Chapter 5
This Doesn’t Have to Happen to
You: Avoiding Common Injuries
In This Chapter
Differentiating between good pain and bad pain
Recognizing and treating exercise injuries
S
ometimes, exercise hurts. If you never lift anything heavier than a tube of
Pringles potato chips and then start lifting dumbbells, naturally you’re
going to feel some soreness. That type of pain is nothing to worry about. But,
if you wake up the morning after a weight-lifting session and feel like your left
arm has been shredded by a meat grinder, that’s a different story. This chap-
ter tells you how to differentiate the two, how to take care of an injury, and
how to prevent injuries in the first place.Taking Care of Common Injuries .................................................................
Normal pain is achy, dull, and very general. Usually, you feel it throughout
an entire muscle or over a large area of your body. Bad pain — the type that
signals injury — tends to be sharp and specific. It usually hurts when you
do certain movements, like bending your knee or lifting your arm overhead.
It’s important to recognize this type of pain and act accordingly. Not long
ago, Suzanne ignored the shoulder pain that flared up after she performed
certain chest exercises. Eventually, the pain got so bad — and her tendon so
inflamed — that she couldn’t lift a pitcher of water without wincing. Suzanne
was forced to take off three entire months from upper-body weight training,
which made her grouchy and a real annoyance to her friends and kept her
from improving her fitness level.You can avoid a scenario like that if you follow the advice in this chapter,
which covers injuries common to people who exercise. We tell you how to
recognize and treat them — and how to prevent them from happening in the
first place.