When you train hard enough, injuries will happen.
It’s up to you to reduce the their probably and or frequency, to reduce the severity and to know what to do when that happens.
Disclaimer:
This article is intended to help you in terms of injuries but I am not qualified in any shape whatsoever to give any advice about the specifics of injuries. I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice.
General prevention
It’s important to prioritize injury prevention in your workouts, because getting in shape in the gym is not about just lifting more weight.
You cannot lift more weight if you are injured.
Gym injuries can and will happen eventually, regardless of how good you think are and on top of the physical limitations often times it’s also a toll on the mental side of things.
Before going to the gym you should consult with a doctor to ensure you are physically able to exercise and create a workout routine based on their feedback.
Example:
Let’s say you have already been going to the gym for some time, and like to do a lot of pushing type exercises (like bench press). In that case, it’s pretty common to have rounder shoulders.
How do you know if you have that problem? (or other problems like that)
You talk to a physician. And in a consult he can evaluate you.
So if he indeed says “yeah buddy, you have rounded shoulders”, then you need to plan your gym plan accordingly.
So in this particular case you may want to develop the muscles that “bring the shoulders back” and stretch the muscles that “put the shoulders forward”.
Muscle imbalances
Let’s imagine you have a flag pole, and the pole is quite flexible. Let’s also say that the pole is fixed to the ground by two ropes. One rope that pulls the flag pole backwards, so it’s doesn’t fall forward, and another rope that balances that out and that pulls the flag pole in the opposite direction. All good.
Now you saw that and said: “hey, I think that the rope that sits on the front could be better looking. I mean, when people look at the flag from the front, which is most of the time, if that rope was more aesthetic people would enjoy it more. So I’m going ahead and substitute that rope for a better looking and stronger one.”
When you do that, guess what’s going to happen?
The flag pole will bend forward. Because the rope on the front is now stronger than the one in the back.
When you develop your muscles in the front of the body (anterior muscles, like the chest) and don’t develop at all the muscles opposing them in the back then you create a “structural” imbalance. Like rounded shoulders.
So if you want a better looking and stronger rope in the front, you also need to change the rope on the back.
You can’t just train your “mirror muscles”, like the chest and biceps.
You need to balance that out. If you want a big chest you need a big back.
And it’s not just in the upper body. It’s in your legs also.
Speaking from experience, I had very developed quads (the muscles in the “front” part of the thigh) , and by comparison, weak hamstrings (the muscles on the back of the thigh).
I suffered a very serious knee injury probably related to that (and other factors also). If my hamstrings were stronger (and if I hadn’t push my body so much in terms of overall activity in that week) I may have not suffered that injury.
On top of that, and as the video mentioned, it’s not just balancing the front vs the rear muscles. It’s also developing the muscles that you can’t see but are important in preventing injuries, like the rotator cuff muscles.
Medical advice
So had recently had this problem: I went directly to a physical therapist (not a physician) when I injured my shoulder. He said something like “oh, this looks like X injury, will treat it no problem”.
Alright I though. I was relieved because I was thinking it could be more serious.
The thing is, 3 months later and doing treatment and I didn’t feel better.
Only after the 3 months and because I talked with an actual physician (a medical doctor that can evaluate/diagnose injuries and prescribe medicines/treatments) did I realize that I haddn’t had a proper diagnosis. No MRI or scan or anything like that.
So because of that I learned that basically, when you get hurt (assuming you are not rushing the the emergency room), the first thing to do, in terms of medical assistance, is to talk to a physician and not a physical therapist.
The physician, doctor, is the one that evaluates you and says what examinations you need to do in order to diagnose, and then says “ok, the problem is X, the solution is you do Y. Now to do Y you go talk to a physical therapist”.
It’s not the other way around. So understand that difference.
When you do get injured
Not talking about the immediate steps that you need to take, but talking instead about the more medium term approach:
You can’t let the injury knock you out mentally.
There is (almost) always other exercises you can be doing.
If you injured your shoulders, you can still train legs.
If you injured your knee you can still train upper body.
If you have some kind of more genetic problem (like flat feet) and can’t really run for that long, you can try other forms of cardio that don’t have so much impact, like cycling and swimming.
In my personal experience, I think that even if the training is far from ideal (as long as your doctor let’s you do it), it’s very important to still keep doing something. It keeps you in the habit of doing exercise.
I remembered when I had knee pain at around ~14 years old playing football. When I realized that I most likely couldn’t keep playing, and had to “retire”, I felt awful.
However, in the summer when the season ended I decided to take up cycling/ mountain biking (on top of going to the gym for the first time) and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
My point here is that don’t let injuries take a toll on you.
I could’ve said “ oh, poor me, now I can’t play football, I’m just going to be on the couch and be lazy” and I didn’t. I could not control the pain, but I could control how I would react to it.
In this case by doing other sports.
And that leads me to
Redundancy
Not talking about professional athletes here, but if you are a “regular” guy I think it’s potentially dangerous to put all your eggs in just one basket when it comes to sports/ physical activity.
If you only play football, what happens when you injure your knee and can’t do those types of movements? Even if you can run in a strait line and at low speed for example.
If you only have that one sport that gives you joy you can very easily be limited in an injury scenario.
That’s why if you do multiple things (like cycling and going to the gym) you can more easily not be sitting still even if you have a injury.
Specially resistance training, or going to the gym, because you can isolate specific body parts and still continue to train.
Let’s say you have a knee and back injury. Assuming your doctor let’s you do it, you can pick up some weights and just train biceps. Even if it is just biceps. Let’s say you train them 3 times a week for that period and are reaching for a goal of doing a bit more weight.
Even though the training is far from ideal mentally, and doesn’t really let you physically advance the way you wanted, mentally you are still advancing.
Conclusion
Take a preventive approach when it comes to going to the gym. You are not invincible.
Train with a balanced program in other not to develop muscle imbalances that can lead to injuries. Your mirror muscles are not everything.
Understand the differences between medical professionals and seek to have a proper diagnosis of injuries.
When you do get injured, as long as is medically approved, try to keep going in the habit of doing exercise. Don’t stop completely.
Don’t rely on just one sport and be flexible.