Adherence
Exercise selection must prioritize safety and comfort over maximal muscle activation to ensure long-term adherence and prevent injury, even if it means sacrificing some hypertrophic potential.
If an exercise causes joint pain or feels uncomfortable, stop doing it. Substitute it with a variation that targets the same muscle but feels safer (e.g., Smith machine squat instead of free bar, or lateral raise in the scapular plane). Comfort and safety are key to sticking with your program long enough to see results.
Decision-making should also consider any potential injury risk of a given exercise, as well as the comfort of movement execution, as these factors play a role in both safety and exercise program adherence... Lifting comfort will facilitate enjoyment and foster adherence to the program.
Why this rating
The paper is a review/guideline proposing a method (ESCAM). It cites biomechanical studies on injury risk (e.g., shoulder impingement) but relies on expert consensus for the adherence link.
Source
Resistance training exercise selection: efficiency, safety and comfort analysis method
Ewertton de Souza Bezerra et al. · Brazilian Journal of Kinanthropometry and Human Performance · 2021
DOI 10.1590/1980-0037.2021v23e82849
More from this paper
- Single-joint resistance exercises provide superior hypertrophy for specific muscle groups (e.g., rectus femoris, hamstrings, calves, biceps, triceps) compared to multi-joint exercises alone, necessitating their inclusion for optimal muscle development.Good
- Biomechanical factors such as muscle length and joint angles during compound exercises can lead to suboptimal activation of specific muscles, necessitating targeted isolation exercises to address these gaps.Good
Related findings · Adherence
- Regular physical activity (at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity) reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by 20-30% and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes by 25-35%.Strong
- Increasing physical activity from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one in middle adulthood significantly reduces the risk of coronary events compared to remaining sedentary.Strong
- Resistance exercise is the only intervention capable of consistently restoring muscle function and strength in sarcopenia, partially overcoming age-related anabolic resistance.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →