Why Do Most Fitness Professionals End Up Having Injuries?

Have you ever heard tour trainer say, Oh I have had a back injury myself, don’t worry it’s fine if you do this kind of workout with your injury. And then have you thought to yourself, that he is a trainer, how can he injure himself?

Shouldn’t he be the healthiest person in town guiding people?

Am i with the wrong trainer here?

 Lot’s of questions will be answered right here, so make sure you’re eyes are wide open and ears shut to the outside noise and keep reading. 

Yes, it’s true most fitness instructors have injuries themselves, if they don’t, then they are definitely prone to them. But does that mean your trainer is stupid, NO, not at all. Let’s understand why this happens. Being a fitness instructor myself let’s take a peak in the inside story.

  Most fitness professionals are passionate about what they do. They love their jobs and given a chance they’ll do it 24 by 7, 365 days a year. We love pain. It gives us a high post workout. To feel a muscle pain long after working out reminds us of how amazing the workout was. Hence as fitness trainers we have a tendency of burning out due to over working. How many classes a day is healthy? Well, there’s no fixed answer to that, but try to read the signs your body gives. Do you feel an ache in your overworking joints? Like may be your lower back or knees? Do you feel fatigued? Do you get muscle spasms often? If your answers are mostly ‘yes’ then may be we have a problem here. Even though we love our jobs so much we need to learn where to draw that line to remain healthy and not burnout. 

As instructors when we conduct a  group class activity, what tends to happen is we overdo or exaggerate our movements so that the class is able to replicate that movement correctly and most importantly our energy flows through the class which brings in a better class output. This in fact is like a necessary evil of group classes, as instructors if we don’t give in our 130% our class won’t given more than 70%. So if your trainer is result oriented and wants to male sure his or her class sees excellent results then exaggeration is the key. Too much exaggeration can cause irrelevant wear and tear of muscles and joints causing injuries. As trainers we must take smart decisions as to where and when does the class needs a boost up from you and where you as an instructor or rather as a human, can take it easy. 

We push our limits. As i had mentioned earlier fitness instructors love their jobs and also the muscular pain associated with it. While they’re in the flow of their workout they like to push their bodies and put them to the test, go one step up which tends to cause muscular strain not healthy pain. So if we are used to doing 20 squats in one set we will always push our bodies to do more too soon. (May be psychologically as fitness trainers we feel we can push up a notch too soon) Too much, too soon tends to cause injuries and muscle wear and tear. So.. Calm down you fitness fanatics.. Take it easy.. You don’t want to be on sick leave when you’ve just started.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately a good trainer or the best trainer in the fitness center, the one with more clients to attend or more number of group classes to take has the most chance to get that injury, cause I’m sure his or her answers all those three points mentioned above would be like yes, YES and OH YES!! Hence i said, if the trainer has no injuries, he or she is definitely prone to it. Cause the more popular you get buddy, the more you test your bodies physical capabilities.

To end this blog, I’d like to say only one thing. As trainers we know a lot and clients expect a lot from us. Hence be safe for them if not for yourself.

Happy exercising… 🙂

This forums open to any further discussions and questions related to this topic. Feel free to express your opinion or ask me questions. I’m here for you.

By Swetha Jairam