Injuries: causes, effects, & prevention

[joed]

After reading some recent posts I noticed lots of comments about injuries. Was thinking of starting a thread about who's never been injured lifting, but I knew it would be the shortest on record.

I think it might be insightful to comment on the more serious injuries we've had, their lasting effects, & how we could have prevented them.

For me, an inguinal hernia was caused by lifting too much, too soon, & working on specific body parts rather than the whole body. Surgery corrected it & I was out of action for 6 wks (the first time). There've been no lasting effects except for the scars, & now I work the whole body & make progress with the speed of a glacier. The 2nd serious one was a shoulder/rotator cuff problem which occurred not from lifting but from lack of it! It was deteriorating with age. The result is I'm still doing shoulder rehab exercises with those cute 5 pounders & stretching, & can't do overheads like military presses. I could've prevented it by doing more than lifting a cold beer.

C'mon, I know you're lurking out there. Join in so I don't feel silly.

[cooljimmy]

I never had in injury that didn't go away on its own. There are somedays when I don't feel a pain and feel like I could lift anything. Those days I go heavy (4-6 reps)....Then there are days like this week when I get things like like minor shoulder pain...I skipped todays workout because of it...can't really feel the pain anymore...but I'm really cautious...better safe than sorry...and a few days off is always good for the body

By saturday..it will probably be gone...but I'm pretty careful and don't hesitate to take a break when I feel any kind of pain other than muscle soreness...

I did have what I think was a rotator cuff injury that lasted about 2 months.....this was over 6 years ago....I changed my routine and it went away...went back to the old exercises and it never came back

but it seems my shoulders are what I am most cautious about....If they start to feel funny...I really try to be careful.....maybe I'm paranoid

other than that...no injuries....knock on wood...cause I know it can happen to anyone...I was using perfect form and plenty of warmup when I had that minor rotator cuff injury six years ago

peace
cooljimmy

[jtroster]

The largest number of injury-related posts in the entire bb.com site tend to be about shoulders. So lets all pledge to always warm up and stretch our shoulders at the start of every single workout. That means even on leg days.

I'll take this pledge right now.

[cooljimmy]

i have to admit when I'm feeling dandy I just warmup with some light shoulder sets and don't stretch my shoulders

is a couple of warmup sets as good as stretching?

peace
cool jimmy

[4amWorkouts]

Herniated a disc in my lower back/lumbar area just getting off of the couch! Injury was probably started by lifting heavy deads, squats and clean-and-presses twice a week for 3 years. Went away after about 5 yrs...

Petela/femeral syndrom caused by too many atg duck squats. Went away after I stopped running, doing deep duck squats and wearing arch supports in every pair of shoes I own. Took GNC MSN off and on, and pain has finally gone away after about 5yrs.

[A.FreeRadical]

Knees and elbows.

Leg extentions seem to cause my knees to hurt at the top of each knee. This isn't DOMS, this is a minor injury from over extending. It goes away if I stop doing leg extentions. I don't do them at all any more.

I had tennis elbow once. It took about 6 months for it to finally go away. I did that by doing upright rows with a close grip above my chest. (I "worked through" the pain that was tearing the connective tissue on my elbow and the back of my wrist. ) Since then I am much more careful. I tend to overextend when I do cable tricep pushdowns. I also grip too tight when I do barbell curls. (tip: hold the bar in the palm of your hands and use your index finger and thumb to keep it from rolling out. Let the other fingers be loose so your wrists can rotate through the full range of movement.)


*
aA.FreeRadical a

[phikappa]

I had a shoulder injury for a long time caused by incline BB presses. I don't do those anymore. Incline DB's are fine. I got over it by taking time off, ice, coming back slowly, working around the problem.

I had a forearm injury for a while. That was caused by going too heavy on a new exercise. I'm more careful these days.

Sometimes my left knee will bother me. That was caused by doing the Limbo...drunk. I don't limbo anymore.

Other than that, nothing too serious.

[SoMdHunter]

I seem to have a nagging tendonitis problem in my left wrist, which at times will work it's way up to my elbow. It's on the outside of my arm, which really start to hurt with straight bar curls. The ez bar takes care of it just fine though. Other than that, I pulled a pec muscle just prior to a planned 1 week break, so I took off a couple of days early. Good as new now though.

I was diagnosed with CTS in both wrists a couple of weeks ago. The Dr. wants to go straight to surgery. We'll see about that. I didn't even know I had CTS!

[ShadowRydr]

I have some mild tendonitis at times; it seems most aggravated when doing dumbell curls. When I switch to hammer curls the pain goes away. Wrist positioning has a lot to do with it for me, so for now I mostly just do hammer curls. Straight bar curls bother it too, the ezbar curls are ok.

[ChocoChick]

is a couple of warmup sets as good as stretching?

Better. Warm up before lifting, stretch afterwards. Studies show that people who stretch before are more injury prone.

[cooljimmy]

I posted this wednesday

"Then there are days like this week when I get things like like minor shoulder pain...I skipped todays workout because of it...can't really feel the pain anymore...but I'm really cautious...better safe than sorry...and a few days off is always good for the body"

it's friday
shoulder feels fine..did a few pullups...shoulder presses...laterals...and shrugs this morning at home to see if I could feel anything in the shoulder...but it felt fine

I'm going to hit the weights tomorrow....Bench Press...Dumbell shoulder presses...shrugs

Funny how those little twitches come and go
peace
cool jimmy

[samori]

sometimes with the small annoyances most of us can change grip, angle, or in my case had to change the incline angle until my shoulders got stronger to help with db incline presses.
Right now I spent the week traveling on business out to the west coast, only had time for cardio so I made the best of by running coronado island a couple of times. But thurs AM woke up with serious neck pain thats lasting through today. In my best judgement I came to an all stop until I see what this is about. I'll give it through the weekend, if it clears then fine, if not than it will be to the docs for me: cause I can't figure where this came from.

[jaguarr]

My left shoulder (mostly the anterior deltoid) was giving me issues until I started doing these four stretches (the three at the first site and the broomstick stretch at the second) every single night before bed, and my shoulder problems are gone.

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cy...stretching.php

http://intens************/showthread.php?t=6997

Other than that, I've only ever had one injury directly occur from lifting in 22 years of working out, and that was recently while I was doing squats when I got a hardcore charlie horse in my lattisimus dorsi and lower trapezius in the right side of my back. Rest, ice, the heating pad and some ibuprofen fixed that one for me.

jag

[kimsquit]

About a year ago I was doing lat pulldowns. Across the aisle from me and to the left was the standing ham curl machine.

As I was proceeding through a particularly heavy set, an attractive young woman in black spandex pants walked up to the ham curl machine. With her very delectable bottom facing me, she began to do hamstring curls.

I ended up horribly wrenching my neck because my spine was misaligned from gawking over at her rump as I completed my set.


Served me right *chuckle* Now I do all my heavy sets with my eyes closed

[Tyrbolift]

I pulled a hamstring ligament(lower) once by doing a heavy leg workout, and then going hiking in the mountains the next day. It took over a year to not feel pain anymore, and about a year and half to be able to lift with.
That's when I discovered Udo's Choice omega fatty acid supplements. That really helped.

[Indy33]

I've gotten 'tennis elbow' now in both elbows and my right shoulder (inside somewhere) hurts. I'm on a steady diet of anit-inflammnatory pills now but I think the pain has become 'chronic'.

I used to have massive pain in my left forearm, which I blame the preacher curl for. I no longer do those.

I also think the upright rows with a straight bar added to my shoulder pain. I no longer do those.

As I've added weight to my bench press I seem to hurt more. Once I crossed the 250 mark I started noticing my shoulder and elbows acting up. I just got 315 for the first time ever today so I'm still moving up but my shoulder and elbows still bother me. I'm doing the broomstick exercise every night to gain flexion. We'll see how it goes.

I tried squatting and now do a real leg day but I hurt my ball socket in my right hip. Not sure what that's all about but I'm still hurting there so I don't squat anymore for now. Just stick with the leg press sled.

I've got a bunk disc in my neck (C6 and C7 range) and I'm in a constant state of hurt with that so I no longer do any presses or pull downs behind my head.

Other than that I'm good.

[goatscrot]

I've got a bunk disc in my neck (C6 and C7 range) and I'm in a constant state of hurt with that so I no longer do any presses or pull downs behind my head.

Is it herniated? just curious. I have a similar problem...new development unfortunately.

[Indy33]

Yes, one disc is ruptured and another is bulging. I have trouble turning my head too far to the right. The nerve is getting squished and refers pain to my left shoulder blade area and when I lie flat I get pain between my two shoulder blades in my mid back. Sometime my left side of my neck hurts more than the right and other times it is fine. Right now it's the right side that hurts the most. When it first started, like the original time it 'exploded' I was in bed reaching for the alarm clock. The second time it happened I was in the shower washing my hair. I've had two MRIs, one about two years ago and one in March of this year. Both confirm the disc rupture and bulge and I was told I was not a surgery candidate because it has not gotten worse (which is good but sucks as I've hurt every damn second of every day for three years now and I'm only 33 years old).

I was told that many years of bad 'forward head hanging' posture was a contributer to the problem as well as being a stomach sleeper. I work all day on a PC and have for about 9 years so that doesn't help. I try hard to keep my posture good but it's hard to do.

No doctor has every given me any relief. I refuse to fill myself up with pain pills and muscle relaxers but I take them from time to time when the pain is really bad. I still lift and lift heavy and I still take my ju-jitsu (both of which I probably shouldn't do). Until I can't use my arm (either one) or have trouble with feeling in my fingers no one will cut on me. Until them I am destined to hurt.

I'm actually considering Yoga or "The Alexander Technique" to work on my posture. At this point I'll try anything. I simply want the pain to end.