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Bodybuilding Question of the Month
by Lacey Sachet, Team IronLife.com Staff Writer & Admin @ www.ProActiveHealthNet.com
Since you began training, what weight training related injuries have you sustained so far?
How could you have avoided them?
~*~
Quote: Thaifighter23
Just six days ago I separated a rib from my spine. It is a pretty painful injury that was caused by me lifting too heavy. I have been to chiropractor every day this week and he pushes it back into place. The worst part is the muscles that spasm in an effort to try and hold the rib in place. I could have avoided this by remembering that I am only 170 pounds, and just because i CAN push a 335 bench press, it doesn't mean that I should... |
Quote: PoPPY-Cock
My injury comes from benching as well, except mine is my left shoulder. Like Thai, I only weigh 170, but unlike Thai, I can't push 335! hahaha. Once I get up to 280, my left shoulder starts feeling like its going to pop out of place. To avoid, I guess I should've started learning bench with proper technique. (Elbows in and not out.) |
Quote: weavil
I've pulled my back out twice lifting. Once was I was lifting too much weight doing clean and press. The other I lost my balance while squatting and when I went to put the weight back up I felt my back pop. The second time was just dumb luck since I wasn't even doing close to my max weight. |
Quote: Big Feet
When I started lifting regularly I tweaked my deltoid a couple of times (nothing serious) from doing bench. Funnily enough this was caused because I wasn't getting enough sleep/rest and wasn't recovering properly from my last session. I don't lift as much now so I'm less likely to get lifting injuries. I do however whole heartedly recommend that you should stretch properly every day. I've become more sensitive to the way my body feels and because of the flexibility plus some common sense I am trouble free. |
Quote: Ujac
Little injuries only: F'ed up knees from squating with sh*tty form.
Left deltoid was f'ed up while I was doing behind the head shoulder presses and the bar dropped back and I let go of it too late.....the left delt still bothers me from time to time. |
Quote: Brendan Seguin
I started the descent to my L3 disc in my lower back by lifting way too much with my back and not enough with my legs deadlifting. Ooh! Bad idea. That was when I was a young man. It took all these years to finally get it right again after re-injuring it several more times. Much wiser now. Well, a little wiser at least. Proper form is #1, especially with power movements. |
Quote: graedy
I have always had problems with my right shoulder. I would say it comes from the improper benching technique that I used before I learned how to do it right. TECHNIQUE is No1! |
Quote: Coldstone
So far with my weight training, I have sustained...
1. Slight Tear in Rotator Cuff (Have Not Treated Yet) - Could have avoided by NOT working out when I didn't have both feet on the ground to create a solid foundation. Was doing Incline Barbell benching when I had my foot in a cast.
2. Torn Ligament on my Left Wrist (Have Not Treated Yet) - Could have avoided by having a Spotter when I was doing skull crushers.
3. Torn Ligament on my Right Wrist (Have Not Treated Yet) - Could have avoided by Not using the Smith Machine for Bench Press, and having a spotter.
4. Slipped T-5 Disk and Massive Spasming of the Muscles around it (Have Not Treated Yet) - Could have avoided by Not going so heavy. First time doing shoulders since 6 months, and I was doing 255 on the lateral raise machine.
5. Torn Ligament on my Right Elbow (Have Not Treated Yet) - Could have avoided by not going so heavy when I wasn't ready for the weight.
Those are the injuries (Well, the ones that count anyway) that I have sustained during working out. I believe that I could have avoided all of those if I wasn't so Stupid. |
Quote: The B.I.G. Cheese
Just a severe case of tendonitis in my left elbow, but that's it so far. |
Quote: stellar
Supraspinatus tendonitis, no tear. Currently in treatment. No lifting for one more month.
I could have avoided this by hiring a trainer or something. I spent the first year of my weight training making lots of mistakes because I had no real idea what I was doing. |
Quote: Iron_Gook
Shoulder injury - believe it's from Martial Arts Training.
Lower Back injury - using too many reps in the deadlift and squat.
Groin Pull - excessive range of motion on squats and lack of proper stretching.
Broken Foot - dropping 90lb dumbbell on foot - leaving weight unattended. LOL! Had me doing the "phuck my foot is broken dance" for a while... then I had to drive myself to the hospital because my g/f didn't know how to drive a stick shift. OUCH!!! But I lived... |
Quote: Pudgy
None of my injuries have been a result of training, as I learned very young that form is all important to gains and not getting injured. I have tweaked this and that when going heavy but not injured anything. The main injury related issue I have from training is my refusal to let an injury stop me in the gym . I usually try to adjust my grip/angle and try to get some sort of pump out of the injured area some how. Which is of course stupid and leads to an extended time of healing instead of taking time off and letting the area heal completely. |
www.elite-pro-bodybuilding.com
Quote: bigcity
Over extension of Elbow - Not sure if I could have avoided, I was BB and doing Muay Thai at the time and just missed a really hard throwing punch and overextended it. I still get a little pain in it from time to time and some tenderness.
Back problems - Herniated disc when I was 16 due to an accident and it continues to bother me. I probably could avoid it if I would stop Deadlifting, but I cant do that.
Shoulder pain - Tendonitis of some sort. Not really sure if I could have prevented it, but massage and stretching(Dc's especially) helps a ton. I don't take Anti inflammatories so that's all I have to use. I push heavy weights so I deal with it.
Pec strains, knee pain, painful ankles after squatting, neck stiffness, wrist pain and numerous small things here and there. I feel tough, I'm in better health then almost all of America so I'm ok with some things here and there. |
Quote: KevinK
AC joint problems - requires surgery to completely heal. Sustained during repeated heavy benching.
Should have mixed things up a lot more and also done a lot more rear delts and traps. |
Quote: Iain
Lower back injury. Caused by either poor form on good mornings and/or the same day throwing about 150 5lb sacks from A-B in short time. Better form would have prevented it, I'm sure that is going to be the case with a lot of injuries reported here. |
Quote: Joaorv
Aggravated shoulders: This was an injury I had long before i started working out, but when i started working out, it only aggravated things. I fixed it mostly now with pressure release massage in the shoulders, then backing off completely from heavy shoulder work and overhead shoulder work and by slowly rehabbing my shoulders with lots of rear delt work and rotator cuff work. I avoid re-injuring it by continuing to do what I did to rehab and by keeping the OH. heavy shoulder work to a minimum.
Elbow tendonitis: This one started after I started working out, it could have been avoided if I didn't try to go too heavy too fast on triceps extensions and DB French press. I rehabbed it by laying off all triceps work that aggravated my elbows by getting massage in the area and by putting small pillows under my elbows when I work at the computer. Also ice pads after workouts and always using elbow sleeves in the gym helped.
Right hip/ groin: injured it on speed box squats, not sure how I could have avoided it, I guess I shouldn't have tried bands, or I should have had extra warm-ups, I did the same I normally do only different thing was the bands. I'm still rehabbing it with massage in the area and by doing no speed squats.
Got a bunch of other non gym related injuries no need to post. |
Quote: deadz
1. Tore calf muscle two years ago, from squatting.
2. various rotator cuff injuries, suprasprinatus and subscapularis.
3. pulled lower traps in deadlift.
4. winded myself squatting too fast.
5. Most recent being scar tissue of rhs pectoral. |
Quote: GRUNT#4
Injured lower back fairly bad.
What could I done to prevent it: well I think it happened by doing incline sit ups with a sh*t load of weight on my chest.
So there out the window. |
Quote: MADDMAXX
Have developed Obsessive Compulsive Disorder....Must Lift, Must Lift, Must Lift...................... |
Quote: uk machine
Injured my back doing deads incorrectly. Well it didn't feel too bad, but I had to move a shed load of 20kg bags later on at work. F me, I was in agony for ages. Best way to avoid injury is to learn perfect technique. Warm up sufficiently and if it feels dodgy or feel like it get injured in any way at all, lighten up and do reps. Or stop completely. So many people force it when they are feeling it hurting, and wham you go and get injured. Yes the session will feel like sh*t, but if you can carry on two weeks later whilst healed, that is lot better than forcing it out for months then doing some serious damage and not being able to workout for months. Also choose exercises that don't cause blatant pain. Most of the basics will work well for most, if people are getting injured from these most likely due to poor form. However some will find some exercises just too harmful due to their body proportions. e.g. sometimes triceps extensions send my elbows mad, upright rows aggravate lots of people's shoulders. Just do what feels good, only you know what is painful and what is not. |
Quote: strongenough2005
Torn rotator cuff trying to push press 245 two years ago. Badly pulled calf that took me out for a week or so long enough for me. In both cases should not have been working that area! |
Quote: adpac
Rotator Cuffs, Pec strains, groin pulls, bicep strains. In all instances work ancillary muscle groups in moderation, let the injury heal and gradually train after injury has healed. I also increase my protein intake to assist the healing. Every one of my limbs have been broken at least once but that was from a misspent youth not weight training. (motorcycles etc.) |
Quote: Max_Effort
-tore my lower back on deadlift, went to a gym and did it for the first time w/a barbell when I used to do it w/ a trap bar, I wasn't holding the barbell close enough to my body so I used too much lower back.
-tore my lower back again doing deadlift, don't remember how.
- aggravated one of these injuries by trying a sumo stance and probably not doing it right.
-tore a trap muscle when doing deadlift.
Having someone to teach me good form and stretching could've prevented these injuries, but try finding a good powerlifter at any gym. It's usually unlikely, most people are half assed bodybuilders that think squatting is horrible for your knees and touching your chest on bench messes up your shoulders. |
Quote: Javaman
Lower back injury from November. I have been healing (very slowly) and started to get too confident and reaggravated it doing 405 lb shoulder shrugs. Luckily the new injury is not as bad as the original.
The original injury came from trying heavy deadlifts every week plus going too heavy on ATG squats. I tried going too deep and too heavy on squats a day after doing a max triple on deadlifts. One recommendation is try not to force yourself to do deeper in the squats than your body allows. Also, realize the back takes forever to heal and don't rush back into heavy weights with exercises like deadlifts or squats. |
Quote: fanothaft
I guess I'm lucky. Worst I've had was sore shoulders cured by time off and lots and lots of icing. |
Quote: Lattimer
Long list-
Torn Labrum and tears minor in right shoulder---years of heavy benching and several dislocations in wrestling. Should have re=-habbed it properly after the dislocations.
3 herniated disks, 1 in lumbar, 1 in neck, 1 mid back. Mostly due to stupidity, except the neck, which I think may be from a car accident but showed up later.
Torn right bicep--doing strongman comp. Should have trained it smarter.
Torn muscle tissue in left pec, twice. Warming up to heavy too fast raw. didn't learn the first time.
Torn patellar tendon, right knee. Lesson learned, don't try to do half squats with heavy weight, the tendons don't reverse motion well in the middle.
Dislocated shoulder---Heavy ass band squats, let the bar slide a little. Bad move.
Bone spurs in left elbow--High mileage--too much heavy benching for the last 10 years.
Severe elbow tendonitis---Comes with over training for bench
Torn right hamstring---trying to flip 900 pound tire with piss poor technique.
Dislocated left hip joint---Trying to leg press (yeah, insert jokes here) 2000 pounds.
Damn, I can't believe I am still doing this sh*t!!! |
Quote: strongenough2005
Re Lattimer: Latt have you had surgery for the shoulder? My friend dislocated his shoulder in a car wreck benches 480 raw without the surgery! So your story will probably give him hope. Yeah it's amazing your still a top presser. I guess like Donald Trump says "Never give up". |
Quote: Lattimer
Re strongenough2005: I have never had surgery for anything. I have an amazing ability to heal.
I dislocated my should for the first time in November of 1993. It went out 3 more times between then and July 1994. By 1998 I was benching 500+ with no problems. It was fine until November 2003 when I dislocated it again.
I have been told I need a minimum of stitching the labrum back together, and the docs have recommended a complete shoulder replacement. I don't think so!!! |
Quote: Fortified Iron
Bad part about all this most of the injuries here could be avoided. However even I make the mistake and get f'ed up doing stupid things. |
Quote: Lucias C
I have never really had an injury from lifting. I once pulled a muscle in my lower back from doing literally 250+ handoffs in a meet, but that's about it. |
Quote: deca dick
My worst injuries were: Left shoulder (anterior delt area). Don't know how it could've been avoided, must've been overworked or overstretched under tension.
Lower back - My fault for using sloppy form on deads. Left elbow - Definitely could've been avoided. Pretty sure it was done by using sh8tty form/too much ROM on dumbbell extensions. This one I'm still trying to get back from after 6 months. |
Quote: il campione
Lower back from good mornings + moving tile. Shoulder from playing competitive water polo, tennis, and other fun things |
Quote: kite
Torn rotator cuff , bone spur and tendon issues. Don't think I could've done much about the spur but I never did rotator cuff work, which was just asking for trouble, and my tendon issues could have been avoided or minimized if I'd used heat before and ice after and/or taken time off instead of letting Mr.. ego take over.
[QUOTE]BIG_MIKE1979
I tore my lower back(ligament) when I first started, i didn't do it the correct form, I was jerking and i had no belt.. How to avoid it: wear a belt and do it with the right form... [QUOTE]
[QUOTE]lxorl
Had a few injuries that effected me in the weight room... but the only one that happened in the weight room... smashing fingers putting back db's... just need to pay better attention. |
Quote: TRAM
ACL, MCL, Rotator cuff, Collar bone, Bicep Ligament, Scapular muscles torn , L5 disc in back. Arthritis and tendonitis all around (unavoidable).
I probably could have avoided some of these by turning down the intensity. Other than that, I am always careful as in form wise and belts or snaps. |
Quote: Ash
I've been injuring myself at gym as long as I've been training, mostly because I was always trying to push heavier weights at all costs.
My form on some exercises must have been a sight to see and I've paid the price in terms of continual setbacks over the years.
The most notable injuries have been both rotator cuffs, left elbow tendon, both knees, mid and lower back, left ankle. Some of them have never fully resolved and all of them could have been avoided by maintaining proper form and being aware of my range of motion (and by using a set of collars when doing squats outdoors at night - damn how dumb was I back then ).
As I've gotten older, I've become a lot more careful at gym. These days I leave my ego at home and once the form gets sloppy, that's the end of the set! The injuries of course have stopped happening. |
Quote: Sparky
Hmmm... I haven't had very many but the cause of each was obvious...
Neck Tweak - while doing military press I was straining to get one last rep out, and got a tweak in my neck. I've had this a few times. I think I could have avoided this by not going to failure and maintaining very strict form.
Lower Back - just another tweak. I was warming up on deadlifts with 275. I let my mind wander and my form broke a bit. My back was sore for about a week. This was during contest prep so not a good time to injure your back. Clearly, focus and good form were the key to avoiding this injury.
Sore Shoulders - I get sore shoulders from doing bench press. I just don't do barbell bench press anymore. I also have incorporated one of Dante's stretches and hit has really helped. The other thing is over training. I've cut back my lifting schedule and now many of my aches and pains, particularly my shoulders, have disappeared. In addition, I'm growing more ... woo hoo!
Forearm Tendonitis - for months my forearms were bugging me. It was particuarly troublesome during bicep and back workouts. The cause was over training!
Lessons Learned:
1) Maintain Focus
2) Avoid lifts that are hard on joints
3) Perform exercises with strict form
4) Know when to quit a set
5) Do not over train |
Quote: sniffy54
I have had on both shoulders rotator cuff impingment. Chondromalacia in right knee.
Currently I'm dealing with a bad abdominal strain and a possible labral tear in my shoulder joint.
No one said bodybuilding is risk free. anything taken to the extreme involves risk. I'm 29 so all that crazy stuff I did years 16-20 may be taking its toll. You just got to learn how to work around your injuries.
My current advice: (1) warm up s-l-o-w-l-y. the length of the warm up should be proportional to the strength of the individual. (2) take EFA's--not including other EFAs in my diet I supplement another 4 tablespoons of cod liver oil. |
Quote: IslandGirl
An old rhomboid injury (probably 12 years ago) from doing bb military presses. And I injured my wrists last year on a preacher bicep machine. I went too low and let my wrists drop. And also last year, I hurt my plantar fascia.
How I could've avoided it. For the rhomboid injury, I think just educating myself. I didn't injury myself during the lift, but when I was done with my set and trying to put the bar back onto the hooks. Huge tweak and hurted for weeks!
The wrist injury....I think I went too far down and could've avoided the wrists by being focused and smart. It was my last set of the day and I think I was trying to rush it. The plantar fascia, I went too heavy on a standing calf machine. Should've been firm in telling hubby that it was way too heavy for me! lol! |
Quote: gravityfighter
Ankle injury...leg press broke(bolts snapped off) doing 20 plates......took 5 guys to get it off me. That was 2yrs ago and it still not back to the way it was. |
Quote: Ogre67
Never had any serious injuries, but I've had persistent ones.
Pulled upper pectoral - Seated Smith Machine Militaries, I was on my second set, so I wasn't using super heavy weight, doing controlled reps, and I felt something in my upper chest that felt like a rubber band snapping in half when being stretched, it was on the positive of the rep. Probably the weirdest feeling ever with an injury.
Tendonitis - Happened my sophomore year of high school(freshman in college now), lasted about 2 months, hasn't come back since.
Shoulder Problems - I have a condition with my shoulders where certain movements of pushing(especially blocking in football) made my shoulders "pop," they never went out of socket, but it felt like a small pop, it was very painful at first, but now that I have picked up my shoulder training(especially rear delts) whenever it happens it isn't painful and happens much much less often.
Now My left shoulder is always tight and needs extra stretching before every upper-body workout. First got this last summer(July). I had a powerlifting competition on sat, tried to lift towards the end of next week, warm-ups felt fine, but after my first set my shoulder felt like it was going to fall off, I was out for about 2 months, started up again in October.
Strained Back - Bad form when I was younger in deadlifts and power cleans. |
Quote: Crimson Ghost
Only been injured twice:
Shoulders = Improper benching, shoulder exercises when I first started. 2 weeks of rehab work and they have never bothered me again.
Lower Back = Had leg press loaded with 12-15 plates a side, shifted my body in the seat while I had the weight loaded on my legs and my lower back hurt like crazy for 3 months. Stopped training legs for that time and all has been well.
These were all within my first 2 years training. 6 years so far with no major set backs besides being lazy and getting the flu really bad. |
Quote: ctgblue
Shoulder, 1991, bicepital tendonitis is what the doctor called it, got it flat benching almost double bodyweight. Couldn't flat bench properly for 8 years.
Wrist surgery, tore a ligament and tore the cartilage off the bone. Now can't do any real heavy free barbell pressing movements. Must use wrist wraps for heavy squats.
Knees- dumbass me, figured if I could squat 5 plates a side, I could do it on leg ext too. So instead of slowly climbing from 4 pps in 10 lb increments, I dumped another set of 45's on there. After 3 weeks I realized it was too heavy. Then it was too late and it has bothered me for the last year but is slowly easing up now.
Aside from that, a couple of incidences of popping my back out during warm up or pinching it with heavy deads, but nothing serious. |
Quote: Deacon
Rotator cuff strain from heavy benching - others were only small muscle pulls over the years. |
Quote: Blown_SC
I've only sustained 2 minor injuries from training. The first was a baseball injury, and the second, I believe, was caused by improper bench-press form when I was younger. Basically, my right rotator cuff was injured over time from improper stretching, warm-up, and abuse. Secondly, the left sternoclavicular joint was badly hurt from improper form, and over-exertion, while performing bench press, as far as I can tell. The rotator cuff has healed alot over time, although still causing discomfort occasionally. The sternoclavicular joint pain is still healing slowly; I took about 4-5months off from doing heavy chest work, and it feels much better now that I'm older. Some days are certainly better than others though, as the pain resumes when I hit my chest heavy. Thankfully I haven't sustained any serious injuries to date. |
Quote: BigSickD
I have a list of them. In 1992, I tore the right teardrop of my quad, you guessed it, squatting. In 2000, I tore my left trap, doing dumbbell shoulder presses of all things. In 2004, I ruptured a disc in my neck at levels C6-C7 and had my neck fused. I don't really know what more I could have did to prevent them. I guess I could have not been so aggressive and lifted lifter, but that isn't in my nature. |
Quote: rado
None ever for me. What I do before any kind of workout, I ALWAYS stretch. The most important thing to do is stretch. You prepare your muscles for a workout when you do this. How would you like to be woken up in the morning and to quickly put your shoes on and run for 10 miles, you wouldn't like it.
Well our muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc...Are the same way....If you're going to hit the gym, then you need to stretch properly. Also what's most important is to stretch after the gym, most people never do this. |
Quote: CO-B16
As far as actual weight training injuries, the only one I can remember was the time I completely smashed my little finger.....was doing skull crushers and went to drop the bar behind my head and someone had placed dumbells there...so my little finger got caught between the bar and the dumbell.....bleed like a sum b*tch and lost the fingernail...oh well, I guess I've been lucky.....I pinch nerves and tweak my back often....but I do that just putting on pants sometimes(bad back)..... |
Quote: Lil'Lifter
Shoulder was "tweaked" doing upright rows. I could have used less momentum to lift the weight for me. This was back in my not so smart training days.
Damaged disk in my lower back from a fall on the ice. Not training related but it kept me out for some time and still bugs me a little.
Damaged Cartilage from soccer in my one knee again not from training but effects it some. |
Quote: Harvey
Not many from training, way too many from sports/bike riding.
I jammed my wrist really good doing reverse curls when I had only been lifting for a few months. I think I just went too heavy before my joints where ready for it.
Cut my arm good on a dip station, the gym had a screw sticking out too far the wrong way, and it sliced me good, still have a small scar from it. |
Quote: BIG SVEN
I am 34 now & started training hardcore in 87'. Trained for my first show in 89'. Since I have just kept going pretty strong w/o many breaks.
Most of my injuries r from just flat-out lifting too heavy. After I broke 400lbs on flat bench my wrists & elbows really went. I now get cortisone every 9 months or so in elbows.
Wrists were further aggravated by forearm curls way too heavy. I got big forearms but now I cannot even do them @ all.
Left knee has a plika(sp?) which I am told is from heavy squatting.
My back has 2 herniated discs but they really DON'T bother me as long as I stay lean, train abs & keep my back strong.
All in all...lift lighter & don't rush the gains...it isn't worth it in hindsight. |
Quote: 92Stangman
I hurt my back once when I started to deadlift. Took a good bit of time off and started back and focused more on my form. Although my form isn't the greatest, it's better than before. Still needs work. |
Quote: Egill
I ripped a very small part at the back of my left trap doing shrugs (heard a short ripping sound, kinda like ripping a towel sound),.... it was the first rep of a set and I used a bit too much body language and wasn't as warmed up as I should have been. Took me almost a year to get totally rid of a slightly burning pain that came sometimes when I trained my back.
A minor sprain in both hams because of not so good squatting technique and also bouncing a little off the bottom of the squat which stretched my hams enough to cause a little pain and a sprain at the inner side of my hams. After a month I could train legs heavy again without any pain but they were still a little sore and tight for about 2 more months,.... I found out that light stretches and trigger point release only delayed the recovery, my tightness/soreness in my hams didn't start to get better until I stopped both the stretches and the trigger point release (not really what you'd expect). IMO when squatting it's a good rule is to totally stop for a half a second on the bottom of the squat to limit any momentum and reduce the likeliness of an injury. |
Quote: diverbob
AC Joint Separation - Flat bench Probably to wide of grip caused excess pressure on shoulder. |
Quote: meathead
bulged disk in lower lumbar 5 & 6...picked up a damn 35lb dumbbell and moved wrong...I was done immediately. |
Quote: birdie
Shoulder-military press the bar hit me on my head on the way down. I came out alright though. |
~*~
Thank you for your responses everybody! You live & learn and hopefully by laying it on the table with your replies, you've saved others from making the same mistakes. Thank you to Joaorv for allowing me to use his picture!
Til next month, stay safe~
~lacey
*Please note. In case you PM me, I can't get back to you til the end of the summer. I'm off to Hawaii for three weeks and then have the opportunity to work under a marine biologist doing research for four weeks on the west coast.
* Article by Lacey Sachet, Team IronLife.com Staff Writer & Admin @ www.ProActiveHealthNet.com.
* Back to This Issue's Frontpage
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