Preventing Overuse Injuries During Strength Training

Sudden increases in training intensity, volume, or frequency can stress the muscles and joints beyond their recovery capabilities.

Overuse injuries from strength training happen when muscles, tendons, and joints are subject to too much work overtime without sufficient rest. Although overuse injuries are common, they are easy to prevent. Strategies that help to minimize the risk of overuse injuries during strength training may include the following. 

Related course: Designing Resistance Training Programs for Muscle Strength and Power 

Calculate training load 

To prevent overtraining and overuse injuries during strength training, trainers must know how to calculate the training load. Training load is how much an athlete is subject to over time and accounts for the intensity, volume, and frequency of workouts over a defined period, usually weeks and months. 

• Intensity: Intensity is the amount of weight lifted, or the load moved during strength training. 
• Volume: Volume is the number of sets times the number of repetitions in each set in each workout. 
• Frequency: Frequency is the number of times per week strength training occurs and is calculated over a month or longer. 
• Rest: Rest is days off from strength training. The best strategy to avoid overuse injuries is to program rest just like any other training variable. Scheduled rest ensures adequate time for muscles to recover and go through the growth and development process. The general guideline is to allow at least 48 hours for muscles to recover after a strength training session. 
• Sleep: Days off from training is one way to rest; however, getting enough sleep is essential to muscle repair and growth. Although the general recommendation is to get 7-9 hours of sleep per night, athletes may need up to 10 hours of sleep per night to fully recover from intense training. 

Progression 

Sudden increases in training intensity, volume, or frequency can stress the muscles and joints beyond their recovery capabilities. As a rule, training intensity and load should progress no more than 5-10% per week; however, strength plateaus are normal, and best practices include changing exercises or altering the mechanics slightly to overload versus relying on intensity and volume only. 

Exercise variation 

Repetitive movements overload the same muscles and joints repeatedly. Chronic repetitive movements are the number one contributor to overuse injuries. For example, running is associated with chronic knee injuries from the constant impact forces in the same direction.  

Exercise variation distributes the load across different muscle groups and joints in different planes of motion. To vary overload, an easy strategy is to replace exercises that work the same muscle groups with other exercises that use different motions. Examples include replacing barbell squats with lunges or front lunges with side lunges or reverse lunges. Or think in terms of replacing a squat with a deadlift which is a hinge motion. Another example is to replace bilateral movements like modified deadlifts with a unilateral motion like single-leg squats or consider replacing push movements like a press with a pull movement. 

Phased training 

Variation is one way to avoid overtraining. Another way is to use phased training, like periodization training, where athletes switch between different repetition ranges and exercise intensities. For example, alternate high load/high intensity, low volume strength training with low load/low intensity, high volume training. 

Schedule deloading 

Deloading reduces the intensity, volume, or frequency of training for a predetermined period to give the body time to recover. Scheduled deloading normally occurs every 4-6 weeks. However, timing deloading is dependent upon the athlete, sport, training and competition schedule, training load, and acute factors like injury and general health. A recent study suggested to deload by decreasing training load and volume but keep frequency the same and incorporate active rest modalities (Rogerson, 2024).  

Active rest 

Total deloading is not always necessary. By including other modes of exercise in a program that complements strength training, active rest is a best practice to ensure muscles stay active but can rest minimally. Active rest modes include cardiovascular activities biking and swimming and extend to include activities like yoga and flexibility training. Specific stretching exercises enhance muscle flexibility and joint range of motion, decreasing the chances of muscle imbalances and enhancing overall movement efficiency. 

Prevention of overuse injuries in strength training requires knowledge of training load and a strategic application of its training variables over time. In addition to training load, trainers need to be aware of progression and exercise variation, and rest and recovery strategies specific to each athlete and sport.  

By taking an integrated approach to strength training, which emphasizes training loads, exercise variety, and recovery, trainers can help athletes become bigger, stronger, and faster while minimizing the risks of over training and overtraining and overuse injuries. 

References 

• Rogerson D, Nolan D, Korakakis PA, Immonen V, Wolf M, Bell L. Deloading Practices in Strength and Physique Sports: A Cross-sectional Survey. Sports Med Open. 2024 Mar 18;10(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s40798-024-00691-y. PMID: 38499934; PMCID: PMC10948666.