James Harris/CNN Underscored
Clients who solicit my personal training services generally fall into two camps: those looking to remedy an injury and those looking to use fitness to stay injury-free. The bad news? Injuries happen to even the most advanced conditioned athletes. But the good news is that there’s lots you can do — and buy — to stay safe.
“My philosophy for physiotherapy is you can’t avoid injury, but you can optimize performance,” says Zack Weber, a physiotherapist at Action Sport Physio. “The analogy I give in clinic is that if you’re driving on the highway, you can’t avoid accidents, but you can drive back so as not to hit the car in front of you.” The idea is that you shouldn’t allow your fear of injury prevent you from trying a new workout or upping the intensity on an old favorite. After all, a wise man named Wayne Gretzky once said “you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Not all exercise-induced injuries are created equally. Weber sees two main types: traumatic injuries, which involve one incident, such as an overly heavy lift that leads to a muscle rupture, and a repetitive-use injury, which is defined as demand that’s persistently more than the capacity of what the muscle, tendon or tissue is able to withstand. “The traumatic injury would be more in a sports context, but you might have an overload issue at home, overusing faster than it can recover,” he says. According to John Gallucci Jr., doctor of physical therapy and CEO of JAG-ONE Physical Therapy, some of the most common issues that arise from working out without proper guidance and form include muscle or tendon injuries from skipping a warm up or hip and knee pain from overuse.
While we often associate fitness with pain and discomfort largely attributed to the toxic pervasive “no pain, no gain” culture, exercise should feel challenging and anything but excruciating. “A certain amount of pain is acceptable in the right context if there’s a functional benefit to it,” says Weber. “Understand what type of pain you’re feeling. Is it a good pain or a bad pain? Is it, ‘My muscles are burning for something that’s good?’ or ‘My joint is hurting so I should properly respect that?’” To avoid both a dreaded traumatic or overuse injury, Weber suggests increasing your load no more than 10 percent week by week.
While working out as a beginner without the guidance of a fitness professional either in the form of a certified personal trainer or a group fitness instructor can potentially put you at risk for injury, simply warming up and being mindful of form can set you up for success.
“Before working out at home, it’s important to make sure you know the proper way to work out. There tends to be increased injury when working out at home as some people tend to work out with improper posture and form,” says Gallucci Jr.
Once you feel limber and activated enough to submit your muscles to a given load, be mindful of your pain levels during the workout itself. I like to recommend the 10-point pain scale — if you’re operating anywhere between a 0 to 3, feel free to gradually increase factors such as your load or speed while decreasing rests in between sets, and capping your discomfort at a 6 or 7 so as not to push past your physical limit. You can also try the talk test during moderate-intensity cardiorespiratory exercise. Generally, you shouldn’t be able to sing a song, but maintain a conversation.
Whether you’re working out at home or in a facility or studio setting, here’s the best expert-endorsed equipment worth adding to your exercise routine to mitigate your risk of injury.
“Weightlifting straps can help individuals maintain a secure grip on heavy weights during exercises like deadlifts, rows and pull-ups,” says Gallucci. “By reducing reliance on grip strength, weightlifting straps allow users to focus more on the targeted muscle groups, reducing the risk of grip-related injuries.” This option is made of tear-proof cotton and padded neoprene for added comfort and support, offering low risk and high reward during heavy lifts.
Compression-heavy clothing won’t only make you feel nice and tucked in — it can actually have therapeutic benefits, according to Gallucci. “Compression garments like compression socks, sleeves or shorts can help improve circulation, reduce muscle soreness and provide support to muscles and joints during physical activity,” he says. “They can also aid in recovery by promoting faster removal of metabolic waste products from muscles.” Ideal for both training and taking a day off, these squat-proof tights feature graduated compression to aid in muscle stiffness and reduce pain.
“Using an exercise mat provides a comfortable and supportive surface for floor exercises, reducing the risk of impact-related injuries and minimizing strain on joints,” says Gallucci. “Mats also help maintain stability during exercises like yoga, Pilates or bodyweight movements.” I never hesitate to recommend this Lululemon yoga mat, which offers a solid mix of plush comfort to reduce impact on the joints and a lightweight foamy material that makes it practical enough to tote to the studio or around your home gym. It’s also not too thick or spongy that it compromises balance while offering solid contact with the floor.
In order for a warm up to be considered safe, it should be dynamic that takes your muscles and joints through a full range of motion. This generously sized mat allows you to do just that. What’s more is that a dedicated exercise mat “gives you the space to move and engage psychologically,” says Weber. “It tells your brain, ‘Ha! This is my gym.’”
Gallucci considers massage guns effective tools for recovery since they provide targeted percussion therapy to help relax muscles, improve blood flow and alleviate tension. “They can be particularly useful for athletes or individuals with tight muscles or chronic pain,” he says, adding that excessive use could potentially cause tissue damage.
We call the Pro Gen 5, our all-time favorite massage gun, the “Rolls Royce of massage guns” for its numerous pre-programmed speeds and routines, built-in screen to know exactly what you’re doing and a quiet operation for convenient use just about anywhere. It’s a good size too at a foot wide — Weber says unless you intend to lie on it vertically supporting your spine, a narrower width should suit your purposes.
While it can be tempting to foam roll your way through a warm up, skip it until after you’ve banged out those reps. “It’s good to do it after because there’s literature that shows if you do deep pressure on the muscles, it can inhibit the performance of the muscle so you don’t want to do that before you start training,” Weber says. “The sensation you’re looking for is slight discomfort but good discomfort.”
For a low-stakes recovery session with the blissful appeal of a deep tissue massage, you can’t go wrong with a foam roller, which “helps relieve muscle tightness and improve flexibility through self-myofascial release,” says Gallucci. Our favorite vibrating foam roller does much of the dirty work for you, so you don’t need to exert any more energy than you need to post-workout, thus lessening your risk of injury. It offers guided routines so you can take the guesswork out of your cool-down session.
“I love resistance bands,” says Weber. “I use them often in a rehab type of exercise rather than strength and conditioning for low load and reactivation types of movements.” To use these five bands effectively, incorporate them into the activation phase of your workout (just after the warm up) in order to activate your proprioceptors, practice your form before adding heavier weights and deepen your access to a sleepy muscle. To start, you can wrap them under your knees during hip thrusts to activate your glutes or slip them beneath your wrists and pull down from a raised position to activate your latissimus dorsi.
Get creative playing around with planes of motion on this half-ball (the name of which comes from “both sides up”) while strengthening your stabilizers that ultimately help ward off injury. “I love to use a BOSU ball,” says Weber. “Most of the time, I have people stand on it to do squats on it to activate their proprioceptors. If they’re soccer players, I would have them practice a single-leg action.”
Big and bulky gym equipment might not be as accessible for your budget or space constraints, but the way it allows your body to move within a closed kinetic chain may help ward off injury in a way that, say, free weights or barbells might not. “When you do an exercise on a machine, you’re locked into one specific range of motion for that one specific muscle. If you want to push power, that’s the best way to do it because if you fall off the axis, you’ll stay aligned,” says Weber.
Instead of throwing a heavy barbell over your shoulders for a squat, which can compromise your form and require a spotter, meet hypertrophy goals with this leg press and hack squat machine. The combination of strategically placed pads, a smooth roller system and three preset positions make it a safer tool for training the lower body.
A distraction-free planner is integral in helping you train safely. Not only can it hold you accountable, but you can use it to document your progression and create a schedule or track frequency that best decreases your risk of injury.
Those who are most at risk for injury, according to Weber, are a unique sect called “weekend warriors, people who do nothing during the week but tons on the weekend. The way the body improves is through repeated stress on the muscle to decrease injury because you’ll be able to finetune everything.” Use this fitness planner with customizable training and nutrition logs to organize spreading your volume or distance over multiple days and build a schedule that imposes regular stress on your muscles for fewer proverbial bumps on the road.