Working the Non-Mirror Muscles Part II – Injury Prevention

image(sort of) credit: Zuzana

In part I, I wrote about how most people fail to train the muscles they don’t see.  I also got off on a bit of a tangent about how sometimes we(especially men) think we are training for sex appeal, when in reality we’re just trying to be bigger and better than the next dude.

In today’s installment, I will explain the role that training the non-mirror muscles plays in warding off injuries or at least preventing them.

In my opinion, the most important point of balancing out your training protocol is injury prevention.  If you’ve been participating in strength training or bodybuilding for any decent amount of time, the chances of experiencing an injury are highly likely.  The beauty of proper training and attention to detail is that you can vastly decrease your chances of an unintentional layoff.

Muscle Imbalances

These occur often when our focus is too straight and narrow; when we focus only upon the muscles in the mirror.  It’s not uncommon for the bench jockeys to develop a hunchback as a result of overworking their chest and shoulders.

Over time, the muscles they overwork become very tight while the opposing muscles (rear delts, rhomboids, lats, rotator cuff, etc), become weak.  Give this type of training a few months or years and one will experience problems with posture, odd pains and aches and eventually injury if the issues are not addressed and corrected.

Sometimes intervention is needed, such as MRT or ART therapy, but normally, taking matters into your own hands via stretching and strengthening the muscles is all you will need to do.

Another common issue is tight hips and lower back pain.  These problems usually occur as a result of our sedentary lifestyle, sitting in chairs during class or at our jobs all day long.  In short, sitting for long periods causes the hip flexors to become tight while the glutes are lengthened for long periods of time.  The process often makes it really tough to get our asses to activate(literally) during exercise, thus the surrounding muscles will take over during most hip related movements.

The same goes for the rear delts and upper back.  If your focus is consistently on the chest and front delts, they become tight while their antagonists become weak.  Don’t make this mistake.

The best way to prevent any possible injury is by tending to all areas of your physique equally.  Now we’re onto prehab and mobility work.

Prehab and Mobility Work

One of the most overlooked injury prevention protocols is prehab training.  Since the bench press, overhead press and other various upper body movements give the shoulders a pretty good beating, let’s focus on the shoulder girdle.

The shoulder girdle is one of the most complex set of joints on the human frame.  I would also venture to say it’s one of the most injured body parts for strength athletes and bodybuilders.  The main reasons for this are anatomy, lack of proper form and lack of mobility/prehab work.  Most guys (and some tough girlies) wait until they hurt their shoulders before they begin investigating how to prevent the injury in the first place.  I was one of those guys.

In the last article, I explained why you should be doing vertical and horizontal pulls.  Doing so will allow you to build a nice, well-rounded physique.  After you’ve selected your movements and have dedicated yourself to ample amounts of leg and back work, you must focus on light shoulder work (before and after training) to maintain joint mobility, and to insure no imbalances occur.  There are many exercises that fall under the umbrella of prehab work.  Some of these include YTWL’s, Cuban Presses, internal and external rotations (that video is so goofy), among many others.

Proper Warm-ups

Before every workout, I suggest you start with some moderate walking or biking to get the blood flowing; then warm up the entire body with body weight complexes or something similar.   Breaking a slight sweat is a good idea in this regard and it should take no longer than 5-10 minutes.

If you are doing squats or deadlifts you might start with the squat stretch followed by some walking lunges.  If you are doing bench presses you might start with scapula push ups and some light shoulder work to prepare for your work sets.

The whole point of warming up is to prevent injury and to perform at your absolute best.  There is no way I could go into the gym, immediately get under a bar and squeeze out a rep my one-rep max.  Attempting this would likely result in a ghastly, easily avoidable pectoral injury or that damn shoulder injury I never want to revisit.

Rest and Recuperation

Rest is so crucial to injury prevention because it’s during the downtimes that we grow and repair.  If you never give your muscles and other tissues time to regenerate, you’re simply asking to be injured.  You might as well ask God to break off both of your arms and beat you senseless with them.

In any case, if you don’t work the muscles you cannot see for the sake of remaining healthy, at least do it for me.  If the bro’s ask what you’re doing, tell them I didn’t want you to remain funny looking and top-heavy for the rest of your life.