Is Exercise Safe?
Understandably, new people at our gym are often concerned about getting injured. They’ve heard their neighbor talk about throwing out his back deadlifting; they remember their uncle had bad knees from jumping; they’ve heard about running being bad for your hips. They want to exercise, because they know it’s good, but they don’t want to get hurt. Here’s what I say to them…
- As a fellow human being, I don’t want you to get hurt. But also, it is very much in my best interest as a business owner for you not to get hurt. I want you to train as long as possible. This is how you’ll get the best results, which will be good advertising, and clients that stay for a long time provide good financial stability. The best way to keep you training for a long time is to do as much as possible so that you don’t get hurt.
- Thinking about movements as “save vs. unsafe” is a little incomplete. It might be better to think of positions as being trained or untrained. I’ve seen people with textbook perfect deadlift positions who struggle to lift 15lbs without pain. I’ve also seen people with craned necks, rounded backs, and collapsed knees deadlift over 400lbs without any noticeable ill effects. Some spines can tolerate load in weird positions. Some spines haven’t been exposed to load like that before or in those angles and they don’t like it. Is deadlifting dangerous? It depends on your spine and hips. Is jumping bad for your knees? Well… when was the last time you jumped? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Our job is to help you figure that out and to give you more capacity to do more stuff than what you’re capable of now.
- The best way to stay safe is to communicate with your coach. If something feels off, tell us. We can always make adjustments (and we can keep it plenty hard if that’s what you want 😉).
- (Bonus: Sometimes we need to work up to this one; it’s kind of existential) – There’s a lot about the world that sees pain as the absolute worst thing imaginable; as a failure; as something to be avoided at all costs. It’s not. Pain is a part of life. That doesn’t mean we seek it out. We don’t. But avoiding pain at all costs has its own trade-offs. You can try to minimize risk by not exercising at all but, as it turns out, the health compromises, including pain, associated with not exercising are arguably far graver than the risk associated with exercise. For the vast majority of people we work with, the very rare tweak has been well worth the increased strength, endurance, energy, capacity, happiness, confidence, health, and longevity.
- Pain is complex. It’s influenced by tissues and musculoskeletal structures, to be sure. But it’s also influenced by stress, disease, sleep, and fear, to name just a few other factors.
- The injury risk of exercise is extremely low (0.1-0.7 injuries per 100,000 participants per year). Compare that even to badminton or golf, which have injury rates of 0.8-1.25 injuries per 100,000 participants per year respectively. Read the study HERE.
I stand by this list whether we’re talking about group training, semi-private training, or personal training. But if people still aren’t comfortable with it, there’s plenty we can do with nutrition coaching and habit coaching to improve health without adding movement in at all. The important thing to us is that you do something. And we’re here to help you find the best fit, no matter what it looks like!