Working out at the campus Wellness Center (gym) a few days ago, I overheard two guys having a disturbing, yet not uncommon, conversation:
Guy 1: I think I’m starting to lose my coordination.
Guy 2: Have you ever actually thrown up in crossfit class?
Guy 1: Last week, I don’t even remember leaving the class at all.
For all the chanting of “feel the burn” and “no pain no gain,” our health educators often forget that overworking a body to get results faster than is sensible can do more harm than good.
Personal Anecdote: My first quarter at UCSC
I’ve had several similarly cautionary experiences in dance and fitness classes, but for relevance’s sake, here’s my most recent one: I took what was labeled as a beginning strength training course because my RA said it was a fun environment in which to exercise. As it turned out, it was neither fun nor a beginning-level course.
The instructor initially stated that the primary goal of the course was health, that people in poor condition would not be pushed to the point of injury and that any of the students’ physical injuries or disabilities would be taken into account and respected. After the first few classes, and while still making this claim, the instructor began to subtly goad the low-fitness and injured students into working beyond safe limits, and showed passive-aggressive frustration with those who didn’t. In my case, I just ignored the snide comments and restored the frequent forced adjustment of my treadmill settings. But, after one of my classmates mentioned to me that she had briefly left class during cardio because she had to vomit and others described themselves as experiencing what were most likely small muscle tears on a regular basis, it fell upon me to point out to the instructor that the more obedient students were suffering from the insufficiently individualized training regimen. She echoed the yet age-old mantra that regularly acquiring micro-tears just heals over as muscles build, making for faster fitness gains. This ignores the fact that building up so much scar tissue over time increases the risk and frequency of severe injuries later on in comparison to using a much slower and more gradual regimen of increased workload (read about it in Corbin’s book, listed below).
If you end up in a class like this, and odds are you will, drop it like a steaming diaper and prevent fitness injuries by learning how to design a fitness regimen yourself.
Books I would recommend (while still using your own good judgment):
• Concepts of Fitness (2008) by Charles Corbin & W. Welk
This is a textbook, based on the national standards put forth by research from the NIH and other traceable, trustworthy sources. It contains a great deal of basic information and advice, in addition to some standard fitness tests you can perform (keeping in mind that you shouldn’t do the ones you’re not actually fit enough to try – e.g., don’t do a bunch of push-ups if your abdomen is so weak that you’ll tear a stomach muscle trying).
• Nutrition and the Female Athlete (1996) by Jaime S. Ruud
This book has the best version (complete with explanations and variations) of the food pyramid I’ve seen so far. It also stresses caution and planning in both how one eats and how one exercises.
• High-Performance Training for Track and Field (1990) by William J. Bowerman and William H. Freeman
If you’re really into running, this book is insanely detailed on how to micro-manage your training and plan ahead to stay healthy. Even if you don’t run, this is a good resource for learning how to avoid and treat fitness injuries.
I’m listing the editions I’ve read, but any edition is probably just as good.
I would strongly recommend reading as many sports fitness books as you can so that you don’t pay for it with injuries (either now or when you hit you’re mid-forties, which is when Corbin’s book says that most poor fitness practices catch up to us).