Millennials and High Intensity Workouts

Recently, The Denver Post published an article about a rise in injuries for millennials, particularly in those that participate in things like  Tough Mudder, CrossFit, other high intensity interval training (HIIT), and even things like barre classes. The reason?

People are pushing themselves to complete these activities, no matter what. They are being done with poor form, poor mechanics, pushing through fatigue, or working at a level of conditioning that the individual isn’t quite ready for.  Many of these people eventually seek out care, and wind up in physical therapy. We are finding that they are often struggling with neuromuscular imbalances. In other words, certain muscles are weak, and others are overworking. The key is to focus on stability and flexibility, and then working those elements back into their routines.

Let’s talk about doing a simple squat – no weights, nothing fancy, not moving into another position. We’ll be using the image below for reference.

Image courtesy of Precisionnutrition.com.

The image at the top left is an example of good form. The others show faults in form, like having a rounded back, holding the head too far forward, or rising up on the toes. All of these are examples of poor form. Poor form can prevent the correct muscles from doing the jobs they’re made to do, and promote the use of other muscles that aren’t supposed to be as active. A squat can relate to things like getting up from a chair or sitting down, or going up and down stairs, so it’s important that you’re body is able to do it the right way. Otherwise, every time you go to get up from your chair when you’ve been training with poor form in your workouts, you’re just repeating the same improper technique.

At Back in Step Physical Therapy, we do assessments to help find out what’s contributing to your aches and pains, whether it’s poor form or muscle imbalances, and we’ll get you back on the road to conquering your workouts, whatever they may be! Contact us for an appointment, and we’ll get you back in step.