Why Do I Keep Getting Hurt?
May 11, 2022There are a lot of areas that can factor into why you suffer an injury or develop pain. Sometimes it’s a one time thing, one of those wrong place wrong time types of moves that lead to you getting injured. However, that’s few and far between and absolutely the minority of pain or injuries we see on a regular basis.
The majority are gradual, slow, overuse injuries that often take weeks, months, or even years to show up. This is the type of pain or injury that all of a sudden you start feeling first thing in the morning when you wake up, ache in the knees after a long run, or your back tightening up after doing some squats, deadlifts, or yard work.
Believe it or not, most of the pain and injuries we see that are traced back to a single incident have a high likelihood of being traced back to months or years in the making. Even for people that roll that ankle stepping off a curb, or feel their back go out after a heavy deadlift or even picking up something off the ground, are often years in the making.
You may notice the pain or suffer an injury with a specific activity, but in reality everything you do throughout the day and throughout the week can influence pain or injury. Even more importantly, HOW you’re moving greatly impacts which areas of the body are getting stressed.
Put another way, if your foundational movement patterns aren’t where they need to be to match your activity, your likelihood for injury can go way up. So what causes foundational movement patterns to be lacking in the first place? And what other things cause injuries, especially overuse to muscles, joints, and tendons, to be more likely?
The first thing that can cause this is when you're missing mobility or missing stability in key areas throughout your body. The good news is that this follows a predictable pattern, that when interrupted creates all sorts of dysfunction in your movement pattern. Watch below to learn which joints need to be mobile, which need to be stable, and a couple of examples and to see why this can be such a problem if this order is not kept:
Alternate Joint Stability/Joint Mobility Model
Another way this can show up is when poor foundational movement patterns are paired with a training or exercise program that is not specifically designed for you. Most of the time these programs many people follow are too advanced for them, leading to compensations in form or too much stress on the wrong areas of the body. When combined with too much training volume (overtraining is a real thing!), and other lifestyle factors such as nutrition, stress, and sleep - this is a recipe for injury or poor performance. Watch below to learn what Max Recoverable Volume is, why your movement patterns and other areas of life affect it, and how it should guide your training:
Max Recoverable Volume
Lastly, this all ties together with what we call the I3 Model: Incomplete Movement Patterns, Incidences, and Injury. This shows why your movement patterns are so important when it comes to managing pain or injury, and why focusing on pain alone - and not the ROOT CAUSE - will keep you in the cycle of pain and injury. Watch below to learn about the I3 Model and how to get out of the cycle of pain and injury for good:
I3 Model
How much focus do you put on your foundational movement patterns? Is this something you’ve ever gotten properly assessed before jumping into an exercise program? Most importantly - are you dealing with ongoing pain or injury that you just can’t seem to figure out?
We can help. We've put together a comprehensive fitness coaching program that teaches you how to:
1) Build Muscle
2) Burn Body Fat
3) Build Durability
Many programs out there can get you #1 and #2 - but it's rare to find a program that addresses #3 at the same time. With a strength program designed by Doctors, we teach you how to get real strong while also building mobility and joint health.