Injury risk & weight training.
Updated: Jan 7, 2021
TRAINING WITH WEIGHTS AS A SPORT IS INCREDIBLY LOW RISK WITH THE AVERAGE INJURY RATE FOR BODYBUILDING BEING 0.24-1 INJURIES PER 1000 PARTICIPATION HOURS.
That’s a lot of hours of health benefit accrual for very low risk of injury.
Comparing the data on lifting sports to other exercise pursuits we can see that taking up running or joining a football team carries a higher injury risk.
EVIDENCE SUPPORTS LOOKING INSTEAD TO THESE MODIFIABLE AREAS WHEN AIMING TO ESCHEW POTENTIAL LIFTING RELATED INJURY:
TRAINING LOAD (E.g. measured objectively as acute:chronic workload, sets per week or subjectively using RPE)
PHYSIOLOGICAL FATIGUE (session duration, readiness to train, sleep)
PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS (stress, mood, history)
CURRENT LEVEL OF POSITIVE PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION to a stimulus (E.g. from previous exposure to movements, loads, positions, intensities)
Want to know the most risky behaviour of them all?
A sedentary lifestyle.
Training with weights is not inherently risky.
The benefits of movement vastly outweigh the risks.
Share this post if you found it helpful.