If you’re training for a race, you probably understand that you will have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone in order to get better. You’ll have to increase your training volume, intensity, or both. You’ll have to add in new exercises or modify others.

However, most of us also understand that though we feel good with a certain level of training, if we add too much too soon at some point we will break down. We know that while we could perhaps handle 50 miles in the saddle, for many of us, attempting 150 would leave us sore, sick, injured, or all of the above.

Sooner or later what we all find out is that there is a risk/benefit ratio to exercise. Almost all forms of exercise have some benefit, but there are none that don’t also carry risk, either short or long term.

Working with both weekend warriors and elite athletes in my office and at the local mega-university, I have the unique perspective of seeing athletes at their worst. That is, I see them when they’re broken. Being in this position rapidly teaches you certain lessons about what kinds of training potentially have the most detrimental effects.

Since it’s much better to be an informed decision maker, let’s run through a short list of high-risk activities. These are things to which you should never let your guard down if you’re interested in maximizing both your training longevity and performance. Here they are, in increasing order of risk…

Eccentric Training

I’m not talking about exercises that make your friends think you’re strange, but rather movements that emphasize eccentric muscular contraction. When you raise a bar bell (or a beer for that matter), the bicep muscle in your arm is shortening while it bears the load. This is a concentric muscular contraction.

When you lower the bar bell, your bicep is lengthening while it bears the load. This is an eccentric muscular contraction. Eccentric muscular contractions are far more damaging to muscle tissue. Some amount of microscopic tearing is thought to happen with eccentric contractions, especially when under significant load.

This is the reason downhill running beats you up far more than going the other way. Explosive, jumping-type movements – what plyometrics are largely based upon – can be risky because of the heavy eccentric load your muscles are put under. This is true not because of the jumping involved, but because of the landing, which is an eccentric activity.

Weight Training

Among athletes, I see a huge number of injuries come from the weight room. Much (though not all) weight work is designed to isolate particular muscles or muscle groups, loading them in a specific, measured fashion, such that they will adapt and respond to a far greater degree than they might otherwise.

While this is arguably a great way to gain strength and fitness, it is a form of load that our bodies don’t generally encounter in nature. Bodies are “designed” for cooperatively combining the action of many muscles at once, to produce complex, multi-joint movements. Loading up a specific muscle without the aid of his neighbors places a higher likelihood on the risk for injury.

High Intensity Training

This one’s a doozy. Increasing training intensity too much at one time is one of the most frequent causes of sickness and injury. How many runners have we all encountered who were doing just fine plodding along at 20-30 miles a week, only to get injured the first time they attempt (usually unsupervised) speedwork?

Intensity needs to be increased in careful, measured doses. When starting out, if you’re having second thoughts about whether you can handle a planned workout, you may be biting off more than you can chew. Never increase volume and intensity simultaneously, and be sure to get guidance from veterans of high intensity work or a good coach before jumping off the deep end.

Poor Technique

This may seem obvious, but poor technique is by far the biggest cause of athletic injuries. Using good technique means performing a movement in a way that doesn’t place joints, ligaments, and muscles in mechanically disadvantaged positions.

Most people understand that complex movements like a golf swing or a power clean in the gym require excellent technique in order to both perform optimally and avoid injury. The not-so-obvious part is that people frequently assume their technique needs no adjustment for relatively more simple movement patterns like a running stride or pedal stroke. This is a dangerous assumption to make.

Adding poor technique to any of the other activities mentioned above creates a true recipe for disaster. Attempting focused eccentric movements, weights, or high intensity training without regard for proper technique is a sure way to end up on the couch for weeks, if not longer.

No matter what your sport, spend the time to develop good technique habits, and regularly seek guidance from those who have the knowledge and willingness to help you learn the best movement patterns.

It should be noted that, with the exception of poor technique, all of the methods mentioned above can be applied carefully and deliberately to achieve excellent fitness gains. However, getting better at an athletic activity, particularly of the endurance variety, is largely about staying healthy long enough to allow prolonged, consistent training uninterrupted by injury or sickness. That is, you have to survive long enough to get good. Keeping your guard up to these common pitfalls will help you do just that.