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Many people often resolve to do exercise to make their bodies healthier and slimmer. Whenever they feel this urge, the first place they probably visit is a fitness centre.

However, going to a gym does not magically transform your body overnight. Using machines at a gym without proper preparation may increase the risk of injury and waste your time whilst yielding little improvement.
Here are eight gym workout rules that will save you from those mishaps.

Stretching your body properly before and after exercise is extremely important. This warm-up time prevents physical injuries by relaxing your muscles and joints. Lifting weights without stretching can damage yourligaments, joints or muscles.

Body parts such as your waist, shoulders or knees need to be stretched enough as they bear a considerable weight during weight-lifting. Also, post-workout stretches are a must to relieve tight muscles and avoid possible muscle pain.

The prime example of cardio exercise is running on a treadmill or on a street. Cardio workouts do, of course, burn your body fat, but you can improve its efficiency by building more muscles. This is why you need to mix cardio and strength-building exercises in your workout plan.

Another tip for cardio exercises: change your workout routine every four weeks. Varying your activities can keep exercise boredom at bay, like ten minutes on a stationary bike, ten minutes on a stepper, and another ten minutes on a treadmill. This will help you feel less exhausted and burn calories effectively.

When it comes to strength-building workouts, posture matters the most, and it begins with picking the right weight for you. Lifting light weights with too many reps is inefficient and starting with weights that are too heavy makes you lose the right posture. Hence finding the ideal weight is important. If you can perform about 10 times with a certain weight and feel a bit of muscle fatigue, you have your ideal point.

Usually, performing 10 to 15 reps for each set and repeating the set two or three times is recommended. When overloaded, your muscles can fail in the middle of the set, or get damaged, as well as cause strain in your joints and other body parts. Irresponsibly lifting weights that are too heavy can easily lead to ligament or joint injuries in your shoulders or waist, so you need to be careful at all times.

There are some breathing techniques you need to keep in mind during exercise: exhale on the exertion phase of the exercise and inhale on the easier phase. Put simply, you breathe out when the targeted muscle gets tensed. Sometimes, you may hold your breath when lifting heavy weights. This can increase blood pressure and cause vascular injuries, or fainting in the worst cases. Therefore, you should be careful not to hold your breath during exercise.

During weight-lifting exercises, your muscles get slightly damaged and your body starts to repair them when relaxed. This cycle makes your muscle grow. In other words, taking a rest is just as important as doing exercises for muscle-building. It also means that training the same body parts every day is unproductive and getting enough rest in between sets is necessary. Usually it is good to have a 1 to 3 minute rest before moving onto the next exercise.

Quite a few people skip exercise when they're stressed out or on their period. However, doing intensive exercises in a short frame of time makes your brain send out stress-killing hormones called endorphins. Perspiring moderately during your period eases menstrual pain and irregularity by improving blood circulation. One of the most common misconceptions is that you should not work out during your period.

Yet understanding your body's state and getting a light workout accordingly can be a lot of help. Caveat: do not work out too hard because over-exercising can decrease menstrual bleeding significantly and bring about uterine haemorrhaging.

Office workers who cannot freely spare time for working out before or after work often go to a gym during their lunchtime. However, taking exercise time out of your one-hour lunch break may not be a good idea for your body. It is not because of inefficiency, but because of possible indigestion which can result in higher blood pressure. Moreover, if you eat too fast to give yourself more exercise time, your stomach becomes busy digesting food flooding into it.

To make matters worse, the blood in visceral muscles flows into skeletal muscles when the workout begins and thereby increases the possibility of digestive disorders. Thus, it is better to find some proper free time and do regular exercise. It is even better to work out during a time when your body is in a good condition.

Are you out of breath and all in a sweat after intense workouts? Wait, you have one more thing to do: the wrap-up exercise. Skipping a wrap-up session leads to unresolved muscle fatigue, and eventually to muscle pain early the next morning. These workouts relieve and relax your tensed muscles so that muscle fatigue does not accumulate. It is nothing special. Doing 15 to 20 minutes of aerobic exercise is enough.

You must have used your precious free time to do exercise for a healthier lifestyle. Thus nothing would make you feel happier than a tangible result. Before you visit a gym today, remember the rules above and enjoy exercising.