Right Fit Blog

I’m going to take the next few posts to discuss my experience with injuries. Most of my time spent not working out was actually spent nursing a sore shoulder, tweaked achilles, or compressed ribs that resulted from me overdoing a workout that I followed online. So I want to take a minute to talk about it here. 

I work with my crew every other day at the gym, three women and two men, most of us married to each other. I start every workout by asking them what their goal is. It doesn’t matter what they say, they always are corrected back to my mindset, which I don’t think is a bad place to start, because even though I am the hardest of mansplainers in this situation, my advice comes from the best of intentions. 

“Nobody Gets Hurt.” 

I enter the gym knowing that almost every item and piece of equipment could put you on the way to the emergency room. 

That isn’t to fear monger, or make you worried about approaching a workout routine posted online that requires more creative apparati than you might be comfortable using. In fact, most often, incorporating new lifts and routines is the best way to shock your body into real gains and a healthy mindset. 

But almost every guide online has a different solution for remaining safe. 

Some guides say hydrate throughout. Others say to wait for specific breaks in the routine. I have seen blogs that claim stretching before and after is the way to prevent ligament and tendon injury. Others say just after, some say not at all when handling compound lifts. You could see arguments for Nucleus Overload, or Compression, or Overtraining, or Undertraining, or Bulking, all of which claim to be in the interest of safety and technique. 

Regardless of lifting options and technique, there is an absolute certainty with lifting that you can’t get around: No one gains anything if you are injured. 

I have five safety tips for approaching a new lifting routine, so you can prioritize safety and achieve your goals. Here is the first one today. 

1. Know the Source

When you start a new routine, you have to understand that the creator of that routine may have different goals and an entirely different mindset than you. As an example, if you prioritize gaining muscle mass, you may be tempted to start on a beginner bodybuilder workout, which will not necessarily be a bad decision. High weight and slow reps are a great way to prioritize muscle building regardless of routine. However, the creator of that workout may prioritize aggressive protein consumption and low rest times, simply because they are training with a different priority. Their timeline may require a shorter recovery time, meaning they are maximizing time for a workout to allow for increased recovery. This will not help you in your goals, though. Short recovery times between sets at high weights is a recipe for disaster if you aren’t specifically targeting a unique athletic goal, and though some athletes may train this way, it may not help you, other than straining your joints to breaking. 

Also know that some lifting routines online are built with specific… ahem… resources in mind that not everyone wants to use. This allows for heavier training, harder recovery, and most importantly, MUCH faster gains. If the person making the routine you are using LOOKS unnaturally large, it is possible that their program doesn’t understand what it looks like for a regular person with regular recovery times to approach their lifts, or even what regular lifting should look like, because they haven’t ever been at that level of training. In fact, a lot of routines online labeled “Beginner” are far beyond your average person’s starting point. There is a lot of disconnect between what a new person at the gym should be prioritizing, and what working out looks like when you are on gear, pre-workout, 55 mg of protein at every meal, and 2-3 sessions a day. 

That isn’t to leave you hopeless. Build a knowledge base before approaching a new routine that allows you to stay informed. Do some research, ask a physician about training options for your goals, and also, again, talk to other fitness people. People have varying experiences, both success and failures, if they are training athletically. And we LOVE to talk about it.