How Likely Are You to Get Injured?
Life is imbalanced. We do everything in front of us. We sit in front of a computer. If we don’t, we write all the time. And if we go to the gym, we do a lot of exercises that are for the front of the body (like pushups, bench press, biceps curls, etc.).
How do you know whether this imbalance is putting you at a higher risk of injury?
There are a number of ways. The most obvious one is to assess your posture.
Here’s what you do:
Have someone take a picture of you from the front and from the side while you stand as naturally as possible. Try to wear just boxers if you’re a male or just your underwear if you’re a female. If that’s not possible, wear tight clothes. You’ll need it for analysis later.
What you’re looking for is this:
From the front view, are your arms rotated inwards so that your palms are actually facing behind you? At what angle are your toes pointing? Is one shoulder higher than another? Is one hip higher than another?
If your palms are facing behind you, your toes are pointing outward (like this: 
) more than about 15 degrees, and one shoulder or hip is higher than another, that puts you at higher risk for injury.
From the side view, is your head in front of your shoulders (like this: 
)? Do you have an exaggerated curve in your upper back (like this: 
)? Do you have an exaggerated curve in your lower back (like this: 
)? Or do you not have enough of a curve in your spine (like this: 
)?
If you answered “yes” to any (or all) of the questions, you’re at a higher risk of injury.
Since there are so many variations of what can go wrong with posture, to “fix” it would require a whole book (and many have been written). But if you like, you can get in touch with us by calling 647-271-8672, and we’ll figure out how likely you are to get injured, and devise a plan to prevent that.
There is also a very interesting concept called “structural balance.” The theory is that different muscles should be in an optimal ratio to each other. In practice, the only source I’ve come across that identifies exactly what those ratios are is Charles Poliquin (go to www.charlespoliquin.com and search for “structural balance”).
Basically, the way it works is like this:
For the upper body, you take the close-grip bench press as the “mother” lift to base everything else from (if you don’t lift weights, the following will mean very little to you, so feel free to skip it). So let’s assume your close-grip bench press is 100%. Based on that, you know that your strength in other exercises should be:
Close-grip bench press: 100%
Incline bench press: 91% of your weight in the close grip bench press
Supinated chinup: 87% of your weight in the close grip bench press
Press behind the neck: 64% of your weight in the close grip bench press
Scott barbell curl: 46% of your weight in the close grip bench press
Lying triceps extensions: 40% of your weight in the close grip bench press
Standing reverse curl: 35% of your weight in the close grip bench press
Single-arm bent-over trap 3 lift: 8 reps with 10% of your weight in the close grip bench press
External rotation: 8 reps with 10% of your weight in the close grip bench press
In my practical experience with these ratios, I was extremely surprised how accurate they are. I would test different clients (and myself with these tests), and the one or two lifts that were farthest away from the ideal were the lifts we focused on, and sure enough, strength improved quite dramatically in other lifts.
Quick Summary
Want to figure out your risk of injury? Assess your posture.
Want to prevent weight training injuries? Perform a structural balance assessment, and fix your weakest links.
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Related Articles
How to Return to Training After an Injury
Good Posture: Where Most People Go Wrong
Do you have any questions?
Ask them in the comments section below, and I’d be happy to answer them.
