Some of you might remember the old TV commercial of a car mechanic standing next to a broken-down car and saying something like: ” If they just had done the $3 oil change, they could have saved the $3000 engine repair”….
That is how I feel when I watch people working out at the gym who have definite physical restrictions but are blasting away to keep up with the group.
And to make it worse, many of those people are starting out like the old car on the right and trying to work like a shiny new car on the left.
Here is a very common injury in the making…I ask a person to lift their arms straight up to the ceiling….and it looks like a ‘U’ instead of an ‘I’……. that tells me that one of two things is going to happen if they keep blasting away with overhead lifts..

1. most likely they will soon have shoulder impingement issue and get sent by a fast track Ortho to the PT for a rotator cuff program…gasp.
2. they will soon have a low back problem as they will hyper extend their low back to compensate for the restricted upper body movement.

Sad part is that either of these injuries can derail their workout progress, cost lots of money in rehab and COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED.

If you are one on those people with pain from overhead lifting/pull ups please call me before it gets worse. I have an easy-to-do home program and you can be back working out in even better shape for the long haul.