As group fitness coaches, we do our best to avoid injuring our athletes. We protect them from their environment and from each other, but how do we protect them from themselves?

Many injuries in the gym are accidents. With hindsight, we can establish best practices to better avoid these occurrences in the future. Some injuries are the result of poor coaching. Ignorant planning, negligence or bull-headedness could cause a coach to bring harm to an athlete. I’m sure you do your best not to fall victim to these foibles, especially if your job depends upon it.
A lot of injuries happen because an athlete makes a poor decision all their own. To avoid these sorts of slip ups, we will first identify what type of athlete is particularly susceptible to this sort of decision making, we will decide what amount of risk tolerance is appropriate for each type of athlete, then we will identify some good rules of thumb to make the most of everyone’s time in the gym.

The following athlete types are the same I used in my ebooks: Welcome to the Box. Disclaimer: they are oversimplified, a little silly, and no one falls completely into a single silo. These aren’t meant to pronounce judgment on any gym-going human being. They’re just a tool to get my point across and.

Busy Bee

This athlete has a very full schedule and enjoys group fitness classes because they’re efficient and they get to kill many birds with one stone: exercise, community, fun, and results, without the headache of extensive planning. Since Busy Bees are looking for the biggest bang for their buck, they should prioritize full body exercises over isolation, intensity over volume and easy to learn but efficacious over highly technical and slow going.

This athlete should have a fairly low risk tolerance. If they get hurt, that could put a damper on their other activities, which would be a real buzz kill. The busy bees I’ve worked with haven’t been injury prone. They’d rather not mess around with terribly heavy or hard activities; they’re much more into no mess, no fuss, wham bam bang, in and out sort of workouts.

Busy Bees may have an accidental injury if they’re not focused that day. If you see wandering eyes, yawns and watch checking, encourage your Busy Bee to get their head in the game. They’re going to make the most of their time if they’re determined and mindful.

Nerd

I love nerds, because I am one. I joined the CrossFit world with a fleet of nerds who walked into their local box after seeing the 300 movie. Nerds come in all shapes and sizes. Some have more athletic history than others, but they all have one thing in common: nerds just wanna have fun. These often bespectacled athletes are quick to make friends and are always pumped for a fun extracurricular activity.

While nerds need a good challenge and the occasional boss battle to stay dedicated, their risk tolerance should be fairly low. There’s a lot to focus on and improve upon in the world of fitness without choosing workouts that could end in losing a life. And I mean that in the video game sense, not IRL.

Nerds are, of course, comfortable with facts and figures and leveling up. By performing simple tests, you can give any athlete an idea of where they stand, and then build a clear progression from where they are to where they want to be. The occasional nerd may hurt him or herself by showboating, compensating, or flirting in the gym. Ask them to save the theatrics for the Xbox and get back to working smarter, not harder.

Fitness Enthusiast

Your fitness enthusiast knows the address and hours of every yoga studio, spin class, and boxing gym in town, and isn’t afraid to let you know on Instagram. Their wealth of experience has made them really good at some things, and really bad at others. If they’re able to stay humble and look at the holes in their game as fun, goal-worthy challenges instead of embarrassing Achilles heels, they’re much better off.

It may take a little bit of coaxing and nurturing to get your fitness enthusiast to see the health and fitness world through your lens. You know it’s important for them to build a strong, skillful foundation, but they may just want to do the thrilling, TV-worthy feats. If they’re not careful, those may turn up in YouTube fail compilations.

The good news is, while they may be overly ambitious, their eyes are probably bigger than their biceps. Sadly, they can’t exactly make up for what they lack in time under tension and practice with grunts, rants, or whines. When your fitness enthusiast bites off more than they can snatch, remind them of the tortoise and the hare and make sure they leave that day with a small victory that will leave them wanting more.

Newbie

A humble, curious newbie is my favorite new client. They’re so fresh, ignorant and spongy that every workout is a break through and every day is the best day since yesterday. When you start working with a newbie, it’s important to undershoot, undershoot, undershoot. If a newbie stops five reps or pounds short, that’s a good thing. Their bodies have a lot to get used to, and you’re better off doing not enough versus too much. Their first priority is making exercise a habit and a lifelong adventure.
Newbies will constantly discover new things, including their weak links. They could deadlift a heavier weight if their grip would cooperate, they could front squat more if it wasn’t for their wrists, and their mile time would be faster if they could just remember the course around the neighborhood. All of these (frustrating) limitations are (usually) going to stop them way short of any serious injuries. And since their number one priority is having fun, they shouldn’t be doing anything too awful anyway.
Being able to do tomorrow’s workout is so much more important than killing today’s. You’re better off leaving some in the tank.

Lifelong Athlete

We have arrived at our final category, the lifelong athlete. I have yet to label a type as being the most dangerous, so, you guessed it, I believe lifelong athletes are the clients that, left to their own devices, are most likely to injure themselves. More specifically, the lifelong athlete who has been out of the game for awhile (read: de-conditioned) is most likely to run headlong into trouble if they’re not careful.

I have found that lifelong athletes who have more of a keg than a six pack and spend a lot more time at a desk than on a field are at the highest risk of injury because they can blow and "bro" their way through limitations for which others have to stop.
Also, because they used to be able to lift a certain weight or do a certain exercise, they believe they should still be able to even though they’re 15 years older and 30 pounds heavier. And even worse, sometimes they can, until they can’t anymore. Their once durable machine of a body has been rode hard and put away wet too many times and now when shit hits the fan, everything gets really messy.

How does a lifelong athlete with more experience than common sense stay humble and move forward over time? Jim Wendler famously has his athletes work off 90 percent of their one rep max, lifelong athletes should start by working off of 45 percent of their former awesomeness. You’re not even half the athlete you used to be until you prove slowly but surely that you have what it takes. Rebuild the machine meticulously and with grace, and assume that you will never be able to relive your glory days. Maybe you used to play varsity, but now you’re much older, life is much harder and you’re much less focused (remember, you have a job and a family) and, frankly, you’re training now for self-satisfaction, not state championships, and certainly not money.

If this description is hitting home with you, here are a few more tips to keep you in the gym, off the couch, and out of the ER:
Re-learn everything: Assume everything you used to know was wrong and/or you’ve forgotten it. Even if you sorta remember the Olympic lifts from football strength and conditioning, remember that you’re working with a very different machine now. This old dog can’t handle nearly as many variables and is better off keeping its balls away from walls.

Practice a lot more than you test: You should do a whole bunch of really good pull ups before you worry about how many pull ups you can do. The untamable competitor in you may force you to do a little more than is actually good for you, sidelining you without the ability to recover like you could when you were 18.

Be coach-able: It may be the case that your coach has less experience and many fewer years than you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have less know-how. If you want to truly make the most of a relationship with your new coach, you have to trust that they have your best interest and long-term success in mind and heart. Also, be very transparent about old injuries and what ails you. They may be smart, but they’re not a mind reader.

Leave the horsing around to the young folks: I swear every time I see that someone’s banged up and I ask what happened, they say, “Pick up basketball game.” When you turn down your carefulness and turn up your rambunctiousness, bad things happen. Play it safe and drink responsibly.

Spend a lot more time in maintenance mode: In your heyday you could go hard without a warm up and hit the bar without a cool down, but not anymore. Learn how your body performs best, today and tomorrow, and be wise enough to take care of yourself.

Have fun: You’re in the gym to become a better version of yourself, not to kill yourself. Take the energy you used to spend on workouts to make new friends and to teach others how to be as cool as you.

In order for training and exercise to be successful, you have to do it in the right context. As average Joes and Janes, our context is fun and healthfulness, not unapologetic competition. Injuries are never worth one more rep or ten more pounds. Always stop before your body makes you stop.