Common weightlifting injuries

Weightlifting poses certain risks of injury to the body, below is a list of a few of the risks.

Rotator Cuff injury

The rotator cuff is a collection of four muscles that work together to rotate the shoulder.  Commonly seen injury here is from people who regularly do heavy bench press, when rotating the hand can damage the rotator cuff if they don’t spend time practicing this movement and warming up.

Tennis elbow

Regular tricep work is usually the course of this, without warming up properly and training to heavy on the triceps can cause injury here.

Lower back pain

Alot of weight exercises involve using the lower back such as the deadlift for example.  The deadlift uses the lower back to lift the bar if you don’t focus on the exercise 100 percent this is a very easy way to put you back out of action for weeks.  You must always concentrate on engaging the core and lower back muscles when doing a deadlift and most weight exercises on that note.

Knee injuries

Knee injuries are commonly seen in people doing heavy squats where alot of weight is applied to the body and if not performed properly transfers through the knee joint instead of the hamstrings and quadriceps.

Torn Muscles

Commonly seen in those performing pec flyes.  Pec flyes put tremendous pressure on the pecs when stretched out in their fullest position so its easy to tear a muscle here.

All the above injuries can be easily avoided by warming up prior to each weightlifting session and stretching before and after the workout.  Also always remember to concentrate on the exercises you are performing to avoid injury.  More often than not alot of injuries is due to people not focusing, when the brain is not focused on what’s going on it often forgets to recruit the muscle fibers needed for raising the weights and thats what causes injuries.

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