What Really Leads to Injury? - how'd get injured?

[omoplata]

When I talk to lifting buddies about how they got injured, I am finding it hard to arrive at a common denominator. Sometimes it is heavy weights, sometimes lightish weights, sometimes it is the first heavy set, some other times it is the last set.... it's fckin all over the place....

In your opinion what actually leads to injury? I am not talking about theory but actual real life experience. What actually injured you or the guys you have personal knowledge of?

 

[luki7788]

you are most susceptible to injuries when you have the best shape and disposition because you are at the moment when your body is able to do more than ever (this is the moment when we start breaking all our PRs in training) and to get to this point you have to force your body to functioning at 100% for a long time - that's why you can't be in shape all year round and constantly beat your records and constantly become better - you have to have periods when you are worse and when you are at the peak

 

[bbxtreme]

When I talk to lifting buddies about how they got injured, I am finding it hard to arrive at a common denominator. Sometimes it is heavy weights, sometimes lightish weights, sometimes it is the first heavy set, some other times it is the last set.... it's fckin all over the place....

In your opinion what actually leads to injury? I am not talking about theory but actual real life experience. What actually injured you or the guys you have personal knowledge of?

What Luki said is spot on. IMO I’ll add it’s usually due to ego OR doing everyday life stuff outside the gym and not being hydrated with electrolytes.

Injury one- my left AC. I was extremely lean and in my 20’s and low 200’s which is good size on my frame and height. I was doing barbell incline for 315 which I should have never been doing in that state. I got 6 reps and let my spot behind me get in my head. “You’ve got 2 more.” You don’t have two more in that state and shouldn’t push. Led to injuring my AC and micro tears in my left pec.

Injury two- it was 2020 and gyms had closed. I wasn’t as hydrated as I should be. I went to put up a door pull up bar. When I pulled down on it to lock it in with my right arm I heard a pop and tear noise. I’d torn my right lat putting up a damn pull up bar. It bruised the size of a softball and took a year of deep tissue work and other stuff to heal fully. You’d never know now.

But bodybuilders aren’t the most functional people with our muscle and how we train so many injuries happen doing everyday stuff. Hence hydration, electrolytes and stretching are important IMO.

 

[Mufasa123]

Lots of easy ways to get injured - imbalances, lack of warm up, carelessness... Ect

Honestly for me it's mostly flukey random. Shit happens and will happen. Try to avoid it and you'll simply decay in other ways. There is no permanence here. Pick your poison, do your best, embrace life.

 

[Worldsfastestfatty]

Well you get injuries caused by a single catastrophic trauma - IE lost footing in a heavy squat or dropped the bar in a snatcj however these are much less frequent than injuries caused during normal activities.

In these cases cases people blame the exact exercise they were doing at the time of the injury - in reality they need to be looking at everything they had been doing in the weeks & months running up the accident;

- had they been routinely lifting with poor form?
- were they allowed adequate recovery between intense exercise of that muscle group?
- had they developed imbalances in other areas of the kinetic chain associated?
- had they been training with limited range of motion/tightness and using the weight to force the muscle to stretch/contract beyond the range of motion you could reasonably achieve without it?

And of course there's factors such as hydration and certain drugs etc. normally a sports related injury in strength training is slowly building up for a considerable period before it become evident

 

[Gunsmith]

I've honestly never had an injury from lifting in the gym , its always been some stupid shit working or playing outside the gym

Tore a tricep tightening a lathe chuck
, tore a bicep putting a boat on a trailer , tore a hamstring racing my my son on the street , and just last year tore a quad , rotator cuff , subscapalarus and biceps cause i rolled my ankle on a rock in a parking lot..
Had a hand full of broke bone from various dumb shit from dirt bikes to coaching peewee football

I think muscle and tendon injuries come more from a fast flex on a cold muscle or awkward position more often than not

 

[stackdizzy]

I've honestly never had an injury from lifting in the gym , its always been some stupid shit working or playing outside the gym

Tore a tricep tightening a lathe chuck
, tore a bicep putting a boat on a trailer , tore a hamstring racing my my son on the street , and just last year tore a quad , rotator cuff , subscapalarus and biceps cause i rolled my ankle on a rock in a parking lot..
Had a hand full of broke bone from various dumb shit from dirt bikes to coaching peewee football

I think muscle and tendon injuries come more from a fast flex on a cold muscle or awkward position more often than not

Man I honestly don't see too many people get injured at the gym, Not saying it doesn't happen but I hear more injuries from mundane tasks that the person is not lifting significant weight like lifting drywall, grabbing a ball, playing/fighting with friends in a drunken state. Or from other sports like football, soccer, volleyball, skiing. I do have a couple friends that are older and lifted heavy and had to have shoulder, hip, knee replacements later in life but that seems more common than an actual serious injury in the gym.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

There are TOO MANY ways to answer this thread...

Being beat up, being too lean, not listening to your body, bad luck, instability, freak accidents. If there was a singular cause, we would all know about it.

When i was a PLer, i pushed through nagging injuries and mild pain...to a detriment. My body was very fatigued and i had constant pain in my shoulders and pecs. I knew I needed a deload. Went to the gym to do more of a submax rep workout as I had done a PL meet maybe 2 months earlier. 1st set of 3x3 with 435 heard a loud popping noise from my armpit. Luckily i had two spotters with me.

Partially tore my tricep in a PLing meet on the descent of a bench attempt...bar path was off, too high and I ended up trying to JM press it.
each completely different. I'm lucky that i havent had injuries from doing stupid shit. its all been awkward shitty situations and Me not listening to my body.

 

[LK3]

yup most injuries outside of the gym.
but
pec tear. dont know what else but left my chest and arm deformed.
was only a few reps into reverse grip bench of which i would hit about 30 reps.
i was just starting a new blast, was stronger then usual, wasnt paying as much attention as is should of to warm up and pop!
some things snapped off my chest and rolled up in my shoulder.
lesson, pay attention, be clam.

damaged my leg squatting.
was my last warm up set.
was again weight that i would hit 30 reps. but a new pr.
my last warm up set was the weight i was gona use and it felt super light, i was excited for my set, i was gona crush it.
from the bottom of my last warm up rep i went up way too fast, excited for the comming set and... snap!
something on the inside of my thigh down from groin area.
generally i havent gone to a dr unless im dying so idk what i did but just walking was complicated for the next few months. 6 months to recover and that was the last time i attempted to push new weight with my legs.

damaged something in other quad doing leg press.
many years ago.
it was pr breaking set.
one rep had a grinding feeling the next was a pop almost lost the weight.
few months to recover.
end of stupid weight on the leg press.

basically what luki said. lol

 

[buck]

Falling and sticking a hand out to catch your self can tear more rotators then most anything else for most people. But they may not notice till they lift something. meta studies i have seen show stretching to be inconclusive as to whether it helps, especially as most injuries are in a normal range of motion. High intensity and lower reps can put as much wear and tear as high volume and reps. When the actual damage that causes an issue may happen at a time other then when the injury shows up. I tore 2 rotators off the bone one day in my left shoulder. But i bet the real start to the problem was when my shoulder was separated and dislocated many year before. And needing the right shoulder replaced was probably due to years of it making up for my left shoulder.