Gym injuries double: Exercise junkies get hurt working out

PUMPING iron is taking its toll on gym junkies: the number of injuries more than doubled over seven years. Men aged 15-24 are the most likely to be seriously hurt.

This is for a story about an increase in the number of people who are being injured lifting weights in gyms. As resistance training has become more popular, so have injuries! Jonathan Powell, personal Trainer at Fitness first. Picture: Alex Coppel.

PUMPING iron is taking its toll on gym junkies: the number of injuries more than doubled over seven years.

A Victorian study found resistance training injuries had increased 150 per cent, from 59 in 2003 to 148 in 2010.

Dislocations, sprains and strains were most common.

FITNESS TIPS: HOW TO TARGET FAT BURN

WE PUT 30 DAY FITNESS REGIMES TO THE TEST

THE SECRET TO GETTING AMAZING ARMS

And men aged 15-24 were most likely to be seriously hurt.

Injuries included those caused by gym equipment such as kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells and pin-loaded weight machines.

The main cause of injuries was being hit or crushed by weights, or fellow exercisers.

Overall, the number of fitness-related injuries treated in hospital shot up from 155 cases in 2003 to 406 in 2010. But lead researcher Shannon Gray, a PhD student at the Monash Injury Research Institute, said this likely underestimated the problem because it excluded those who didn’t go to hospital.

“There are probably a whole lot of other incidents where people are going to GPs, physiotherapists or osteopaths,” she said.

Ms Gray and Professor Caroline Finch, from the Australian Centre for Sports Injury and its Prevention, looked at emergency department presentations and hospital admissions between 2000 and 2008.

They found 2238 cases, of which almost 12 per cent resulted in admissions.

Ms Gray said the rise in the popularity of resistance training might be behind the increase in injuries.

“There is also a greater variety of equipment more widely available. And also, people are possibly using it that haven’t been shown how to use it correctly,” she said.

Fitness First national personal training manager Michael Cunico said that 10 to 15 years ago cardiovascular training, focusing on running and cycling, had been popular.

“Now we understand that it’s important to do strength training in terms of weight management, because muscle helps burns fat,” he said.

But he said people had to be shown the correct way to perform exercises.

Though aerobic exercise resulted in fewer injuries the study, published in the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport journal, found those who were injured were more likely to suffer serious injuries such as fractures.

[e-mail]

@Lucie_VDB