To progress in strength and physique, you must train regularly, but you can’t do that if you experience injuries. Barring freak accidents, training injuries have nothing to do with bad luck. They have everything to do with ignorance, following bad advice, and inattentiveness. Done properly, strength training is safe.
The building of strength itself, provided it’s done safely, helps protect against injury. Most injuries are a result of an imposed force exceeding the structural strength of the involved bodypart. If structural strength is increased, resistance to injury will be increased, too.
To help you to avoid injuries, here are 38 recommendations:
1. Never apply the “No pain, no gain” maxim
Never do anything that hurts, don’t train if you’ve hurt yourself, and never train through pain. Cumulative muscular discomfort, and systemic fatigue from an exercise done with effort and correct technique, are desirable, but pain isn’t. Any sharp, stabbing, or sudden pain is a sign you’ve injured yourself.
Countless trainees have given up strength training because of having been hurt from following foolish advice. Those who live the “No pain, no gain” maxim usually regret it, sooner or later.
2. Know your physical anomalies
Modify your training according to any physical anomalies you may have. For example, if you’ve had back surgery, the barbell squat may be an unwise exercise selection; and if you have foot problems, running wouldn’t be a wise choice of cardio exercise. Know your body before you go training it.
3. Seek correction of physical restrictions
With the right treatment you may be able to rid yourself of problems you may have accepted as permanent, or at least reduce them greatly. Investigate the possibility. You probably have restrictions in your muscles—soft-tissue restrictions are at the root of many physical problems and limitations. Seek expert therapists. You may need to look beyond your home area.
4. Don’t neglect flexibility work
Generally, supple muscles are less likely to suffer injury than tight ones. Supple muscles have more give in them than tight muscles, and help protect against injury. Supple and strong muscles provide greater protection.
5. Adapt to exercises
Be patient when learning how to perform a new exercise. Use very light weights to begin with, and only once you’ve mastered exercise technique should you add weight, gradually, and pick up the effort level.
Once you’ve had a lot of experience with a particular exercise but haven’t included it in your program for a few months, take a few weeks to refamiliarize yourself with it before you train it hard.
6. Apply training discipline
It’s easier to use correct technique and controlled rep speed at the start of a set than during the final few reps when the required effort is higher. Hold correct technique and controlled rep speed even on the final “can just squeeze this out” rep. Never break correct technique to force out another rep. Perform correct reps only, or end the set.
If possible, train with a partner who can scrutinize your technique and rep speed, and, by oral cues, help you to keep your technique and rep speed correct.
7. Use a safe range of motion
Use the maximum safe range of motion for you for each exercise. For selectorized equipment, such as many leg curl machines, you can manually delimit the range of motion, if required. Remove the pin from the weight stack, then grip the cable that’s attached to the guide rod that runs through the weight stack, and lift it. The top weight plate will rise alone, revealing the guide rod. Expose two holes on the rod, for example, and then use the pin to select the required weight. The gap between the first and second weight plates indicates the reduction in range of motion—two to three inches in this illustration. Fine-tune the reduction to what’s required to produce the maximum safe range of motion for you. Make a note in your training logbook of the setting.
8. Maintain symmetrical lifting
Other than for one-side-at-a-time exercises such as the one-legged calf raise, and the L-fly, focus on symmetrical technique, to apply symmetrical stress to your body.
Don’t let the bar slope to one side during barbell work. Keep it parallel with the floor at all times. Both hands must move in unison. For example, in barbell pressing, one hand should neither be above nor in front of the other.
A critical factor behind symmetrical lifting, is symmetrical hand and foot positioning. If one hand is placed further from the center of the bar than the other, or if one foot is positioned differently to the other, you won’t be symmetrically positioned, and thus will be set up for asymmetrical lifting.
Load barbells carefully. If you loaded one end of the bar with more weight than the other, you’ll lift asymmetrically. A substantial weight difference will be noticeable during the first rep of a set, whereupon the bar should be set down or racked, and the loading corrected. A bar that’s slightly lopsided may not be detectable, but will nevertheless lead to asymmetrical lifting, and perhaps injury.
If you lift on a surface that’s not horizontal, you’ll lift asymmetrically. Train on a level floor. This is especially important for the big exercises, such as the squat, deadlift, overhead press, and bench press. Take a spirit level to the gym, and check out whether or not the lifting areas are level, and then use only the ones that are.
9. Use proper head and eye control
Key factors in maintaining symmetrical lifting are a fixed, face-forward, neutral head position, and keeping your eyes riveted on one spot during a set. (A neutral head position is neither extended nor flexed.) Except for neck exercises, avoid any lateral, forward, or rearward movement of your head when you train with weights.
10. Keep your eyes open
If you close your eyes while training, you’ll risk some deterioration of balance. There may also be degradation of bar control, especially in exercises that use free-weights. Both can threaten your safety. Don’t close your eyes while you train.
11. Use the right weight selection for you
Use weights you can handle in correct technique. Most trainees use more weight than they can handle correctly. This leads to cheating, and a loss of control.
12. Choose safe exercises
An exercise that’s safe for some trainees may not be for others. Because of physical anomalies, accidents, or other injuries, specific exercises may be proscribed.
Don’t use exercises that aren’t suited to you. If an exercise irritates a joint or causes sharp, stabbing, or sudden pain, don’t persist with it. Fix the problem before returning to that exercise, or avoid the exercise if the cause of the problem can’t be corrected.
13. Avoid high-risk lifting
All types of lifting weights can be dangerous if not done correctly, but some forms carry a higher risk than others. For example, rock lifting and other forms of handling awkwardly shaped objects carry a far higher risk of injury than barbell, dumbbell, and machine training.
14. Don’t follow the examples of the genetic elite
A few trainees are so robust they can withstand training abuse that would cripple most trainees. But eventually even those robust trainees usually pay a heavy price.
Don’t take liberties in the gym. For each trainee who can apparently get away with training liberties, there are many who pay a high price for such abuse.
15. When using machines, follow the manufacturers’ instructions
For some exercises, you may have to line up a specific joint with the pivot point of the machine. The right set-up position is critical. Changing the seat’s position (and thus your position) by just one peg, for example, can make a difference in the comfort of a given machine exercise.
To line up with accuracy a given point on a machine with a given point on your body, your eyes need to be at the same level as the points being lined up. This usually isn’t practical, so get an assistant to line you up.
Once you have the right set-up for a specific exercise, make a written note in your training logbook of the seat or other setting you require, for reference.
If you’ve used a machine as the manufacturer advises (often through instructions fixed to the equipment), have tweaked the set-up to suit you, and have used smooth rep speed, and yet the exercise still irritates a joint, substitute an alternative exercise.
16. Don’t squeeze machine handles more than necessary
On some machine exercises, such as the leg curl and the leg press, you need to stabilize yourself through holding onto handles or other grip supports. Don’t squeeze the handles more than necessary to stabilize yourself. Intensive squeezing increases blood pressure.
17. Be safety conscious with equipment
Never begin an exercise without having first checked safety considerations. Check that bolts are tight, cables aren’t frayed, cable connections are secure, rack pins are securely in position, adjustable weight saddles are fixed in place, locking pin(s) for adjustable benches and seats are secure, and benches are stable and strong. Never use dumbbells without checking that the collars are securely fixed. A dumbbell coming apart while in use, especially overhead, could be calamitous.
Just one accident could stop you training for a long time. Be careful.
Put collars on a loaded barbell securely. Plates on one end of the bar that slide out of position can disturb your balance and symmetry. Get a pair of light-weight, quick-release collars, if where you train doesn’t have them. Allow a few millimeters, or a small fraction of an inch, between a collar and the outermost plate, to permit the plates to play.
18. Avoid singles and low reps
Any exercise performed in any rep range will hurt you if you use poor technique. If you always use correct technique, all rep counts can be comparatively safe, at least in theory. Your body must, however, be accustomed to the rep count you’re using before you start to push yourself hard. This especially applies to singles (one-rep sets), and low-rep work (sets of two to four reps).
Comparing the same degree of technique error, if you get out of the ideal groove during a maximum single, you’re more likely to hurt yourself than if you get out of the groove during a set of medium or high reps. But this doesn’t mean that high reps with reduced weights are guaranteed to be safe. Even with high reps and reduced weights, if you use poor technique, you would be asking for injury.
Beginners should avoid singles, and low-rep work. Stick with medium or higher reps.
19. Don’t train when you’re muscularly very sore
Sore and tight muscles are easily injured. A little local soreness, however, especially for beginners, shouldn’t prohibit training. When you’re training once again following severe soreness, reduce your effort level a little, and build it back over several workouts, to prevent a repeat of the excessive soreness.
When you’re sore, you may be more prone to injury. Give yourself extra rest before you train the sore area hard again. To help speed the easing of soreness, do some additional low-intensity aerobic work. Massage may also help, as may a hot bath. Paradoxically, another bout of the exercises that made you very sore—but very light and easy this time—may help relieve the soreness.
Being sore doesn’t necessarily indicate that you’ve stimulated growth. Good soreness comes from hard work on exercises done correctly, is purely muscular, and goes away after a few days. This is different from longer-lasting soreness because of abusive exercise technique, or having trained too heavily, too much, or too hard too soon.
Some muscle groups show soreness more readily than others. That your shoulders, for example, may never get sore, doesn’t mean they aren’t getting trained. And that another muscle may get sore easily, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to grow faster than a muscle that’s rarely if ever sore.
20. Don’t train when you’re fatigued from a previous workout
If you’re systemically wiped out—which may or may not be accompanied by muscular soreness—rest for an extra day or two, until you’re raring to go again. Then when you’re back in the gym, reduce your training volume or intensity, and build it back over several workouts, to permit your body to adapt. If you get wiped out again, and provided the components of recuperation are in order, there’s something amiss with your training program, and you need to modify it—abbreviate it.
21. Take heed of a sore back
If you regularly experience a sore back during or after training, investigate the cause, and rectify it. A sore back is a warning that a back injury may be nigh unless corrective action is taken. A back injury is among the most debilitating of injuries.
22. Increase resistance in small increments
Small increases in exercise weights permit gradual, progressive resistance, in manageable doses. This is easy to do with free-weights provided you have fractional plates. These small plates weigh less than the 1.25 kilos or 2.5 pounds that are commonly the smallest plates in most gyms. Fractional plates are typically quarter, half, and one-pound discs (and 100, 250, and 500 grams).
Progressing from, say, 100 pounds to 110 in one jump, when 100 pounds was the most you could handle for 8 reps, is excessive. The 110 pounds—a 10% increase in resistance—would cause a substantial drop in reps and, in many cases, lead to a deterioration of exercise technique.
Even an increase to 105 pounds may be excessive. An increase to 101 pounds may, however, be barely perceptible. Then the next week you may be able to increase to 102 pounds, and so on.
With weight-stack machines, incremental progressive resistance can be difficult to achieve, because the weight jumps between stacks are usually excessive—typically 10 to 15 pounds per unit on the stack. The solution is to attach small increments to the weight stack, provided the design of the weight stack permits it. Push the weight selector pin through a small weight plate and then into the weight stack. Alternatively, attach magnetic weight plates to the weight stack.
For example, let’s say the weight stack units are 12 pounds, 24, 36, 48, and so on. Once you’ve mastered 36 pounds, to move immediately to 48 pounds is too much—an increase of a third, which isn't incremental, progressive resistance. But attach two pounds to the 36-pound level, and you have an incremental increase to 38 pounds. Master that, and then move to 40 pounds, and so on. The precise increments will be determined by the available little plates.
Get your own set of fractional plates if where you train doesn’t have them. Take them with you when you train.
23. Use accurate weights
Unless you’re using calibrated plates you can’t be sure you’re getting what each plate is supposed to weigh. A bar loaded to 100 pounds may, for example, really be 103 or 97 pounds. Then if you strip that bar down and reload it to 100 pounds using different plates, you’re likely to get a different weight than before. Furthermore, the weight excess or discrepancy may be just on one side of the bar, producing an unbalanced barbell.
This is an especially serious matter when you’re moving your best weights, and once you’re no longer a beginner. An unbalanced or overweight bar may ruin a set and perhaps cause injury, and an underweight bar will give a false sense of progress. When you’re using small discs to increase the weight by a pound a week, for example, if your big plates aren’t what they seem, you can’t be sure you’re getting a small overall weight increase relative to the previous workout.
If you have calibrated plates available, use them exclusively. If there are no calibrated plates, at least weigh the big plates so that their actual weights can be discovered.
If this is impossible, manage as best you can—try to discover the plates that are the worst offenders and avoid using them, or find the brand that’s the most accurate and stick to that one, or use the same plates and bars every time you train.
24. Never make big changes in training intensity
Make the changes gradually. Sensible, progressive resistance training means increasing training intensity progressively, too.
25. Always warm up well before training hard
The purpose of the general warm-up (for five to ten minutes) that every workout should start with, is to elevate your core temperature, get synovial fluids moving in most of your joints (for lubrication), and probably break you into a sweat (depending on the temperature of the gym). This isn’t the same as sweating while being in a hot environment but without exercising.
Following the general warm-up, immediately start strength training. Don’t have a break and cool down. Additionally, perform one or more warm-up sets prior to the work set(s) for each exercise—it’s better to do too many warm-ups than not enough.
26. Keep your muscles warm
Don’t rest excessively between sets and exercises. Warm up properly, and then train at a pace that keeps your muscles warm.
A cool environment but a warm body is what you want. Ideally, the gym temperature should be no higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit, or 22 degrees Celsius.
27. Develop balanced musculature
If, for example, you work your chest and shoulders hard, but neglect your upper back, or if you train your quadriceps hard but neglect your hamstrings, the imbalanced musculature will increase the risk of injury in the involved muscles and joints.
28. Prepare fully for each set
Check that the weight you’ve loaded is what you want—consult your training logbook. Add up the total weight of the plates and bar, to check. It’s easy to load a barbell, dumbbell, or machine incorrectly.
When you get in position for a set, take the right grip, stance, and body position. Don’t rush into a set, grab the bar and then realize after the first rep that you took an imbalanced grip, wrong stance, or are lopsided while on a bench.
29. Use reliable spotters
Spotting—help from one or more assistants—can come from a training partner, or anyone who’s in the gym at the time and willing and able to spot you. Good spotting helps in three ways:
| a. | To assist you with lifting the weight when you can lift it no further, such as when the bar stalls during a bench press ascent. |
| b. | To provide the minimum assistance to ensure that the last rep of a set is done in correct technique. In this case, you probably could get the rep out under your own power, but your technique may break down. A spotter can make the difference between safety or injury. |
The first two ways shouldn’t apply to beginners, because beginners don’t need to train this hard.
| c. | During a set, you may forget to apply a key point of exercise technique. A knowledgeable spotter could correct this. |
Six tips for being a good spotter
Be honest with yourself, and respect your limitations. If you can’t spot adequately by yourself, get help.
Be alert, especially when the trainee begins to struggle.
Focus on what the trainee’s doing.
Don’t injure yourself! While spotting, don’t round your back; keep your feet planted—immobile—in a symmetrical way; and stand as close as possible to the bar or dumbbells.
Know the trainee’s intentions prior to each set. For example, does he or she need help getting into the starting position?
Keep your hands close to the bar but without interfering with the exercise. When needed, apply assistance with both hands in a symmetrical way. For example, spotting through putting one hand under the center of the bar commonly leads to the bar tipping, as will using two hands asymmetrically.
30. Train on an appropriate surface
Lifting on a wooden or a rubber surface (a level surface, as noted earlier), preferably one that doesn’t have concrete directly underneath, is better than training directly on concrete. Wood and rubber are giving, whereas concrete isn’t. Wood and rubber reduce the amount of giving that your joints and connective tissues have to tolerate.
Before a set, plant your feet securely, on a non-slip surface.
31. Don’t hold your breath
The common tendency, especially when training hard, is to hold your breath during the hard stage of a rep, clench your teeth, and jam your lips together. All of this should be avoided because it increases blood pressure, and may cause blackouts and dizziness. Even if it’s for just a split second, a loss of consciousness during training could be disastrous. Although you may not suffer blackouts or dizziness, headaches are a common, immediate result of breath holding during training. And over the long term, breath holding during training encourages varicose veins, and hemorrhoids, because of the damage to vein walls and valves caused by the elevated blood pressure.
A common general rule, while exercising, is to inhale during the brief pause between reps or during the negative phase of the movement, and exhale during the positive phase (especially the sticking point). For exercises where there may be a pause for a couple of seconds between reps, inhalation and exhalation may occur during the pause, with the final inhalation taken immediately prior to the start of the next rep.
It’s this general rule that’s referred to in the technique instruction in this book, but it’s not the only way to breathe while strength training. Here’s an alternative: Never hold your breath, but focus on the given exercise and muscles being trained, not on your breathing. As long as you’re not holding your breath, you’ll automatically breathe sufficiently. After some practice you’ll find the points during your reps where it’s easier to breathe in or out.
When reps are performed slower than about four seconds for each positive or negative phase, it’s necessary to breathe continuously throughout the reps, and more than once during each phase of a rep.
Not holding your breath also applies out of the gym. Whenever you put forth effort, exhale, to avoid elevated blood pressure.
During demanding exercise you won’t be able to get enough air through your nose alone. Breathe through your mouth.
To prevent breath holding, don’t close your mouth. Keep your mouth open—just slightly open will suffice—and your upper and lower teeth apart. It’s usually when the lips are jammed together that problems with breath holding occur.
32. Avoid using knee or any other joint wraps
Tight bandages around joints can mask injury problems that are aggravated through training.
33. Avoid pain killers
Don’t use pain killers before, during, or after training, as they usually mask problems. Solve problems, don’t cover them up and incubate serious injury.
34. Don’t wear a lifting belt
Many trainees wear a lifting belt—especially while deadlifting, and squatting—under the misconception that it will protect them from back injuries. And some trainees wear a loose lifting belt throughout their workouts as if it’s an item of general clothing.
A loose belt doesn’t provide any support. And a tight belt is uncomfortable, can restrict exercise technique, can lead to increased blood pressure, and can only be tolerated for short-duration sets. Powerlifters use lifting belts for singles and low-rep work.
Even if a lifting belt is worn tightly, correct exercise technique is still a necessity for safe training. Wearing a lifting belt can create a false sense of security that encourages the use of incorrect exercise technique. And a tight belt can be harmful in another way because it may permit more weight to be used than would otherwise, which will cause greater injury if exercise technique isn’t correct.
Build your own natural belt through a strong corset of muscle. Not wearing a belt helps your body to strengthen its core musculature. A lifting belt is a crutch—train without it.
35. Don’t be foolish
Many injuries occur because a trainee has given in to bravado. Don’t try something you know you’re not ready for, and don’t try another rep when you know you can’t hold correct technique. Never go heavy in an exercise you’re not familiar with, or haven’t done for a few weeks. Ignore people who encourage you to try something you know is risky. They won’t have to live with the consequences of a moment of foolishness, but you will.
For exercises where the weight could pin you, especially the squat and the bench press, always use safety bars such as those of a power rack, and ideally a spotter as well. Squat, bench press, and incline bench press stations should incorporate safety bars that the barbell can rest on if you fail on a rep.
36. Keep your wits about you
Don’t just be concerned about what you’re doing in the gym. Be aware of what’s happening around you, and stay clear of danger.
37. Wear appropriate footwear
Shoes with thick, spongy soles and heels may be fine for some activities, but not for strength training. A spongy base won’t keep your feet solidly in position. Especially when you’re squatting, deadlifting, or overhead pressing, if your feet move just a little, the rest of your body will move, too. It doesn’t have to be much movement to throw you out of the correct exercise groove.
But don’t train barefoot. Your feet need support while you’re training, but it needs to be support of the right kind.
Function comes first in the gym. Get yourself a sturdy pair of shoes with good grip to the floor, arch support, no more than the standard height of heel (and preferably no height difference between the sole and heel), and which minimizes deformation when you’re lifting heavy weights. No heel elevation relative to the balls of your feet is especially important when squatting, deadlifting, and leg pressing, because heel elevation increases stress on the knees in those exercises.
Worn shoes can lead to deviations in exercise technique. Discard shoes that have unevenly or excessively worn soles or heels. Ideally, have a pair of shoes solely for gym work that isn’t used for other purposes, so that the shoes keep their shape and condition for years. Furthermore, when you train, keep your laces tied tightly.
Even a small change in the size of the heel, or the relative difference between the heel and sole thicknesses of your shoes, can mar your training. This especially applies to the squat and the deadlift, although a change in balance factors can have a negative effect on some other exercises, too.
I recommend the use of orthopedic shoes with molded insoles (including arch support) while training, to compensate for structural or postural instability in the feet, or, in the case of defect-free feet, to maintain existing good condition. Although shoes with custom-made molded insoles are ideal, off-the-shelf shoes with molded insoles are, in most cases, superior to regular shoes. You can even get molded insoles that can be inserted inside your regular footwear, but you may need to remove some of the existing insoles to make room.
38. Concentrate!
Be 100% focused while you train. Never be casual. Furthermore, never turn your head or talk during a set, or pay attention to what anyone’s saying other than a spotter who may be giving you technique reminders, or encouragement. Even a slight loss of focus leads to a loss of correct exercise technique, and an increased risk of injury.
All the aforementioned recommendations should be heeded. In addition, there are three paramount components of safe, effective strength training:
Controlled rep speed.
Correct exercise technique.
Correct lifting technique when moving equipment.