Non-PRO English to Italian Medical Sports / Fitness / Recreation

Over Generalizations

It is easy to denounce an exercise as 'dangerous', particularly if an injury has occurred during its execution. When we sustain an injury while performing a particular exercise, we should not assume that that exercise is necessarily a 'bad' exercise. Certainly we would exacerbate the injury if we continued to perform the exercise before it had healed or been rehabilitated but, for some reason, people mistakenly judge an exercise as 'bad' if an injury occurred during that particular movement. Certainly, past injury is the best predictor of future injury, but to suggest a movement is inappropriate for another person under, perhaps, different circumstances, is an erroneous assumption.
Livingston, CSCS (2004) explains "The justification of contraindication is derived from the philosophy of training at the level of the lowest common denominator. There are very few exercises that should be contraindicated. There are lots of people who should not be doing certain exercises."
Although certain movements should not be performed by those with a current injury or even those with certain predispositions to certain orthopedic complications, in relatively healthy joints, these movements may actually decrease the occurrence of injury, particularly when the joint is moving through this particular range of motion, perhaps even inadvertently or subtly.
Conversely, avoiding this range of motion during exercise may increase the risk of injury if the joint ever experiences greater load than what it is accustomed to through these particular ranges of motion, either in real world situations or in training.
So what is an exercise instructor to do when working with a group? Instead of announcing to the class a that a certain movement is 'bad', educate your class. With certain 'higher risk' movements, instruct those who have had certain knee or shoulder problems to do it one way and have the remaining participants perform the movement through the fuller range.
Typically restrictive guidelines given for injured individuals or those with biomechanical deficiencies are commonly misconstrued and unnecessarily recommended for orthopedically healthy individuals. Ironically, an injury-free individual may be more likely to injure themselves avoiding a movement they believe to be dangerous (full range of motion, locking out, etc.) when they inadvertently perform that movement, as compared to someone that implements that movement following the principles of progressive adaptation. The appropriateness of an exercise should be assessed on an individual case-by-case basis. See Common Biomechanical Deficiencies (above) and Dangerous Exercises Essay.