Dealing with Weightlifting Injuries

Dealing with Weightlifting Injuries

            I thought this would be a great thing to make a post on because I have recently broken the bottom tip of my shoulder blade off, or as I like to call it my shoulder nugget, and I currently am in way too much pain to lift or do sports.  There are tons of things that can go wrong in weightlifting but very rarely will such an incident occur if you are following the correct technique and using the right amount of weight for your lift.  Many different injuries can happen but I am going to talk about some of the most common injuries that happen with weightlifters, how they most likely happened, and how to prevent them from happening in the future.

            Probably the number one injury to happen with weightlifters is a back injury.  Mainly the lower back is the area that has the biggest risk of injury but upper back injuries are also possible but unlikely.  So many lifts rely on a strong lower back or are either dependent on keeping a straight lower back to prevent injury.  Exercises like dead lift, RDL, bent over rows, and standing push press, put tremendous stress on the lower back area and require lots of attention to make sure it is constantly in the right position.  For these lifts the last thing you would ever want to do is not pay attention and arch your back even slightly while doing the lift.  This is exactly what happened to me when I first started weightlifting and was trying to show off by dead lifting more weight than I’ve ever done, in front of a crowd of experienced lifters.  For your information I was able to do the lift and impressed a few people but when I finished and put the weight on the ground I had to try very hard to hide the excruciating pain I was feeling in my back.  I lifted the weight but my form sucked.  This little error pulled my muscle and put me out of the weight room for a good three to four weeks.

            Another common injury I see in the gym is a shoulder injury like I am experiencing now.  Although the reason my shoulder is broken now is not because of lifting but because of a faulty takedown during wrestling practice and I got slammed on my shoulder blade (not fun at all).  But most weightlifters hurt their shoulder muscle, not their shoulder blade or their rotator cuff.  This usually happens when people decide to put too much weight on while doing a push press, or while overstretching their shoulders while doing an inclined bench press or dumbbell press. 

            The last of the common injuries I will talk about is the hamstring which runs along the back of your thigh.  This is a muscle that usually is hurt by over extending it while doing lifts.  This can happen if you are doing something like lunges and you stretch out too far and planting your foot a long distance ahead of you.  This is great if you are stretch but if doing this while lifting can pull the muscle too far and damage it.

            So just be smart and learn proper technique while lifting and listen to trainers or experienced lifters to avoid injuries.  These are some of the most common injuries but certain circumstances can cause many other injuries so be careful.  Remember, we’re all in this together, keep your stick on the ice.