Did you know that 98% of injuries can be prevented?

The reason most people get injured in the gym or during training is not because they drop a barbell on their head or run into a pole, it’s because of 1 or all 4 of these reasons. 

The only way you can get injured is if you’ve:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Lifted too fast … (speed)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Lifted too much … (volume)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Lifted too heavy … (intensity)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Lifted too often … (over-use/ lack of recovery)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

….. for your current physical capacity and ability levels.⠀⠀⠀

Now, whilst it’s hard to take responsibility for this and it’s easier to blame external circumstances, at some point we are going to have to take extreme ownership and realise that the state of our body is in our direct control. 

Most people start a strength and conditioning program and base their physical capacity on the people they are surrounded by, or compare themselves to a previous time period, where they may have been fitter and stronger than they are now. ⠀⠀

When more often than not, they overestimate their physical capacity across the 10 physical skills and believe that they are fitter and stronger than their body actually is.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Whilst we would love to think that we are fitter and stronger than we are, injury is often a good indicator that we have grossly overestimated that assumption.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

It is not a bad thing to get injured, it just “IS” and we need to then react accordingly to the message our body is telling us. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

It can be used as a yard stick for future training protocols. 

Much like a car has a warning light, we can treat our injuries and niggles just the same.  Give them some TLC or take them to the mechanic before it becomes too serious and irreparable. 

By increasing our knowledge, awareness, strength through range, motor control and recovery methods, we will be able to improve our skill set and remove potential risks.  

The most common reason people get injured in functional styled fitness is because they don’t follow the M.C.I formula in the correct order. 

1. Mechanics: Learn and display the motor patterns of the fundamental movements throughout a large range of motion, at low intensities so that you can learn and develop your thresholds. 

1. Consistency: Consistently be able to repeat the movement with control and technique. Ideally there should be a beginner phase where you incorporate tempo, eccentrics and pauses for all movements to help solidify your control and stability. 

1. Intensity: Once you have shown that you can consistently hit perfect reps every time, you can now start to “Progressively” overload your intensity with small/ manageable jumps.

But here’s the kicker. Rather than going straight for the extra plates, consider utilising the most beneficial variable, time under tension. I.e. Slow down your reps and create added stimulus, rather than actual load/weight as you’ll see an increase in both performance and body composition markers.

Your priority should be to create consistent, perfect movement before adding load / intensity/ speed to your training and allow your body to get “stronger” through more training volume and skill acquisition. So in order to stay injury free, these are the 3 movements you should learn:

Stay tuned for next week’s blog where we tell you our top movements for increasing range and staying injury free.