Avoiding Injuries by means of an Accurate Exercise Selection

In previous posts, we have already stated that performing the exercises with proper form is mandatory for preventing injury. However, some exercises are inherently dangerous because their biomechanics situates some muscles and/or joints in a position that is prone to injury. The safest for the bodybuilders is to neglect most of these exercises when designing their program, while some of them can be slightly adapted in order to avoid harmful positions. This post describes some problematic exercises, and provides pointers to avoid harmful positions (if possible).

Typical exercises that should be eliminated from your program include the behind-the-neck pull-down/pull-up, the behind-the-neck shoulder press, the upright row, and the sit-up/straight-leg raise. The behind-the-neck pull-down/pull-up can easily cause a shoulder injury. This occurs because this movement requires to externally rotate the shoulders as much as possible. This position is known as external rotation, and it is a very delicate position for the shoulders (especially when you add resistance), since it puts a great stress on the rotator cuff muscles. In addition, since most people do not have enough shoulder flexibility to pull the weight in a straight line behind the neck, they must bend their neck forward to do the movement. This can also result in an injury (e.g. a neck strain), being another cause to avoid this exercise. The problems described above occurs also with the behind-the-neck shoulder press, since to do the movement, you must also externally rotate the shoulders.

The upright row is also a dangerous exercise for the shoulders. The problem with this exercise is that it places the shoulder in internal rotation as the arm is raised. When resistance is added in that position, every time you raise the weight, a small tendon gets pinched (i.e. impingement) by the bones in the shoulder. Probably this will not hurt immediately, perhaps nor in a long time, but the tendon will gradually become damaged.

The sit-up and the straight-leg raise have been traditionally used to train the abdominal muscles. However, when doing these exercises, the hip flexors pull directly on the spine, placing excessive pressure in the vertebrae and the spinal discs, which can lead to strain in the lower back area. In addition, since these exercises primarily involve the hip flexors, the abdominals are not trained in an effective way, because they are merely exhausted in prolonged static work to hold the torso steady.

The wisest solution is to avoid previous exercises in your program. For other exercises, it is not necessary to be so drastic. Just avoiding compromised positions can do the trick. For instance, when performing the deadlift or the stiff-leg deadlift, in order to protect the lower back from injury, you should keep it slightly arched during the whole movement. Without the arch, supporting muscles will relax, switching to the spine much of the tension that they are supporting. For this reason, avoid going down beyond a position that impedes you to maintain a straight back.

The bench press is another example of exercise that wrongly performed can lead to a shoulder injury. Using a too wide grip increases the stress on the shoulder joint. You should use a grip in which your elbows are at a 90º angle at the bottom of the motion. The shoulder joint also suffers when touching the bar to the chest too high up. Aim for lowering the bar to approximately the nipple line by keeping your forearms perpendicular to the floor during the whole movement and your elbows at a 60º angle to your body at the bottom of the motion.

There are other controversial exercises, such as dips or pullover (see Luis Berrios’ article) or flyes (see Matt Danielsson’s article), which have been labeled as dangerous exercises by some authors. You can find additional details about all these exercises in the article “Five Exercises You Must Avoid To Stay Injury-Free!” by Nick Nilsson, in the article “Bodybuilding and Shoulder Injury” by Luis Berrios, and in the article “The Dangers of Dumbbell Flyes!” by Matt Danielsson.

Overtraining: The Natural Bodybuilders’ Nightmare

Overtraining is probably one of the most serious obstacles for natural bodybuilders. As you already know, muscle growth occurs as a response to high intensity training that progressively overloads the muscles and forces them in this way to grow in order to meet the demand. However, when the muscles do not get the time and rest needed to rebuild them, this strategy immediately backfires, resulting in overtraining. This post provides basic advice to detect overtraining and summarizes the best practices for its prevention.

Overtraining results in a variety of negative effects on the body, including both physiological and psychological disturbances. Physiological symptoms include lower performance in the gym, manifested with decrements in strength and lean body mass, changes in blood pressure and heart rate, prolonged muscle soreness, stiffness, increased joint and muscle aches, delayed recovery from training and increased chances of injury. You can also suffer from chronic fatigue, dehydration, loss in appetite and sleep disturbances (insomnia, poor quality sleep). In addition, your immune system can be also compromised, thus making your more susceptible to minor infections (e.g. colds), gastric problems, headaches, and prolonging your healing time. Psychological symptoms include loss of motivation, pessimism, unusual feelings of sadness or depression, mood swings, increased apathy and irritability, anxiety and reduced ability to concentrate. The appearance of some of these symptoms must be used as a warning, and deserves a detailed following in order to assess your overtraining degree.

Of course, the best treatment for overtraining is prevention. This must be accomplished from several points of view, including training, rest and nutrition. With respect to training, the key is to do exactly the right amount of sets needed for stimulating the muscles. Doing additional sets will yield no benefit and it can even be counterproductive. In this sense, you should keep workouts short (preferably less than 1 hour) since after that time your hormonal levels become very unfavorable (pronounced cortisol release and testosterone depletion). In addition, don’t overuse high-intensity techniques such as supersets, pre/post-exhaustion or descending sets, since they are very demanding both mentally and physically.

Adequate rest is fundamental for allowing muscle recovery. Don’t go to the gym too often (aim for 3 or 4 days per week, maximum 5 in advanced routines) and let a muscle fully recover before directly training it again. In addition, once a while take a break in your routine. You will come back totally recovered, both mentally and physically, being able to deal with intense activities once again. It is recommended to take a week off for every 12 weeks of constant exercise. In addition, remember to get adequate sleep (at least 8 hours per day) for proper recovery. Focus also in mental recovery by getting lots of relaxation and trying to minimize stressful events in your life which will contribute to slowdown recovery.

Nutrition has also an important role in overtraining prevention. Have a balanced diet including the right amount of all macronutrients (e.g. 55% calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein and 15% from fat). Take care of fulfilling your daily caloric requirements, or even better, having a caloric surplus. Distribute your food intake among 6 different meals along the day to guarantee a constant flow of nutrients to the muscles and control cortisol levels, avoiding catabolism. Take care also of having the needed micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) and plenty of water, using a multivitamin supplement if needed.

These practices contribute to prevent overtraining, and they must be also followed if you have already entered in an overtraining state. In this case, you should additionally rest completely from training of any form for some days. Then, begin training tentatively, with very light weights and short sessions. Once you recover, it is important to review your training program to avoid overtraining again. Set realistic goals so you don't train your body harder than it can handle, train depending on how the body feels and learn to recognize overtraining symptoms.

You can find further details about overtraining in the article “Overtraining: A Bodybuilding Nemesis!” by David Robson, the article “How Can One Prevent Overtraining?” and the “Overtraining” section of Muscle 101 site.

How to Deal with Injuries for Safe Muscle Development

Making progress in bodybuilding requires intense and consistent training. Unfortunately, pushing yourself to the limit day after day increases your chance of getting injured. Typically, an injury can turn you away from the gym a few days or weeks, but if neglected, it could even end your days in bodybuilding. As you can see, this is a critical issue and deserves special attention. Learn with this post how to deal with injuries, and some safety tips for preventing them.

Of course, nobody wants to get injured. However, this happens to almost everybody at some point in their training career, and for this reason it is convenient to learn how to deal with injuries. If you get injured, you have to stop training immediately. By continuing with your workout you are only making the injury worse, probably prolonging the recovery time by weeks.

For most injuries, you will be fine again if you just give yourself the time to heal properly, thus rest is the key. Additionally, you can try to accelerate recuperation applying ice to the painful area for approximately 15 minutes every two hours following an injury, compressing the area with a bandage and elevating it, and applying heat for 10 to 15 minutes several times a day four or five days after the injury.

You have to avoid any kind of training on your injured part until you notice definite improvement. At this point, you can probably start with very light training but avoid heavy training until you are completely recovered. However, that does not mean that you have to stay out of the gym until being almost recovered. In fact, you can still train all body-parts which are not related to the injured body-part. For instance, having an elbow-injury, you can still do legs, abdominals, and lower back. Use the time to work on your weaknesses, keep going to the gym regularly, stay active and stick to your diet.

When coming back from an injury, spend some time on reviewing your training routine. In order to prevent future injuries, it is important to determine what caused the injury so you can avoid it. During this review process, you have to pay special attention to the following issues:

Are you thoroughly warming up before weight training? This refers both to general warm-up for raising your body temperature, and generally preparing the body for activity, and to specific warm-up for the muscle you are about to train, for adapting it to the weights you will use. Refer to previous post “Proper Warm-up for Gaining Muscle while Preventing Injury” for details.

Do you consider some stretching in your program? Stretching reduces soreness, increases flexibility, and strengthens your joints. You should do some stretching after warming up and between each set, and you have to stretch thoroughly after working a muscle. Refer to previous post “Stretching for Safe and Successful Muscle Development” for details.

Are you always using proper form in your exercises? Poor form is a primary cause of injury. For this reason, use always textbook form, maintain the control on the weight over the whole movement, and avoid cheating, jerking or using momentum. In this sense, it is convenient to stay focused and avoid distractions which contribute to poor form. Related to this, it is also convenient to avoid dangerous exercises (such as behind-the-neck pull-down, behind-the-neck shoulder press, and upright row) that put your joints in a position that is prone to injury.

Are you evenly training all your body-parts? Having an unbalanced body can increase the chance of having an injury. In this sense, it is important to have a strong midsection (abdominals and lower back), since this acts as a stabilizer in a great amount of exercises.

You can find further details about how to deal with injuries in the article “Injuries: How To Prevent & Treat Them” by Matt Danielsson and the article “A Bodybuilder's Guide To Injury Prevention” by Jon Huston.