Getting an injury can seriously hamstring your progress to quick fat loss. But if it happens you need to deal with it and recovery as fast as possible so you are back on the full program.

One thing you have to keep in mind to be successful is that you need to avoid the "all or nothing" mindset. That is particularly important when you get an injury.

A lot of people who follow their fat loss plan to a tee can be totally thrown off when something unexpected, like an injury disrupts their routine. They can't exercise and they take that as a license to go pig out and get on a staple diet of trans fats.

If for any reason you can't exercise for one or more workouts, it's even more important that you maintain the nutrition plan. Your body still needs those proteins, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients to operate effectively. By maintaining a nutritious diet you also give your body the best chance of recovering sooner.

If you are injured, you should read our article on "Safe Injury Rehabilitation And Recovery"

What are the at the causes and preventions of injuries?

Injury Cause

There are potentially a myriad of reasons that could cause injury. Here are some common ways that you may get injured while exercising:

• Bad technique - even if you don't feel the pain from bad technique, especially when you do weights, it is still probably causing thousands of micro tears in non-target muscles that could lead to long term injury later on such as debilitating back pain.
• Too much weight - if you add too much weight than you can handle during your anaerobic exercise, you will not be able to maintain good technique and that could lead to injuries. This is especially a problem for younger males (this might not be politically correct - but its true - just look around your gym). You don't want to get caught up in an ego game in the gym, to try and lift heavier than someone else. Just stick to your schedule.
• Not warming up properly - All the training you are doing is based on high intensity, even the cardio. You have to make sure that you prepare your body for it by giving it a good solid warm-up.
• More Tired Than Usual - If you feel fatigued and you go in for a workout, you are a higher risk of getting injured. You might be better off resting today, getting your energy back and hitting the gym tomorrow.
• Cold Weather - You definitely have more chance of getting injured during cold weather, so take the time and do the warm up.
• Trying a new exercise - Again this comes down to the technique issue. If you are trying a new exercise, learn as much about as you can. Visualize yourself doing it as you learn about it. And try light weights first to ensure your technique is correct. Having a training partner here will really be handy - but it's not necessary.

Injury Prevention

By understanding the causes, you can create some simple rules to ensure you prevent injuries before they ever stop you. You might have heard the saying, "prevention is the best cure." This is definitely true here. These guidelines are pretty much a list of the opposite of the causes of injuries above:

• Warm up correctly
• Master correct form
• Train within your limits . Stick to your schedule and targets and perform the assigned sets, don't try and impress someone else
• Listen to your body , especially if you feel fatigued. If this is the case, you might want to skip a session. But don't be lazy, if you miss regular sessions you are really cheating yourself of the great body you always wanted
• Rest Properly between workouts including getting a full 8 hours of sleep a day.
• Keep up your nutrition plan to aid full recovery of muscles between workouts.

As you can see, going through a proper warm-up and keeping your form is crucial to injury prevention. You should also have one other thing.

You should have an exercise program that works different parts of your body so that your whole program is geared towards losing fat effectively. A coordinated exercise program will mean you have a lower chance of injury, because it will make sure you are not overworking one area, and not pushing another area of your body. This exercise program should include both aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise.

So how can you get such an exercise program?

As far as exercise programs go for long lasting weight loss, I recommend two programs.

Tom Venuto's "Burn The Fat" ebook is the first recommendation because apart from containing a great section on exercise (he's a natural bodybuilder and personal trainer), he also has the best overall book on weight loss - from the many I've reviewed.

If you're only interested in the exercise section, then I believe Craig Ballantyne's "Turbulence Training" is best for you. His nutrition package may not be as comprehensive as Tom's book, but his exercise section is just killer. It is the best one I've seen that's targeted for weight loss. He even covers bodyweight exercises in his course (which is using your own bodyweight to simulate weight training without the weights).