How to Prevent Exercise Injuries When You’re Starting or Getting Back Into Exercise
Starting exercise when you haven’t done much for a while can be a strange mixture of feeling really positive about finally doing something and suddenly discovering muscles you had completely forgotten existed. Here I want to share my tips to help you prevent exercise injuries if you are new to exercise or starting again after a break.
I’ve been at very different levels of fitness over the years, including exercising at different weights during and after losing more than 10 stone, and one thing I’ve learned is that enthusiasm can sometimes get ahead of your body. You decide you’re going to get fit, buy some new trainers and suddenly expect yourself to exercise at a level you haven’t managed for years.
Unfortunately, your knees haven’t necessarily received the same motivational speech!
While nobody can guarantee that you’ll never injure yourself exercising, there are plenty of sensible things you can do to reduce the risk. Most of them aren’t particularly exciting, but they’re much better than finally getting into a routine you enjoy and then having to stop because you’ve hurt yourself.
Start with the fitness level you have now
I think this is one of the hardest things about returning to exercise, particularly if you used to be much fitter.
Your brain remembers what you could do before and expects your body to pick up where it left off. If you used to run 5K, walk for hours or happily spend an hour in the gym, starting with ten minutes can feel almost pointless.
It isn’t.
Your current fitness level is the one that matters, and giving your body time to adapt is far more sensible than trying to prove you can still do what you did five or ten years ago.
This matters if you’re new to exercise too. There is an enormous difference between being pleasantly tired after doing something new and pushing yourself so hard that you’re struggling to move properly the next day.
When I talk about exercise on Just Average Jen, particularly exercise for people who are overweight or haven’t been active for a long time, I always come back to the same idea: start with something manageable. If that’s a ten-minute walk, a few chair exercises or a very gentle beginner workout, that’s a perfectly reasonable starting point.
You can build from there.
Give your body a chance to warm up
I used to think of warming up as the boring bit you had to get through before the “proper” exercise started, but it has a genuine purpose.
Rather than going from sitting on the sofa to suddenly expecting your body to run, lift weights or do a demanding workout, spend a few minutes gradually getting moving first. What that looks like will depend on the activity you’re about to do, but it could be something as simple as walking or marching gently, moving your arms and shoulders and gradually increasing your pace.
The NHS recommends warming up before more rigorous exercise and says doing so can reduce the risk of injury. Their beginner warm-up takes around six minutes, which is useful if you’re not sure what a warm-up should actually involve.
I wouldn’t get too hung up on performing an elaborate series of stretches because you’ve seen somebody at the gym doing them. The aim is to prepare your body for the activity you’re about to do rather than turn your warm-up into another workout.
Learn how to do an exercise before making it harder
When you’re trying something new, it’s tempting to concentrate on how many repetitions you’re doing, how heavy the weight is or how long you can keep going. Technique matters too, especially when you’re using weights or exercise equipment.
If I were learning an exercise I hadn’t done before, I’d much rather start with a lighter weight or easier version and work out how the movement should feel before making it harder.
This is one area where getting some proper instruction can be worthwhile. If you’re exercising at a gym, ask a member of staff how to use equipment you don’t recognise rather than copying the person who happened to use it before you. A qualified personal trainer or physiotherapist may also be useful if you need more individual guidance.
The same applies at home. There are some excellent exercise videos available, but I’d choose reputable instructors and beginner-appropriate workouts rather than assuming that whatever appears first on social media is suitable for you.
Easy workouts to do at home for beginners
Choose exercise that works for your body
This has become increasingly important to me as I’ve got older and experienced exercise at different weights.
Not everybody’s body moves in exactly the same way, and something that feels comfortable for one person might feel absolutely awful for somebody else. Carrying more weight can make certain movements harder, while previous injuries, mobility problems and health conditions can all affect what is appropriate.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exercise. It means you might need to find your version of it.
If jumping hurts, you don’t necessarily need to jump. If getting down onto the floor is difficult, look for standing or seated alternatives. If running doesn’t agree with your knees, perhaps walking, cycling or swimming will suit you better.
I think we sometimes make exercise unnecessarily intimidating by assuming that the hardest version of a movement is the “real” one. A modified exercise isn’t cheating if it allows you to move comfortably and safely.
Exercise for people with bad knees
Don’t ignore pain because you think exercise is supposed to hurt
There is a difference between your muscles feeling tired because you’ve used them and something actually hurting.
This can take a little while to learn when you’re new to exercise because your body will probably feel different afterwards, particularly if you’ve used muscles that haven’t done very much recently. Mild muscle soreness after unfamiliar activity isn’t unusual, but sharp or sudden pain during exercise isn’t something I’d try to push through.
I’ve never particularly liked the whole “no pain, no gain” attitude because it can make people think stopping means they’re being weak. If a movement is hurting, stopping and working out why is far more sensible than carrying on just to prove something.
If pain is severe, doesn’t settle, keeps returning or you’re worried about an injury, get appropriate medical advice rather than trying to diagnose and rehabilitate it yourself from an article like this one.
Give yourself time to recover
When you’re feeling motivated, a rest day can feel like you’re doing nothing, particularly if you’ve set yourself a goal of becoming fitter or losing weight.
Recovery is still part of being active.
You don’t necessarily need an arbitrary rule saying that everyone should exercise for a particular number of days and then rest for exactly one day. How much recovery you need depends on what you’re doing, how hard you’re working and your own fitness.
It can also help to vary what you do rather than repeatedly putting the same stresses on your body. If you’ve done a demanding leg workout one day, for example, you might choose something gentler the next rather than doing exactly the same session again.
For me, variety also makes exercise considerably less boring. Walking one day, doing some strength exercises another and perhaps trying something completely different at the weekend feels much more realistic than forcing myself through the same workout every day because somebody online said I should.
Wear something comfortable and appropriate
You don’t need an expensive exercise wardrobe before you’re allowed to get fit. I certainly wouldn’t put off starting because you don’t have the latest leggings or fancy fitness gadgets.
What does matter is being comfortable and having footwear that’s appropriate for whatever you’re doing.
This becomes particularly important with activities such as walking and running because badly fitting shoes can make an otherwise enjoyable activity miserable very quickly. I’ve written separately about choosing trainers for walking, including options that can work well if you’re heavier and want plenty of support.
For other activities, think practically. You want clothes that allow you to move comfortably without constantly having to pull them up, pull them down or worry about something catching on equipment.
If you’re exercising outside, the weather matters too. What feels comfortable for a short walk on a cool spring morning could be completely inappropriate during a heatwave.
How to feel comfortable exercising when overweight
Build strength and flexibility gradually
Preventing injury isn’t only about what you do immediately before a workout. Becoming stronger and maintaining your flexibility can make everyday movement and exercise easier too.
NHS guidance recommends that adults include muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days each week, although that doesn’t mean you need to start lifting enormous weights. Strengthening activities can include resistance bands, bodyweight exercises, yoga and even things such as heavy gardening.
This is another area where starting small makes sense. If you’ve never done strength training before, you don’t need to suddenly become a weightlifter. Learning a few basic movements and gradually increasing what you can do is enough.
I’ve found that thinking about strength as something that helps with everyday life makes it feel much less intimidating. Being able to get out of a chair more easily, carry shopping, climb stairs or walk further comfortably matters rather more to me than whether I look like somebody in a fitness advert.
You don’t need to exercise yourself into the ground for it to count
I think this is probably the most important lesson I’ve learned about exercise.
There have been points in my life when exercise was very closely tied to weight loss. If I’d eaten more, I felt I should move more. If I wanted the scales to change faster, exercising harder seemed like the obvious solution.
These days I try to look at movement rather differently.
Exercise can help your physical and mental health without needing to leave you completely exhausted. A walk counts even if you didn’t come home dripping with sweat. Ten minutes counts even if somebody else exercised for an hour.
The NHS recommendation for adults is to aim for activity across the week, including aerobic and strengthening activity, but you don’t have to go from doing very little to meeting every guideline immediately. If you’ve been inactive, gradually becoming more active is still progress.
That slower approach might not feel as dramatic as starting a punishing new workout programme on Monday morning, but you’re far more likely to keep doing something if your body isn’t begging you to stop by Wednesday.
Exercise ideas for women who hate exercise
What if you already have an injury or health condition?
This is where general internet exercise advice has its limits.
If you already have an injury, a medical condition, unexplained symptoms or you’re unsure whether an exercise is appropriate for you, speak to an appropriate healthcare professional. Depending on the issue, that could be your GP, a physiotherapist or another professional involved in your care.
The NHS also recommends speaking to your GP before starting if you haven’t exercised for some time or have medical conditions or concerns.
Getting advice doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be told not to exercise. In many cases it may simply help you find activities and adaptations that are more appropriate for you.
I think that’s particularly important if previous pain or injury has made you frightened of exercise. Being told to “just get moving” isn’t terribly helpful if you’re worried you’re going to make something worse.
Exercise should be something you can keep doing
There’s no way to remove every possibility of injury from exercise, just as you can’t completely eliminate the chance of hurting yourself walking down the stairs or doing the gardening.
What you can do is make sensible choices.
For me, that means warming up, learning how to do new movements properly and increasing things gradually rather than trying to transform my fitness overnight. It also means accepting that the exercise that’s right for somebody else might not be right for me.
If you’re starting from a place of being very unfit, overweight or nervous about exercise, don’t let that convince you that you need to punish yourself to make progress. Start with what your body can comfortably manage now and build on it.
The aim isn’t to prove how hard you can exercise today. It’s to find ways of moving that you can still be doing weeks, months and hopefully years from now.
