45: Injury and Safety in Strength and Yoga

Welcome to Episode 45 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah talk about pain, injury, and safety in strength and yoga. We discuss what an injury is and how definitions of injury differ in research. We also discuss pain and how it is different (but also overlaps) with injury. Then we look at what research suggests about the overall likelihood of sustaining an injury in strength training and yoga. We’ll also discuss what safety is from a health standpoint, and about the relative risks to our safety that exercise versus being sedentary present. Toward the end of the episode, we offer you some valuable tips to “stay safe out there people” with strength training especially if you are just getting started.

You will learn:

• The difference between overuse vs. a traumatic injury
• How pain does not always indicate that there is an injury
• How injury does not always mean that there will be pain
• How the variety reasons it’s difficult to make conclusive statements about how injury occurs in exercise
• The difference between acute vs. chronic pain
• Why normalizing pain might be a more effective way to reduce pain than communicating that pain is abnormal and always something to avoid
• How many people conflate the perception of effort with pain
• Sarah’s experience working with clients with a team of doctors giving them contradictory advice about exercise.
• How research unequivocally suggests that the benefits of exercise outweigh the risks of being sedentary
• Why alignment in exercise is often less important than tissue capacity via adequate preparedness
• The markers of physical fitness and which we target in yoga vs. strength training, as well as how neither improve cardiorespiratory fitness (meanwhile cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.)
• What “failure” versus “technical failure” is and how maintaining an appropriate distance from failure is important.
• How to use RIR (reps in reserve) as well as RPE (rating of perceived exertion) to avoid pain and injury with strength training.

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Papers

Are Injuries More Common with CrossFit Training Than Other Forms of Exercise?

A 4-Year Analysis of the Incidence of Injuries Among CrossFit-Trained Participants

Relative Safety of Weightlifting and Weight Training

The Safety of Yoga: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

CDC -  General Physical Activity Guidelines

Stronger by Science - The Science of Autoregulation