One of the most common examples of increased risk of injury is wearing a backpack with a single strap rather than over both shoulders. Force is increased on one side of the body and injury can commonly occur to the lower back or hip on the side on the body which is loaded.

Loading of one side of the body not only causes increased joint compression but it can create imbalance in muscle tension. The main examples of this are:

1) MUSCULAR IMBALANCE AROUND A SINGLE JOINT.
A common example is overloading the knee joint when training the quadriceps muscle with leg extensions, this can create issues with overextension of the knee joint, increased tension in the internal ligaments (mainly anterior cruciate) within the knee as mentioned in the book “Biophysical Foundations of Human Movement” by Bruce Abernethy.

2) IMBALANCE OF MUSCULAR TENSION IN MUSCLES THAT SPAN MULTIPLE JOINTS.
The transverse abdominis works as a stabiliser for the joints of the lower back and as such connects to the last five spinal bones (vertebra) on both sides, an increase on tension on either side of this muscle can create spinal stability leading to discal and spinal joint issues as shown by Reeves et, al., 2006.

3) INDIRECT COMPENSATION.
When a muscle or group of muscles becomes less efficient in function within the body the body tries to offset the load throughout the rest of the body, creating indirect compensation. A common example of this is found from the problem described in point 1: overextension of the knee joint due to quadriceps overtraining. If the overloading continues for weeks or months, with the quadricept being dominant on one leg the function of the knee and the muscles surrounding it will reduce. The hip and opposing leg will offset the force created by reduced function, in response their muscles will tighten and the joints they span will compress. This is why a common issue of knee hyperextension can be hip or lower-back pain.

To stop any or all of these issues from causing injury, correction in the form of counter-movements or controlled symmetrical compound movements can restore function to muscles around single or multiple joints. The concept is simple although the application can be imprecise.