6 Guys Share How Exercise Screwed up Their Bodies—So You Can Learn from Their Mistakes

If you’re an active guy, chances are you have a war story about an exercise-related injury. Most of us consider these occasional hitches the price of admission when it comes to staying fit, lean, and strong.

But are they? In truth, many injuries are preventable with a little patience and know-how, says Joshua Scott, M.D., a sports medicine physician based in Encino, California. To help you stay off the disabled list, we asked a handful of guys for their worst exercise-related mishaps. Then we hit up the medical experts for advice on what they could have done to avoid them. Follow their tips for an unbreakable body—and nonstop progress toward your fitness goals.

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“After years of being sedentary, I finally committed to losing my gut about five years ago,” says Sanjay, 40. “I cleaned up my diet, started working with a trainer, and did cardio sessions on my days off from the gym. Then one day, I woke up and the bottoms of my feet were killing me. They stayed that way for a couple of miserable weeks.”

Plantar fasciitis—inflammation along the foot’s arch ligament which can cause tenderness and swelling under the heel—often results from progressing too quickly to high-speed or jumping activities,” explains says Bill Hartman, P.T., C.S.C.S., Men’s Health training adviser and co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training. Instead of diving into the deep end when starting a new fitness activity, ramp up your efforts slowly, he recommends.

Also, try doing calf raises with flexion. A new study from Denmark found that when people performed slow, weighted heel raises, they felt more pain relief in three months than those who only stretched their feet.

Do it: Stand on a padded step or low box. Balance on the balls of your feet, both heels off the step. Now take three seconds to rise upon your toes as high as you can. Pause. Slowly lower your heels as low as you can. Pause. That’s 1 rep. Do 8 to 12 every other day. Once you can do 12, try it with a weighted backpack.

(Plantar fasciitis is just one of many common feet pains that active men experience. Check out How to Relieve the Pain of 5 Foot Ailments.)

“I was playing beach volleyball,” says David, 28. “I dove for the ball and landed on the point of my right elbow. I’d never dislocated anything before, but it’s pretty unmistakable when it happens. You feel unbelievable pain in the joint, and the injured arm feels like it’s about a foot longer. My shoulder popped back in at the hospital, and I got some stretching and strengthening moves from a physical therapist, but my range of motion is still about 10% worse than my good arm—and that happened about two years ago.”

Landing on your elbow is one of the most common ways to incur this painful injury, says Hartman. The best way to dodge a dislocation: “Learn to do a shoulder roll,” he says.

It’s a skill that martial artists and gymnasts use all the time, but the average guy never does. “Start by rolling from a kneeling position, then squatting, standing, and jogging,” Hartman says. Practice it, and then the next time you dive or loose your footing, your body will naturally go into a roll.

“I’d been doing high-intensity interval training for a couple of years, and I decided to up the intensity by sprinting uphill instead of on the flat,” says Aaron, 44. “After five 30-second sprints up the steepest hill in my neighborhood, my Achilles tendons started screaming. Next morning, and for a few days after, walking was a struggle. It went away but it comes back periodically when I push my running distance or speed significantly.”

Tendinitis—or inflammation— is common in the Achilles, which takes a lot of pounding whenever you walk or run. It may seem like a minor injury—but left untreated it can worsen suddenly. “Most people who experience a rupture of the Achilles tendon experience mild pain first,” says Dr. Scott. So don’t try to run through Achilles tendinitis: Bike or swim until the pain goes away.

Evade the injury by properly warming up your lower body before running hills, jogging, or sprinting, says Dr. Scott. This prepares the Achilles for the work ahead. Do high-knee runs, butt kicks, and karaoke steps (also known as grapevines).

“A few months back I was working on trying to squat deeper,” recalls Adam, 36. “I put 225 on the bar—a weight that’s usually pretty manageable for me—got under it, and dropped to slightly below parallel. Right as I started to come up I felt this god-awful tugging sensation in my lower back. I got the weight back up somehow, collapsed on the gym floor, and stayed there for a good 20 minutes trying not to puke from the pain.”

Today, Adam says, “It doesn’t hurt, but I have to be super careful when I lift weights, play sports, or do anything that might strain it. I haven’t seen a doctor, but I’m guessing I herniated a disk.”

You may feel like you hurt your back with one overambitious lift, but that’s generally not how it happens, says Hartman. That one heavy set was likely just the straw that broke the lifter’s back.

The more likely culprit is rounding your back. The vertebral discs in your spine are made up of layers of collagen rings with a gel-like nucleus in the middle. When flexed under load—like during a deadlift or squat—those rings become stressed and the gel begins to work its way out. Pair that with sitting all day or performing crunches, and that pushes the gel out even further, creating a painful disc bulge.

To keep your discs healthy, there are a few things you should do.

1. Limit the amount of time you spend sitting throughout the day.
2. If squatting big numbers is a fitness priority, don’t just jump into powerlifting-style, bar-behind-the-neck squats from the get-go, says Hartman: “Start with goblet squats to improve your hip mobility, then progress to front squats, and finally to back squats.”
3. Build core stability for maximum protection with The Fit Man’s Back-Saving Workout.

“I was doing a lot of water-based workouts,” says Mark, 57. “Running in the water, pumping my arms up and down to work the upper body. One day I felt something ‘snap’ in the front of my shoulder, followed by an ongoing pain that has now lasted a couple of years now.”

In your average 2500-meter swim workout, you might rotate each arm 1000 times. So unless your swimming form is impeccable, the result is often “swimmer’s shoulder”—a term that covers any number of overuse issues that crop up in the rotator cuff, biceps tendon, or surrounding tissues of the shoulders of serious swimmers.

But many of these issues stem from an unlikely place, says Hartman: Your breathing. “Disordered breathing changes the way your rib cage and entire shoulder girdle move,” says Hartman.

Avoid the problem by performing the following drill: 1) Hang from a chinup bar. 2) Exhale fully. 3) Breathe normally while trying to keep your ribs in the “exhaled” position. Work on this until the coordination become second nature.

This move will encourage the ribs and upper torso to stay relaxed throughout the breath cycle—and prevent them from interfering with the movement of your arms when you swim.

(For a deep dive into the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing, check out How You Should Breathe for Better Health and Fitness.)

“I was in a martial arts class,” says Brennon, 39. “We were doing a drill where several attackers come at you in rapid succession. As I turned from one opponent to the next, I felt a pop in my knee. Next day it was swollen and I couldn’t straighten it all the way. The MRI showed a torn meniscus.”

Knee injuries often result from poor coordination and control of the muscles in you hips, lower back, and pelvis, says Hartman. It’s important to practice movements that require this complex group of muscles to work smoothly as a team—especially during fast and dynamic activities like field sports and the martial arts.

Work total-body exercises into your routine. Start with slow movements first—such as farmer’s walks or walking lunges with curls or presses—to build strength in your upper body, lower body, and core. Then incorporate faster jumps, hops, and push presses into your workout.

And if you want to look and feel like an athlete, try The Anarchy DVD Workout—a program that shreds pounds and builds lean muscle. (One user lost 18 pounds of fat in just 6 weeks!)