I recently saw a woman in the clinic who hadn’t done anything with her arms overhead in two years. Two. Years.
She gets her husband to grab things from the top cupboard. She manoeuvres her body into weird angles to avoid it altogether. Just the thought of doing it makes her break out in a sweat.
She once had a shoulder injury, and the practitioner she was seeing at the time told her to avoid all overhead work forever 🙈.
The scary thing? This isn’t an uncommon story.
👉 I’ve heard of one woman being told never to turn her head too far because it could make her neck arthritis worse.
👉 Another was told never to let her knees move over her toes because it’s “really bad” for her knees.
💣 Truth Bomb Time
Now—before I go any further—I want to say: I get it.
If a movement feels risky, or you’ve been injured before, of course you’d want to avoid it. That sense of danger feels like a very real warning sign to stay clear.
But here’s what I’ve seen time and time again:
✔️ When women feel safe and confident enough to try the movement without load
✔️ When they learn to read the signals their body is giving them (and recognise that some need to be questioned)
✔️ When they learn to load these movements gradually
Everything changes.
Not just their ability to do the exercise, but their confidence in all the other areas of life they didn’t even realise they were holding back in.
Honestly, it’s one of my favourite breakthroughs to witness.
The Three Most Avoided Exercises—Are Any of These You?
🚫 Deadlifts because you’re scared of hurting your back?
👉 You’re actually MORE likely to hurt your back picking up a heavy box because you haven’t been doing deadlift-type movements.
🚫 Overhead presses because you’ve had shoulder pain?
👉 That’s exactly why your shoulder niggles when you reach for something in the top cupboard.
🚫 Squats because your knees hurt?
👉 Those squats are what’ll keep your knees strong for stairs, getting up from the couch, and, you know… LIFE.
Here’s the thing: avoiding movement doesn’t protect you—it weakens you and reduces your capacity.
There’s no guarantee that learning good form and gradually building strength will prevent every injury forever (we’re human, after all, and sometimes sht happens*).
But if you avoid things out of fear, you are almost certainly guaranteeing that one day, you won’t be able to do them at all.
So tell me—which of these movements do you avoid because you’re worried about hurting yourself?
1️⃣ Deadlifts
2️⃣ Overhead Press
3️⃣ Squats / Lunges
4️⃣ Getting up & down from the ground
5️⃣ Jumping
6️⃣ Something else??
The first step to improving your capacity is noticing where you’re unintentionally holding yourself back.