|
Bodybuilding Back Pain
Bodybuilding back pain
Most injuries are shoulder associated from bench pressing. Others include lower back spasms from deadlifting and squatting, torn biceps from a preacher curl and sore joints. I had a few injuries myself. I had a major one some years ago in my upper back/shoulder area. I was doing behind the neck shoulder presses and all of a sudden I heard a pop and then terrible pain. The next week I barely could bench an empty bar. It took months to recover from that uninviting setback. The next thing I asked myself is what caused this horrific injury and how to not let it happen again.
I was workout six days a week at the time and came to the concept I was drastically overtraining. I wasn't giving my body adequate time to recover from the last exercise.
Lets go over some imperative issues to help prevent injuries. Make sure to warm up before hitting it hard. Do a little cardio to get the blood moving and some light stretching. Don't lift too much right away.
It is best to follow a good cycle or periodization program. A cycle program varies the weight used and the number of reps each week. Use a lifting program that works the complete body. This will help prevent muscle imbalance.
Have you ever seen a lifter that only benches and works his arms. They start to look hunchback because their chest muscles are a lot stronger than their back. The stronger chest muscles pull together. Mix up your routine at least once a month with new workouts. Keep it fresh.
Make sure to fuel your starving muscles after you exercise with the right nutrition. This will help you recover faster and get ready for the next workout.
The key to making stretching work for you is knowing which stretches you need to be working on and just because a muscle feels tight, that doesnt consequently mean it needs to be stretched.
For example, many people stretch the hamstrings because they feel tight and they think the hamstrings are limiting their flexibility
the fact is, most of the time the hamstrings are tight because they are constantly being pulled / lengthened due to muscle imbalances that tip the pelvis forward.
As you can, when the pelvis tips forward the hamstrings get pulled upward and are always held in a stretched position
And this is why millions of people can stretch their hamstrings every freakin day and never make any gain in their flexibility.
Are you one of those people?
If you are, you need to stop stretching your hamstrings and find out exactly which muscles you need to be targeting by reading the rest of this article
Not only does this forward tipping of the pelvis (which is caused by muscle imbalances) keep the hamstrings tight and make it very difficult to make improvements in the muscles flexibility, but it also leads to the following:
increased stress / wear and tear from the ankles all the way up the spine
.
For example, the forward tipping of the pelvis places uneven pressure on the ankle, knee and hip joints and also many of the vertebrae in the spine.
weakens the hamstrings, inhibits normal functioning and increases the likelihood of hamstring pulls
When the hamstrings are constantly being strained because of the muscle imbalances, the muscle is weak, not able to function as it normally would, prone to injury and without correcting the muscle disequilibrium recover can take up to 9 months to a year, or longer!
creates excess curvature in the lower and middle spine
This tipping of the pelvis places excessive amounts of abnormal stress on the muscles, vertebrae and discs in the lower and mid spine and this sets you up for potential injuries to the muscles of the lower and middle back
.
Plus, it also causes the discs between your vertebrae to wear down and deteriorate much faster than they normally would and this sets you up for degenerative, bulging, protruding and herniated discs along with numerous other spinal conditions like arthritis, spinal stenosis, and the oh so popular sciatica!
Fitness Ball Training For GolfThere are many training tools available to help achieve better balance in your golf swing. The most effective way to improve .....
This hamstring example is just one of many muscle imbalances are responsible for nearly every ache, pain, injury and condition out there!
Here are a few more examples of injuries / conditions that are caused by muscle imbalances and can easily be prevented and/or eliminated with targeted stretches and workouts:
upper back and neck pain
shoulder injuries (rotator cuff)
elbow and wrist pain (carpal tunnel, tennis/golfer/baseball elbow, etc)
knee pain (runners knee, chondromalacia, ligament tears, etc)
hip pain (IT band syndrome, bursitis, etc)
ankle pain (Achilles tendonitis, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, etc)
When you associate a targeted stretch to general stretches like the ones found in Yoga, Pilates and the corny ones your doctor, chiropractor or physical therapist gives you, its no surprise they provide little or no pain relief and almost best to fail to get rid of the problem.
Concept
Remember, the key to eliminating injuries and preventing future ones is to identify what areas you need to target. In the next article well be discussing in detail, how to address various injuries like back, hip, knee, and shoulder pain with targeted workouts.
|
|
|
