It’s always important to get enough exercise, but if you get too focused on possible results and ignore how your body feels, you can find yourself in a load of trouble. Taking the time to listen to your body can help you to get better results and avoid injuring yourself. As you start planning for your fitness goals, you should think about the following reasons why you should listen to your body.

Prevent Exhaustion

The feeling of working out until you are tired can be incredibly rewarding and help you to feel more confident with your body and your strength. However, you should never let yourself go beyond the point of tiredness and into the world of exhaustion. When you are exhausted, you are unable to safely complete the exercises you participate in. 

This can mean that you are highly uncomfortable and that you may even hurt yourself along the way. When you let yourself become exhausted, it will also cause you to need more recovery time before you can safely go back to the gym.

Watch Out for Injuries

Paying attention to the way your body feels can also help you to notice if you become injured before you otherwise would. As you work towards making sure you are making progress in the gym, you should be working to avoid injury as much as possible. Anytime you experience an injury you should take a break to prevent further damage. Feeling a little bit of strain or discomfort is okay in your workout, but you shouldn’t move beyond that point to where you start feeling pain.

Build Positive Associations with Exercise

Since you want to continue exercising throughout your life, you need to make sure that you have a good relationship with the experience. Taking time to listen to your body helps you to maintain a positive attitude and a love for physical exertion. Every time you work out, make sure that you are listening to your body and making adjustments depending on how you feel. This will ensure that you continue to enjoy the exercise you participate in.

When you work out, you are helping your body to change and progress. It can be tempting to push yourself as far as you can go, but this can lead to injury, frustration, and even illness. Instead, you should be listening to your body and your own needs, so you can keep yourself safe.

Did you enjoy this article? Here’s more to read: Why Progress at the Gym Can Be so Difficult