Strength training prevents injuries

This article is written by Rob Maxwell (learn about his education), M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.

The gym is where we prevent and heal injuries

Personal trainers all have pet peeves. I have a few. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I hear a person say that they don’t want to do a certain strength training exercise because they don’t want to get hurt.

I’m all about form and safety, don’t get me wrong, but the implication that you will get hurt on a chosen exercise with a qualified trainer while watching correct form is not only off base, but even disrespectful.

If a client has told the trainer about a certain chronic injury, then the client needs to trust that the trainer knows what they are doing. If they don’t trust the trainer, the relationship should have never progressed.

I get that there are trainers out there who don’t know what they are doing, just like with any profession. I'm in the personal training industry and there are many. That is also on the client for not doing their homework while choosing a trainer.

When it comes to my training and my gym, we know what we’re doing. If you want to get better, listen. Trust us. As I've heard in the past, take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth.

Bad form causes injuries - not exercise or load

The other reason why people may think that they are going to get hurt on certain exercises is because they have read about certain gym injuries or have seen them.

Again, it comes down to trust. There is no doubt that you can get hurt while lifting weights - just like you can get hurt walking to your mailbox.

We don’t get hurt by exercise choice - or even load for that matter.

We get hurt in the gym by using bad form - which is totally on the client to not do. You need to make sure that you use the correct form when doing strength training.

A personal trainer will show you how to do a certain exercise. They are not trying to make the exercise harder. They are trying to make sure that the muscles move the weight - not the bones, joints or tendons.

Trust the experts

This type of scenario where the client tries to dictate their program doesn’t happen too often. I will nip this one in the bud quick.

Typically a person that tries to dictate their program, whether they are rehabbing an injury or simply don’t want to do a certain exercise, is a control freak.

They will try to dictate their program. You won’t get far if you are that type of client. At our gym we don’t allow it because we respect what we do.

If other trainers allow it at other places, it won’t work long term either. If you knew so much about getting yourself better, you’d be doing it on your own. That mythology is weak.

I’ve hired professionals myself for many things. I remember when I hired a swim coach to help me get better at swimming.

I'm an exercise physiologist and know a lot about body mechanics. What if I were to sit on the deck and challenge everything this swim coach was trying to teach me? Do you think I’d get better? I wouldn't.

I didn’t challenge my coach. It would be a waste of money if I did. I did whatever they told me to do and I improved. Taking lessons, I was finally able to complete a flip turn! That was huge for me.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't give your trainer feedback

Feedback is good, but telling your trainer what you think you shouldn’t do is disrespectful and silly.

I’ve had clients demonstrate fear before doing a certain exercise. That can be understandable.

Let’s take squats for example. The client may be nervous because they thought that it can be hard on the knees or back (which isn’t true at all when done correctly).

Fear is appropriate feedback and I’ll calm their fears by giving them the education that they need. In these scenarios the client does the exercise and is glad that they did it later.

Showing trepidation isn’t bad. It’s normal. It’s dictating your program that is off base.

Bad form causes injury

If we get hurt in the gym, it’s due to poor form and/or lack of focus. We get hurt in the gym by using poor form, period.

We can get hurt by using 3-pound dumbbells if we throw them around. The gym itself is the place where we get better. Exercise selection and load get falsely blamed for a lot of injuries.

Load or weights get blamed the most. I hear people say that they are afraid to go heavier because they don’t want to get hurt.

Stating your fears is okay. We want to hear that, but the fear needs to be explained away. The heavier we go, the slower the lift is. It’s science. You can’t push a heavier load quickly. The slower we go the less likely we are to get hurt.

You can get an injury from the wrong load

Can a person get hurt by trying a near maximum weight one time? Of course you can.

Why would anyone other than a strength athlete try that? One rep max is not overly beneficial and has no place in a typical personal training gym.

Again, a good trainer should select a safe and effective rep range. If you go heavier in that range, the trainer sees that you can. If the trainer is effectively adding 5-10% increases and you keep the same form, you will not get hurt!

We get hurt by using bad form. It's plain and simple. If we throw a weight around and do it mindlessly, we are far more likely to get hurt than if we go heavier.

Exercise selection and injury

The other myth is exercise selection. A good trainer knows what exercises you need. If you are recovering from an injury, they know what exercises are the best to rehab you.

Yes, feedback is great. A certain exercise may impact your injury. You may feel pain while doing it. Tell the trainer. A modification should be made - and a good trainer will make one.

Saying, “I shouldn’t do that”, means that you don’t trust the trainer. The reality is that if we continue to back away from exercises that will get us back to our best self, we will never get better.

Let’s look at squats again. They are a foundation for exercise. If we continue to avoid every version of them because they scare us, we will not be able to get better. The squat motion is the same as getting out of a chair.

If we avoid squats to such an extent, doesn’t that mean that we will have challenging times getting out of chairs one day?

Again, good trainers know how to modify. The squat motion should be part of any knee and/or back rehab program. It needs to be implemented when ready and increased when ready. The trainer knows how to do that. Trust them.

Strength training prevents injury by strengthening muscles and joints

Strength training is the best way to prevent injuries. The weight room is the best place to rehab them.

When we strengthen our muscles, we strengthen the muscles that surround a joint.

1. If we strengthen our biceps and triceps and forearms, we strengthen the elbow joint.
2. When we strengthen our deltoids, chest, and upper back muscles, we strengthen the shoulder joint.
3. When we strengthen our trap muscles, we strengthen the neck.
4. When we strengthen our abdominal, obliques, and lower back muscles, we strengthen the spine and lower back.
5. When we strengthen our glutes, we strengthen the hips.
6. When we strengthen our quads, hamstrings, and calves; we strengthen our knee.
7. When we strengthen our calves, we strengthen the ankle.

The muscles that are around these joints are what strengthen these joints. When we strengthen these muscles, we also strengthen the tendons that connect those muscles to the joints.

If these muscles are weak, the joint is weak.

The shoulder is completely held together by the deltoid muscles and the rotator cuff muscles. If they are weak, I’ll bet the farm that the shoulder will get hurt.

The gym is the best place to rehab the joints and prevent injuries. Strengthen the muscle to strengthen the joint.

Strength training prevents injury by correcting muscular imbalances

The other way that strength training helps to prevent injury is by fixing muscle imbalances.

If you do a sport, you are using the same muscles over and over again. This will make them dominant. This will create a muscle imbalance and a muscle imbalance can create an overuse injury.

We see this all the time. It doesn’t even have to be a sport. Let's say you work at a computer and you sit leaning over the computer all the time. This can develop what we call kyphosis (hunch back) which means that the anterior (front) shoulder muscles are dominant and your shoulders roll forward.

This can cause shoulder and neck pain. The way to combat this is through proper strength training and working the opposite muscles like the posterior delts (back shoulders) to balance it out.

We can all have muscle imbalances. They can all be corrected in the gym.

Trust us! We want to make you better. That’s our job and we want you to be better as much as you do. We know what we’re doing. Don’t be afraid of the gym and check your ego at the door.

State your fears and I’m sure that you will feel better once you understand the goal. We want you to be able to tackle the basic, fundamental, strength exercises so you can get back to everything that you enjoy.

We all must modify an exercise of sorts. We are all built differently, but we should all strive to get stronger and use perfect form in the gym so that we can get better.

Strength training is the way to avoid injuries and to heal our injuries. Our bodies will thank us when we do it!

This article is written by Rob Maxwell (learn about his education), M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.