It’s becoming more and more of a cliché around here. The more athletes I get to know the more injuries I hear about that originated “in the gym”, or as a result of training for their sport.

Why? I know I have to raise my hand and add myself to the vast sea of people who’s athletic dreams were obliterated by foolishness in the gym. For me it was a combination of ego and inexperience that led to my untimely athletic demise. The silver lining in my case is that as a result of my early naïvety, I have learned the principles that I am now able to share with many of you who have entrusted me with your health and fitness functionality. A trust that I would never take lightly. There is too much is at stake with the next generation of young athletes. Something must be done to stop the old school philosophies such as “no pain, no gain” or “pain is weakness leaving your body”. I can remember clearly reciting to myself these very mantras as a teenager thinking that serious injuries were only things that could happen to people you read about in magazines.

Here I am in my 30’s with 3 surgeries under my belt. 2 spinal and 1 shoulder. If I could go back and teach the 17 year old me a few things, there are at least 3 things I’d want me to know:

1.) My father said it best, “take care of your body, cause if you don’t you’ll have no where else to live”. It concerns me to see our young athletes following in the footsteps of those before them who figured that the weights at the gym were there to test us, to prove ourselves with. The bigger the weight I can lift the stronger I am.... right?

I now realize that the weights, machines, and all the equipment at the gym keep no record nor will they grant me greater respect for pushing them to their limit. Everything in the gym is merely a tool. It’s not about how much you can effect the weight, it’s all about the weights' effect on our body. But we’re hard wired, we want to see those big numbers and feel tough like we’re a force to be reckoned with in the world. This is how athletes are destroyed.

So what’s going wrong? First of all, the weight training culture rewards those who find what their strengths are and then focus on them until they can perform a feat that really stands out. A great example of this is bench press. I’m just as guilty as the next guy. I remember what that felt like. Sure if felt good, so I did it more and more. I bench pressed until I was amazing at it thinking that it meant I was stronger than everyone else. The reality was that for every plate I added onto my bench I was becoming less and less functional as an athlete. My muscles became so out of balance that I developed shoulder alignment issues leading to dislocations, neck pain from a head constantly pulled forward from overpowering anterior muscles, and even TMJ. Why? Fundamentally because I got lured into committing the first and biggest mistake in conditioning. I worked my strengths and avoided my weaknesses. If I could go back in time I would have banned myself from working my chest and biceps for a year.

2.) Stop choosing what to work based on how you “think” it’s going make you look. Really, was there another way to select exercises? I was like all the other young athletes, I wanted to look good on the beach. So I made sure I worked all the muscles that I thought would make me look good. No time for rotator cuff exercises or flexibility work, these were all things that stood in the way of me looking better. Had I only known how out of style cane’s and slings were back then.... perhaps I would have reconsidered .

3.) Sometimes the most dangerous things in the gym aren’t the weights or the exercises, but the other people in the gym. I remember spending an entire summer when I was 17 eating almost nothing but Carls Jr. bacon cheeseburgers.. why? Because the biggest guy in the gym told me it was the best way to grow. I grew alright.. just not the way I had hoped. Instead I had stomach aches and unnervingly high cholesterol for a 17 year old. All because of the gym rats' resumé. The unwritten code that says if you have large arms you must be an expert. At least that’s what it says when you’re 17.

Nutritionally, what makes us strong is a diet that’s both specific to our goals and enduring. It does no good to develop eating habits now that might allow us to reach a very short term goal if it creates a nutritional pattern for ourselves that will only lead to the breakdown of our health and bodies later.

In conclusion, I am concerned over the deeply entrenched beliefs and values pertaining to athletic conditioning that’s molding and shaping our young athletes lives. The old ways of training the body based on what muscle groups are most visible or largest is greatly flawed. Old school coaches and mentors, while well meaning, are too slow in adopting newer and safer scientific models for conditioning our young athletes.

We need our young athletes to have a new model for strengthening themselves. One that encourages them to view entering a gym as an opportunity to identify weaknesses and work towards their elimination rather than only building upon areas they already excel in. One in which flexibility and load bearing mechanics are valued and that places emphasis on muscular balance and functionality over extremes. One that recognizes what it means to be a truly great athlete... one with few weaknesses.

By Angelo Poli SPN, CFT, SET
- owner Whole Body Fitness