No matter where you train, either at home in Dubai or at your local gym there is a risk of injury. Not only from using exercise equipment incorrectly but also from incorrect techniques.

If you don’t learn the basics of proper form and technique you probably won’t get the results you are looking for either.

This is where a personal trainer in Dubai excels. Using their specialist knowledge of exercise, the human body and exercise equipment they can put you on the path to exercise correctly which ultimately reduced the risk of injury.

Don’t rush in 

Question: Taking the decision to get more exercise is a great step to leading a fitter and healthier life in Dubai. However, some people charge in without giving much thought to the correct way to do an exercise (form). As a personal trainer in Dubai what advice can you give to ensure the risk of injury is reduced for exercise ‘newbies’?

As a personal trainer in Dubai I always advise my clients that they need to know the difference between active and passive range of motion.

Passive range of motion is the full range of motion which your joint can go through, active range of motion is the range of motion that you can actively control with your muscles.

There is often a difference between these two ranges of motion and it is in that difference where injuries often happen.

Leave the ego at home. How you train in Dubai is more important than what weight you use, simply lifting weight is not going to get you lasting results. Load is important but not at the expense of proper execution.

It doesn’t matter how much weight you can lift or how many reps you can do if you are failing to stress the target muscle with adequate stimulus.

Drop the weight and learn how to create and maintain muscle tension.

Using correct form and technique when training

Question: Apart from the risk of injury, what other benefits does ensuring proper form and technique provide when working out?

Proper exercise execution takes focus, it is important to focus the mind on the muscle you want to train. T

his will create a strong neuro-muscular connection which over time will get the best muscle activation and contraction and yield the greatest results.

Reduce your risk of injuring yourself

Question: Many people in Dubai choose to exercise and workout at home. Without proper instruction from a personal trainer in Dubai do you those working out at home have an increased risk of injury?

Risk of injury is always a factor when it comes to exercise regardless of whether its in the gym or in the home.

Learning how to set up and execute a movement is everything and a qualified personal trainer in the UAE has the skills and know-how to ensure you exercise correctly, either stand-alone or using different exercise equipment.

Make sure you warm up

Question: A very important part of reducing the risk of injury is a pre-workout warm up. Can you provide some examples of warm up routines that you do with your personal training clients and also explain how and why they help?

The ability to better activate your muscles during an exercise will lead to greater results.

A warm-up routine should consist of a mobility session designed to prime your body for the specific movements that you will be performing.

Mobility work is much more than just static stretching, which can affect your performance in a negative way, it’s made up of mostly dynamic movements taking a group of muscles through and active range of motion which allows for temperature and fluid changes in the working tissue.

Good pre-workout mobility work increases your range of motion and helps you connect to muscle and fix poor recruitment patterns.

An example of this would be hip extensions in preparation for lower body or deadlift movements.

These will help the brain get ready to send signals for maximal recruitment without excessively fatiguing the muscle. Mind-muscle connection.

Tips to help you prevent training injuries

Question: Finally, for someone who is completely new to exercise and fitness in Dubai what are you top five tips when it comes to exercise?

Initiate each movement through the working muscle first, the target muscle should be the prime mover from start to finish. Maintain continuous tension throughout the full range of movement, including at the extremes of the range (meaning when you’re fully lengthened or shortened).

Maintain proper posture and stability, do not allow the weight to bounce or change direction quickly.

Heavy weights are only useful when used with control and tension.

Simplicity and consistency are the most important factors to success.

Gaining strength or getting lean requires you to string together a series of quality workouts.

There are many different and complicated ways to design a workout, using training tools that have no place in your program if you have body composition goals.

Too many people get caught out doing random workouts which are ineffective for measurable changes in their physique.

Pick a goal, and train using a pre-set training program that progressively overloads the body.