Why Weight Training Injuries Occur and How to Prevent Them

A significant portion of my clients seek my help due to persistent aches and pains they can't seem to get rid of or lingering injuries caused by training in the gym. 

It can be incredibly frustrating as it’ll put breaks on any progress and, in some cases, even set them back. The encouraging news, however, is that many of these issues can be resolved and completely avoided in the future with just a few minor tweaks.

To make a long story short, weight training injuries occur for ONE reason - the load exceeds the capacity of the tissues. 

So, essentially, lifting too much weight for the given structure to handle. 

General aches and pains are typically a result of lifestyle habits creating stiffness and weakness in the body. After all, if we don’t use it, we lose it. A combination of extended sedentary periods, an imbalanced approach to exercise and, more generally, a lack of overall movement and effective recovery is usually to blame.

Now before I continue, I will caveat this by saying that some injuries and pains, particularly more complex ones, need to be properly assessed and rehabilitated. 

However, 90% of the small niggles, tweaks and aches many of us experience on the regular, whether exercise or lifestyle induced, can be prevented and often remedied with this approach.

Exploring and mastering movements:

Mastering movements and executing weight-bearing exercises well, is crucial for building a robust and pain-free body. 

Form and exercise technique is often singled out as the culprit when discussing injuries, and whilst this can sometimes be to blame, I do think that to truly build a resilient body, we should be delving deeper than simply ensuring a neutral spine and ‘correct’ knee position when training.

In my opinion, we should be focused on building exposure to a variety of exercises within the movement pattern continuum and doing so whilst exploring range of motion. From my experience, this is an under-valued yet really effective method of building strength, stability and robust structures.

What does this actually mean in action?

All weight training routines should be built around the movement patterns: push, pull, hinge and lunge. Filled out with accessory work including carries, rotations, isometrics etc for more specific development.

Each of these movement patterns targets a specific area and function of the body and each pattern can be performed with a range of different exercises. For example, a hinge exercise is excellent for developing strong glutes, hamstrings and low back - essential for preventing low back pain, building synergy between the upper and lower body and producing power in the legs to run, jump and catch oneself. 

A few of my favourite hinge exercises include hip thrusts, conventional deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, kettlebell swings, as well as a bunch of single leg variations. It’s important to use more than one of these exercises in your training. 

To build functional strength and confidence in each move, play around with variety, single leg options, ways of loading the movement and tempo at which you perform them. This stands for all movement patterns. Don’t just barbell bench press every upper-body push workout, instead, use dumbbells also, adjust bench positions, explore push up variations with different hand positions and ranges of motion.

By progressively exploring a range of exercises across all movement patterns as part of a well-balanced workout plan, you’ll build up tissue tolerance, resilient joints and a pain-free body capable of moving well forever.

Experience 14-days of bespoke, effective and enjoyable workouts following this template:

This training strategy is at the heart of my FREE robust body workout plan which will enable you to explore a range of moves that differ in load, stability and range of motion demands, all whilst helping you build strength and confidence where it matters most.

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