1. Rushing through routines.

   No one really wants to spend five minutes doing a routine they don’t like. This can lead to pushing and rushing to get it over with. In fact, many people just rush through their entire workout, which can be very disastrous to your muscle and joint health. The key is to relax and take the time that it takes to get everything done. Don’t rush in without stretching and take the time to cool down afterwards. If you don’t like the routine you’re doing, look for a new one that is more enjoyable.

2. Doing your exercises wrong.

   From a simple sit-up to complex cardio and lifting routines, it is all too easy to get it wrong. If you don’t have someone helping you, the chances of performing an exercise wrong are very high. If you can’t afford the services of a personal trainer, we recommend getting at least one lesson to learn the proper form for your exercises. You can go back from time to time to make sure that you’re still doing it properly. This is the easiest way to work on your form and reduce the potential for injury.

3. Pushing way too hard.

   If you’re already working out and starting to see results, the natural inclination is too work harder to see more results. However, this makes it very easy to get injured. Use the 10% rule as a guide to how you should amp up your workout. For example, if you do 10 push-ups a day, you can start increasing this by adding 1 extra push up for two days, two extra after four, etc…

4. Too much repetition.

   If 10 reps are good, then 20 must be really good, right? Wrong! Repetitious exercise can be very dangerous if you are doing too many. Find out how many reps you should be doing and stick to it. Add to it slowly if necessary, but realize that there is a balance and overdoing it can only lead to injury.

5. Improper stretching.

   You wouldn’t think that something like a stretch could incapacitate you, but it is also too easy. One of the most common stretch related injuries is a hamstring pull. Make sure you are stretching slowly and never, ever bounce during your stretches. This can lead to various injuries that are quite painful and slow to heal. If you can’t quite make the stretch complete, don’t push it. Work on your flexibility instead and gradually get into stretching further.

While there are many ways to hurt yourself in a gym, there are just as many techniques to use that will prevent injury. If in doubt, always ask for help before going out on your own.

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Now, years later, I’ve decided to pick up on golf and the elbow soreness I experienced from leaning into the bar at Body Pump has made me more aware of potential injuries. My dad actually sent me a mat, one that my uncle no longer used, and a practice net to put up on my deck. Now it’s my turn to swing a club a hundred times a night. So, in an attempt to preempt injury, I learned all I could.

Most golf injuries fall into three areas: lower body, arms, and wrists. With the lower body it’s your lower back and knees, with your arms it’s your shoulders and elbow, and finally wrists really mean wrists and hands (and fingers). The number one cause of injuries is flexibility, underscoring the importance of stretching before playing or practicing. When I was younger, I didn’t need to stretch before anything. Now, if I don’t stretch I risk injury at worst and soreness at best so always stretch.

Lower Body

With the back, it’s important that you do plenty of back stretches because of all the rotational movement involved. Also, your back does a significant amount of work so consider focusing on it for a while when you do your strength training.

Unfortunately with the knees, there’s not much stretching or weight training you can do to prevent an injury. If you do feel tenderness or pain, it’s important that you rest rather than try to fight through it. Your knees are composed of ligaments that will not improve with use, rest is the best medicine.

Arms

The two biggest arm injuries in golf are Tennis elbow and Golfer’s elbow. Surprisingly, Tennis elbow is more common. Tennis elbow is inflammation, soreness or pain on the outside of the upper arm near the elbow. Golfer’s elbow is the same thing but on the inside. Both are caused by repetitive stress.

Wrist & Hands

Stretching your wrists consists of rotation your hands and then stretching your fingers, though most of the wrist and hand related injuries are the result of repetitive stress. How do you avoid repetitive stress? The biggest culprit is once again hitting the mat, so focus on getting a good clean shot, but ultimately you need to make sure you don’t push yourself too hard. If you feel pain, it’s best to take a few days off until the pain subsides. If you are feeling some prolonged discomfort, here are the names of several common ailments, do some research to see if they apply to you:

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Pain in the wrist, specifically the tendons that connect the hands and the muscles of the forearm.
• Trigger Finger: A tendon in your finger locks up and puts it in a position that looks like it’s on a trigger.
• Wrist Impaction Syndrome: Sounds as much fun as it feels, it’s pain because the bones of the wrist bang together and you feel it at the top of the wrist during your backswing.
• ECU Tendon Subluxation: Subluxation refers to when bones slide out of place and put pressure on the nerves, the ECU Tendon (extensor carpi ulnaris tendon) is the tendon, held in by a ligament, that runs within a smooth sheath in a groove at the wrist joint. So, put that all together and you have a slipping of that ECU tendon from that groove. What happens now is that the ECU Tendon, slipping in and out of that groove, may roll over the wrist bones and cause pain as you rotate your wrist.
• DeQuervains Tendonitis: Tendonitis refers to when tendons swell and DeQuervains tendonitis refers to swelling of the tendons that connect your thumb to the wrist. You’ll feel this in your left hand if you’re a right handed golfers and your right hand if you’re a left handed golfer.
• Hamate Bone fracture: The Hamate Bone is the bone in your hand that is connected to your pinky. While this is rarer, repetitive stress may cause small fractures in that bone.

Now, armed with that knowledge, I can hopefully prevent some of these injuries before they happen!

Now, you may also remember I started the 100 Pushup’s regime last week. I made it through the first week without incident except my elbow started intermittently clicking and was starting to get sore. I mentioned to Nickel, who started his own fitness blog at fit36.com, and he said it could be bone rubbing on bone. I think I just stretched out some tendons and need to just rest it a little.

As such, I think I’m going to take a one week break from the pushups (which is really the only activity that strains the elbows) to see if my elbow gets back to normal.

Here is a graph of my weight loss (if you are reading this in the future this graph will have updated for future weigh ins as well)… Clicking the image will open to a larger image.

What happened? Oh boy is this a long story (to be told over multiple blog posts)… I played full court basketball for the first time this week. Great! What a workout! My week was going great full court on Saturday, more basketball on Monday, and playing volleyball on Tuesday when it happened…

My teammate passed the ball to the setter and I was backing up to position for the approach for the spike… When I changed directions (not even a very athletic move) there was loud pop and I thought who just throw a rock at the ground at my foot. I stopped playing and spent the rest of the week figuring out what had just happened… But this being the post about my weigh in I will stop there…

And I ate a little too much the night before the weigh-in and I did not exercise for the remainder of the week after the incident at volleyball…

I am sticking to the diet, but I am reducing my expectations (4.8 pound goal for next week aka end at the same goal weight as last week) given that I will not be able to work out at the same intensity…

So with less chance to work out my new plan is to continue to stick to the diet and to look for opportunities to work out… Given that I am currently non weight bearing and on crutches I am hoping that crutches alone will be good exercise….