Injury Free : Powerlifters
Keep this in mind , “Rome was not built in a day ”.
Of course we all want those massive PRs and see those numbers climb from days, to weeks, months and years. It’s a process that takes time and does not happen overnight. For majority of people, the end goal is to get as strong as they can, in the shortest amount of time. I mean, you can definitely hammer out tons of work week after week and if you make it, month after month. However, there may be a price to pay, Injury!
Or can you stay injury free? …. pfft ya right !
To be honest, it is not hard to stay injury free (less prone to injury), but there is a price you have to pay….
CHECK YOUR EGO
If you are coming off an injury, weren’t able to lift for a while and are getting back into it, follow these steps to get back on track.
1. WEIGHT ON THE BAR
THE WEGHT SHOULD NOT MATTER WHEN YOU ARE COMING OFF AN INJURY. It is very easy to come off an injury feeling great for the first time in a while and just slap the plates back on. Yes, you may feel great and work up to a ugly, knee caving triple at 85% which is awesome number in terms of post injury PR. Is this going to keep you injury free ? For the lucky ones, you may be able to touch your knees for a little longer. What you should be doing is making sure that your technique is “optimal”. Start by taking a look at your bar path.
2. BAR PATH ( Technical Proficiency)
I think this is a really good indicator of how fluent or technically sound your movements are. For the three lifts your bar path should be straight or along that same path from point A to B. Keeping your bar path consistent from rep(s), to set(s) ensures that you are ingraining this movement pattern. If you can’t keep a consistent bar path at 50-70% what do you think will happen at 90%?
3. HOW MUCH WORK YOU ARE DOING?
More is not always better. A lot of people post injury are feeling great and want to just get right back into it and hammer out tons of volume. This is probably the worst time to do that. Your body takes time to adapt and is not accustomed to crazy amount of repetition. Gradually increase work from week to week and make sure that the step above (BAR PATH ) is consistent while doing so.
4. TRACK AND HAVE A PLAN ( Check out http://www.mystrengthbook.com )
It is very easy to get caught up in the numbers and not even knowing what percentage you are at, how much work you have done, or how your days are planned out, just to mention a few variables. If you don’t know any of these things, how are you planning to progress or even look back at previous data to analyze certain trends. By tracking these variables, it allows you to see which workouts are more intense or have greater volume for example. This will allow you to arrange your workouts accordingly so you don’t have 2 or 3 high volume or high intensity workouts in a row, which puts you at greater risk of injury.
If you are just coming off an injury I advise you to really take the time to follow these steps and apply it to your own training. Touching maximal weight does not build strength, it tests it.
