Whether in the gym or in a sports club: aerobics have been very popular in the fitness sector for years. Aerobic exercise keeps you fit, is fun and shapes your body. But it’s not quite that simple: It’s all too easy to make mistakes that are harmful to your back and joints. Below we give tips on how to avoid incorrect posture or overloading your body during aerobics and how to achieve the greatest success.
Put weight on your whole foot as you warm up
A thorough warm-up program is the best way to prepare for your aerobic exercises. But beware: Mistakes can easily happen here, especially when it comes to putting pressure on your feet. Even if it looks elegant, you should not only do the warm-up steps on your tiptoes, but put weight on your whole foot. Otherwise there is a risk of the calf muscles and Achilles tendons shortening. The result can be painful calf cramps, as the magazine “Brigitte” explains in a report on training errors in aerobics.
Therefore, make sure to roll over the entire sole of the foot and alternately load the heel and toe when stepping to the side. Give your leg muscles a break from time to time and shake your legs out vigorously between exercises.
Aerobic Exercise: Don’t overload the spine
During all aerobic exercises, you should always pay attention to the position of your spine. The following mistake happens particularly often when doing abdominal muscle exercises in a supine position: Instead of lifting the upper body with muscle tension, the head is suddenly pulled up and the chin is pressed against the chest.
However, this only bends the spine, the training effect on the other hand is zero. Instead, look up in a relaxed manner and keep your elbows out. Slowly tighten your abdominal muscles, raise your upper back and slightly contract your shoulder blades.
Cross your arms in front of your chest
An alternative tip for arm positioning: fold your arms in front of your chest instead of behind your neck and always keep your upper body straight during the exercise, advises the magazine “Fit for Fun”. Roll up your head and shoulder blades until you feel tension in your abdomen. In this way you avoid unnecessarily straining your spine.
Watch out for the joints
Another typical mistake in aerobic exercise is overloading the joints. This danger threatens, for example, with push-ups. If possible, never straighten your arms completely and make sure that your wrists are straight and not twisted outwards. Beginners should do push-ups on all fours. This is the best way to prevent your back from arching too much.
Gentle relaxation posture
At the end of the aerobic exercises, there is usually a little relaxation – but there are also sources of error lurking here. You should completely refrain from head circling, which was often used in the past: the strain on the cervical spine is too great and the training gain for your muscles is too small. Better: keep your head up and your neck long. This position also serves as the basis for various exercises that train the neck.
Beginners in particular are advised to do aerobics under supervision in a professional gym. Specially trained trainers guide you in aerobics courses in the correct execution of the individual exercises and help you to avoid bad posture.
Important note: The information in no way replaces professional advice or treatment by trained and recognized doctors. The content of fitmodell cannot and must not be used to independently make diagnoses or start treatments.
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