by Ysabel J. Doran

Created on: October 19, 2008   Last Updated: February 13, 2009

Setting a new workout goal for yourself can inspire you to push your body extra hard, which is perfectly understandable. After all, you want results. But if you don't exercise prudence while you exercise your body, your initial enthusiasm could cause frustrating injuries that ultimately set you back.

When you begin a physical activity that you haven't done before, or step up the intensity or your workout, your muscles, tendons and bones receive more than their ordinary ration of pounding, pulling and pushing. Sore muscles are the consequence. But after a few days, your muscles heal and strengthen. In as little as a couple of weeks you notice improved performance.

Since you feel stronger, it may seem to make perfect sense to take your workout to the next level, in order to get more benefit. But this is where the danger lies. Inflammation in your tendons and bones can begin and become established long before you feel anything.

While your muscles become strong quickly, making you feel able to do more, your tendons and bones don't strengthen as fast. Also, tendons and bones don't have a dense network of nerves to send pain signals that tell you it's time to stop. So by the time you feel tendon or bone pain, the injury has been developing for a few days or even weeks. By that time rest is the only remedy, which means you can't exercise as usual.

Preventing overuse injuries is often as simple as exercising a little restraint. Begin by evaluating your fitness level. Then plan a workout routine that's just challenging enough to gradually build your muscles and cardiovascular capacity.

Keep a workout log. Record how much and how long you exercise, and also note when you feel tired or have pain. Use these notes as a guide for adjusting the duration and intensity of your workout.

Before you make changes to your routine, map out your exercise goals and plan gradual workout increases accordingly. Generally, every three to six weeks is often enough to moderately increase intensity, but this will vary depending on your age and health. Stick to your plan and resist the urge to spontaneously run more miles, swim more laps, lift more weight or do more reps, just because you feel like you can.

Don't forget to warm up before every workout. This, more than any other habit, is associated with preventing injury. But here's a surprising recent change in stretching philosophy. Stretching is important for improving range of motion and flexibility, but a study at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physical Therapy at Ghent University in Belgium finds

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