razg

I don't have any serious injuries, however i'm still relatively young (22). However having trained for around 7 years now, I have learned the following things.

1) Balance is key, if you train one group of muscles to the exclusion of others, the imbalance will come to bite you in the ass. I developed horrible posture from doing mainly chest work and no back exercises - I could bench 100kg when I was 16, but couldn't do a pull-up (and had no idea what a deadlift was).

2) If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. One thing we all differ in is biomechanics - for me, decline chest work just feels unnatural at the shoulder joint. Some people love it, but I avoid it at all costs. Similarly if you're really tall, trying to be a champion deadlifter may be a bad idea.

3) Flexibility counts for a lot. This has to be the most recent thing i've learned. I had always taken the view that if you use full ROM and train sensibly, stretching isn't really important. That was until my AC joint tightened up to the point I could barely use my shoulder without impingement - fortunately I had no major problems (thanks to seeing an ART therapist - highly recommended), and I have learned my lesson. I'm now absolutely religious about stretching, and i'm seeing great improvements in terms of posture and ability to lift. Another important thing is that flexibility is very important for joint health.

I could ramble on with anecdotes all day - we all know the common sense ones - warm up, don't lift heavier than you can control, keep good form - although common sense is often far from common.