I know what you’re thinking – How can someone who has suffered from 3 serious concussions, 2 enemas, 1 grand mal seizure, emergency appendectomy surgery and multiple black eyes, offer advice on how to avoid injuring oneself? That’s like someone who files for bankruptcy offering financial advice. However, even though I’ve had my fair share of health scares over the past few years, I can assure you that none of my health issues or injuries have occurred from exercising and/or working out. I have never seriously injured myself while performing any exercise in the gym or have had to stop or cut back on my training intensity for a few days/weeks due to a nagging injury.

After training intensely in the gym for 20+ years, I believe the reason I have been able to remain injury-free is that I follow a series of rules that I apply to every workout that I complete. Some of which, I’m going to share with you today.

Rule #1 – Warm-Up PROPERLY

Most if not all PT (Personal Training) Manuals will recommend that Trainers have their Clients “warm up” with a brisk 5-10 minute speed walk on the treadmill. Well, if you follow me on Social Media or have been an avid reader of my Weekly Blogs for the past 15+ years, then you already know that I believe that most if not all the information found in PT Manuals are complete and utter bullshit.

You most certainly DO NOT have to walk on a treadmill to warm up your body before your resistance training session. You should however warm up your muscles and joints by performing a combination of dynamic stretches (stretching that involves slowed and controlled movements) and 2-3 light warm-up weighted sets that you can easily perform 15-20 reps with per set. I’m also a firm believer in pyramiding all your sets for each new exercise of your workout (starting each new exercise at 60% of your max and gradually increasing your weight with each ascending set until you reach roughly 85-90% of your max weight that you can lift on your final set).

This brings me to rule #2:

Rule #2 – DON’T Lift Too Heavy 

I was fortunate to learn from a young age that I could maximize my results with my physique by working smarter rather than harder. I can’t take credit for learning this lesson as it was taught to me by older bodybuilders who had made the mistakes of training “too heavy” and “too intensely” in the gym for far too long, and as a result, were left injury-riddled as they became older. Whenever I lift a weight, my goal is to keep all the tension on the muscles that I am isolating and refrain from adding as much stress as possible onto my joints. To do this efficiently I must ensure that I take any potential momentum out of the movement completely. And the best way to reduce using momentum is to choose a weight which you can control during both the eccentric and concentric phase of the movement for EVERY SINGLE repetition. If you can’t control your reps, and you find yourself relying too much on your synergist muscle groups and joints, then the weight you are using is simply too heavy.

This brings me to rule #3:

Rule #3 Stick To Double Digit Reps

If you’re a client of mine reading this, then you already know that I rarely if ever advise performing single-digit repetitions on any exercise. In my opinion, single-digit repetitions (1-9 reps) and/or attempting a 1 Rep Max, is dangerous, risky, and quite honestly, pointless. Now, the exception to this rule, of course, would be that if you are a Powerlifter or if your goal is to become a Powerlifter and you are training purely for raw strength. However, if you are training for aesthetics and health, then I see little to no reason why anyone would want to risk lifting so heavy that they could only perform a few repetitions during each set.

Most if not all avid lifters that I have spoken with over the years have injured themselves primarily because they were attempting to lift weights that were either far too heavy for them or because they were not using enough volume in their workouts.

This brings me to rule #4

Pump Up The Volume!

If you want to remain injury-free, maintain lasting results, and lengthen your life span in the gym, then I strongly recommend sticking to high-volume workouts that contain lots of sets (4-5 sets per exercise), lots of reps (10-15 reps per set) and lots of exercises (5-9 exercises per workout). High-volume workouts build muscle, improve cardiovascular endurance and help preserve the joints.

By following a Weekly High Volume Training Split that allows you to train each muscle group sufficiently 1x/a week, you can minimize your risks of overtraining a muscle and thus maximize your chances of remaining injury-free.

Weighing Your Risks to Benefits of Certain Exercises and How You Train

As I mentioned above, these are just some of the rules that I follow and implement in my own clients’ training programs to help reduce the risk of potential injuries occurring. I can’t promise you that if you follow these rules, you won’t get injured. Accidents happen in the gym all the time. However if do decide to implement just a few of my rules into your workout routine, I honestly believe that you will not only maximize your results with your physique, but you will also add years to your joints, muscles and overall health longevity.

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance