HIIT & Injuries - Is this normal?

[Imagiton]

Hi Everyone,

I've been going to the gym & improving on my health for approxtimately six months.  Everytime I feel that I want to step my work outs up a notch and attend a HIIT class, I end up injured.  First it was a spin class and I ended up with a sore swollen knee for a week or two. 

Then last week I decided to try metafit.  It was a strain on my upper body and experienced the usual DOMs.  A couple of times my arms gave out or shook during press-ups or planks.  I figured that before I next try the metafit class that I would follow some work out videos to build up the strength in my arms & shoulders.  Now the DOMs has finally gone (took 3 days) and it has been replaced with a sharp pain in my right hand shoulder, back and front.  This isn't a 'I can work with this' pain or fatigue, this is a 'pressing down on a stiff doorhandle can cause a sharp, stop what you're doing pain'. 

I want to continue trying some HIIT classes, because I seem to be reaching a plateau.  Is there something I am doing wrong, or need to be doing?  Has anyone else experienced this?

[FitBeforeFifty · Accepted solution]

The short answer is yes, people commonly get injured when trying to go too hard, too fast. 

It sounds like you aren't ready for the intensity of those workouts. If you want to attend those classes, my recommendation would be:

1. Recover from your current injury
2. Recreate the routine used in that class with your own workouts but scale it back to something easy the first week, a little harder the next week, a little harder the next week etc... over the course of 6 to 8 weeks until you have built your fitness up to the level required for that class
3. Then you can attend the class

Alternatively, maybe they have more of a beginner class you could attend ? If not, just do what I said above and you'll be fine.

[bcalvanese]

I would also like to add that it is "extrremely important" to do a thorough warm up and even more important to do a thorough cool down for these types of extream workouts.

If you just go blasting into these movements you can almost garantee some type of injury. You need to get your joints loose, your muscles warmed up, and your heart rate up a little before the intense part. After the workout, use the cooldown to focus on flexability. muscles stretch much better when they are at higher temeratures. Hold the stretches for 20 to 30 seconds each and dont "bounce stretch" or "over stretch". Use full "normal" range of motion.

[Imagiton]

Thanks for the advise, I have been to the gym and set up a personlised training programme for the next month or so (esp the muscles which support my joints).  Hopefully, this will help & build strength in the areas that I've noticed.

Also, I have found some youtube videos that I might start working through when I'm not in the gym which have similar moves to the class I want to take, but for a shorter duration.  Then there are some that build on these, so I think I might start doing these as well when my shoulder is feeling better.

bcalvanese - there was a warm-up & cool down section in the class I attended, however, might be worth arriving early and doing some additional warming up on some of the gym equipment.