First off, you should slowly ramp your way up. Someone who has never worked out before should not begin with dead lifts or trying to run a 7-minute mile. Taking your time with new clients in the stability and mobility training phase of functional movement and resistance training can pay big dividends as you progress them through to the second movement training phase where they’ll work on the five primary movements of exercise. Keeping new clients in these two phases for a number of weeks will build a solid foundation to build upon and prevent injury in the subsequent phases of load and performance training if they progress to becoming higher-level athletes.

Next, a good warm-up is critical. The warm-up is about a five to 10 minute period of lighter exercise that precedes the conditioning phase of the workout. It should begin slowly and then pick up speed; however it should not be so strenuous that it creates tiredness that would reduce performance during the workout phase itself. The warm-up allows the exerciser to get blood flowing, their muscles used to moving and their heart rate up, acclimating them for exercise so they don’t pull or strain something due to going from nothing at all to strenuous activity.

Stretching is a topic that though one wouldn’t think so, does provide some controversy with regards to whether it should be done after some movement or after the complete warm-up. It helps to do some brief stretching after the warm-up once your muscles are loose to lengthen the fibers prior to working out. However, stretching before doing any warm-up activities can be dangerous and should absolutely be avoided in order to reduce the risk of injury.

Overuse injuries are common and can be avoided by using periodized training techniques with built in rest periods in between periods of exertion. There should be a regularized training program of hard and easy days, hard and easy weeks and hard and easy months. Though this is more critical in the training of seasoned athletes that have progressed to the load phase of functional movement and resistance training, it’s concept can and should be applied to all fitness levels. This also allows the individual to psychologically recover from workouts and feel as though there is a pattern to their training that is consistent and maintainable.

Low back pain is one of the most common complaints of clients, especially those that are middle aged or older. For low back pain prevention, the client should be taught to stabilize the trunk with a ‘neutral’ or moderate lordosis posture at all times when feasible. Also, using back support while engaging in overhead activities is important to decrease strain and provide support.