it comes to addressing these issues so that you can get back on track with your workout routine, there are a few simple steps you can take to ensure a speedy recovery.
Here are some tips that should help you to treat any injuries you may sustain.
Diagnosis.
The first thing you need to do is determine the severity of your injury.
For example, it’s important to know the difference between a muscle cramp, which may be treated fairly immediately through stretching and hydrating, and a sprain or strain, which will certainly require more than a few minutes of rest and light stretching to correct before you can get back to lifting weights or swimming laps.
Although you may not be as qualified as a doctor to diagnose common exercise injuries, and you may therefore want to call your physician for an exam if you’re not sure about the cause of ongoing or chronic pain, most athletes and even amateur exercise aficionados can tell when something is seriously wrong and when they can handle recuperation on their own. (more…)
Shoulder Rehab Chronic Shoulder Instability and Impingement Syndrome are the most common types of shoulder injury. Chronic Shoulder Instabilityoccurs when the ‘head’ of the upper arm bone moves out of the shoulder socket. This results in a shoulder joint dislocation and causes great pain. On the other hand, impingement syndromeisprompted by friction occurring between the shoulder blade and rotator cuff. The friction from the rotator cuff and the shoulder blade may be caused by inflammation in a tendon or muscle.
Preparations to Rehab an Injured Shoulder
It’s important to remember that any injury needs to be checked and treated by an accredited physician. They may recommend medication and several rehabilitation techniques to encourage the shoulder to heal and function as soon as possible. The Physician will also be able to see the specifics of your injury that may alter they way you would treat it. Here are some tips to consider when preparing an injured shoulder for rehabilitation. (more…)
Heading off to the mountains for some winter sports fun is a great way to give your entire body a workout and get out of the gym and into the great outdoors. Winter sports are a great way to exercise and will strengthen your leg muscles as well as your core muscles, as long as you can avoid injuries skiing and snowboarding.
We know we are already past the holidays, but you can use these tips in-season as well, to try to build up your lower body and core strength and healthy throughout the season.
How to Prevent Injuries that Will Derail Your Progress
Adding weight lifting to your workout routine on a weekly basis can offer the average fitness buff a world of benefits.
For one thing, it can make you stronger, as expected, helping you to overcome obstacles in other types of exercise (running faster, throwing farther, jumping higher, etc.). But it can also help you to create the physique you’ve been trying for (whether it’s bulking you crave or simply a frame that features better muscle tone) and even lose weight if that’s what you want (muscle burns more calories than fat). And that’s just the beginning.
Weight lifting, when done improperly, can also result in a slew of injuries, most of which can be easily avoided by warming up and cooling down, building up to greater weights or more reps over time, using proper form, listening to your body, and asking for help from a spotter.
Here are just a few common weight lifting injuries that are best avoided:
You may have heard about the many benefits of adding weight training to your current workout routine, or perhaps you’ve done your homework and debunked some of myths that were holding you back. Either way, you are about to embark on a new mission – to get PUMPED UP! Or ripped. Or shredded.
In any case, you are probably keen to start trying out weight machines at your gym and pumping iron with free weights and barbells. But before you begin your sojourn into the wide world of weight training it’s not a bad idea to cover the basics so that you don’t end up injuring yourself or others.
Here are just a few common mistakes that you’ll definitely want to avoid:
Weight lifting is a great way to exercise, build toned muscle, burn calories, and promote overall health–but it can be dangerous as well. Our bodies aren’t used to the stress of heavy lifting, and our backs are particularly vulnerable to strain and injury.
An injured back can keep you out of the gym for weeks, or even months at a time, depending on the severity of the injury and your ability to recover. If you want to stay healthy, strong, and transform your body into a work of art, always remember to protect your back.
Step 1: Warm Up
Never start a workout without warming up first. Your body just isn’t ready for the stress of heavy lifting when you walk through the gym doors. You need to get primed before you start hitting the weights.
A short cardio warm up on the treadmill or elliptical is a great way to warm up your muscles and get the blood moving in your body. It is not necessary to use high intensity during your warm up. This is just a 5 minute effort to get the muscles moving.
All kinds of businesses carry liability insurance as a way to protect themselves from lawsuits should a client slip on a wet floor or fall off a chair in the meeting room, for example. Whenever a client is on your property you are liable for their health and safety, so should they suffer some kind of accident or injury while in your care (so to speak) you could find yourself on the hook for medical bills and other expenses.
Of course, there are other types of liability as well, concerning the products a business manufactures, how they are promoted, copyrights, and so on. But when you’re a personal trainer, the main type of liability you’ll likely be concerned with is the physical variety.
But how does liability insurance apply when you don’t operate out of your own business location?
Does the average personal trainer really need to pay for this type of insurance?
Nearly everyone who trains, whether bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman, or just a general fitness routine, has at some point suffered from an injury. And whether it’s a minor sprain or a broken bone it can definitely derail your progress towards your fitness goals, leading to weeks or months of recovery in which all of your hard work slowly slips away via loss of both muscle mass, strength, and conditioning.
My Personal Experience
I mean, I once walked into a Gold’s Gym after taking about a month off from training, with the intention to deadlift. I wasn’t planning to hit a 1rm or a PR that day. It was just simple sets of 5 to get back into the rythym. On the second set, at 50% of my previous 1rm, my back spasmed, I dropped the weight, and I was out of the weight room for another solid month.
Every athlete and weightlifter has some version of this sad story.
If you are the type of person who enjoys physical fitness, then you’ve no doubt tried several different types of exercise, from basics like jogging, cycling, and swimming, to instructional classes in yoga, Pilates, and step aerobics, to workout DVDs for P90X or Insanity. But if you’re looking for an up-and-coming exercise regimen that is going to continue to challenge you for a while, then perhaps Crossfit should be on your radar.
The only real caveat with this intense form of exercise is that it is all too easy to injure yourself if you’re not careful. Since you are pushing yourself to your physical limits with timed circuits that require you to fit as many reps into the allotted time as possible, you’ll find that you tire long before you’re through. So it’s not only important to know your limits, but also to observe proper form in every exercise. Here’s why.
Rick Kaselj is a personal trainer that focuses on helping clients overcome their injuries. Rick’s specialization is the shoulder and did his Masters’ degree project on designing effective exercises for the rotator cuff. He shares with rotator cuff injury suffers and fitness professionals what he has learned in school and from his clients and has put it all into the Shoulder Pain Solved Program.
If You Don’t Want Shoulder Pain When You Lift, Do This
Thanks for all the feedback and voting in the last post. Now I got a better idea of how I can help you. Lets get to what you can do to get rid of shoulder pain during your lifts.
Rick Kaselj is a personal trainer that focuses on helping clients overcome their injuries. Rick’s specialization is the shoulder and did his Masters’ degree project on designing effective exercises for the rotator cuff. He shares with rotator cuff injury suffers and fitness professionals what he has learned in school and from his clients and has put it all into the Effective Rotator Cuff Exercise Program.
Exercises for Injuries Feedback
This is the first of what will hopefully be a series of posts by Rick about injury prevention and rehabilitation. Although you won’t learn about the finer details of effective rotator cuff exercises or knee injury prevention in this post, I do hope it will encourage you to think about your own aches and pains. (more…)
Many nurses are switching to agency nursing as it offers a lot of benefits that traditional nursing does not. It provides the flexibility to pick the hours you want to work and pays better. Also, agency nurses play a critical role in fulfilling staffing vacancies in times of need.
