3 big preventions against injuries
5 minute read
Injuries within the gym are very common. They often are reoccurring joint pains or injuries that develop over time. A lot of people have the mind-set that these are expected and accept they will occur.
Project 23 believes differently
For years a common scenario has been:
1. Sustain an injury
2. Go for treatment/massages
3. Individual would leave feeling slightly better
4. A short time after in the gym the injury/pain would reoccur returning to square one
This cycle repeats again and again. The problem with this methodology is it never tackles the cause of the injury. All it is really doing is putting a plaster on a wound and not tackling the problem that keeps causing the wound to occur. At Project 23 we have our three biggest implementations that have helped countless clients fix their long standing injuries. They are as follows:
1. Fix poor set up and execution
Arguably the biggest reason for injures in the gym is poor set up and execution of exercises. It’s important to understand that every muscle has an active range where it can effectively work. It’s when we go out of these ranges and start abusing tendons and stressing joints that injuries can occur.
A great example is people who say they can’t squat because of their knees or back, realistically most of the time it’s because they don’t know how to squat correctly for them. Commonly you find they have a poor set up and go out of their active ranges, which could result in issues like the Butt Wink.
From our experiences just by correcting someone’s set up and execution it results with them training muscles properly within correct ranges, then the pains soon goes away. This highlights the importance of having a good understanding of biomechanics and performing exercises correctly.
2. Strengthening any weak muscle ranges
Major causes for injuries are weak muscles ranges. When individuals perform the same few exercises repeatedly, never utilising other exercises that target a different range, they tend to have certain weaknesses. For example, if someone only did a barbell back squat and that was their entire leg workout. The Quadriceps fibres that work within that range will be strong however, the shortened range fibres which get biased on a leg extension can be underdeveloped. The saying ‘We’re only as strong as our weakest link’ applies here.
Having ranges that are significantly weaker than the others will create vulnerability and increase the likelihood of getting injured. Highlighting why we need to train muscles through entire ranges and use different exercises to do so. This won’t be done in one session but programmed over multiple sessions or blocks of training.
The featured image is Lily Ahern performing the glute bridge to train the Glutes in their shortened range
3. Don’t neglect muscles
Neglecting muscles either from not training or not knowing how to train that muscle properly can cause stability problems around joints and structures. A good example are the hips and all the muscles that have important roles in stabilising them. If one of these were weak and couldn’t perform properly, then the hips become compromised and other attaching muscles won’t function correctly.
For example, from a Project 23 Coaching client’s experience of continually having tight hamstrings, it resulted in needing to stretch and foam roll for long periods before being able to train legs. This resumed for years with the tightness never easing and having to repeat the same routine every leg session. Furthered by a few minor hamstring tears occurring causing unwanted time off.
‘If lots of stretching and foam rolling is so great, why do I have to keep doing it with no improvement?’
The answer wasn’t a roller or yoga. The fix was understanding why they needed to tackle the cause of them getting tight. The reason wasn’t the hamstrings but actually weakness in the quadriceps. The body was tightening the hamstrings as a safety mechanism to prevent going to a range where the quads were weaker. So, after training and strengthening the quads in their shortened range there wasn’t a need to foam roll or stretch to loosen the hamstrings. Additionally, there was noticeable flexibility and performance enhancements.
There is nothing wrong with stretching, if it is done well and at the appropriate times. However, we believe many people misuse and over sell it.
When stretching and foam rolling before training, there’s actually an argument that it’s doing the exact opposite of what’s needed. Stretching relaxes a muscle and the body tightens for protection so that alone doesn’t make sense. Additionally, it creates a parasympathetic response to the brain, which basically tells the muscle to go to sleep.
‘Why would you want to put your body to sleep before you train?’
You want the exact opposite! You want the muscle to wake up and be ready to perform. Since having this understanding, the aforementioned client has not had any hamstring injuries and their performance has never been better.