Gym Injuries

[GymBoi4eva Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GymBoi4eva]

Just curious really.

Have you ever got any kind of injury from going to the gym and from what?? I know i have. Also how long did it take before you went back into training?

In the 4-5 years i trained for i have had...

Pulled neck muscle - 2 weeks injured
Shoulders damaged (both) - Recurring, never gone
Nerve damage in left shoulder damaging my elbow, wrist and hand in the process - 2 months injured but i carried on while being strapped up and sprayed with deep freeze each workout. (stupid i konw lol)
Pulled muscle in abdomen - Months but carried on with tight belt. (the early years)
Damaged knees (both) - Recurring.
Lower back - Recurring also.
Shin splints in forearm - A few months but kept going with deep freeze.

I've been through the wars but i swear deep freeze is awesome lol

Most of these damages where done from shoulder exercises and bicep training. Knees fron squats, back from deadlifts.

Share your injuries.

[Zman007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Zman007]

gymboi4eva

Sounds like you have some posterior chain issues. If both your knees and low back have been giving you grief it is usually the result of your hips not rolling anterior during your lower body movements. If that lordodic curve flattens the sheer stress on the spine greatly increases and the risk of low back injury is greatly increased. A normal compensation for this is to shift weight forward in one's stance increases the quad dominance of the exercise which greatly increases the stress on the knee especially when they move forward. Other possible culprits are insufficient glute activation, tight IT bands, tight illiopsoas, twisted pelvis, etc.

Are you currently doing mobility and flexibility work for your hips? Any glute activation exercises?

And to answer your original questions, yes I've had a couple.

I have two bad shoulders, one surgery. The gym exacerbated my problems with them as I had some major imbalances thanks primarily to too much pressing when I was a teen. I also have naturally lax joints. Throw it all together with football and I got hurt.

I hurt by low back, left side. Nothing too serious, but It was a couple of month recovery process. I learned my lesson about increasing deadlift weight too quickly post show, considering I had lost about 25lbs and had reduced my pull frequency and intensity considerably during my contest prep.

All in all, nothing regular rehab and prehab can't cure.

[GymBoi4eva Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GymBoi4eva]

No i can't say that i do them exercises, not much anyway

My injuries are bad sometimes but i am able to work around them most of the time. I constantly stretch all my body (my brother taught me that) every time i workout plus after and try to on my days off too. My family all suffer from bad back/slipped discs/sciatica, funny thing is that i feel i could of avoided the back injury if i hadn't of pushed myself on deadlifts. It's a shame but it is done and all i can do is get on with it. Hurts really bad sometimes though.

All the other injuries are ok to cope with.

So much for go heavy or go home lol

[WantMore Member Find all posts View Profile Close WantMore]

Torn bicep insertion on my left arm, chronically inflamed tricep insertion on my right. Pretty sure it's caused by strength imbalances in my upper back, now I'm working on building up structural integrity along with getting back into lifting.
Cervical spondylitis, which is a bitch cause I love deadlifts.
Screwed up left knee, but that's because of a kick gone wrong while doing karate. Squats actually always make it feel more stable.
Did lifting weights cause my injuries? No. Did it exacerbate them? Yes. My fault entirely for not listening to my body and thinking it was macho to push through pain. Am I still going to lift? Hell, yes.
Gymboi, nothing wrong with the 'go heavy or go home adage'. Guess we should have gone home sometimes.

[Zman007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Zman007]

Hmm, the hips can be difficult to stretch properly. The IT band and illiopsoas are usually the worst and it can be difficult to fully stretch the glutes. It may be time to revisit the stretching and mobility routine you are practicing and try and improve it. Also look about adding to better glute activation exercises, hip raises, pull throughs, good mornings.

Do you foam roll?

[GymBoi4eva Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GymBoi4eva]

Torn bicep insertion on my left arm, chronically inflamed tricep insertion on my right. Pretty sure it's caused by strength imbalances in my upper back, now I'm working on building up structural integrity along with getting back into lifting.
Cervical spondylitis, which is a bitch cause I love deadlifts.
Screwed up left knee, but that's because of a kick gone wrong while doing karate. Squats actually always make it feel more stable.
Did lifting weights cause my injuries? No. Did it exacerbate them? Yes. My fault entirely for not listening to my body and thinking it was macho to push through pain. Am I still going to lift? Hell, yes.
Gymboi, nothing wrong with the 'go heavy or go home adage'. Guess we should have gone home sometimes.

Bad injuries bro.

Haha i guess we should have

[GymBoi4eva Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GymBoi4eva]

Hmm, the hips can be difficult to stretch properly. The IT band and illiopsoas are usually the worst and it can be difficult to fully stretch the glutes. It may be time to revisit the stretching and mobility routine you are practicing and try and improve it. Also look about adding to better glute activation exercises, hip raises, pull throughs, good mornings.

Do you foam roll?

I think you are right mate. No, i have never done any foam roll exercises. Do you think these would work?

[Zman007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Zman007]

I think you are right mate. No, i have never done any foam roll exercises. Do you think these would work?

Absolutely, Foam rolling or SMRT(Self Myofacial Release Technique) is absolutely amazing for helping rehab injuries. I use them with my clients all of the time. You can find for a decent price at performbetter.com. Make sure to get the high density black foam roller, it holds up much better for larger guys. It works in a similar fashion to ART(Active Relase Techniqe) or a deep tissue massage by breakup up adhesions in the soft tissue helping you regain mobility and function.

Well worth spending the money on, though make sure you do it religiously. Every day for a month and you will be amazed.

[GymBoi4eva Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GymBoi4eva]

Coolio! I will try it out then, worth ago. Thanks mate, you could have saved me alot of pain.....

[Zman007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Zman007]

Glad I could help. Let me know how it goes. You can PM me if you have any more questions. Oh, and thanks for the rep. It bumped me to a reputation beyond repute!

[GymBoi4eva Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GymBoi4eva]

Glad I could help. Let me know how it goes. You can PM me if you have any more questions. Oh, and thanks for the rep. It bumped me to a reputation beyond repute!

Hehe i noticed. You deserve it mate, you are full of usefull knowledge.

[BigO AdministratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close BigO]

Ones that stand out.
1) rupterde Bursa sack in the left elbow. a few months to heal.
2) lower back injury from deadlifts, at 405 going for fifth set of 8 something went snap. 9 days in a navy bed followed by years of back problems. Happened in 97 and I still see a chiropractor to this day and cant do heavy deads, squats or bent over barbell rows any more!
3) developed hinge impingement syndrome in both shoulders, that is manageable when I take rest after the flair ups.
4) Pulled just about everything out of whack at least once.
5) My personal favorite, while going for a 14th rep at 275 on the bench press I had a barbell squirt out of my sweaty paws and the weight fell straight on my chest. I swear to you all that the barbell actually bounced hard enough off of my chest that I somehow actually managed to get my left arm under it before it fell back on me again. Only suffered a long straight bruise accross both pecs. Lucky on that one, no broken bones, no ctual injury. It was a freak thing that couldnt happen again without breaking something.

[Zman007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Zman007]

Hehe i noticed. You deserve it mate, you are full of usefull knowledge.

Lol, thanks. Not just useful knowledge either!

And to BigO, that is amazing that you were able to catch that bar off the bounce. I once watched a guy slip like that and get his hand back under the bar right before it bounced off of his chest. To actually drop it and have it bounce without injury, nuts. Crazy.

[Toadstool Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toadstool]

The only times I have injured myself in the last 2 or 3 years of working out are by doing plyometrics.

I don't know what this movement is called, but it's where you do a pushup, explode up and your hands land on an elevated platform.
I had been doing these two times a week for like a month straight, plus working out almost every day. I hurt myself twice on this movement. Once, I missed the platform and scraped my forarm down to my elbow. The second time, I pinched a nerve and had to get some ART to relieve it.

The other time, I was doing some box-jumps about 3' off the ground. On my sixth set, I felt a slight hesitation before my jump and I knew I wasn't going to make it.
I landed on the edge of the wooden box, on my ankles, and I slid down to my knees.
I still have the scar from that one.

[MrBigDick Retired ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close MrBigDick]

Shit, I've had pulled musles, jacked up my shoulder from putting too much weight on the military press, squated improperly with too much weight and fucked up my lower back..........oh yeah, I've run the gammet of gym injuries....