New fitness converts urged to be cautious

Hooman Melamed is tired of meeting people because they made New Year’s resolutions.

As an orthopedic spine surgeon, Melamed sees the downside of fervent efforts to get strong and fit. Exercising the wrong way can put a person out of commission for a long time, he says.

As director of scoliosis at Marina del Rey Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., he says he often treats people whose injuries could have been avoided had they taken the time to learn good form or held themselves to more conservative workouts. The damage done by common weight-training mistakes can be cumulative, meaning the more you do an exercise the wrong way, the greater the injury can be, he says.

In general, movements should be controlled and steady, he says. That doesn’t mean you can’t move rapidly, just don’t jerk your body around.

Breathe. Melamed says inhaling and exhaling with the natural rhythm of the exercises will help keep you in control.

Paying attention to the sometimes simple adjustments required for proper form trains the brain, he says, making it more likely you’ll avoid injury when playing sports.

“Most of us are not trying to be Mr. Olympia. You don’t need crazy-heavy weights, and we need our bodies forever,” he says.

For starters, he says, don’t read while you’re using an elliptical machine.

This is a popular machine in many gyms, perhaps because it’s easy to read a magazine while working out. But that, Melamed says, can also cause problems, not the least of which is that you don’t get all the calorie-burning, heart-pumping benefits if you’re more concerned with your book than your pace.

Reading a book ruins form. People jut their chins forward into a “swan neck” position that pinches nerves in the neck.

It’s also not a good idea to lean forward on the machine, resting weight on the handrails - which is tempting, especially as you get tired. What you should aim for is an upright position, he says, with your eyes looking where they would be looking were you to do similar ambulatory motions on a trail or sidewalk.

ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 01/20/2014

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