20/02/2026
Gym Injuries…tips and tricks to avoid and manage them !
We all love to look and feel fit, young and energetic. This is the main reason that our fourth floor gym and workout area sees members reaching there as early as 5.30 am, Monday thru Sunday and there is someone working out till the doors are shut and locked late at night around 11 pm.
In fact all new apartment complexes boast of a state of the art gymnasium, fully equipped for fitness freaks. This is an amazing change wherein people from all ages are getting increasingly aware about proper diet, exercise and lifestyle rather than leading a lazy and sedentary survival.
However, what bothers us all regularly are injuries sustained in the gym, putting you out of action for days and sometimes weeks at end. So, let us run through some common scenarios seen commonly…
1. Sprains
2. Strains or muscle pulls
3. Fractures and dislocations
4. Overuse injuries or repeated stress injuries
Prevention of injuries is far better than treating them. Here are a few tips to prevent workout injuries.
1. Before you start a gym schedule always consult your doctor especially if you are on the other side of 40 or are already suffering from any medical condition, or any Orthopaedic problem. Your doctor will help you to avoid those exercises which can harm your condition.
2. Take guidance from a well-trained and qualified gym trainer. You will be surprised to know that a lot of training academies take this very seriously and incorporate teaching a lot of basic anatomy and working of our body systems to budding trainers. This marks the difference between informed, knowledgeable trainers and otherwise.
3. Keep realistic goals in the gym. After all Rome was not built in a day and so don’t expect to develop six packs around your midriff in a couple of weeks. One has to train regularly, train hard but intelligently to reach peak fitness.
4. Hydration, hydration, hydration!...cannot be stressed upon enough. Adequate water intake before, during and after a workout is a must. An easy schedule to remember is: 1 glass(approximately 300 ml) half an hour before you start, 1 glass in 3 parts during a 45min workout every 15 minutes and 1 glass after workout suits most people.
5. Get strength for your workout by eating some fruit like a banana before your workout and some proteins like boiled peanuts, egg whites after the workout. This helps in great muscle health.
6. Stretch and warm up. Remember a stiff muscle is waiting to be torn. So hands off those dumb bells till you are not pre conditioned. Similarly warm up your body for a work out by either walking to the gym, walking up to the 4th floor in KG or 10 minutes or so on the treadmill. This gets your heart and lungs ready for the ensuing workout.
7. Equally important is a cool down period! Your body systems need to wind down after achieving a goal for the day’s workout, so a similar 10 minutes of low strain exercise like cycling or even a swim for 15 min is just what the doctor ordered.
8. Get into appropriate gym wear and invest in a pair of comfortable workout shoes.
9. Weight training is great!! It should be encouraged all across the ages and s*x. Of course go small to big and light to heavy as you begin. Did you know that we Orthopedic surgeons recommend that all ladies suffering from Osteoporosis or brittle bones should sneak in to their teenage grand children’s rooms and borrow their dumbbells to tone and strengthen their muscles? This
Indirectly strengthens their bones.
10. Mix your workouts. A muscle being put through the same routine daily suffers from acclimatization or in simple words gets used to the drill. So challenge your muscles by cross training.
11. Most important tip in my opinion: Do not try to exercise a body part or muscle which hurts or feels sore. It is screaming for help so be kind to it, rest it, ice it or support it. If in a lot of discomfort, see a doctor.
So, now you are regular at the gym and the biceps, they are just about bulging and boom! One day, out of the blue you feel that you have pulled a muscle big time! What do you do…
1. Do not panic! It can be treated, mostly with some basic rules.
2. Stop the workout right away.
3. Call for help, approach your trainer, friends and if you are lucky to have a doctor in your gym…shout out to him/her.
4. Ice, ice baby…not the pop song but the first principle of treatment. Ice packs reduce pain, swelling in minutes and are saviors. All gyms must have adequate supply of ice for such emergencies.
5. Crepe or elastic bandage for support.
6. Elevate the injured area to reduce swelling.
7. If the injury appears to be more serious rush to a hospital for adequate check up, xrays and let the experts take over.
Ok, so now the worst is over and you want to re hit the gym…
Some simple guidelines
1. Listen to your medical team including your physiotherapist as to when and how you can re start gym activities.
2. Go slow and steady particularly around those exercises that involve the injured area, remember you are still recovering and undue strain can re rupture healed muscles and ligaments. So, try and strengthen the surrounding muscles as much as possible.
3. Your goals need not be lowered, only you may need more time to get there. Toh, lagey raho!!
4. Talk to your trainer to correct your form so that no more injuries harass you.
This is a vast subject and we can discuss this for a long time…but remember…gym injuries are better than falling off a sofa watching TV and you are not alone. Even the best athletes have sustained sports injuries, fallen, gotten up, dusted themselves and ultimately returned to the sports arena with peak fitness!!
So, see you at the gym, tomorrow at 5.30 am !!
Dr. Jawahar Panjwani
