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Injuries
Injuries
If you want to realize your bodybuilding goals, avoiding injuries should be your top priority each time you step into a gym. If fate strikes and you get injured anyway, getting rid of the injury completely and as fast as possible should become your top priority. Fortunately, bodybuilding is one of the safest sports that exist, because each movement you make is fully planned in all details, and under complete control of yourself. Unless somebody drops a dumbbell on your head, or kicks against your leg while you are doing heavy s uats, you should be able to avoid any serious injuries if you follow some simple guidelines. !ince I am not a medical doctor, and only had a limited number of injuries myself, I am certainly not an expert in this field. "owever, over #$ years of experience as a true natural bodybuilder, and several injuries later, I certainly built some basic knowledge and understanding on the subject, which I believe is worthwhile sharing with you. If you want to know even more about injuries, search the internet for the information you need. If you ever become the victim of a serious injury, always consult a medical professional.
Kinds of Injuries
I do not discuss here all types of injuries because there are too many, and because I don%t know enough about all of them. &herefore, I will focus on the ones that I am most familiar with, and most fre uently occur among true natural bodybuilders.
Tendonitis
&endonitis basically is a very painful inflammation of a tendon, which is caused by the accumulation of microscopic tears in the tendon due to chronic overuse. ,ecause bodybuilding workouts are extremely stressful for the muscles as well as the tendons *tendons connect the muscles to the bones+, tendonitis fre uently occurs among bodybuilders. &endonitis can be very painful and can take very long to heal completely. -ou mainly feel the pain when you flex or stretch the muscle that is connected to the tendon, or when you press hard with your fingers directly on the tendon. If treated early and correctly *mainly by rest+, a tendonitis can heal completely, but it may recur very easily. If you don%t let a tendonitis heal, the tendon may completely break during an intense workout.
Injuries are the biggest enemy of every bodybuilder, because they can have a very negative effect on the uality and the results of your workouts, or even stop you completely from training a specific muscle group for a limited or a prolonged period of time. Unfortunately, some types of injuries do never heal completely, and will hamper your workouts for the rest of your life. &herefore, preventing injuries is of primordial importance if you want to become a successful bodybuilder in the long term.
wrong lift good lift !ome of the most dangerous bodybuilding exercises for the lower back are) bent4over barbell row, &4bar row, deadlifts, goodmornings, and all s uat movements, especially heavy barbell s uats and front s uats. I recommend you to replace these exercises by safer alternatives such as seated machine row, lying &4bar row, hyperextensions, and machine hack s uats. If you still chose to do any of these dangerous exercises, always keep your back 5$$6 straight throughout the movement, and only allow your knees and hips to bend. 2earing a leather weight lifting belt helps you keeping your lower back straight during heavy lifts.
!tretching your muscles, tendons, and ligaments during and after your warm up, increases their flexibility and elasticity, and decreases their vulnerability to microscopic tears that can occur during heavy exercises. ,efore each muscle workout, I usually do # set of about #$ reps of an exercise with very light weights *#$ 4 7$6 of the weight of my first real set+. 'fter each of these warm4up sets, I stretch the muscles for about 57 seconds. ' third very important aspect in preventing injuries is to perform all your exercises by means of well controlled uality reps. It is very important to do your reps in a slow and controlled manner, without jerking the weight up and letting it fall back down.
Stop w en it urts
' last and very important aspect in preventing, or at least minimizing, injuries is to stop your exercise as soon as you feel any abnormal pain in any muscle, tendon, or joint. &he biological function of pain basically is to give a signal, which tells you that something is going wrong and immediate action should be taken to prevent worse. 8istening to your body, and stopping immediately as soon as a feel the slightest pain, can save you lots of problems and frustrating delays in your bodybuilding results. 'pplying ice on the injured area is very helpful in preventing swelling and inflammation.
#ppl$ ice
'pplying ice on the injured area right after an accident is very helpful in preventing that the injured tissue starts swelling and developing inflammation. :ut some ice cubes in a plastic bag and place it on the injured area for 5$457 minutes. ;epeat this several times per day until the swelling and inflammation is gone. (specially when recovering from a tendonitis it is very important to use cold therapy after each workout.
&assage
!ometimes an injury does not heal by itself and continues to hurt even after many weeks of total rest. If that is the case, massage may offer a solution. 2hile massage is certainly not the ideal solution for all chronic injuries, some types of injuries respond very well on massage therapy, especially if soft tissues are involved such as muscles, fascia, tendons and ligaments. &here exist many kinds of massage, but here I am talking about a specific kind of deep tissue and cross fiber massage in which very high pressure is applied on the painful tissue by the fingertips. Unless you cannot reach the painful spot yourself, it is recommended to perform the massage yourself because nobody else can better locate the exact spot and apply the right pressure. &his type of massage works very well if the pain is caused by cramped muscles, chronic inflammation, deposits of calcium or uric acid, and structural problems caused by scar tissue formation. "igh pressure applied on cramped muscles is known to be very effective in relaxing the muscles and relieving the pain. &he problem of sustained muscle cramps is very common in muscles that contribute to your posture, such as back, shoulders and neck muscles. "igh pressure deep tissue and cross fiber massage can also be very effective in resolving problems caused by excess scar tissue formation after an injury and to promote the healing of a chronic inflammation as in tendonitis. "igh pressure deep tissue massage increases the blood flow and stimulates the natural healing process, whereas cross fiber massage breaks up excessive scar tissue and stimulates restoration of the normal functional tissue structures. &o be successful, very high pressure has to be applied to the painful tissue, resulting in even more pain the first few days after the massage. &his pain will gradually decrease the days after the massage. If the pain is not completely gone 74< days after the massage, you may need to repeat it with even higher pressure. .epending on the severity of the injury it may take several weeks to reach complete recovery.
!ebuild graduall$
2hen the pain is gone after a few weeks or months of rest, the damaged tissue of your injury is probably largely healed. "owever, this doesn%t mean that you are again the old guy. &he injured muscle, tendon, ligament, or cartilage is not replaced= it is kind of recovered but still wears the scars of the injury, and probably always will. -ou are not yet as good as new. -ou have to rebuild the condition of the muscle, tendon, ligament, or cartilage as much as possible. 'nd this may take several extra weeks or months, depending of the severity of the initial injury. If you would immediately start training again at 5$$6 intensity, the healed tissue would get damaged again, and the problem would start all over again. &herefore you have to rebuild very gradually the condition and resistance of the healed tissue. &he best way to do this is by very light resistance training and gradually, week after week, increasing the intensity bit by bit. For a severe injury, such as a tendonitis or a torn muscle, I believe you should start training the muscle again > times per week at only 5$6 of its intensity. .o 5 or # sets of 574#7 reps of a couple of exercises with 5$6 of the weight that you would normally use. (very week you increase the intensity by about 5$6, gradually increase the number of sets, and decrease the fre uency of your exercises. 2hen the intensity of your training is back at 7$6, reduce the fre uency of your exercises back to once per week, but keep ? days after your training a very light training session of a couple of sets at only #$6 intensity to speed up the recovery of your high intensity workout. If everything goes well, you should be back at 5$$6 intensity after about > months. I would recommend you to keep for a few months the light workout session at #$6 intensity between your normal workouts. 2henever you take a break from training of longer than 5 week, I would strongly advise you to be very careful when you start working out again, and do your first workouts at a much lower intensity then you would normally do *let%s say 7$6+ in order to avoid overloading your muscles and especially your tendons. ;eserve a couple of weeks to get back into your normal rhythm at 5$$6 intensity. 't first sight this may sound like a waste of time, however, my experience tells me that it will save you lots of troubles by avoiding tendon inflammations and other annoying injuries.
%onclusion
'lthough bodybuilding is a relatively safe sport, you will probably get your portion of injuries too. ,ecause every injury implies a significant setback in your bodybuilding goals of at least a few weeks or months, and not rarely impacts your training ability for the rest of your life, you should do anything possible to prevent them. &he best ways to prevent injuries is to warm up and stretch before every workout, to perform your exercises correctly, using good form and uality reps with moderate weights that you can fully control. 'lways keep you back straight during heavy lifting, and stop your workout completely as soon as you feel the slightest pain. &raining with pain will result in serious injury. In case you catch a serious injury, and the pain doesn%t go away by itself after a couple of days, consult a medical professional for a correct diagnosis and appropriate therapy. ;est will always be an essential part of the initial healing process, whereas massage may offer a solution for chronic conditions. 2hen the pain is gone for 5$$6, start rebuilding the condition and resistance of your injured muscle, tendon, or joint very gradually, and pay extra attention to your warm4ups and stretching. 2henever you take a break from training of longer than 5 week, reserve a few weeks to get back into your normal rhythm of 5$$6 training intensity. For more information on a specific sports injury you can take a look at the !ports Injury @linic site.