Whether you play sports or are active in your daily life, the last thing you want to deal with is an injury. If you’ve ever had a fitness injury, you know how inconvenient a sprained ligament or a strained back can be. Whether it’s a torn muscle or a sprained ankle, your ability to exercise is suddenly gone and you could be out of commission or must modify your workouts for the foreseeable future. Inconvenient, right? Plus, injuries can be painful too. They’re something you want to avoid as much as possible.
What Science Says about Resistance Training to Prevent Injuries
A meta-analysis of 6 studies that included 7738 young adults found that increasing strength training by 10% lowered the risk of sports-related injury by over 4%. The studies were high quality, adding more credibility to the results. The researchers also found dose-dependent benefits to strength training for preventing sports injuries. More training, without overtraining, led to greater protective benefits. Strength training reduced the risk of acute and overuse injuries.
What about Core Training?
Despite the obsession with doing exercises like planks for core strengthening, studies looking at the benefits of core strength for injury prevention have been mixed. Some studies show benefits, while others do not. One study found that core training reduces the risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, one of the most serious types of knee injury. However, numerous studies have shown that incorporating core stabilization exercises into a sports injury program cuts the risk of injuries to the lower extremities.
The best approach for training the core appears to be progressive core training, starting with core stabilization followed by progression to total body dynamic movements. Don’t skip the planks. They’re one of the best core stabilization exercises, but as you progress, add dynamic core movements, like medicine ball slams and cable rotations. Include a variety of plank variations in your workouts too. Each one is designed to target slightly different muscles, so do two or three variations and layer them into your workouts
How Does Strength Training Reduce the Risk of Injury?
One way strength training lowers injury risk is by preventing strength imbalances. Muscle imbalances occur when a muscle or group of muscles is stronger than its opposing muscle. For example, you might have strong quadriceps and weaker hamstrings. This type of muscle imbalance puts you at a higher risk of a lower-body injury.
Women often have stronger quadriceps relative to their hamstrings. Research shows they’re at greater odds of tearing an anterior cruciate ligament, a ligament that helps stabilize the knee. Strength training can help women target their hamstrings more and balance out the muscular imbalance between opposing muscles.
Sports may also cause muscle imbalances since you repetitively use certain muscles, while other muscles receive less attention. It’s easy to see how this can lead to a muscle imbalance that predisposes to injury. Through strength training, you can correct such imbalances and build more balanced strength.
Also, engaging in activities like running where you use the same muscles every time you run can lead to an overuse injury. By switching some of your running time for strength training, you lower your risk. Strength training also improves body alignment and builds core strength, which is also crucial for preventing injuries.
How to Strength Train to Prevent Injuries
Getting stronger may lower your risk of injury, but you also need to strength train correctly to prevent strength-training injuries. How can you do that? Here are some tips for strength training safely, without injuring yourself:
If you’re striving to prevent injury, the last thing you need is to get injured while you’re strength training. Don’t try to do too much too quickly. Start with lighter weights until you master proper form. Only then should you pick up your first set of dumbbells or a barbell.
Keep your training balanced. When you train one set of muscles, for example, your biceps, target the opposing muscles, your triceps. Also, do a higher percentage of compound exercises when you strength train, like deadlifts, squats, and lunges, since they teach your muscles to work better together in a functional manner.
If you’re using the correct form, vary the exercises you do, so you’re targeting your muscles from different angles. Increase the tempo on some sets to develop greater power. Include unilateral exercises in your routine, like one-legged squats and deadlifts since they will improve your sense of proprioception. Proper balance and proprioception reduce the risk of falls, whether you play sports or not.
Be sure to warm up before launching into a strength-training session too. You don’t want to work cold muscles against resistance. Unless you warm up your muscles before a strength-training workout, they won’t work as efficiently either and you won’t be able to safely generate as much force.
The Bottom Line
There is evidence that strength training lowers the risk of sports injuries. But whether you play sports or not, you still need to take steps to avoid muscle imbalances. Make sure you’re doing a balanced, strength training program that works all the muscle groups in your upper and lower body.
References:
- Zouita, Sghair1; Zouita, Amira B. M.1; Kebsi, Wiem2; Dupont, Grégory3; Ben Abderrahman, Abderraouf1; Ben Salah, Fatma Z.4; Zouhal, Hassane2 Strength Training Reduces Injury Rate in Elite Young Soccer Players During One Season, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: May 2016 – Volume 30 – Issue 5 – p 1295-1307 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000920
- Lauersen JB, Andersen TE, Andersen LB. Strength training as superior, dose-dependent and safe prevention of acute and overuse sports injuries: a systematic review, qualitative analysis and meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Dec;52(24):1557-1563. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099078. Epub 2018 Aug 21. PMID: 30131332.
- Huxel Bliven KC, Anderson BE. Core stability training for injury prevention. Sports Health. 2013 Nov;5(6):514-22. doi: 10.1177/1941738113481200. PMID: 24427426; PMCID: PMC3806175.
- Jeong J, Choi DH, Shin CS. Core Strength Training Can Alter Neuromuscular and Biomechanical Risk Factors for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury. Am J Sports Med. 2021 Jan;49(1):183-192. doi: 10.1177/0363546520972990. PMID: 33381989.
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5 Ways to Get More Benefits from Strength Training (#3 is a Sticking Point for Some)
Beyond Progressive Overload: 5 Strategies for Maximizing Strength
Strength Training: Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Lifting Heavy
Does Exercise Order Impact Strength Gains?
5 Biggest Myths about Female Strength Training
Are Some People Non-Responders to Strength Training?
How Do You Know if You’re Gaining Muscle When You Strength Train?
Related Cathe Friedrich Workout DVDs:
STS Strength 90 Day Workout Program
All of Cathe’s Strength & Toning Workout DVDs
Total Body Workouts
Lower Body Workouts
Upper Body Workouts