{"id":455138,"date":"2026-02-03T06:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455138\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T06:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:11:12","slug":"the-reason-for-every-injury-youll-ever-have-and-how-to-prevent-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455138\/","title":{"rendered":"The reason for every injury you\u2019ll ever have, and how to prevent it"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s January. A New Year\u2019s resolution led you to lace up your running shoes<\/a> and hit the road, and it\u2019s going well. You\u2019re moving smoothly, the endorphins are starting to stir, then \u2013 a pain erupts somewhere in your body. <\/p>\n

This is a familiar scene for many. It\u2019s also a major reason why people stop exercising<\/a>, or they are reluctant to start in the first place. But what if there was a way to identify the root of the problem and prevent it before injury strikes? According to movement specialist Ash Grossmann, founder of The Training Stimulus<\/a>, there is.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll injuries arise from the same thing,\u201d he says, \u201cand that is exceeding tissue tolerance. If you\u2019ve damaged part of your body, then, on some level, a tissue has been exposed to more stress or load than it could manage. This could be acute or chronic, experienced through the sudden impact of a car crash or a repetitive strain disorder from using a mouse too much at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

When muscles, bones, ligaments and tendons are underused, they will gradually become weaker. Then, when you suddenly ask a lot of them \u2013 for example, going for a run or playing five-a-side football after years away from the sport \u2013 they are particularly susceptible to injury. <\/p>\n

However, Grossmann says, if you know which tissues you are going to be using and make them more robust ahead of time, these issues can be prevented. <\/p>\n

What is tissue tolerance? <\/p>\n

\u201cTissue tolerance is the amount of stress, force or load that a particular tissue or body part can handle,\u201d Grossmann explains. \u201cWhen that is exceeded, injury happens. If those tissues were more robust, the injury wouldn’t have come about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tissue tolerance is also relative. Someone with a lifetime of strength training and sport behind them might emerge from a fall unscathed, while a similar fall might lead to serious injury in a more sedentary or frail person of the same age.<\/p>\n

Read more: Why stretching isn\u2019t the answer to tight muscles \u2013 and the exercises to try instead<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Injuries<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Injuries come as a result of pushing a bone, ligament, muscle or tendon to a point it cannot handle, human movement specialist Ash Grossmann says (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

What causes injury?<\/p>\n

\u201cYour body can get used to almost anything if you go slowly enough,\u201d Grossmann says. To illustrate this, he recommends thinking of your muscle and other tissues as the skin on your hand. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were to rub your hands with really coarse sandpaper, your skin would open up and bleed because you\u2019ve exceeded the rate at which it can recover,\u201d Grossmann says. \u201cBut if you were to do it very gently with a fine sandpaper, and build it up gradually over time, you would build nice, thick calluses and your hand would be more resistant to abrasion than before.\u201d <\/p>\n

In other words, when ramping up your exercise routine, slow and steady wins the race. But the trap people often fall into is doing too much too soon, sending their injury risk skywards. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause people are impatient for results, they want to run as fast or lift as heavy as possible straight away,\u201d Grossmann explains. \u201cIt\u2019s at this end of the spectrum that the highest performances are reached, but this is also where the greatest risk exists.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more: The science-backed exercise method that can help fight the effects of ageing<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Returning<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Returning to sport or exercise after a prolonged period of inactivity can increase your risk of injury (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

How to prevent any injury<\/p>\n

Grossmann\u2019s prescription for preventing injury is simple: \u201cWe want our tissue tolerance to exceed the demands we place on our body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, accidents happen and we can’t prepare for those,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut there are predictable activities we can account for. This is why boxers do a lot of neck training \u2013 unless they\u2019re incredibly gifted, they\u2019re going to be punched in the head.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sport-specific lens can also be applied to everyday life \u2013 preparing for fundamental behaviours like walking and picking things up from the ground. <\/p>\n

If you can identify the stresses you are likely to face, you can expose yourself to small doses of these stresses to strengthen the relevant tissues \u2013 usually through strength training <\/a>in some form. Over time, you can progressively overload<\/a> (or gradually increase) these stresses at a rate your body can adapt to. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

An everyday example of this is climbing the stairs \u2013 responsible for hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations each year in the UK. This requires strength in the tissues surrounding your knees, hips and ankles. To make these areas more resilient, you can start with simple exercises such as a sit-to-stand (moving between standing and sitting in a chair) before graduating to low step-ups and later weighted step-ups to a higher surface (demonstrated in the video above). <\/p>\n

By doing this, you are building strength in a controlled environment and then applying it in the dynamic environment of your daily life. Think of it this way: climbing the stairs is likely to pose no problems to someone who can perform weighted step-ups with relative ease. <\/p>\n

Read more: New research reveals that exercise six times more effective than walking<\/a><\/p>\n

The missing piece of the puzzle<\/p>\n

As well as strengthening specific tissues, Grossmann recommends regularly exposing your body to a variety of movements in all three planes of motion: the sagittal plane (moving up, down, forward and backward), frontal plane (side-to-side movements) and transverse plane (rotational movements). <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we move in three-dimensional full-body movements, we can learn to move our body more effectively as one integrated system,\u201d he says. \u201cThe carryover of this into sport and life is profound.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Doing this also provides an insurance policy in case a usually predictable movement doesn\u2019t go to plan. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of injuries related to deadlifts, or people picking stuff up off the floor, come from people getting slightly out of position,\u201d says Grossmann. \u201cThey might get a back spasm because they\u2019ve never lifted \u2018badly\u2019 before. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe exercise below offers a deliberate and controlled exposure to these \u2018bad positions\u2019, making us stronger in them, increasing our tissue tolerance and preparing our body. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you\u2019re picking a baby up off the floor or picking up a heavy box, you\u2019re very rarely in a perfect [lifting] position. Building tissue tolerance in this way will allow you to pick things up at awkward angles without injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

As explained above, you should start easy and build from there. Begin by doing these exercises with just your body weight, only reaching part of the way towards the ground. Then, as your tissues become stronger and more capable, you can gradually add weight and increase your range of motion, reaching further towards the ground. Over time, if progressed at a rate your body can positively adapt to, this will increase robustness. <\/p>\n

Exercises for preventing injuries from running<\/p>\n

Now you have the framework needed to build a body that is more resilient against any injury. The next step is to put this into action. <\/p>\n

With running being the in-vogue exercise of the moment, I asked Grossmann how to build a set of legs capable of racking up the miles without developing any pain or niggles. He recommended the exercises below. <\/p>\n

1. Ankle reach<\/p>\n

Goal: Ankle stability Sets: 2 Reps: 3 reaches in each direction, on each leg<\/p>\n

2. Stimulus six lunges<\/p>\n

Goal: Hip mobility and coordination Sets: 2 Reps: 3-5 per leg in each direction<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

3. Walking lunge<\/p>\n

Goal: Leg strength, stability and coordination Sets: 2 Reps: 10-20 each side<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

4. 3D step ups<\/p>\n

Goal: Leg strength, stability and coordination Sets: 2 Reps: 5-10 of each variation on each leg<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Read more: The common foods that can reduce inflammation and improve heart health, according to experts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s January. A New Year\u2019s resolution led you to lace up your running shoes and hit the road,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,538,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-455138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}