Awareness of Proper Weight-Lifting Techniques Among Self-Trained Individuals

Abstract

Background: Because of the advantages it offers for improving muscular strength, endurance, body composition, physical performance, and general health, weight training is becoming more and more popular with recreational gym goers. A lot of people now do resistance training without a pro supervisor. They learn how to work out from social media, videos online, friends, or their own experience. These materials may not always offer accurate or evidence-based advice on correct weight-lifting methods even if they are readily available. Therefore, self-trained people may accidentally use improper lifting techniques, hence raising their risk of musculoskeletal damage, lower training efficacy, and long-term physical problems.

Good weight-lifting technique consists of keeping proper posture, regulating movement patterns, appropriate breathing, and choosing suitable weights based on a person's capacity. Adherence to these rules minimizes too much stress on the spine, muscles, ligaments, and joints, therefore maximizing exercise performance and safety. Still, the degree of awareness of these ideas among self-taught people is unknown, especially in areas where there aren't many certified fitness specialists available.

Identifying knowledge gaps and encouraging injury prevention plans depends on evaluation of awareness of right weight-lifting methods. The results of such studies can help create focused educational campaigns, physical therapy-led awareness campaigns, and evidence-based activity recommendations. Better knowledge could motivate safer training techniques, help to lower avoidable gym-related injuries, and improve general resistance training efficacy among self-trained people.

Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study sought to evaluate self-trained people's knowledge of correct weight-lifting methods. Following Krishna Vishwa Vidyapeeth, Karad's Institutional Ethics Committee approval, the investigation was done over six months. Using a convenience sampling method, 207 self-trained people were found from different Satara district gyms. Participants comprised both men and women between the ages of 16 and 30 with at least one month of unsupervised weight-training experience ready to take part. The study excluded anyone with recent musculoskeletal problems, neurological, cardiovascular, or systemic problems, recent surgery, or involvement as competitive athletes.

All subjects submitted written informed permission prior to data gathering. A self-structured questionnaire was used to evaluate knowledge of appropriate posture, biomechanics, breathing techniques, load selection, warm-up, injury prevention, and safety guidelines for weightlifting. Using descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages, and means, the gathered data were inputted into Microsoft Excel and examined.

Result: A total of 207 self-trained people took part in the study; males made up 66.7% and females comprised 33.3%. All told, 45.9% of the participants showed moderate awareness, 40.6% had good awareness, and 13.5% showed poor awareness of correct weight-lifting techniques. While awareness about spotting techniques (56.5%) and progressive overload (64.7%) was somewhat lower, the highest awareness was seen for the need of warm-up (88.4%), then correct lifting posture (81.2%) and rest and recovery (83.1%). Most often sought information came from social media (44.4%), and no major link was discovered between sex and level of awareness (p = 0.287).

Conclusion: Most self-trained people, according to the current study, had reasonable awareness (45.9%) of correct weight-lifting techniques; 40.6% had excellent awareness; and 13.5% had poor awareness. Though awareness of warm-up, good posture, and recovery techniques was acceptable, understanding of progressive overload and spotting approaches remained lacking. These results underline the importance of focused teaching materials and physiotherapy-led awareness campaigns to encourage safe and efficient weight-lifting techniques among self-trained people.