Seeing an athlete trying to stand on an exercise ball and do weight resistance exercises is an obvious invitation to injury. For an exercise to be beneficial it requires to stress the muscles with enough resistance, adding extreme balancing at the same time risks a multitude of injuries to the limbs and back.
Jumping is a great exercise to increase strength. It must be done properly so before jumping on and off an elevated box try doing broad jumps and landing with the knees flexed to absorb the shock. Straight knee and rigid ankles risk joint injury. Although these exercises are great for the already trained athlete, it is not the place to start to loose weight. This exercise should be started with low heights and we wouldn’t expect a beginner to carry weights in their hands or on a belt when starting, as it would be too much impact. The same goes for someone overweight. Reserve this for after you have lost some pounds and gained strength.
Many of the new fitness trends stress exercise to exhaustion. It is well known as fatigue sets in there is a loss of form, posture and control; all leading to potential injury. Many of the extreme exercises such as power cleans are fraught with risk and often performed without proper instruction and supervision. The extreme programs that are also a fad push exercise to the limit, and people are working out beyond normal levels with serious problems. Beyond the risk of cardiac events another serious complication has been seen in CrossFit programs, rhabdomyolysis. This is where excess muscle cells are broken down and the resulting protein in the circulation can cause permanent damage to the kidneys. It is usually caused by severe crush injury, electrocution, seizures, high fevers and other extreme conditions. CrossFit has put out some literature warning people to go slow, they have trivialized the condition by shortening the name to “rhabdo” and their literature has a cartoon of a clown exhausted, bleeding and on a dialysis machine.
General rules to avoid exercise that can cause injury. Do not perform an exercise if you are not sure of the technique, if it feels unnatural or if it goes beyond your normal comfortable range of motion. Listen to your body and do not do something that is painful and respect the normal limits of fatigue. Remember an exercise is only good if you survive it without injury to exercise another day.