STORY BY
Karen Krakower Kaplan
For me, it was 1993, sitting in a theater watching “Terminator 2” and Linda Hamilton’s arms. Sleek, sculpted and strong, she looked like an anatomy lesson. Mine were “buff” too, if you counted scooping Little League Sno-Cones and driving carpool as an upper-body workout.
A few weeks later, a magazine ran her workout regimen, complete with how-to photos and an easy, you-too-can-have-this-body! recipe.
After just 12 dedicated weeks, I was sculpted. I had biceps, triceps, ‘ceps I couldn’t even spell. I looked good. No, great.
I also had a herniated disc, a frozen shoulder, tendonitis and arms so strong I couldn’t lift my gym bag. Six months of physical rehab later, doing core muscle exercises so subtle that you’d miss them if you blinked, I finally recovered.
The road to health is paved with good intentions, expensive gear, trendy fitness gadgets, Hollywood trainers hawking videos, lapsed gym memberships—and dumb, dumb mistakes. This New Year, if you’ve made the decision to pick up a barbell or get on a tread mill, memorize this phrase: it’s only easy once you know how.
Top 30 mistakes
We badgered, interviewed and interrupted the workouts of three permanent fixtures at The University of Texas Health Science Center Recreation Center Facility, a professional trainer, an endurance athlete and a life-long devotee of exercise. We asked: what are the top mistakes people make working out?
- Just 3 little words
“Form, form, form,” scolds Corey Jefferson, wellness coordinator and fitness trainer for the UT Recreational Facility. “Even if you’re lifting a three-pound weight, there is a right way and a dangerous way to do it,” he says.
The way we stand, breathe, stretch, walk, lift or use a machine will determine if we get fit, get hurt or generally waste our bodies’ time.
Posture even your mother
would love
Want to look five pounds thinner,
10 years younger and ache half as much?
Read more...
This means the treadmill, too. Walking or running on a moving device involves the entire body, not just the legs. “People slump over the machine, holding on to the rails, thereby rounding the shoulders and leaning on the machine,” Jefferson says. “Stand up straight, use your arms like you do when you’re walking down the street. Use the railings only as occasional reference points,” Jefferson says. “It’ll improve your balance as well as your posture.”
Form is, after all, about posture. Posture involves the body’s scaffolding—the deep muscles, tendons, ligaments and connective tissue that hold up your bones. Your neck for instance holds up, twists and turns your head, the equivalent of a bowling ball supported by a twig. The support structure of the neck even allows your bowling ball to dangle out over your chest without snapping (which it surely does when you slump.) Your lower back supports more than half your body weight. Your stomach muscles support your back.
Core muscles aren’t the sexy ones that anyone is going to “ooh” and “ahh” over. Good form comes from constant posture awareness and strengthening of the deep, core muscles. Fix your posture first. Then, pick up a weight.
- The big str-r-r-etch—or lack thereof
Anyone who works with Dr. Sam Kaplan knows that nothing gets inked in his calendar between 10 A.M. and noon “They can try, but I won’t be there. The gym comes first,” he explains between huffs and puffs.
The chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the UT Medical School runs on the elliptical machine for 70 minutes on the highest resistance setting at its steepest grade. The next hour is spent in the weight room using various machines for strength training.
Then, he “stretches.” One, single three-second stretch. “It is my biggest mistake,” Kaplan admits. “All my life I have been physically active, as a Marine, as a runner. I then added weights years ago in Switzerland, when I needed the stamina to run real, live hills in real, live altitude.”
Never, though, did he stretch before or after a workout. “I just didn’t want to take the extra 30 minutes. Now, I’m wound like steel cords,” he says. “I can’t turn my head when I wake up and, until I finish my workout, I’m tight as a drum.”
Improper stretching is almost as bad as no stretching at all. “Bouncing while stretching is an injury in the making,” Jefferson says. “The stretch should be held for a minimum of three deep breaths and should be lengthened with each breath.”
Torn ligaments, ruptured tendons, pain from stiffness, frozen joints, lack of mobility—even diminished height—can occur if your body is not given the opportunity to stretch out what you have spent an hour contracting and compressing.
“Do not rush the stretching portion of your workout,” Jefferson says. “Stretching is just as important as the workout—it’s the other half of your workout.”
- Waiting to exhale
Angela Weatherill, 47 she has grown rather fond of breathing. A competitive athlete since the age of 13, she apparently finds it useful in completing 100-mile races or Iron Man Triathlons: a 2.4 mile swim, a 112-mile bike race and a standard 26.2-mile marathon. “But, like anyone else, I had to learn how to breathe correctly. And, I wasn’t doing it right,” she says.
How wrong can we possibly breathe? “Very wrong in a workout,” says Weatherill, manager of administrative technology at the UT Health Science Center.
-
We breathe in when we should breathe out. We hold our breaths, forget to breathe, breathe too fast. We misplace our breath, breathing from a fraction of our lungs. We waste our breath by opening our mouths and ignoring our flow valve: the nose.
“People tend to hold their breaths when exercising, until they get so oxygen-starved that they start gasping,” Weatherill observes. “When working out with weights, people just don’t know that they should exhale upon exerting force and inhale upon release of force.”
No wonder we’re confused. It’s counter-intuitive. If we step on the gas to get our cars up a hill, doesn’t it make sense to fill our lungs with air to get our abs through a crunch?
Just the opposite, says Jefferson, who spends the better part of his day retraining people how to move and breathe. “Rule of thumb: when you’re sitting on a machine, look at the weight stack. When the stack goes up, exhale. When the stack goes down, inhale.
When we hold our breaths, we raise our blood pressure. When we breathe too fast on, say, the treadmill, we increase our heart rate uselessly. When we breathe through our mouths only, we don’t utilize our oxygen well. Our muscles don’t get the required dose of O2 and they begin to fatigue.
But learning when to breathe is only half the lesson: learning how to breathe will help you all day long.
-
 |
 |
| Shera Cook, 26, and second-year student at UT Dental Branch, demonstrates how important form and posture are in a good workout. When lifting weights, keep your neck in line with your back, with the chin tucked in slightly. The wrist should be straight, in line with the arm. Bending the wrist places pressure on delicate bones. |
Hydration
“Two diet cokes is NOT hydration!” Weatherill says not so gently. But, that’s 24 ounces I didn’t have in me before my workout, I counter. “Caffeinated sodas act as diuretics. Would you run through Starbucks after a workout and consider that rehydration? No. You’re losing more fluid than you’re taking in,” she says.
True enough. Caffeine stimulates more than just fuzzy morning brains; it commands our bodies to release fluids—sometimes just when we need them. Hydration is crucial. Without it, blood gets thick, muscles cramp, nutrients miss the delivery truck and a cascade of physiologic breakdowns result in worthless workouts at best; hyperthermia and dehydration at worst.
Weatherill, whose life can depend on proper hydration during an endurance event, cautions against sugary drinks, as well. “For a daily gym workout or outside walk and run, hydrate with water.”
And, not just two sips from the water fountain. That won’t cut it. “People don’t realize how much they lose in perspiration—even while swimming in cold water. For the average workout, your body will tell you how much to drink if you’re paying attention,” she says.
But, just in case my body isn’t listening, how much is enough? For serious runners and endurance athletes,for every pound of sweat you lose in a run, replace with 16 ounces of water with key electrolytes, such as sodium, say some race physicians. Too much water, though, can cause dangerous chemical imbalances.
For the rest of us (who are just learning where the gym is) fill up your plastic water bottle before your workout and finish it by the time you leave. Drink when you’re thirsty, the minute you’re thirsty. Drink until you’re quenched. Generally, your body is smart enough not to take in more fluid than the stomach or the kidneys can handle during exercise.
- My trainer is bigger than your trainer
If you are ready to enjoy the pleasures of strength and health, find a trainer and commit to a few sessions of instruction that can save you years of failure and pain. They also can inspire you to transform your body into the gift with which you were born. They can instill in you the sense of privilege of owning such a marvelous machine.
 |
 |
| Corey Jefferson, fitness coach and wellness coordinator at the UT Recreation Facility warns against lifting more weight than you can handle. Keep weights close to the body, feet at shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent and lift slowly. |
They also can hurt you if you don’t find the right one for you, which leads to Mistake No.5. “Don’t pick a trainer based on size. Just because someone is built like a linebacker doesn’t mean he is good or even safe,” Jefferson says. “People think a huge physique translates into good. It doesn’t.”
Nor do they have to be ruthless, “no mercy” masochists. “You don’t need a drill sergeant. If you want to be humiliated into the correct leg squat position, go to boot camp,” Weatherill says.
To find a good trainer, ask the people whose workout ethic you admire. “Go by word of mouth,” Jefferson suggests. “Ask your friends what they like or dislike about their trainers and find what matches your personality and goals.”
Certifications are good, “but they can be iffy.” You want to find someone who has a solid knowledge in exercise physiology who doesn’t want to make you over in his or her image. “You want someone who will guard your safety, first, and then your fitness goals,” Jefferson advises.
Weatherill credits her current success in large part to Jefferson, who has kept her focused, uninjured and, most importantly, “humble. No matter how good a shape I’m in, there’s not a single day in the gym that I’m not reminded of how much more I have to learn.”
Kaplan agrees that early instruction could save you a world of woe. “I see people approach a machine for the first time. They walk around it, scratch their heads, check to see if anyone’s looking, and then they study the little picture diagram and assume they understand what to do.” They put in honest effort, he says, overdo it, lift improperly and “end up doing far more harm than good.”
Bottom line: you wouldn’t slap on a pair of skis for the first time without guidance. And you wouldn’t strap yourself into a car without driver’s education. Your fitness deserves the same respect. There’s no shame in asking “how.”
- My Body 101
What really irks Jefferson is when he hears women say, ”I don’t want my muscles to get too big.” Mistake No. 6: not knowing your body.
“There’s a fat-muscle ratio at work here. Over that muscle is a layer of fat. If you don’t want to get ‘too big’ then let’s work to burn the fat,” Jefferson says. Women, by nature (literally) cannot bulk up like a man. What they can do, however, is build up muscle that lies beneath the fat they will lose with an aerobic workout.
Knowing your body means “Go by your clothes and how they fit—not the scale,” Weatherill says. For someone who is initiating an exercise program to lose weight, let your clothes tell you if you’re succeeding.
 |
 |
| Dr. Sam Kaplan, professor and chair, microbiology at UT Medical School shows how easy it is to let the head jut forward, stressing the neck and over-extending the back muscles. “Let your chest do the work by sitting up straight.” |
For Weatherill, who, at any time of the year can be training for Iron Man triathlons or a mountain climbing expedition, how her clothes fit clue her in on her condition. “When I’m not in training, my clothes are actually looser because so much of me is muscle, which weighs more than fat.” (If you don’t believe her, put an ounce of chicken fat and an ounce chicken meat in water. Guess which one floats.)
Which brings up another mistake: “Most people don’t know what they want to accomplish with a regimented workout. So, ask yourself, ‘What is my purpose? Do I want to be flexible? Stronger? Leaner? Do I want to start competing? Strengthen my pitching arm? Pick up my grandkids? What?’” Weatherill asks. “Different workouts will yield different results.”
Kaplan’s purpose had something to do with a midlife wake-up call. “I had been a smoker, had abandoned an active lifestyle for life as a bench scientist and my health was suffering. So, I started running. My goal was to go as far as I could for as long as I could. That was it. My goals are better defined now—I want to stick around as long as I can.”
- Back when I was head cheerleader, body builder, Navy SEAL...
Let it go, man. You’re clearly not there anymore. So, start from today. “Don’t judge yourself on how you were 20 years ago. You’re living now. Assess your physical or athletic shape right now and go from there,” Weatherill says.
Some fitness experts calculate that it will take roughly a month of retraining for every year you were inactive. So, if you were captain of the swim team 20 years ago...figure 18 months or so to return to an age-appropriate tip-top condition. After all, you didn’t get out of shape over a weekend. You won’t snap back in one, either.
Realize, too, that over the years, your body has changed. Once titanium-strong backs are now victims of desk-itis and gravity. Computer shoulders have stolen your long-ago plumb-line posture. Work with your weak points and take your time. Get a medical check-up before you start a program if you have any concerns about your heart health or orthopedic weak points. Consult a trainer at your gym or a private trainer through a reliable grapevine to outline a program for you.
And, in the immortal words of those two ancient fitness experts, Socrates and Hippocrates: “Know thyself” but “First do no harm.”
And now, the rest of the Top 30 Dos and Don’ts of Training
- Avoid the gym mirror unless you are looking head-on for form. Looking over your shoulder to check yourself in the mirror will only hurt your neck and throw off your form all the way down your spine.
- Go by what you feel. “If you can feel it, you can reproduce it” as Jefferson says. And that applies to both good and bad form.
- Watch where you’re walking in the gym. You might walk into a bar while another person is lifting or simply trip over something left on the floor.
Warming Up
- Working out without warming up is a big problem. People should warm up for about 10 minutes before stretching. Warm up exercises can be walking on a treadmill, gentle stretches, slow laps in a pool. This raises the core temperature of the body and allows the muscles and tendons to be more pliable.
- Warm-up exercise is especially important in cold weather. (“The only time we’ve had injuries on our Rec Center flag football team was the one cold day of play and people didn’t warm up,” Jefferson says.)
Weights and reps
- People always over-estimate how much weight they think they can handle. Lighten the weights and do more repetitions. If you cannot do eight repetitions without losing control of the weight, then the weight is too heavy.
- There is no place for speed in the weight room. Lift free weights or machine weights slowly and evenly. Release them the same way.
- If you have to squeeze a hand weight tightly to hold it, it’s too heavy. If your wrist sags, it’s too heavy. Protect your hands.
- If you don’t pay attention to the amount of weight you place on the bar for bench presses, you can create an embarrassing situation. People have been forced to roll the weight down their bodies in order to free themselves.
- Remember to place collars on the end of bars for free weight lifts. Weights can slide off of the ends and crash to the floor—or onto your foot.
- Speed belongs on the bike, the treadmill and the elliptical machine—not in the weight room.
‘Spotters’
- Always use a “spotter”—someone who watches you—if you are performing bench presses or squats.
- Do not expect the spotter to lift all of the weight while spotting. For example, if you are benching and need assistance getting the bar up, you should continue to push while the spotter contributes to the lift. If you cease to push, the spotter may not be strong enough to get the weight up and it could fall back on you.
Treadmills and elliptical running machines
- While running on a treadmill, pay attention to what you’re doing. It’s easier than you think to fall off.
- When on the treadmill, stay within your stride. Stride length is important. It shouldn’t be over-accentuated or out of your normal step length, which puts undue pressure on your hips, back, groin muscles and hyper-extends your knees.
- If you haven’t worked out in awhile, don’t walk or run on a treadmill with the grade (incline) elevated for prolonged periods. This can cause shin splints.
- While using the elliptical trainer, try doing the same amount of time backwards as you do forwards. This balances out the muscles used and brings new ones into play.
Shoes
- Do not workout in sandals, flip-flops or open toe shoes. This is an accident waiting to happen.
- Keep track of the shoe mileage. New shoes should be purchased after 300 miles or four months of continuous wear. Think of it as changing the brake pads on your car. Treads get worn down and people tend to wear down one side more than the other. When this happens, it jeopardizes the way you bear weight, which can affect the ankles, knees, hips, and low back.
- When purchasing tennis shoes, spend extra time with the salesperson and ask detailed questions about the shoe. Make sure the shoe fits properly and is for the type of terrain you desire. Also, check the wear on your old shoes and see if your feet wear the shoe more to the outside or inside of the foot. This will allow the salesman to find a shoe that gives more support to the side that you wear down the most.
- Do not work out, run, or play any sports without tightly lacing up your shoes.
Last Updated: 1-24-2007
Health Tip:
Packing Bag Lunches Safely
If you pack lunches for your child to take to school, be careful that you do not accidentally expose them to foodborne illness.
Bagged lunches, especially those containing perishable foods, need to be packed and handled properly in order to keep the food safe. In general, perishable foods should not be left at room temperature for more than two hours. If left out too long, the temperature of the food can enter the danger zone where bacteria grow most rapidly, which is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Below are some tips to help families pack bagged lunches safely:
- Pack foods that are nonperishable and won't require refrigeration.
- If you do pack perishable foods such as luncheon meats or prepackaged cheese and crackers, include a frozen gel pack or a frozen juice carton with the food in an insulated lunch bag or box.
- Pack only the amount of perishable food that your child can eat at lunch.
- Preparing lunches the night before and storing them in the refrigerator until you pack your child's lunchbox in the morning can help keep food cold longer the next day.
- Don't reuse packaging materials such as paper or plastic bags, aluminum foil, etc. as they can contaminate other foods and cause foodborne illness. Have your child discard all used food packaging and paper bags after lunch.
Before eating lunch or snacks at school, make sure your child washes his or her hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. If your child's school does not have a handwashing program in place, encourage them to adopt a such a program, as handwashing is one of the best ways kids and parents can protect health and stop the spread of germs.
