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The Two Most Slandered Joints in the Gym · Build for Health with Srdjan Injac

• Pete Wright So here’s a fun fact: I avoided squats for 20 years because someone once told me, “Knees over toes are gonna destroy your knees.” You know what actually destroys your knees? Twenty years of not squatting. Welcome to Build for Health. Today we’re talking about two joints that have been absolutely slandered by gym bros and physical therapists alike: knees and shoulders. I’m Pete Wright, and with me as always is Srdjan Injac. Why are knees and shoulders the joints everyone seems to hurt? Srdjan Injac Those are the most common injuries I see—knees and shoulders. The shoulder is the most movable joint in the body, so no matter what you do at the gym, no matter what muscle group you’re working, the shoulders are constantly moving. When people have bad form or posture, the shoulders kick in to everything. People don’t know how to relax the neck, relax the shoulders—put them down. A lot of it comes from bad posture. That’s why form is so important. Pete Wright You’re talking about posture, but we’re also talking about a modern movement deficit, right? So much of the trouble we have is because we’re generally static people. Srdjan Injac Yes—especially because of the work we do. Most people sit at a desk all day. We don’t move around, we don’t stretch enough, and it limits mobility and flexibility. Everything stiffens up. We need to get up, move around more, stretch a little more. But we’re busy with everyday life, and it’s hard to keep up. I find it hard to retrain people’s brains to get into good form. When they’re finally in the right posture, it feels weird. They feel like they’re standing in a strange position. Pete Wright Because there’s an injury paradox, right? People start to hurt, so they stop moving, which makes them worse. Talk through the difference between actual injury pain versus undertrained or weak pain. Srdjan Injac That’s why I always tell people: listen to your body. If it’s really hurting—sharp pain—stop. But if it’s soreness, where the muscle is fatigued because it’s weak and you’re pushing your limit, you can work through that. You just need to know when to stop and how far you can go. Where people make the biggest mistakes is with the exercises they pick. Every exercise comes with some level of injury risk. You can’t compare deadlifts to a bicep curl. Deadlifts require way more care. But even with a bicep curl—too much weight, muscles stretched, bad position—you can tear something. There’s danger to everything. And there are some exercises I just keep out. Too risky, not worth it. I learned the hard way—got hurt plenty of times. But from looking at me, you can’t tell what those exercises are, because there are so many other ways to work the same muscles without getting crazy. I see people online posting risky stuff, and I’m like… I don’t know if you should be telling regular people to do that. Experienced people can adjust and know when something feels wrong. Regular people think, “Maybe that’s how it’s supposed to feel,” and they hurt themselves. Pete Wright Let’s start with knees. Asking for a friend—my knee is constantly agitated. The myths I’ve heard: knees over toes is dangerous, and deep squats are bad for your knees. How do we build better knees? Srdjan Injac Squats are not bad, and you can have knees over toes. It’s not dangerous unless you’re putting on a lot of weight you can’t handle. Then it’s too much pressure and you can hurt yourself. Deep squats aren’t bad either—as long as you control them. With everything: take control of the weight. Slow down. If you have no control, go lighter. Knees over toes is not automatically bad. Sometimes it’s good to train that way—with lighter weight and higher reps. But you have to make sure you have the mobility to do those squats. If your mobility is poor and your form is poor, don’t go into deep squats. Don’t go past 90 degrees. Also watch for knees caving in. You’ll see people squat, and on the way up the knees cave in, then come back out. That’s risky. Go lighter and fix the form. People focus more on weight than form, and they get hurt. Another example: knee extensions can be dangerous if you use too much weight. When you fully extend and lock out hard, all that pressure piles up on the knee. One of the most dangerous things I’ve seen is on the leg press. People load up a ton of weight, then lock their knees to “rest.” The muscles can take it, but the joints aren’t meant to hold that. I’ve seen people hyperextend and seriously injure their knees. Pete Wright I can see how you get there. Your muscles can take it, so you rest in a locked position—and snap. Srdjan Injac Exactly. Stop locking your joints when you have a lot of weight. Let the muscles do the work. Joints aren’t meant to hold that much weight. Pete Wright Walk me through the muscle groups we’re focusing on to build stable, strong knees. Srdjan Injac You need strong quads, hamstrings, and glutes. You need good hip mobility and flexibility. And you don’t always have to live on machines—extensions, curls, leg press. Do some balance work so you build stabilizer muscles. That helps in the long run. Work on everything and progress slowly. Increase the load slowly. You want to be safe and able to come back next week and do it again. Those movements can be hard on your knees if you load too heavy, lose control, and lock joints. That’s how injuries happen. Pete Wright It feels like there are so many stabilizer muscles people don’t think about—core, glutes, all these supporting groups that stabilize the knee, especially in extension. Srdjan Injac Exactly. With squatting and deadlifting: train hip strength with glutes and hamstrings. Don’t let the knees cave inward. Use the range of motion you can control. Progress slowly. Don’t go to extremes. And don’t obsess over “Are my knees over my toes?” Listen to your body. If something hurts, stop. My leg workout is completely different from most people because I have really bad knees. I have no cartilage. I have two screws in my tibia from a broken tibia. It’s bone-to-bone. So I have to be careful. All my workouts hurt, but I know the pain I can tolerate and the pain I should not tolerate. When my body tells me to stop, I stop. Pete Wright What does it feel like when you know you need to stop? Srdjan Injac It’s when it’s heading toward failure in a bad way—where I can’t keep my leg up or I can’t stand on that knee. That shouldn’t happen. When I feel a sharper, stronger pain, I’m like, “Okay, this isn’t just discomfort.” Because I know it’s bone-to-bone, that kind of pain is going to create inflammation, and I should stop. But the general stiffness—like when you’re not warmed up, you don’t have blood flow yet—that’s kind of how it feels for me most of the time. I can tolerate that. Nothing I do can magically create cartilage. So I focus on not locking my knees, not using huge weights, and still finding ways to challenge the muscles so they grow. Pete Wright And stronger glutes, quads, hamstrings… that has to help at least a little, right? Srdjan Injac It does, but you also have to stay balanced. Muscle imbalances can cause joint pain even when the joint is fine. One side pulls more than the other. And just because you feel pain in one place doesn’t mean that’s the source. The problem can be somewhere else but show up there. Pete Wright Let’s move up to shoulders. They seem more complicated than knees. Srdjan Injac Yes. So many things connect there, and they’re moving all the time. You have your rotator cuffs that keep the ball inside the socket—secure and in place. People tear those all the time. When I was younger, I tore both rotator cuffs—both shoulders—at the same time. Pete Wright How did you possibly do that? Srdjan Injac One exercise. I didn’t know what I was doing. I picked a dangerous exercise and put on a lot of weight. I felt great, shoulders were warm, and I didn’t even feel it tear. Next morning I woke up and I couldn’t move either arm. I thought I broke everything. Now I don’t do that exercise, and I don’t recommend it to clients. They don’t even know it because I don’t program it. Pete Wright We’re not going to talk about it again. Srdjan Injac I’ll say it, because people argue about it: upright rows—especially narrow grip—where you pull straight up close to the body. It creates a lot of rotation in the shoulder. With heavy weight, the rotator cuffs aren’t meant to hold that. The ball rotates in the socket, things start catching, and it can lead to impingement and tearing—especially when elbows go above the shoulder under load. I tore mine and it’s still uncomfortable. And once you hurt those joints, they’re almost never the same. Warm up properly. Do the physical-therapy-style band work as a warm-up—even if you’re “fine.” Then gradually work into heavier exercises. Don’t jump straight to heavy before you have blood flow. I’m also careful with anything overhead. Shoulder presses—anything over the head—be careful. If I see clients struggling, I stop them. They could be hurting themselves and not even know. And behind-the-neck presses? No. Not a natural movement. People use momentum, shift stress to tendons, and with that internal rotation under load, it’s risky. In general: when you load heavy weight, limit rotation. Go lighter if you’re going to move through big rotations. Form is crucial. Pete Wright Do you think about it like, “We need a rotator cuff day,” where we work stabilizers—not just shoulders? Srdjan Injac Yes. Strengthen the rotator cuffs, then work front delt, mid delt, rear delt. Warm up rotator cuffs and strengthen them. A lot of physical therapy movements with resistance bands are great as warm-up. I warm up both shoulders even when I’m not injured because I want to avoid injury. And be careful with behind-the-neck pressing. It puts the shoulder in an extreme position and increases impingement risk. Most people don’t have the mobility and strength for it under load. Most people do it because they saw someone else do it. If it doesn’t make sense to you, don’t do it. Pete Wright Let’s end with red flags versus yellow flags. People feel aches and decide to rest, but aches might not be deep injury—it might be underuse. How do you know when to raise a red flag versus “we can train through this”? Srdjan Injac If it hurts even on a rest day—like driving with your hand on the steering wheel—and it still hurts, that’s not supposed to happen. What I do: I see my chiropractor. He never tells me “do nothing.” He says go to the gym, but go light—15 to 20 reps—because moving the shoulder creates blood flow, and blood flow helps the muscle heal. If you do nothing, it just stays stuck. But don’t force anything. Light movement helps. Eventually the muscle responds, heals, gets stronger, and the pain goes away. People feel pain and immediately stop moving. That’s often the problem. If it’s just uncomfortable—sore, tight—go light and move. For knees too: bodyweight squats, TRX, shallow range, whatever you can control. Just move. After you’re done, ice can help inflammation. If it’s swollen, definitely ice. If it’s not inflamed, heat can help—warmth, blood flow, red light therapy. After workouts, I like to ice my knees for about 20 minutes. Sometimes you don’t see the inflammation inside. Keeps it down. If it’s swollen the next morning, ice, it goes down, and I go back again. Pete Wright Back to it. Srdjan Injac Yeah. Pete Wright All right—knees and shoulders. Be careful out there, everybody. Srdjan Injac Yes. Proper form. Pete Wright We don’t want to mess this up. Proper form. Lighter weight. It’s okay. Thank you everybody for hanging out and listening. We appreciate your time and your attention. Don’t forget to send us questions—scroll up in the show notes. There’s a link and a button on the website that lets you send a question. Until next week, I’m Pete Wright with Srdjan Injac, and we’ll see you at the gym.