The "Too Heavy, Too Often, Too Soon" Trap and How to Avoid It

Make it standWeightlifting is an incredible sport, but pushing your limits can sometimes lead to frustrating injuries.

As an osteopath and a lifter, I've seen the same patterns contribute to injuries time and again. The main culprits? Going too heavy, too often, and too soon. By understanding these pitfalls, you can stay healthy and keep reaching your performance goals.

Going Too Heavy

If you are exceeding your ability to move with a high technical standard, and you do this regularly, you are going too heavy. This not only sets you up for inconsistent technique, but also those cringe-worthy lift fail moments you see when someone tries one too many times to hit a PB snatch and dislocates their elbow.

If you’re missing more than 2 times, you’re too heavy for where you are at TODAY. Heaviness is reflective of the fatigue you are under, where you are at in a training block, and mostly, your technical development as a lifter. Remember, it's not just about the numbers on the bar. Building a foundation of solid technique leads to bigger, safer lifts in the long run.

HeavyToo Often

If you are working up to maximum many times per week, or every time you try to snatch you're just itching to crack a new PB, you are working up TOO OFTEN. If you are unable to crack a new PB, despite maxing out all the time, you probably have some strength or technical work to do, in a lot of cases both.

Athletes can build tolerance to intensity over time, but this is a carefully programmed response to a training block, not something that just appears when you show up to the gym a few times a week for a year or so.

If you are looking to lift heavy, do the due diligence of following something structured to ensure you are not overdoing it and hitting too much intensity too often. This also accounts for how specific your programming is – if you’re always just snatching and clean & jerking to max every Friday year-round, you’re heading on a one-way road to injury.

Too Heavy Too Soon

This is a practice I see in “young weightlifters” and for the sake of being clear, a young weightlifter is in their first 3 years or so of the sport. They are in a rush, high on the excitement of training these movements, and their skill mastery is yet to be concreted.

If they have not been following a structured approach to their training, and are not generally a well-rounded athlete with balance in their strength ratios and a general understanding of how to move their body with the barbell, they should not be working to a true maximum ie failure.

I am not the fun police, I do understand and appreciate the notion of going heavy in your first few years of weightlifting. But controlled maximums at this stage are the smartest and most educated approach to avoid lifters getting ahead of themselves and ego lifting, resulting in injury.

There is no way to 100% guarantee you won't get injured when you're pushing hard in the gym. However, a more considered approach can go a long way in keeping you feeling well and avoiding injuries that put a pause on your performance dreams.

Avoiding the "Too Heavy, Too Often, Too Soon" trap isn't about restricting yourself. It's about smart training that lets you stay healthy and unlock your full potential as a weightlifter.

-Coach Caity