Injuries are about to sky rocket as more and more gyms open up. Here’s why:
Outside of catastrophic events, injuries happen when load exceeds capacity. Load = force, weight, reps. Capacity = tissue & nervous system readiness.
Even *if* you’ve been lifting at home like we have been (@ironphoenix.strengthclub & The Barbell Collective) the available load needed to create the same intensities is considerably different than what our bodies were used to pre-quarantine.
So, if you’re left to your own devices, your knee jerk reaction will be to go HAAM upon your return- often times fueled by urgency to “lose your quarantine 15” (read: bullshit) or urgency to gather some sense of normalcy in your routine & the identity you’ve attached to that previously.
This is where your conscious mind & physical body are disconnected. Your thoughts will tell you to do one thing and your body is likely currently ill prepared to do so.
Example: 3 months ago you loved box jumps & squatting your body weight. Since then, you haven’t jumped on anything higher than a stair and haven’t squatted anything heavier than a cinder block. Your tissues aren’t going to be prepared for dozens of 24” box jumps or BWx1 back squats just yet. If you haven’t done *any* training through quarantine, your tissue readiness is even less than this.
The programming inside IPSC & TBC meets members where they’re at- which takes into consideration overall stress & activity level (available load & intensity over the past few months.) So while you may be jumping back into things, you can catch us easing back into it. Smart programming and high quality coaching probably doesn’t look sexy on surface level- but if you find yourself injured in a few weeks after your post-quarantine gym debut, chalk it up to needing better programming and a coach that knows a thing or two aboutta thing or two.