A 21-year-old Gariahat resident enrolled in a local gym last November. He lifted weights on the first day and got injured. He stopped going to the gym.
Earlier this year, a man in his early fifties went for back planks with weight after watching a video on YouTube. He suffered a serious back injury.
Fitness training done without proper surveillance can cause serious injuries, said doctors and fitness experts.
At a conference on Sunday, organised by a hospital specialising in neurological disorders, experts flagged the risks of injuries that can be inflicted by unsupervised physical exercises like lifting weights.
“Unsupervised workout and weight training often causes injuries. I see many coming with complaints of pain in the neck. Many of them lift weights and pump muscles but without proper guidance,” said Suparno Gangapadhyay, director of the department of neuro rehabilitation at the Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata (I-NK).
A strength and fitness coach and senior physiotherapist with a private hospital in the city echoed him.
“Every month, on an average, five to six people come to me with fitness-related injuries. Lower-back strain, knees, shoulders and neck are most affected. Some of them get injured while working out by watching YouTube videos. Some get injured while working out at the gym but without a proper trainer. Some others have a trainer but not a qualified one,” a coach, who was not part of the conference, told Metro.
Fitness programmes, he said, should be assigned to people according to their bodies.
“We must realise the difference in body types. A fitness programme should be decided taking into account each body type. If there is a problem while working out, one should consult a specialist immediately,” he said.
“Sports injury is an umbrella term for a variety of injuries. Athletes are not the only ones affected. Repeated stress injuries can affect everybody, from fitness enthusiasts to people engaged in household chores and even those who spend hours working on a computer,” said Gangopadhyay.
Repeated stress injuries are conditions caused by repetitive movements or prolonged use of certain body parts, leading to pain and discomfort in muscles, tendons, and nerves.
“Often, such conditions cause neurological problems. The patient needs a detailed rehabilitation programme,” Gangopadhyay said.
The symptoms may range from back pain to numbness in the wrist, he said.
“People working for hours on a computer may suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome (a condition where the median nerve in the wrist is compressed and can cause pain, weakness, tingling, and numbness in the thumb and fingers). The pain radiates from shoulders to fingers,” he said.
“If there is nerve damage and it is left unattended, the damage will be aggravated,” he added.
Sudipto Mukherjee, senior consultant at the department of orthopaedics and traumatology at Peerless Hospital, who was also not part of the conference, said people with anatomical conditions like knock knees (where the knees bend inward and touch each other) and flat foot (a common foot condition where the arch of the foot collapses) were more prone to injuries while working out under any supervision.
“If a 110kg person suddenly goes to a gym for a weight-reduction programme and starts doing 100 squats, he will end up sustaining injuries. Apart from physical injury, there could be a mental backlash as well,” Mukherjee said.