Common Weight Training Exercises That Cause Injury

Exercise is supposed to be a process to strengthen the body and promote overall good health. For the most part that is a true statement. However, there are some traditional exercises, mainly weight-training exercises, that often require the body to be placed in a mechanically weak position to perform the exercise. When the human body is placed in these mechanically weak positions, it makes us much more apt to suffer an injury.

There are three exercises that consistently stick out as the cause of training exercise injuries:

1. Weight-Training: Dead Lifts

When you perform a dead lift, it places the back in a position that is mechanically weak. As a result, you are forced to use your stomach (abdominal) muscles to compensate and prevent the application of pressure to the lumbar discs of the spine. This type of weight-training was once commonly used in the sport of powerlifting. While it does serve to create power and bulk of the large muscle groups found across the back, it doesn’t actually strengthen the back. In fact, dead lifts aren’t an appropriate exercise because of this risk of injury.

2. Weight-Training: Squats

While this type of weight-training exercise truly is a superb exercise for those wanting to develop power in the back and legs, it’s also a very difficult exercise to do in relation to proper body mechanics. Squats, particularly those that are performed with a weighted barbell across the shoulders or done opposed to any sort of resistance, can hardly ever be done without placing the body in a mechanically weak position. There is a serious risk of overly stressing the back and knees while performing the ill-positioned up and down movement of the exercise. Find a personal trainer performing squats on a regular basis, and he will most likely have had some sort of back problem, such as a herniated discs.

Leg press machines that provide support while simulating the squats’ benefits are also problematic, as there is still the potential for undo pressure being placed on the lower back while performing the exercise. Instead of performing an exercise with the potential to harm, a non-weighted squat can be done. Done slowly and performed properly, this type of squat can actually be beneficial to individuals with herniated discs and existing back pain.

3. Weight-Training: Military Presses

As far as neck injuries and shoulder girdle injuries go, military presses are a common culprit. In a military press, the lift starts with a barbell on the deltoids. The barbell is then pressed/raised overhead. While the neck area isn’t supposed to be involved in the exercise, it often is. If muscles start to fail or fatigue, then the shoulders will hunch over and the neck will tilt forward in compensation. This action puts undo pressure on the cervical discs and neck muscles, thereby increasing the risk of injury.