How to Get Stronger Without Getting Hurt
It’s simpler than you think
One of the major topics of discussion that comes up when I talk to people about strength training — be it among my students or in polite company (i.e. dinner parties and what have you) — is getting hurt.
Everyone is sure as can be that if they start lifting weights or taking measures to get stronger, they’re eventually just going to hurt themselves and regret the whole endeavor in its entirety. Not exactly true, but not completely unfounded either.
Now, these are bare-bones beginners we’re talking about, but their sentiments (i.e. fear of injury) are usually echoed by more experienced exercisers as well.
Odds are if you’ve trained long enough, you’ve picked up some sort of tweak, niggling pain, or full-on injury at some point along the way that will leave you gun shy about getting started on a program meant to take your strength to the next level. There are few things more frustrating than having the path set out in front of you and not being able to walk down it for fear that you’ll be worse off when you reach the end than if you were to just stay put.
I’ve been there. Maybe you have, too. If so, you can definitely testify to the fact that it sucks big-time.
The good news is, barring any sort of medical or orthopedic issues, it’s perfectly avoidable.
(And just to be clear for a moment, I’m not talking about treating or fixing pain, since that’s outside of my pay grade; what I am talking about is avoiding some of the common mistakes that even experienced exercisers blindly do that ends up putting them on a one-way path to an injury faster than running through a pitch-black room full of rakes).
This is just a partial list, but these are a few of the strategies that I use regularly both with myself and with my students — both online and in person — to keep the strength coming while avoiding tweaks and burn-out.
#1: Mix It Up
We all have our favorite “pet lifts” that, if we could, we would do to the exclusion of everything else.
The problem is that no matter how good-for-you these pet lifts may be (mine is the pullup, FYI), ultimately you can get too much of a good thing. One such issue that arises from that is what’s called pattern overload — where you literally just do so much of an exercise that it becomes like poison to your body.
Not only will you end up getting worse at the exercise, but you’ll almost definitely get hurt or start developing overuse injuries (ex: I’ve suffered by shoulder and elbow issues from doing too many pullups).
A great solution is to simply mix things up and take advantage of exercises that you still can do. In my case, rows felt awesome even when pullups didn’t. And the better I keep my rows, the happier my shoulders stay when I do lots of pullups.
#2: Iron Out Your Imbalances
The other side of the ever-present pattern overload problem is that even if your obsession with one or two exercises doesn’t hurt or prevent you from doing the moves you love, you are very likely to ignore some of the “support muscles” that act as helpers to the prime movers.
An example of this is knee pain in squatting. Now, there are tons of possibilities as to why your knees might hurt in a squat (don’t blame the movement itself, please — I insist). A common one (as strength coach Jason Ferruggia has pointed out) is weak hamstrings — easily fixed with stuff like kettlebell swings, hamstring curls, and so on.
Not only will your knees feel happier, but your squat is likely to improve too, since the hamstrings play an active role in your performance as well as your lower body health.
#3: Bodybuilding
Yes, I said “bodybuilding”, and no, I can’t believe I said that either.
Well, at least at one point in my life I wouldn’t have been able to believe it.
But as I live and breathe, I can honestly say that a lot of those “dishonorable” bodybuilding moves that we all like to point and laugh at can work wonders at keeping you strong, fit, and healthy as a horse (irrelevant side note: in Hebrew you’d say “sick as a horse”, which makes me wonder how “healthy as a horse” ever came around — not to mention why Israelis associate sickness with steeds).
Now, what qualifies as bodybuilding kind of depends, because it doesn’t have to be all machine movements and hyper-specific isolation exercises, so don’t think that is your best bet.
But taking a page out of the playbook of Coach Fang, a Chinese weightlifting coach, you can throw in movements like face pulls, obliques work, ab work, lots of dips and pullups, etc. He credits these as being extremely helpful in getting his lifters better at the snatch and clean and jerk. And even if you don’t have high level competitive ambitions, you should take note of this, since chances are good that not only will you lift heavier, you’ll be able to do so more safely since you’ve got more muscle and strength on your side, hiding in every nook and cranny of your body.
Play with one or two of these suggestions and let me know how you start feeling. I’m willing to bet evergreen dollars to shiny shekels that you’ll end up slapping your head and asking yourself “Why didn’t I think of this before?!” Just be careful not to smack yourself too hard — we’re trying to avoid getting hurt here, remember?
If you’re tight on time but big on ambition and want to get a hearty blend of all of the aforementioned elements WITHOUT having to turn your training into a full-time job?
Then you just might dig my free 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge.
It consists of some simple, easy-to-learn movements that I can almost guarantee you’ve NEVER done (including crawling, loaded carries, etc) and as the name implies, it only takes 9 minutes to do.
Not only does it fit neatly at the end of whatever other routine you’re currently doing anyway (so no need to put your regular training on hold), but many people have found that it actually enhances their workouts.
Have a look-see at what a gent named Mark had to say when he added my 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge into his current training program:
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“Just wanted to pass this feedback along about the 9 min KB BW challenge.
I am on my 5th trip through it. I use it primarily as a warm-up, sometimes as a finisher, and sometimes as a stand-alone workout (when I am under recovered or just super pressed for time). I get in at least 3, usually 4, and sometimes 5 days a week including it.
I am to the point where I can get through 3 min straight of just about anything except double overhead carries (at about 2:10 with 16's), farmer’s carries with 32’s (about 2:15 when I push it), and can make 3 min of crawling but it smokes me.
I’ve now shared it with a dozen or so folx and the ones who “get it” have seen incredible benefits. Of course, there are those that never get it, but that’s part of the deal.
of note, the big thing I notice besides a massive (and positive) change in my abs is that I gen really feel more “tied together” and “ready” all the time. At 40, this is really important.
Thanks for making it SIMPLE to integrate this really important work!
best,
Mark Reinke”
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Check it out for yourself at www.9MinuteChallenge.com
Have fun and happy training!
Aleks “The Hebrew Hammer” Salkin
