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5 Common Fundamental Training Errors

Ever wondered why you’re not progressing with your training, why you’re continuously running into road blocks, or why exercising feels incredibly hard? It could simply be due to the way you’re training! Here are our 5 most common fundamental training errors that we believe people make, and how to counteract these!

1. Too much too soon – Increasing training load too quickly can often lead to injury. Our body and muscles take time to adapt to change, so it is important to gradually build training load, avoiding changing too many things at once such as intensity, frequency and volume.

2. Incorrect Footwear – Wearing the wrong shoe can be detrimental to one’s training. Not only is it important to be properly fitted by a professional to obtain the correct size, but also to ascertain the appropriate level of support required and/or not required. We as podiatrists are well equipped to assess your foot type and thus discuss what kind of shoe you may require – cushioned, stability, neutral,or support? It is also important that a person is updating their shoes regularly based on the amount of exercise completed, as well as wearing the correct shoe for the correct activity – you wouldn’t wear cricket spikes for netball, or footy boots for basketball!

3. Not listening to your body – One of the primary causes of injury is not listening to your body during exercise. Pain is our body’s way of telling us something is wrong so it is very important to tune into our senses, listen to the warning signs, and understand that it’s okay to have some soreness after exercise. However, repeated regular pain that doesn’t improve with rest, increases in severity and worsens during the recovery phase, shouldn’t be ignored.

4. Different training surfaces – Training surfaces play a huge role in our ability to perform, but also in the prevention of injury.

Road, treadmill, sand – Hard surfaces place increased force through our body which can lead to impact injuries such as shin splints, stress fractures, heel pain.

Loose terrain, trail – Uneven surfaces that have un-fixed hazards create an off-centre force on our body, placing abnormal strain on the foot and ankle. This can lead to ankle instability and thus the likelihood of ankle injuries and tendinopathies

Incline, slope, angle – Causes our bodies to work unevenly which can result in muscle imbalances that often lead to one sided injuries from overuse.

5. Failure to prepare – Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Without the appropriate preparation for training and thus exercise, we place ourselves at a higher risk of injury as our bodies are effectively unprepared. Warming up and cooling down sufficiently pre and post exercise are important strategies to also employ.