The Big Hurts

No matter how dedicated and diligent you are to your workout regimen, it’s unlikely that you get compliments on your powerful knees, your steely lower back, or your sturdy shoulders. But keeping those three areas strong could be the key to your success everywhere else on your body.

Nothing undermines your fitness resolve faster than injuries, and sore shoulders, an aching lower back, or balky knees are three of the most common—and pesky—injuries you can face. Here’s how you can minimize the damage, shorten your recovery time, and guarantee you come back strong.

The Problem
Sore Shoulders

The Cause
Chances are, you’re focusing too much on bench press and military press, and neglecting the smaller muscle groups, like those that make up your rotator cuff. “A lot of people strengthen only the big muscles you see in the mirror, but never anything else,” says Brian Sutton, an educator at the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). Also, cubicle dwellers often experience shoulder pain from hunching over a computer for 8 hours at a time.

The Fix
Instead of pounding your pecs and lats (toning areas that are probably already tight), stretch them instead. Then, give some attention to your rotator cuff and the muscles between your shoulder blades. Try the seated row machine for your upper back and internal and external rotations with one- or two-pound dumbbells to work your rotator cuff.

“We call Mondays at the gym ‘chest day,’ because it seems like 90 percent of all men are doing chest to start off the week,” says Jack Schenk, a 24 Hour Fitness trainer in Las Vegas. “I would suggest changing your area of focus and doing some back instead, or doing both muscle groups on the same day. As one set of muscles fatigues, the opposing group gets a better workout.”

The Problem
Aching Lower Back

The Cause
Trainers say they hear gym-goers complaining about pain in the lower back more than any other area. Usually it’s because the back is arched, which compresses the spine. That arch might mean you’re lifting too much weight or using improper form when you lift. Or, imbalances—like poor posture, lack of flexibility and weak core strength—could be causing an arched back.

People with lower back pain frequently have what’s called an anterior pelvic tilt, says Sutton of NASM. “The pelvis is titled forward, creating this curvature in their low back and compressing the disks in your lower back.” The main culprit? If you sit all day, you’re in a hip-flexed position, which will tighten the muscles in the front of the hip and weaken the glutes and deep abdominals.

The Fix
The goal is to improve your posture and the strength of your abs, while increasing the range of motion in your hip flexors. All those steps will bring your pelvis back to a neutral position and take the stress off your lower back.

Try the standing hip flexor stretch, which is something you can do a few times throughout the day while you’re at work. Sets of exercises such as the prone cobra (for back muscles) and planks and floor bridges (for the deep abdominals) will build your core strength and stabilize the area around your spine. Don’t expect six-pack abs from these; the results will be more in how you feel than how you look.

The Problem
Balky Knees

The Cause
Knee pain can come from a variety of sources, from that old soccer injury that never properly healed to problems with surrounding joints and muscles that stress the joint.

The Fix
If you know your knee pain is a pre-existing condition, caused by a partially torn ligament or missing cartilage, for instance, your case likely requires the care of an M.D. But if the pain you’re feeling has come on gradually after you’ve been working out for a while, try stretching the muscles surrounding the knee.

Experts like Kari Shardy, a 24 Hour Fitness trainer in Mansfield, Texas, swear by the foam roller. It’s a cylindrical piece of foam that you can use to massage the areas leading into the knee, like your IT band and hamstrings, while improving your flexibility and range of motion.

Take a few days off whatever activity is causing the knee pain, and cross train instead, with low-impact equipment like the elliptical machine or the pool. And do this quick form self-assessment: When you walk or run, make sure your feet and knees are pointing forward. Any outward rotation in your toes or feet will put additional stress on the knee joint.

Build up immunity
While a few aches and pains are natural as your body shapes up, your workouts should be getting you fitter, not harming you. Here, trainers offer their advice for safe and effective gym time.

• Double-check your technique with a certified trainer. Your buddy may seem like he knows everything about the gym, but if he’s wrong, you both could end up hurt. Ask an expert to guide you if you’re not familiar with a piece of equipment.
  
• Don’t lift so much it compromises your form. “A lot of really scary things happen in the gym from that,” Shardy says. Straining to lift too much weight can stress your joints big-time. When in doubt, go for less weight and more reps.
  
• Build up gradually, whether you’re trying something for the first time or back after a layoff. A little caution at the beginning could save you a lot of recovery time later.
  
• Change your regimen frequently. “At least two-thirds of the people at the gym, I could predict their workouts each day, because I’ve been seeing them do it for the past 2 years,” Schenk says. “Then the get frustrated, because they’re not losing weight or getting fitter.” Do the same thing for a few months, and your body will adapt. Or the pattern overload can make you more prone to injury. In the gym, change is good.
  
• Take 5 or 10 minutes to stretch and warm up. “So many people are eager to get into their class or hit the weights, they don’t bother to do a proper warm-up,” Sutton says. The result? Bad postures during a workout.