Home workout programs and injuries

niniundlapin

Seems like not many people were discussing this..? I do have some concerns about these popular home workout programs and hopefully it can lead to some discussions & answers to my questions.

Major question: are we damaging our own bodies by watching the program DVDs ourselves without proper instructions from the professionals?

Here's the background of me: I'm a crazy fan of Les Mills Body Combat (10 years now!). I started the class in a gym with certified instructors for 1.5 years, but then I lost that advantage when I first moved to the U.S. since that class was not available from the gyms nearby. So I started to search for class videos posted on YouTube & was very happy that I can have my favorite class at home by myself. That's the beginning of my self-instructed at-home gym class. I thought, since I had received some personal instructions from instructors before, I knew what to do to avoid injuries (I had knee pain 2 weeks after my initial BC class by doing the wrong round-house kick, but it resolved after my pose got corrected).
As I dig in to the world of fitness more, I know more about what I've done to myself to introduce injuries. Unfortunately, the resource of having a good instructor/ trainer is only available in bigger cities but not the area I lived now. I have no choice but to go to those popular workout DVD programs, thinking that I'm at least a good Googler and accessing some professionals' fitness blogs would help. That's when I realized what kind of mistake I made in the past.

So far, I can only remembered that I
- injured my back muscle when I was 15 by doing 200 sit-ups per day (100 in morning & before bed) and had to stop doing sit-ups for a year;
- almost hurt my knee by doing Body Combat (but it got corrected);
- might injure my shoulder by doing the wrong plank/ push-up during P90X3 and had to avoid doing any one-arm supported pose by my right hand for two weeks cuz shoulder hurts;
- felt very uncomfortable on my knees after the first Plyo Fix Extreme & maybe injured my back muscle (again?!) by doing 21 Day Fix Extreme. (this was a new experience... I started 21 DFExt on 7/7/15...)
Now these were all resolved and I'm glad that I can exercise again...

I'm not trying to provoke a fight with fans out there or disagree with the program inventors' ideas, but I just don't want to try the wrong way, get injured, and learn my lesson like that again. Sounds like I was whining about not having resources, lol. I should have know more since my own brother is a PT, but he's 12+ hours away in another time zone and it's not possible to get immediate feedback from him. I actually watched him slowly injured himself by doing weight-lifting (probably in a wrong way, I guess) & now he got some reoccurred problems with his lumber intervertebral disc...
Well, health is the foundation of fitness and the cost of losing it is VERY big...

Any thought...?

Cherimoose

jeanniewu38 wrote: »

I should have know more since my own brother is a PT, but he's 12+ hours away in another time zone and it's not possible to get immediate feedback from him.

You could set up a webcam and have him check your form.

You could research the form for each exercise on Youtube.

If you're really motivated, you could read the study manuals of a good personal trainer certification like NASM, which you can buy used on Ebay. It will take several weeks of studying, but then you'll know how to do almost any exercise safely, even new ones.

niniundlapin

Cherimoose wrote: »

jeanniewu38 wrote: »

I should have know more since my own brother is a PT, but he's 12+ hours away in another time zone and it's not possible to get immediate feedback from him.

You could set up a webcam and have him check your form.

You could research the form for each exercise on Youtube.

If you're really motivated, you could read the study manuals of a good personal trainer certification like NASM, which you can buy used on Ebay. It will take several weeks of studying, but then you'll know how to do almost any exercise safely, even new ones.

Yes I'm now relying on YouTube for proper forms & am trying to correct myself The manual is really a good resource & it'll be very helpful in my situation! Thanks for the advice

Soundwave79

I've done many of the BeachBody programs and so far the only injury I've sustained is I tweaked my Achilles when I first started T25. Alpha Cardio has a segment of switch kicks and I was trying really hard to do them high like Shaun T and I felt a pop and then searing pain and heat. Spent two weeks hobbling around as it healed up. Ever since then I've learned to listen to my body, use the modifiers when I feel like my body isn't ready for something and I've been injury free since.

TavistockToad

I have done insanity and P90X3 without injury...

KimmyKicksAss

I did Insanity 3 times. Injury free ... until the 3rd time, in which I had pain on the bottom of my heel. I decided to shake it off (aka ignore it) since I was only 2 weeks away from completing the program. Sure enough, the very next workout with power jumps, the pain immediately became worse and I had to completely stop for a whole week. While I hobbled around this week, I figured it was because I didn't use shoes the third time around. Stupidity on my part.

niniundlapin

Phew... thanks for sharing your painful experience... hope everyone's injury-free from now on

And that was the point I was trying to make here... So far I've been using common sense when I exercise ("I can do it" means it's OK to proceed; not necessarily correct though). When I found out that I can increase the numbers of push-ups, I was so happy and kept doing it the same way. Did I do the push-up like what I supposed to do? No I don't think so... and that's why I feel irritated by this situation... ~"~
(I just started P90X3 yesterday for the second round! New goal for this time: finish as scheduled, eat better/ smarter, & injury free! )

mbaker566

yes, you run a risk of getting injured. form is important. but we each have our own level of acceptable risks.