Alex Flint: Body Torque Personal Training founder on the rise in gym-related ACC claims

A steep rise in gym-related ACC claims for injuries could be down to strength training's rising popularity. 

Accident Compensation Corporation data shows it accepted about 50,000 gym-injury claims last year - worth about $50 million dollars.

It notes training and gym activities now account for the most claims.

Body Torque Personal Training founder, Alex Flint, says training with weights can result in shoulder and lower-back injuries.

"Sometimes with that increase and uptake in a new type of exercise comes over-enthusiasm."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you being as careful as you can when you're
at the gym and you're doing you're doing your workout.
Acc data is showing that shoulder and lower back injuries
in the gym have increased thirty five percent in the
last decade now. Industry experts have put this down to
an increase in strength training as the new exercise craze.
Alex Flint is the founder of Body Talk Personal Training
and the official trainer for TV three's Match Fit is

(00:22):
with Us.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Now, Hey, Alex, Hi, Heather, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm very well, thank you. Are you seeing more injuries
at the.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Gym, particularly in my gym, I'm proud to say not
so many, But across the industry, I think there is definitely,
unfortunately a bit of a rise, and it is matching
with the fact that there is more people participating in
strength training, which is actually a fantastic thing. We've just
got to look at how we're going about that strength training.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, and now, what's up with this craze, the strength
training craze.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, one of the biggest rises that we've seen is
actually there's an increase, particularly in the participation levels of
women in strength training, which is fantastic because especially through
the likes of times in our periods in our life
like menopause where we suffer from bone density issues, lack
of muscle mass. Strength training is something which is now
becoming very popularized with women and that that is a

(01:14):
great thring thing. However, what we have to watch, of course,
is sometimes with that increase in an uptake in a
new type of exercise comes probably over enthusiasm and that
can sometimes spill over into a little bit too much
too soon.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, you're getting in there, you're doing you're clean and pressing,
you've no idea what you're doing right, and so you
hurt yourself because your form is off.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah. Yeah, And it's one of those you know, we
just have to remember that its strength training isn't something
that can be rushed, So we have to take our
time and let our bodies accommodate. And sometimes, you know,
we see what's on YouTube or we see the latest
TikTok and you know, the bright shiny lights of the
fun stuff, and that's what we want to get into.
But we've just got to take our time to get
there to stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Do you think part of the problem is that you
have some gyms off of classes where you could pack
and goodness, you can get a whole bunch of people
like you can get a hundred peop plus into one
of these classes doing clean and presses and the instructor
at the front has no idea whether all mate in
the left hand corner actually knows what they're doing. And
that is that is a that seems to me to
be a recipe for hurting yourself, Whereas if you're one

(02:13):
on one with a trainer, at least they can say
you need to poke your butt out more or tighten
up here or whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's definitely a potential harm and something
which you know the risk is probably is heightened. I
would say that, you know, overall, the exercise, the standard
of exercising musing on the industry is getting better, training
and so forth is getting better. But it's definitely the
case of if you're a beginner, or you know, you're
not so sure about your technique or where you're at,

(02:40):
you're better off in a smaller class, or even better
still with a with a one on one train to
get your feet to find your feet first.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Has this replaced cardio?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
I don't think we could say that it's replaced cardio.
Like Actually, interestingly, at the moment, there's there's a big
rise in running again, which you know, the last time
that happened was in the nineteen seventies, but so cardio
is still definitely up there. I think what has happened
is actually, through a number of influencers, the sort of
the purpose and the reasons why we want a strength

(03:13):
trainer becoming far more evident. And when we look at
stats on link longevity, diseasection, disease protection, even things like dementia,
we know that strength training really stands in our corner
to help us get through those types of things. So
there's been a rise in i think, in understanding of
why we should be doing it.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, all right, Alex, I really appreciate it. It's good to
talk to you. Alex Flint, who's the founder of body
Talk personal training and official trainer for match Fit on
TV three.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
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