So I was working with a client the other day and as I talked about a movement that he suggested I told him that specific movement is one of the "deadly sins" you could do in a gym. Then I thought about how there are several big things that you see people do in the gym that I, and I assume most trained/educated gym goers could agree are recipes for disaster. The list is as follows with a brief description of each:
1. Movements behind the neck: Flexible and highly trained athletes that have done ample pre-training for the shoulder complex (rotator cuff and surrounding muscles) are the only people that should ever do an overhead movement behind the neck. And even those people need to be very careful. Some might say that no one should do these movements. Examples that I routinely see that make me cringe are lat pull downs behind the neck and/or shoulder presses behind the neck. A majority of people do NOT have the flexibility and muscular balance to do this movement without causing some sort of issue with the inner workings of the shoulder.
2. Knees in front of toes: Again, there are a few highly trained athletes (bodybuilders with years of experience) who could possibly justify doing a movement that causes your knees to go in front of your toe on a squat or some leg pressing movements. Doing so can really engage your quadriceps. At the same time, it puts a tremendous amount of stress on the knee joint and all the tendons/ligaments etc. that are there. Totally unnecessary to do in most cases. Typically you see people doing this on leg presses, squats (especially on a smith machine) and also especially, lunges. Allowing your knee to travel in front of your toe is a sure prescription for knee trouble down the road.
3. Too much weight - too fast: I hate it when I see guys walk in (sorry, but it is almost always guys) fresh off the street (or even worse from a sedentary work day) and go right into a heavy lift like a bench press. Often they do this with little or no warm up. They may do a few obligatory stretches (more on that later) and then right into it. Their bodies are not ready for that amount of weight that soon. Neuromuscularly there has to be a little "wake up" period before you throw heavy weights into the equation. A little blood flow and joint lubricant is needed to help eliminate injury chances.
4. Stretching before working out: Now there is debate about this and I am not going to get into all that. Suffice it to say, doing a full stretching workout before a weight workout doesn't make sense. Stretching is a elongating and if done properly, gentle activity. Doing a full stretch session before you workout when you are "cold" is like stretching a cold rubber band - greater chance is will snap. Now there may be some rationale for doing a little pre-stretch or stretch after you have warmed up a little but a full blown stretching session is best saved for after the workout.
5. Too much range of motion (or too little for that matter): So someone sometime in the history of the gym I work at must of started doing little 1/4 rep motions because there are still people I see that do little movements on all of there lifts. Most of these people do like way too much weight at the same time. Unfortunately, these same people I think are genetically gifted and have a good physique that they are able to maintain with these "little wierd rep workouts" so they think it works - and it may - for them. BUT not everything works for everybody. Just like doing the opposite - big full range motions like a bench press with the bar going from your chest to a full locked out position or dumbbell chest presses with the arms going past 90 degrees is too much motion. I think people lose sight of this fact. The GOAL of lifting weights is to stimulate the muscle fibers a maximally as you want. So any thing that takes the muscle out of the movement and transfers the load to a joint or other set of muscles is not productive and can lead to injury. Also, any movement that is to short and doesn't elongate the muscle fibers enough also is not as productive as possible and if you are using to heavy of weight with that - then again you are prone to injury.
6. Swinging the weights: Why people do this is complicated. I think there are definitely people who have athletic backgrounds that have included explosive training (like in football) that involves the whole body. But that does not apply to a majority of people. Swinging or using your body to move a weight is defeating your purpose and obviously (sound like a broken record here) inviting injury. REMEMBER the goal of weigh training is maximally stimulate muscle fibers. If you swing and "cheat" with your body the fibers you are targeting will not get the full benefit of the movement. What's the biggest culprit here??? The barbell and dumbbell curls. I see more swinging here than the late 70's! (My attempt at a joke. Good?)
7. Not protecting the back: The biggie! I hear more lower back problems than anything else. Why? - because people don't protect it. Many ways to do this but the major things to make sure you do are avoid movements that cause your lower back to round, keep your core abdominal muscles tight during movements, work your abdominals regularly including your lower abdominals (which most people don't), and have adequate hip flexor and especially hamstring flexibility. So much of what people complain about with regard to the back can best be avoided by practicing these preventative measures. OF course practicing good posture helps as well.
I hope this doesn't sound like a know it all and comes off as it is intended to be - just helpful feedback based upon my experiences in the gym. Comments always appreciated. Thanks for reading - I know this is a long one.
Andy
