10 tips to avoid injury when designing a client's routine

10 tips to avoid injury when designing a client's routine

injury to the customer. Also synonymous with the word “nightmare” if you are a certified personal trainer, especially if the injury in question was sustained as a direct result of your training program.

An injured client may find it difficult to continue training.

Worse, they'll also likely lose confidence in your ability to deliver confident results - the perfect recipe for rejectionCustomer motivation and engagement. This begs the question: “Is it possible to prevent client injuries in the first place?” Luckily, yes.

To keep your clients injury-free and happy, here are ten tips to keep in mind whenDesigning a client's routine.

Consider your pre-training assessment

Refer to your findings from the Pre-exercise assessment.

By giving you a clear picture of your clients' current fitness capabilities (cardiovascular or muscular), they are vital in helping you find appropriate starting points for exercise programming.

For example, immediate programming of squats is a complete no-go for clients with limited ankle mobility.

Your client will likely compensate for inadequate ankle mobility by Rounding of the back and pelvis -significant Increasing the load on the lower back – in an attempt to reach the “right” depth. And that significantly increases the risk of injury.

Instead, focus on improving your client's ankle mobility with exercises like the elevated forefoot squats and the weighted goblet squats.

So review each finding from your pre-workout assessment—and address them accordingly when creating a client's routine.

Start slowly

Stacking training sessions too close together will harm your client's recovery. And not only can this lead to reduced athletic performance, but it can also also lead to serious injuries.

Even if a client can physically adapt to the increased physiological demands immediately, too much too soon can be mentally overwhelming.

Excited by the excitement of signing up for in-person training, they may not have thought about how they would cope in real life (e.g., busy work, social commitments with friends and family).

For this reason, it always pays to prioritize consistency over exercise frequency when planning a client's routine.

More is not always better

Programming a client's routine so that they're always hobbling down the stairs doesn't mean you've given them a great workout. It just means you've gone far beyond her current, reasonable limits - and put her at high risk of injury.

For this reason, it is important to consider the “minimum effective dose” of exercise when designing each client’s routine.

To make sure you're on the right track, regularly check in with your client to see how they're doing with each of the planned exercises and weights. One of the most popular methods for this assessment is using the rating of perceived exertion (RPE).

Take your time to warm up properly

By improving blood flow to working muscles, improving muscle activation in preparation for the workout ahead, and improving range of motion, it is now abundantly clear that it is important to take time to warm up Key to Injury Prevention.

Bonus: Having your clients warm up right before a workout can also improve their performance and ensure faster progress toward their fitness goals, whatever they may be.

Teach movement patterns with appropriate exercise regressions

Even with most peoplewell-intentioned training tips, sometimes your client may not be able to “get” the correct execution of an exercise.

For example, one of the most common problems clients have is understanding the difference between a squat and a hinge - which often results in them either "bending up" a deadlift or moving down to the bottom of a squat.

Both are equally dangerous scenarios.

Therefore, if necessary, you should develop appropriate exercise regressions that familiarize your client with the basic movement pattern - and help them build the strength and coordination needed in the targeted muscle groups.

Here are a few examples:

Barbell Back Squats: Split Squats, Bodyweight Squats, Goblet Squats Barbell Bent-Over Rows: One-arm dumbbell rows, cable rows, bent-over Smith machine rows Barbell Deadlifts: Cable pull-throughs, trap bar deadlifts, kettlebell swings

Incorporate rest and tempo repetitions

A customer's movement pattern in an elevator may look good overall - but there's still a chance they're doing something wrong. This is especially true for technical exercises like bench presses, squats, and deadlifts, where there is a lot going on.

It might be a smart idea to incorporate paused and tempo repetitions into your routine. This is how they help:

Paused Reps: Getting your client to pause at a point of movement promotes proper positioning and strengthens that portion of the lift. This is particularly useful if your client has a weakness in a particular phase of the movement. Paced Reps: Slowing your client's movement will force them to maintain control of their target muscles rather than simply relying on momentum and "popping out" of the bottom position of a lift. This improves your client's proprioception over time.

Target and develop all muscle groups equally

One of the most important things you can do when designing a safe fitness routine is to target all muscle groups equally.

For example, many women prefer to focus on their glutes and thigh muscles.

But this one-sided focus on the posterior chain sets them up for injury. Because the quads are responsible for keeping the kneecap stable and in place, weak quads can significantly increase the risk of a patella tracking disorder.

This principle applies to all muscle groups; Therefore, you need to develop your body in a well-rounded way.

Ensure adequate rest periods

When excessive fatigue sets in, a client's form can break down - with a high risk of injury.

So, to create a safe fitness routine, you must plan sufficient rest periods.

But how long should a customer's rest period be? It seems to depend on the type of exercise your client is doing.

A good starting point would be approximately two minutes for single-joint exercises (e.g., bicep curls and chest flyes) and three minutes for heavy, compound exercises (e.g., barbell squats and deadlifts).

And remember, whenever possible, longer breaks are preferred as the client is likely to perform better (e.g. more volume).

Understand that routine goes beyond 1:1 sessions

Your customer only spends a few hours with you per week. What they do in their daily lives for the rest of the hours (and week) will be much more important.

Let's say your client has low thoracic mobility because they sit behind a desk from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

There is likely only a limited amount of improvement your client can experience with the mobility work they do in the few hours they spend with you. For this reason, you also need to plan a fitness routine that takes your daily “habits” into account.

For a client struggling with thoracic mobility, you might suggest the following lifestyle adjustments:

Implement “Light Sessions”

When planned appropriately, deload sessions can help give your client's body and mind a break from hard training. Reducing the overall training demands on your client from time to time can reduce joint and ligament stress, as well as the risk of injury and burnout.

Of course, deload weeks don't make sense for every customer.

Those who benefit most are those who have trained hard for several weeks and months of progressive overload. So be sure to use your judgment.

Main takeaways

The truth is that careful assessments – andCareful program design– can help your customers train and achieve their goals as safely as possible.

Just one more thing to keep in mind: keep an open mind, even after your client has started the routine.

You'll likely gain new insights about your client once you see them perform the exercises. And then you can make the necessary adjustments to your plans.

References

... more about that in the next part.
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