6 Ways to Build Muscle Without Getting Injured

If living longer AND having a high quality of life are your goals, it will require a few things.

One of those is muscle.

Having muscle mass is high on the list…but it can’t be about gaining muscle at all costs.
That's a short-term play with long-term gambles.

Because training in a way that allows you to stay active for decades on end is also necessary.

The further you go into barbell training and the max strength game, there will always be a risk of injury.
Especially as you get older.

But also a challenge as you get older, is building (or even maintaining) muscle mass.
​Age related muscle loss starts as early as your 30s (losing up to 1-2% of muscle per year), and ramps up significantly around 60.

And losing muscle mass will put your longevity and quality of life at risk.
Falls, injury, and becoming dependent on caregivers is the norm..and seemingly at younger and younger ages.

Grip strength isn’t highly correlated with longevity because of grip strength training.
It’s because people with strong grips are usually stronger overall (and therefore harder to kill)

So if your goal is building (and holding onto muscle), and not just top end strength (how much weight you can lift)..there are many ways to accomplish this.

These things below will be training focused, and this won’t be a deep dive on diet, but it is important to know that diet plays a big role too.

Training is a must.

But so is eating enough, and eating enough protein.
If you feel like you’re always dieting or in a calorie surplus, something is off with your training or diet.
Fuel for performance.

For those that fear getting too bulky (especially females), just know that no one accidentally looks like a bodybuilder.
This takes extreme efforts, focus, and intention to make happen.

Lifting some weights 2-3x/week (or even 5-6x/week) won’t just pack on muscle (believe me, I wish it were that easy)

Each decade is only going to get harder to build muscle, so don’t fear lifting weights or adding muscle.
The best time is right now.

If you’ve dealt with injuries, or you’re currently working around an injury, this can feel challenging.

The x’s and o’s of building muscle aren’t overly complicated, but doing it in a way that allows you to train hard into your 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond takes strategy.

Here are 6 ways to add muscle (without breaking your body or having to just keep lifting heavier):

1. focus on quality of movement.

Don’t just get the training session done or make it as painful as you can.
This is short-term thinking.

Using tempo (ex: take 3 seconds to lower the weight, pause, and move explosively on the way up) is a great way to do this. But…it requires mental focus.
You can’t just check out during your workout or go through the motions.

You don’t have to do this for every exercise and every rep (at first).

But this can be more effective for hypertrophy (muscle growth) while preventing injury.

2. blood flow restriction training.

This typically uses some type of special cuff, and involves light weight but higher repetitions.

The biggest hesitation in recommending this is it’s not a good DIY thing (you would be wise to learn from someone first).
It also requires some specialized equipment, but worth mentioning as it’s proven to be very effective..especially when working around injury.

3. high rep training.

This is safer than going heavier, in most cases.

A great way to do this is through bodyweight exercises taken to failure (which is why programs like Strike Zero are so effective)

High reps are relative, which is why this scales to high and low fitness levels.
If you’re just starting out, you can make the movement easier (or you will just reach failure much sooner)

If you can do 75 pushups without stopping, you can add a weight (or use tempo) to reach failure quicker.

4. using bands (or chains).

Bands are more practical, and easy to implement.
Chains are similar (but just look cooler)

The reason these are so effective, is because different ranges of motion have different needs of strength (ex: deadlift being hardest off the ground and easier at the top)

Using bands will challenge the easier parts of the range of motion (less resistance at the bottom, more at the top) which is also less taxing on the body.

This way you’re not adding more load to the already hard part of the movement.

You can do this with barbells (allowing you to train at slightly lighter weights), but you can also do with bodyweight movements like pushups.

5. isometric training.

This is simply holding the contraction of a muscle (ex: hanging out in a wall sit or bottom of pushup).

You can also do this holding an overhead press in a lockout position, pausing in bottom of a squat, or hold immediately following a high rep set.

We did a podcast recently on an interesting study on isometrics vs full range of motion training (with a sample protocol we talk through..listen here on spotify/apple podcasts or watch on youtube)

6. plyometric training.

Think of fast or explosive movements (jumping, swings, sprints, agility, etc)

This is where athletes are built and youthfulness is maintained.
This type of training only gets harder as you get older, so it’s important to train it smart and train it often.

You don’t need a lot here to be effective, a little goes a long way.

Jump some rope, do some hill sprints or lateral agility work, and try some things that don’t just involve a barbell or dumbbell.

You don’t have to do all these things (well you don’t have to do any of them).

Start by choosing something that can be added to your current program that you’re already doing.
You don’t need a whole new program to do this.

Don’t have a good program that’s already accomplishing these things?
We're glad you asked...

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