When trying to build muscle up it is very easy to get carried away and sabotage your own progress and also to put yourself at risk of injury or illness without even realising it.
Sure it is great that you want to workout and build muscle up but at the same time one bad injury, one forgetful moment can put you out of action for months and with possible health and financial consequences.
Such traumatic incidents can easily be avoided by adhering to the following guidelines.
Here we go with our build muscle up safely guidelines: 1) Always check and double check you have put the barbell collars on before you start lifting.
Just a slight looseness of a collar can cause one side to be heavier.
The heavier side will force it's way down and the weight disc may slide even further until it drops off.
If this happens the heavy side will force the light side to be thrown upwards.
Next the barbell will flip mercilessly through the air and possibly cause real damage to people or equipment! 2) Use a spotter if you are doing one rep maximums.
This is someone who can help you if you can't handle the weight.
The last thing you want to occur is to have yourself stuck weighted down by a heavy barbell, you may laugh but I've seen it happen.
3) If you are sick keep away from the weights room.
Sounds really obvious but I have lost count of the times I have seen people coughing and spluttering through a gym session with a fever.
More often than not the trainer beats none of their best scores and only lands themselves in bed for a few days.
Exercising actually for a while at least lowers your immune system so if you are already feeling ill then by exercising you give the illness the ideal opportunity to take a bigger hold of you.
4) Use proper technique.
Doing squats when your back is not straight, swinging a bar use your body's momentum and so on will not only result in little muscle gain, because you won't be targeting the muscle properly but it will also put you at greater risk of injury.
Strictly correct form must always be used.
5) Don't push it too much.
It is very common when motivation is high especially for newbie's that you want to lift weights as often as possible.
This motivation is fine but working out everyday or even every second day will likely be too much for the majority of people unless a split routine is used.
You will more than likely weaken your muscles if you do another training session before they have full recuperated from the last session.
6) Failure to follow a decent diet.
Emphasis will have to be placed on muscle building nutrition if you want your muscles to grow.
You will be working out in vain if you do not take on board sufficient calories to support muscle growth.
Throughout the day consume high quality meals.
7) Trying to impress your friends.
Lifting too much weight and competing with friends can be great motivation but also can be a recipe for disaster.
Trying to beat your own personal best scores is far more productive.
Fill in a training log every workout so you can see exactly what your previous scores were and aim to beat those.
This is much more beneficial and safer for you.
8) Warm-up sufficiently.
If you do not then your muscle are far more likely to tear and get damaged.
This can keep you out of action for weeks or possibly even months.
It is very easy to do, 5-10 minutes aerobic work, a few stretching exercises and then a few warm up sets will be enough.
With those above guidelines in mind and with correct muscle building nutrition there is no reason why you should not build muscle up happily and safely where ever you train.