I’m reading Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Taleb. I don’t have much to say about this book other than I’m enjoying it. I’ve read three books by Nassim Taleb, and I recommend all three: The Black Swan, Antifragile, and Skin In The Game.
Nassim is one of the most Erudite writers today, and I’ve taken a lot from his books. I will probably write a summary of this book once I’m finished. Some of my favourite Nassim Taleb quotes are:
The knowledge we get by tinkering, via trial and error, experience, and the workings of time, in other words, contact with the earth, is vastly superior to that obtained through reasoning, something self-serving institutions have been very busy hiding from us.- Skin in the Game.
Seneca also provides us a catalogue of social deeds: invest in good actions. Things can be taken away from us—not good deeds and acts of virtue.- Antifragile
One finds similar ideas in ancestral lore: it is explained in a Yiddish proverb that says “Provide for the worst; the best can take care of itself.” – Antifragile
The way to avoid the ills of the narrative fallacy is to favor experimentation over storytelling, experience over history, and clinical knowledge over theories. – The Black Swan
2. The mind abhors a vacuum
Why does religion exist?
Why does philosophy exist?
Why does self-help exist?
The reason is that the mind abhors a vacuum.
We like to have paradigms to help us direct our lives.
Life is overwhelmingly complex, and paradigms, whether from religion, philosophy, or literature, help us make sense of the world.
They teach us what to do and, most importantly, what not to do.
3. Remember to eat at least two servings of oily fish per week
Oily fish such as salmon provide omega-3 fatty acids.
And these benefit your body in many different ways.
In a way, they’re a panacea because they provide incredible benefits such as:
Increased heart health.
Increased brain function.
Reduced inflammation.
Increased eye health.
Omega 3s provide other benefits as well, but these are some of the best ones.
As some of my readers know, I’ve recently had wrist surgery. So, after a flare-up when the joint sometimes gets inflamed, eating foods like salmon, which are rich in omega-3s, is fundamental.
4. Don’t leave things until the last minute
I’ve been working the late shift at work this week, and I’ve left my reading and writing for the end of the day.
If you are someone like me who reads and writes, you’ll notice that you can take in more information in the morning after a good night’s sleep. Also, the content you write will generally come more easily when you’re well-rested and full of willpower, rather than when you’re tired at the end of the day.
5. Cut highly processed foods out of your diet
If you’ve been reading my work, you’ll notice I wrote an article about the 80/20 diet for fat loss.
In this diet, I said you could eat 80% healthy whole foods and 20% whatever foods you like.
My thoughts on this have changed.
I recommend eating 90% whole foods and no more than 10% junk food.
This way, you’re limiting rubbish foods in your diet.
Which means you’ll have more energy.
Have less inflammation throughout your body.
Sleep better.
You see, highly processed foods are extremely inflammatory.
And can cause all sorts of problems.
Better to limit highly processed foods to the smallest amount possible.
Life’s too short to be anything other than the healthiest you.
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If you pay attention to what most people do, then it’s pretty obvious why you might notice that people age faster than you.
My motto is, “Whatever 99% of people are doing, do the opposite.”
Unfortunately, many people have no idea how to stay in good health.
It’s very easy.
You should ensure that you get 8 hours of sleep per night, eat a healthy diet, work out several hours per week, and stay hydrated.
Unfortunately, many people are still destroying their health by engaging in unhelpful habits, i.e. smoking, drinking in excess, eating too much sugar, not staying hydrated, etc.
I’ve noticed that the people who look the worst are the ones who neglect their health the longest.
Just like good healthy habits compound and pay dividends in the years to come, like continued vitality, lack of disease and overall higher energy levels.
Practicing unhealthy habits will compound, and sooner or later, you’ll wonder why you’ve ended up in the Emergency room after having a severe heart attack.
Staying healthy is simple but not easy.
It’s 90% behaviour and 10% knowledge.
If you’re reading this now, ensure you’re not harming your future self and start practising healthy habits as soon as possible
Healthy Harry And Unhealthy Ulysses
I’ve already mentioned the main things you need to do, and they are basic common sense, but here are some examples of two different people: one, I will name healthy Harry and the other, unhealthy Ulysses.
Healthy Harry is 40 years old and has a healthy body fat percentage between 10-15%. His abs aren’t clearly visible, but he doesn’t have a belly that sticks out profusely.
He is reasonably strong. He doesn’t care about being the world’s strongest man, but he does care about maintaining a good level of strength.
He can bench press one rep of 1.2 times his body weight, do eight chin-ups, squat 1.6 times his body weight for one rep, and deadlift 2 times his body weight for one rep.
He’s happy with how he looks and is full of vitality.
He sleeps 8 hours most nights.
He eats a high protein diet (30/40% of his diet from protein) and includes many fruits, veggies and other whole foods( at least 5 fruits and veggies per day).
He drinks 3-4 litres of water per day.
He limits junk foods, such as chocolate, pastries, crisps, fried foods, and biscuits, to no more than 10% of his total daily calories.
He doesn’t eat more calories than he needs to and never gets or will get fat unless he drastically changes his diet for the worse.
He reduces his stress levels by reading books, walking in nature, and spending time with his cat, family, and friends.
Unhealthy Ulysses is also 40 years old, but he doesn’t workout, has a body fat percentage of 30% and his belly sticks out like a beer keg. He looks more like a 60-year-old.
He has no energy; he gets tired from walking to his car and orders takeout food thrice a week.
He doesn’t have a strict diet. He mainly eats what he wants when he wants, but it’s very easy to overconsume calories and get fat when you have no dietary limits.
Most nights, he gets 6-7 hours of sleep, mainly falling asleep in front of the television with his mouth powdered by Cheetos after consuming the whole family-size bag.
Ulysses is also a heavy drinker and chain smoker.
Compared to Ulysses, Harry looks in his late 20s or early 30s.
Harry is much more productive at work and is getting the most out of his life.
Being fit has taught Harry that if he can change his body, he can change his life—and he has.
Ulysses is unproductive at work and in life and has been in the same dead-end job for years. He’s also been prescribed the antidepressant sertraline to help boost his mood, similar to the drug Soma in Aldous Huxley’s Novel Brave New World.
Let me ask you which one you think will age better.
That’s right, healthy Harry.
Follow his lead.
Fitness isn’t everything, but everything is harder if you aren’t fit. – Mike Matthews
There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be aiming for impeccable health.
1. Good Quality Sleep Is Everything. Have A Good Sleep Routine So You Don’t Have To Endure Days, Months, And Years Of Tiredness.
I used to go to bed very late and get up early, only to catch up on sleep at the weekend because I was so tired.
When I switched to having a good sleeping pattern and getting 8 hours of sleep per night, I noticed several benefits, such as:
Better workouts ( I was stronger).
I would be less irritable ( Lack of sleep causes an increase in your cortisol levels, which is your stress hormone). Getting enough sleep will prevent your body from spiking your cortisol levels; losing weight and being on a low-calorie diet can also spike cortisol levels.
I’m more productive and can generally work harder for longer and produce better content.
I don’t feel like binging on junk food. When you don’t get enough sleep, and your cortisol levels spike, you can stress eat a load of junk. When you get enough sleep, avoiding junk food binges is easier.
2. You Will Never Grow In Your Comfort Zone. Do Things That Scare You, And Your Life Will Improve. Conquer Your Fears.
I used to be a bit of a pussy, and I still am sometimes when it comes to some things (giant spiders).
Nevertheless, I used to depend so much on my parents for many things, such as:
Food.
Cleaning my clothes.
Doing chores around the house and many more things.
Three years ago, I moved into my house, and everything was my responsibility.
Yes, taking responsibility is scary.
But taking responsibility means you’re in the driving seat.
And it’s better to be in control of your destiny than not.
This is just one example of going out of my comfort zone.
Some other things that I’ve done which have helped me escape my comfort zone are:
I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken as a young adult. I’ve always been a relatively quiet person—not the quietest in the room, but one of them. So, being in a customer-facing role really helped me improve my confidence in myself. It made me feel confident talking to anyone.
Becoming a volunteer police officer- This role made me massively go out of my comfort zone. In this role, I had to arrest people and go to domestic and other violent incidents. The scary but exciting thing about this role is that you never know how your day will pan out. You might start your shift at 8 am and then get a call where you go on a blue light run, and you never know how bad the situation will be until you arrive. Thankfully, most of the situations police officers deal with are manageable.
Going on a solo trip to Rome – Last week, I went on a trip to Rome for 5 days. It was amazing. I saw the Colosseum, Pantheon, Vatican and more. It’s my favourite city to date. I recommend that everyone goes there at some point in their life. With me being on a solo trip, everything was my responsibility. I needed to learn bits of Italian to speak to locals, I had to learn how to use the local bus service, and it was up to me to maximise the experience, and I did. The benefit of going on a solo holiday is that you can do precisely what you want. You don’t have to follow someone else’s itinerary. It’s up to you completely. Although I did do a bit too much walking on the last day ( 35k steps), I was limping around the airport like an idiot on the way home due to hurting my little toe from all the walking.
3. Spend More Time Choosing Your House. It’s A Massive Decision.
I moved out of my parents’ house three years ago and into my own. I made the mistake of not getting a thorough survey done, which meant I had to pay to get some work done on my roof due to a leak. I also believe I could have found somewhere better. I do like my home, but I feel like if I had been a bit more patient and diligent, I could have found a more suitable home.
4. Be Careful Who You Choose As Your Spouse.
In the past 2 years, I’ve had two relationships lasting a year each. And after my last break-up, I felt terrible. My problem was getting with pretty much the first person I was dating. Now, I’ll likely have to date several people before finding the one because, as a rule of thumb, most people won’t be compatible with you or me. I’m okay being single for now. I don’t want to force anything. But by being in two relationships I should have never been in, I wasted a lot of time and energy, and I lost myself in those relationships. I changed my personality to appease the women I had. Your partner should accept you for who you are or break up with you. You should never have to change yourself for someone else. If someone tries to change you, I’m sorry to say they do not want you. They want someone else.
5. Travel When You Are Fit, Healthy, And Young. It’s Much Better To Do It Before Your Body Inevitably Fails.
How many people do you know who never made it to retirement? I can think of quite a few people off the top of my head.
Many people wait for the perfect moment to travel or insert any other experience.
Travelling is best when you’re healthy and have plenty of youth. It’s better to travel in your youth to middle age than when you’re on a mobility scooter.
6. Don’t Lift Too Much Weight In The Gym. It’s Not Worth Getting Injured.
For a year, I had chronic wrist pain and was probably the most stressed I’d ever been in my life. I tried everything to fix my wrist for a year, but nothing helped. Luckily, I saw a highly experienced surgeon, and he surgically repaired the cartilage in my wrist. I’ve learned that no one cares how big and strong you are, and even if a small percentage do, I’d rather have my health than have hundreds of kilograms of weight on my back. The primary reason to lift weights is to get healthy. In my opinion, when health gets forgotten about, that’s when bad things start to happen. The stats show that 1 million people are on steroids in the United Kingdom. That’s one million people destroying their bodies for “aesthetics” (looks)
7. Pursue A Meaningful, Not Expedient, Career.
As my day job, I work in financial services, but my goal is to become a writer as well. I am happy in my role and enjoy it (it is the best job I’ve ever had and allows me to explore my passions outside work). I love writing even if I don’t get paid because it allows me to connect with and help others with my content. Nothing bad can happen from taking up writing. And if you haven’t tried it, I recommend you try it and see if you enjoy it. I love to read, so writing seems natural to me. Reading and writing provide my life with a tremendous amount of meaning. What is something that you’ve always fancied having a go at? It might be writing, making videos, farming or whatever tickles your fancy; there are infinite options. Choose wisely.
8. I Should’ve Started Reading And Writing Earlier In Life. By Doing So, I Would’ve Become A Better Communicator And Helped More People.
I’ve always read somewhat but only really got deeply into reading and writing in the past 10 years. I’ve written on and off for the past few years, but I aim to be more consistent from now on.
What Things Have You Learned The Hard Way?
I’d like to know.
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Experiencing the world and different activities. If you never try anything new, it will be impossible to find what you enjoy.
Going out of your comfort zone. I recently flew to Rome, a place I’ve always wanted to go to, and I went solo. It helped me build so much confidence in myself.
Eating healthily and working out. True happiness is being in impeccable health.
Reading. When you read, you learn about some of the most interesting people who have graced this earth. It’s safe to say we can learn how to be happy from exceptional people. My favourite books are Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Principles by Ray Dalio and Benjamin Franklin’s Biography, An American Life. They taught me and helped me look at life through a different paradigm.
Happiness is in doing things, not achieving things. For example, I love to read and write. No matter how many people read my posts or books I read, I love reading and writing, so I’ll continuously pursue them for their own sake.
Don’t smoke, overdrink or do drugs. Never let anything or anyone overly infiltrate and compromise your mind. It’s all you have. I’ve done some of the most stupid and regretful things when I’ve been drunk.
Engage in hobbies. We all like different things; experiment with hobbies, and you’ll eventually find hobbies you enjoy. Having activities we regularly do that we enjoy makes us happier.
Get 8 hours of deep, quality sleep every night. This is the most underrated tip of all time.
Change how you view negative situations and stressors. We can’t be happy all the time. Negative emotions serve a purpose; they help us avoid situations that we shouldn’t get involved in, and they’re just as important as positive emotions. For example, in poetry, writing, and music, some of the best artistic endeavours have come from a place of melancholic emotions. Art wouldn’t be so beautiful if only filled with positive emotions and fake smiles.
Socialise. There’s no better sense of happiness than laughing with friends and family.
Direct your life to some overall meaning. Whether that’s the goal of being an artist, a police officer, or a doctor, whatever it is, having something you’re aiming for in your life helps you get through the bad times because he who has a reason to live can get through any how.
You’re ahead of someone who isn’t trying, even if you take the smallest step.
Because every time we work towards a specific goal, we increase our chances of achieving that goal.
For example:
The more often you go to the gym, the more likely you are to be physically strong.
The more you read, the more you boost your erudition.
The more you write and post online, the more likely you are to build an audience.
You get the point.
But the more you get stuck in inertia and never put any effort into achieving your goals, the more likely you’ll stagnate and even get worse as time passes.
In my opinion, the best progress is slow progress.
Because slow progress is maintainable.
And progress is usually slow.
So be grateful for the progress you make, no matter how small.
It will spur you on to achieve more.
Here’s how I’m following my advice:
I’m writing at least 30 minutes per day.
I’m working out daily, even if that means only going on a walk ( but I strength train thrice weekly).
I’m reading daily.
So, if I complete these three tasks every day, I will have voted three times for myself to become a better person.
After a year, I would have voted 1095 times to become a better person.
Whenever we complete a habit that improves us, we vote for ourselves to become better people.
The secret to life is voting for yourself every day throughout your life.
If you start practising this advice now.
In a few years, you’ll be thanking me.
I’ve already witnessed the benefits of voting for yourself.
I learned this idea from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits.
I highly recommend you read Atomic Habits; It’s a great book.
If you can’t afford to pay for his book, you can read his articles for free on Jamesclear.com.
I have much more respect for the person in the arena fighting with his blood, sweat, and tears to actualise his potential than for the person who never has the courage to do anything worthwhile.
Start small, achieve big.
A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.
The key is to keep taking those steps.
Don’t give up after taking a few, like most people do.
On a cold autumnal morning in November 2023, I got out of bed, got dressed, hydrated, had my pre-workout meal, and drove to the gym to complete a pull day workout consisting of deadlifts, rows, weighted chin-ups and barbell curls.
The workout went fine until I started performing my work sets of weighted chin-ups.
The gym was busy, and I couldn’t use the regular pull-up bar because they were all occupied.
So, I had to use the monkey bars to perform the weighted chin-ups.
I was already warmed up from the previous exercises, so I went straight into the work sets. I had a belt tied to my waist with a chain on, and attached to the chain was a 15kg plate.
I was doing chin-ups with my body weight and 15kg attached, so the total weight lifted was around 95kg because I weighed around 80kg (80kg + 15kg = 95kg).
I grab the pull-up bar with both my hands and the 15kg weight plate attached and start repping out chin-ups; my goal is to hit 4-6 reps for three sets.
While performing the first several reps, I felt an uncomfortable pull in my wrist and stopped the exercise.
My wrist was painful, and it felt unstable, but it wasn’t excruciating ( maybe a 6/10 in regards to the severity of the pain).
After experiencing this, I rest and try again. It still doesn’t feel right, so I perform dumbbell curls. They didn’t feel right either.
I go home, shower, get dressed, start working, and get on with my day. A couple of days later, I tried to perform my leg workout, but gripping the bar for barbell squats didn’t feel right, and I realised there was a serious problem with my right wrist (to make things worse, it was my dominant wrist).
So, I gave myself a 2-week break from the gym.
After the 2 weeks were up, the pain was still there, but I tried to go back to lifting, thinking, “Maybe my wrist is weak after the injury and needs to be strengthened”, so I tried to train for a few weeks.
The pain was still there.
I then saw my general practitioner (GP) at the local doctor’s surgery centre, and he gave me a wrist splint to wear for a few weeks.
It didn’t help.
A few weeks later, the GP authorised an ultrasound for me on my wrist. When I had the ultrasound, the doctor couldn’t find a cause for my pain; he said, “It’s probably just mild tendonitis”.
I gave my wrist more time to heal, then saw a physiotherapist to help me with correctional exercises, hoping this would fix the problem.
Nothing helps.
I wait several more months, then see an orthopaedic surgeon who requests an MRI scan of my wrist.
He finds no cause for my wrist pain on the MRI and tells me to start using my wrist as usual again.
I couldn’t deal with the pain any longer, so I asked him to refer me to a soft tissue wrist specialist.
I went to see the specialist, and he gave me a steroid injection in my wrist, hoping to reduce any inflammation in my wrist that might have been causing the pain.
It didn’t work.
The next option was wrist keyhole surgery to find a cause for my wrist pain (and hopefully fix my wrist) because the specialist said MRIs could only be 70% correct, meaning my diagnosis had probably gone undetected so far.
In December 2024, I was put under general anaesthetic and had my wrist surgery.
The surgeon found a Triangular fibrocartilage complex (tfcc) tear and repaired it the operation lasted around 2 hours.
As of writing this article, I’m almost 9 weeks post-op, and my wrist is improving.
Don’t Get Injured
Why did I develop the injury? It’s because of a few factors.
I was getting back into weighted chin-ups after a period of not doing them and added too much weight too quickly.
My weighted chin-up form could have been better. I was in a rush the day I got injured and was going through the motions.
It was a cold morning, and I should have warmed up more before performing the weighted chin-ups. I should have performed 2- 3 sets of 6 reps of bodyweight chin-ups before doing my work sets. This would have warmed up my wrist joints, reducing the likelihood of sustaining the injury.
What I’m Going To Do Moving Forward
I won’t do pull-ups or chin-ups anymore (definitely not weighted ones). Instead, I’ll use the lat pulldown exercise and focus on perfect form. I’ll use a full range of motion. The lat pulldown is as effective as the chin-up as it targets the same muscles as you do in the chin-up.
What You Can Take Away from My Experience
Warm up properly before completing any heavy sets.
Always use perfect form. Always use a full range of motion, and don’t use momentum. Your muscles are supposed to do the work (this is true for every exercise, even a bicep curl).
You know your body better than anyone. See a specialist if you face an injury like mine as soon as possible. I unfortunately wasted a year of my life experiencing this chronic pain.
This Experience Was One Of The Most Challenging Of My Life
Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results”. I spun my wheels for over a year. Truth be told, I was going insane before I got my surgery.
Your health affects every aspect of your life; to be injured is to be in poor health. Injuries will make everything in your life harder. We don’t need that; life’s already hard enough.
The Big Problem With Fitness Culture
Many people, especially guys, want to be as big and strong as physically possible. They’re constantly drip-fed images of bodybuilders on their Instagram feeds, which undoubtedly makes men feel inferior to “fitness influencers” regarding physique and strength.
What happens (or what happened to me)? I would compare myself to these guys and try to get as big and strong as possible (it’s not possible for a natural weightlifter to get as big and strong as these “fitness influencers” who take steroids).
This led me to ignore my health and, instead, to lift as much weight as possible.
I’d slam down 4000 calories daily when bulking and “go hard or go home” at the gym (I’m surprised I didn’t experience more injuries, especially when I first started going to the gym).
I’m among the lucky ones.
I hear shocking stories about gym culture on social media (predominantly YouTube). People are dying in the name of strength training.
Firstly, you have the bodybuilders on steroids who are so big their hearts literally can’t handle pumping the blood around their bodies, and then these guys prematurely die of heart attacks.
If you haven’t heard what happened to Justyn Vicky, he died doing heavy back squats ( warning: this video is deeply distressing). He was only 33 when he died. That’s no age, and the whole situation is deeply tragic.
It’s worth noting that Kristina Schmidt a 24-year-old personal trainer snapped her hip in half after doing heavy hip thrusts. She had to have surgery and, unfortunately, after surgery, got a bacterial infection, which was life-threatening.
Gabriel McKenna-Lieschke from Adelaide, Australia, was performing bicep curls with a 50kg weight and tore his bicep, resulting in him needing surgery, which then caused complications and his forearm required to be amputated.
Scott Murray, who developed an eating disorder around his fitness routine, took it so far that he eventually died of heart failure; Scott Was unfortunately only in his 20s when he passed away.
When Did Becoming Healthy Get So Unhealthy
The goal of strength training shouldn’t be to lift as much weight as possible; it should be to consistently keep your joints, bones, tendons and ligaments strong for the rest of your life.
In short, you need to become a lifter, which can only be achieved by consistently going to the gym. I recommend going around 3 times per week.
To become a lifter, you need to be consistent. You can’t become consistent if you’re injured. So, the one thing we need to avoid when strength training is injury.
How Do You Know When The Weights Are Too Heavy?
When you can’t perform a full range of motion for the exercise.
If you start using momentum when the weight gets heavy. You need to use your muscles, not momentum.
When your form breaks down, for example, your back rounding when deadlifting or squatting or your shoulders rolling forward in the bench press.
When you literally couldn’t have completed another rep with good form. Leave two reps in reserve (stop the set when you feel you could have done an extra two reps with perfect form) at the end of every set. Perform all reps flawlessly.
The Bottom Line
Please take what you can from my injury experience, warm up properly, don’t lift too heavy too soon, and always use the full range of motion. Your main goal in strength training (even more critical than getting stronger) is not to get injured. If you get hurt, your whole life will change for the worse. Life is too short to be in pain for a year like I was. Please listen to what I’m saying here. I would hate for you to go through a similar experience. Also, remove yourself from the toxicity of fitness culture if you can. I know removing myself from social media helped me. People are killing themselves in the name of “gains”. Health should always be the top priority. If anything you do compromises your health, you’re doing the wrong thing.
The first picture at the top of the article is me before going into theater for surgery in my hospital gown.
The second picture is a couple of days after surgery. As you can see, I’m wearing a plaster cast.
Over the past year, I’ve suffered from a chronic wrist injury from lifting weights. In this article, I want to use my experience as a springboard to ensure you know how to not get injured lifting weights.
This is my story.
On a cold autumnal morning in November 2023, I got out of bed, got dressed, hydrated, had my pre-workout meal, and drove to the gym to complete a pull day workout consisting of deadlifts, rows, weighted chin-ups and barbell curls.
The workout went fine until I started performing my work sets of weighted chin-ups.
The gym was busy, and I couldn’t use the regular pull-up bar because they were all occupied.
So, I had to use the monkey bars to perform the weighted chin-ups.
I was already warmed up from the previous exercises, so I went straight into the work sets. I had a belt tied to my waist with a chain on, and attached to the chain was a 15kg plate.
I was doing chin-ups with my body weight and 15kg attached, so the total weight lifted was around 95kg because I weighed around 80kg (80kg + 15kg = 95kg).
I grab the pull-up bar with both my hands and the 15kg weight plate attached and start repping out chin-ups; my goal is to hit 4-6 reps for three sets.
While performing the first several reps, I felt an uncomfortable pull in my wrist and stopped the exercise.
My wrist was painful, and it felt unstable, but it wasn’t excruciating ( maybe a 6/10 in regards to the severity of the pain).
After experiencing this, I rest and try again. It still doesn’t feel right, so I perform dumbbell curls. They didn’t feel right either.
I go home, shower, get dressed, start working, and get on with my day. A couple of days later, I tried to perform my leg workout, but gripping the bar for barbell squats didn’t feel right, and I realised there was a serious problem with my right wrist (to make things worse, it was my dominant wrist).
So, I gave myself a 2-week break from the gym.
After the 2 weeks were up, the pain was still there, but I tried to go back to lifting, thinking, “Maybe my wrist is weak after the injury and needs to be strengthened”, so I tried to train for a few weeks.
The pain was still there.
I then saw my general practitioner (GP) at the local doctor’s surgery centre, and he gave me a wrist splint to wear for a few weeks.
It didn’t help.
A few weeks later, the GP authorised an ultrasound for me on my wrist. When I had the ultrasound, the doctor couldn’t find a cause for my pain; he said, “It’s probably just mild tendonitis”.
I gave my wrist more time to heal, then saw a physiotherapist to help me with correctional exercises, hoping this would fix the problem.
Noting helps.
I wait several more months, then see an orthopaedic surgeon who requests an MRI scan of my wrist.
He finds no cause for my wrist pain on the MRI and tells me to start using my wrist as usual again.
I couldn’t deal with the pain any longer, so I asked him to refer me to a soft tissue wrist specialist.
I went to see the specialist, and he gave me a steroid injection in my wrist, hoping to reduce any inflammation in my wrist that might have been causing the pain.
It didn’t work.
The next option was wrist keyhole surgery to find a cause for my wrist pain (and hopefully fix my wrist) because the specialist said MRIs could only be 70% correct, meaning my diagnosis had probably gone undetected so far.
In December 2024, I was put under general anaesthetic and had my wrist surgery.
The surgeon found a Triangular fibrocartilage complex (tfcc) tear and repaired it the operation lasted around 2 hours.
As of writing this article, I’m almost 9 weeks post-op, and my wrist is improving.
How To Not Get Injured Lifting Weights – Don’t Get Injured In The First Place
Why did I develop the injury? It’s because of a few factors.
I was getting back into weighted chin-ups after a period of not doing them and added too much weight too quickly.
My weighted chin-up form could have been better. I was in a rush the day I got injured and was going through the motions.
It was a cold morning, and I should have warmed up more before performing the weighted chin-ups. I should have performed 2- 3 sets of 6 reps of bodyweight chin-ups before doing my work sets. This would have warmed up my wrist joints, reducing the likelihood of sustaining the injury.
What I’m Going To Do Moving Forward
I won’t do pull-ups or chin-ups anymore (definitely not weighted ones). Instead, I’ll use the lat pulldown exercise and focus on perfect form. I’ll use a full range of motion. The lat pulldown is as effective as the chin-up as it targets the same muscles as you do in the chin-up.
How To Not Get Injured Lifting Weights – 5 Steps For Injury Prevention
Warm up properly before completing any heavy sets.
Always use perfect form. Always use a full range of motion, and don’t use momentum. Your muscles are supposed to do the work (this is true for every exercise, even a bicep curl).
You know your body better than anyone. See a specialist if you face an injury like mine as soon as possible. I unfortunately wasted a year of my life experiencing this chronic pain.
This Experience Was One Of The Most Challenging Of My Life
Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results”. I spun my wheels for over a year. Truth be told, I was going insane before I got my surgery.
Your health affects every aspect of your life; to be injured is to be in poor health. Injuries will make everything in your life harder. We don’t need that; life’s already hard enough.
And that’s why I’m writing this article to ensure you know how to not get injured lifting weights.
The Big Problem With Fitness Culture
Many people, especially guys, want to be as big and strong as physically possible. They’re constantly drip-fed images of bodybuilders on their Instagram feeds, which undoubtedly makes men feel inferior to “fitness influencers” regarding physique and strength.
What happens (or what happened to me)? I would compare myself to these guys and try to get as big and strong as possible (it’s not possible for a natural weightlifter to get as big and strong as these “fitness influencers” who take steroids).
This led me to ignore my health and, instead, to lift as much weight as possible.
I’d slam down 4000 calories daily when bulking and “go hard or go home” at the gym (I’m surprised I didn’t experience more injuries, especially when I first started going to the gym).
I’m among the lucky ones.
I hear shocking stories about gym culture on social media (predominantly YouTube). People are dying in the name of strength training.
Firstly, you have the bodybuilders on steroids who are so big their hearts literally can’t handle pumping the blood around their bodies, and then these guys prematurely die of heart attacks.
If you haven’t heard what happened to Justyn Vicky, he died doing heavy back squats ( warning: this video is deeply distressing). He was only 33 when he died. That’s no age, and the whole situation is deeply tragic.
It’s worth noting that Kristina Schmidt a 24-year-old personal trainer snapped her hip in half after doing heavy hip thrusts. She had to have surgery and, unfortunately, after surgery, got a bacterial infection, which was life-threatening.
Gabriel McKenna-Lieschke from Adelaide, Australia, was performing bicep curls with a 50kg weight and tore his bicep, resulting in him needing surgery, which then caused complications and his forearm required to be amputated.
Scott Murray, who developed an eating disorder around his fitness routine, took it so far that he eventually died of heart failure; Scott Was unfortunately only in his 20s when he passed away.
When Did Becoming Healthy Get So Unhealthy
The goal of strength training shouldn’t be to lift as much weight as possible; it should be to consistently keep your joints, bones, tendons and ligaments strong for the rest of your life.
In short, you need to become a lifter, which can only be achieved by consistently going to the gym. I recommend going around 3 times per week.
To become a lifter, you need to be consistent. You can’t become consistent if you’re injured. So, the one thing we need to avoid when strength training is injury.
How Do You Know When The Weights Are Too Heavy?
When you can’t perform a full range of motion for the exercise.
If you start using momentum when the weight gets heavy. You need to use your muscles, not momentum.
When your form breaks down, for example, your back rounding when deadlifting or squatting or your shoulders rolling forward in the bench press.
When you literally couldn’t have completed another rep with good form. Leave two reps in reserve (stop the set when you feel you could have done an extra two reps with perfect form) at the end of every set. Perform all reps flawlessly.
The Bottom Line On How To Not Get Injured Lifting Weights
Please take what you can from my injury experience, warm up properly, don’t lift too heavy too soon, and always use the full range of motion. Your main goal in strength training (even more critical than getting stronger) is not to get injured. If you get hurt, your whole life will change for the worse. Life is too short to be in pain for a year like I was. Please listen to what I’m saying here. I would hate for you to go through a similar experience. Also, remove yourself from the toxicity of fitness culture if you can. I know removing myself from social media helped me. People are killing themselves in the name of “gains”. Health should always be the top priority. If anything you do compromises your health, you’re doing the wrong thing.
The first picture at the top of the article is me before going into theater for surgery in my hospital gown.
The second picture is a couple of days after surgery. As you can see, I’m wearing a plaster cast.
I hope this article helps you going forward and that you can learn from my experience on how to not get injured lifting weights.
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