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When you compare deadlifting, squatting, and bench pressing gargantuan amounts of weight to other forms of exercise, like jogging, cycling, or calisthenics, weightlifting looks more like a death wish than a discipline.

Poke around on Internet forums and you'll find plenty to feed your anxiety.

Personal stories range from the tame-mild joint and muscle aches and the like-to the downright horrific and debilitating, with some long-time bodybuilders so incapacitated that they can't even tie their shoes until the ibuprofen kicks in.

If that isn't enough, there's plenty of video evidence, too.

I'll save your eyes (and appetite), but trust me-serious weightlifting injuries can be particularly gruesome.

And so weightlifting, and strength training in particular, has been saddled with a bum rap for decades now.

Thankfully, the tides are changing and strength training is gaining more and more mainstream popularity, but many people still think that the dangers of weightlifting far exceed the benefits.

Well, as you'll soon see in this article, while weightlifting does have its "dangers," they're not nearly as bad as many people think.

Ironically, shows that it's actually one of the safest kinds of exercise you can do...when it's done properly.

That, my friends, is the catch.

When done incorrectly-and there are many ways to mess it up-weightlifting can become very dangerous, very fast.

So, if you want to understand what science really says about the dangers of weightlifting, the benefits it has to offer most everyone, and how to do it as safely as possible, then let's dive in.

How Likely Are You to Get Injured with Weightlifting?

There's a saying in sports that "you're always between injuries."

That may sound a bit morbid and pessimistic, but there's a kernel of truth there, too.

Anyone that has played sports competitively for any period of time knows that injuries eventually occur, even if they're only mild, and weightlifting is no exception to this rule.

Do it seriously for long enough and you can count on at least having to occasionally deal with problems of the "nagging" variety, like tendonitis, joint pain, or excessive muscle tightness.
That said, research does show that bodybuilding is one of the safest sports you can "play."
Case in point:

In one review of 20 studies, scientists found that, on average, bodybuilding produced just one injury for every 1,000 hours of training.

To put that in perspective, if you spend 5 hours per week weightlifting, you could go almost four years without experiencing any kind of injury whatsoever.

Researchers also noted that most of the injuries tended to be minor aches and pains that didn't require any type of special treatment or recovery protocols. In most cases, rest with a bit of ice and heat wins the day.

Now, as we move into more intense and technical types of weightlifting, like CrossFit, Olympic weightlifting, and powerlifting, the injury rate rose, but not nearly as much as you might think. These activities produced just 2 to 4 injuries per 1,000 hours of training.

For comparison, like ice hockey, football, soccer, and have injury rates ranging from 6 to 260 per 1,000 hours, and long-distance runners about 10 injuries per 1,000 hours of pavement pounding.
In other words, you're about 6 to 10 times more likely to get hurt playing everyday sports than hitting the gym for some heavy weightlifting.
The payoff for weightlifting is tremendous as well, delivering a number of health and fitness benefits that you simply can't get from other types of sports and exercise.

Here's a short list of what a well-designed weightlifting routine can do for you:

When you compare all of that to the rather negligible risk of injury, and the generally mild nature of the injuries that most often occur, the choice is clear:
Choosing to lift weights is far better than choosing not to out of fear of getting hurt.
The reality is if your number one goal in life is to experience no physical injuries whatsoever, then your only surefire option is to never leave your bed.

Every time you step into your car, take the stairs instead of the elevator, or, hell, type on a computer, you're flirting with injury to one degree or another.

Dealing with risk is just part of life. All we can do is weigh the probabilities and potential upsides and downsides, make choices that are most likely to play out in our favor, and do everything we can to create positive outcomes.

Now, I mentioned earlier that my enthusiasm isn't for weightlifting per se, but weightlifting that's done safely and intelligently.
If you're going about your training properly, you can be squatting hundreds of pounds every week and have healthier joints and a lower risk of injury than a guy who just walks his dog around the block a few times per week.
If you're going about it recklessly, though, then every time you step in the gym, you're asking for trouble.

Let's look at the major differences between these two approaches.

How to Avoid Weightlifting Injuries

Many weightlifting injuries aren't caused by training too intensely, but by failing to fully recover from previous workouts.

Sure, you can find people that have ripped a pec while benching, collapsed while squatting a bending barbell, or jackhammered their lower back with a heavy pull, but these worst-case scenarios rarely happen.
The reality is most weightlifting injuries are insidious and give you plenty of time to change course before the bottom falls out.
You know, your knee feels a little stiff the day after heavy squats. You shrug it off and keep going. A few weeks later, it's starting to hurt you squat. "No pain, no gain," you say, and keep going. A few more weeks and, well, now it just hurts all of the time.

These are called " repetitive stress injuries ," or RSI's, and they're the bane of every athlete. They're not painful enough to keep you on the sidelines, but cause just enough trouble to hinder progress.

Fortunately, the solution is simple: a bit of rest is all it usually takes.

Once an RSI has set in, the to get through it is to avoid the activity that caused it, and that means avoiding certain exercises or, in some cases, training the muscle group altogether.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, if you spend enough time in the gym, you're probably going to experience an RSI of one type and severity or another, but let's look at some preventative things that you can do to stave them off for as long as possible.

If It Hurts, Don't Do It

This might seem like common sense, but we all know that "common" sense isn't really all that common.

The rule here is simple:
If something hurts, stop immediately.
I'm not talking about muscle soreness or lactic acid buildup, but pain. If a rep hurts enough to make you wince, that means you need to stop.

Pain is a warning that something is wrong, and if you don't listen to your body's warning, you're asking for it.

So, when you hit pain, stop, rest for a couple of minutes and try the exercise again. If it still hurts, do something else and come back to it next time you're programmed for it and see how it goes.

If it's still a problem, do a substitution instead. Don't think that you "have" to do any exercise, even if it hurts.

Now, if you aren't sure if something qualifies as pain or the normal discomfort of training, ask yourself these two questions:
Is the pain on both sides of my body, or just one?
When you perform exercises correctly, both sides of your body are fairly equally subjected to stress.

Thus, if one side starts to hurt more than the other, it's more likely to be a sign to stop rather than muscle burn or fatigue.
Is the pain concentrated around a joint?
These are the types of pains that you're most likely to encounter because muscle strains and tears are very uncommon.

Aches and stiffness generally go away if you warm up properly, but genuine joint pains won't (in fact, they'll generally get worse).

Thus, when they do happen, simply rest the affected joint(s) until the pain is completely gone.

Progress Gradually

One of the easiest ways to get hurt in your weightlifting is getting greedy.

Maybe you're feeling particularly strong one day, or you want to impress or one-up someone in the gym or just move the progressive overload needle faster, so you load the bar with a weight that makes your spidey senses tingle.

This is almost always a bad idea.

It increases the likelihood that your form will break down, it can place more stress on your joints and ligaments than they can handle, and it can increase the likelihood that you'll fall behind in recovery.

A much smarter, and ultimately more effective, approach to progression is one that's slow and steady.
If you're new to weightlifting and you can add 5 pounds to your big lifts every week or two for the first several months, you're doing great. If you're an experience weightlifter on a proper bulk, then gaining just 1 rep per week (and thus adding weight every few weeks) is good progress. Fractional plates for "microloading" can also be helpful here.
Progressing this way also helps with the next point...

Be a Stickler for Good Form

Wanna know one weird trick for immediately increasing your whole-body strength by at least 10%?
Remember that the goal when you perform a resistance training exercise isn't to haphazardly lift as much weight as possible, but to carefully control it through a full range of motion.
Use shitty form!

"Cheat reps" are an easy way to add weight to the bar, but they also reduce the quality of the training and increase the risk of injury.

This not only protects you from injury but also makes each and every rep, exercise, and workout that you do more conducive to muscle and strength gain.

This is especially important with compound exercises like the squat, deadlift, and bench press because while they're not inherently dangerous, they generally involve the heaviest weights and most technical skill.
Don't sacrifice form for the sake of progression.
Thus, there's a big difference between cheating on the last rep or two of isolation exercises like the dumbbell curl and lateral raise versus a barbell pull or press.

So, the takeaway here is simple:

Instead, learn proper form for every exercise that you perform and stick to it.

The Bottom Line on How Dangerous Weightlifting Really Is

Weightlifting isn't nearly as dangerous many people think.

In fact, it's generally one of the safest sports that you can get into, less dangerous than hitting the soccer field or running trails.

That said, it also must be approached responsibly.

Respect your body and what you're demanding of it, and realize that it's almost always weightlifting that leads to the haunting types of injuries that make many people afraid to touch a barbell.

So, while you can expect your fair share of mild muscle and joint aches and pains as you progress as a weightlifter, you also can, on the whole, remain health and injury-free so long as you...

Happy and healthy training!

What's your take on the dangers of weightlifting? Have anything else you'd like to share? Let me know in the comments below!

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How Dangerous Is Weightlifting? What 20 Studies Have to Say - Legion Athletics

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When you compare deadlifting, squatting, and bench pressing gargantuan amounts of weight to other forms of exercise, like jogging, cycling, or calisthenics, weightlifting looks more like a death wish than a discipline. Poke around on Internet forums and you'll find plenty to feed your anxiety.

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Australian heroes reveal how they stopped Oporto robbery thieves in hilarious interview today

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#TeamUSA's @harrison_maurus set a NEW YOUTH WORLD RECORD with this 192kg clean & jerk. He also won the Youth World Championship! Replay session on our BIO LINK! #USAW

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960 Likes, 12 Comments - USA Weightlifting (@usa_weightlifting) on Instagram: "#TeamUSA's @harrison_maurus set a NEW YOUTH WORLD RECORD with this 192kg clean & jerk. He also won..."

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A different, slo-mo angle of @harrison_maurus, world record breaking 192kg clean & jerk. Watch session replay on bio link! #USAW (📹: @iwfnet)

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491 Likes, 7 Comments - USA Weightlifting (@usa_weightlifting) on Instagram: "A different, slo-mo angle of @harrison_maurus, world record breaking 192kg clean & jerk. Watch..."

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Instagram post by CrossFit * Apr 7, 2017 at 4:38pm UTC

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6,091 Likes, 67 Comments - CrossFit (@crossfit) on Instagram: "follow @crossfittraining Lesson Plan for 170407. For the full version, visit the CrossFit Training..."

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#weeklygeek For a full videos and breakdowns go to iconathlete.com and click on "The Vault" then "Videos" OR click the link in bio. ------------------------------ A simple overhead squat performed with a PVC can tell you more than you think when it comes to assessing an athletes mobility, awareness, and strength. ------------------------------ Check out the examples of movement you see in the video. Much of it has to do with a lack of mobility in the shoulders or ankles. If one of both of those are present you will see common flaws in the movement pattern. ------------------------------ Keep it simple and you can learn how to better help your athletes by looking at a few specific things in the OHS. #iconathlete #teamspeal

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1,384 Likes, 15 Comments - Chris Spealler (@cspealler) on Instagram: "#weeklygeek For a full videos and breakdowns go to iconathlete.com and click on "The Vault" then..."

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My background is as a founder of a CrossFit gym so, obviously I look at weightlifting with a slightly different perspective than someone preparing to compete in an Olympic weightlifting competition. These videos are based on my teachings and experiences as a CrossFt coach training beginners to weightlifters in short limited time. Having said that, I would like to say that I am also a founder of Takano Weightlifting with Coach Bob Takano so, I understand that there's lot of instruction that is needed beyond what is on offer here.

This is my methodology to teach and learn Olympic weightlifting as a beginner. We are going to focus on the foundations and not sweat the little things and cues. A good example of this is footwork. if you cannot jump and land in the correct position on your lifts, other cues - such as get up on your toes or pull your hips through - are not going to help. You need to move your feet correctly and land in the right position before anything else. It's simple to understand, difficult to master.

So, my advice for beginners is always to stick with the basics and build a solid foundation. Don't overthink it. When you start to get more proficient at these lifts you will come to realize that your footwork has a profound effect on the quality of a lift but there's only so many ways you can train for that.

And here's a few extra tips:

Keep your back tight and locked in. There should not be any rounding of your back at any point.

Be sure to drive with your arms and lock them out once you have "jumped" and the bar is above your shoulders during your snatch or the Jerk.

Don't forget to use the "hook" grip.

Watch the videos with coach Lyndsay Dill below in sequence . They are meant for people who want a quick and easy start to weightlifting. There is no substitute for proper coaching when it comes to these lifts because, while they are simple movements, they require a lifetime to master. So, as you evolve in your practice seek out a great coach locally, one who has experience of taking people to competitions preferably, and make sure you are working with the proper equipment.

However, not everyone is looking to become a competitive or hard core lifter so, enjoy them as much as you can because they are also a great part of any strength and conditioning plan, or CrossFit workouts. And, when you start to hit your lifts properly you will feel the difference in your body, the way everything seems to click. It's a very rewarding feeling that only gets better as the weights go up.

The Basics

The Snatch

The Clean

The Jerk

Working on the Rack

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The Quick Start Guide for Beginning Weightlifting

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My background is as a founder of a CrossFit gym so, obviously I look at weightlifting with a slightly different perspective than someone preparing to compete in an Olympic weightlifting competition. These videos are based on my teachings and experiences as a CrossFt coach training beginners to weightlifters in short limited time.

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Australia  has a unique history that has shaped the diversity of its peoples, their  cultures and lifestyles today. Three major contributors to Australia's  demographic make-up are a diverse Indigenous population, a British colonial  past and extensive immigration from many different countries and cultures.  Today, Australia's population of about 23 million is one of the most culturally  and linguistically diverse populations in the world.Although  the majority of the population are Australian born, more than 75% of  Australians identified with an ancestry other than Australian in the 2011  Census. About 2% of Australians come from Indigenous backgrounds and about 43%  have at least one parent who has  born overseas. 30% of the population were born in another country. Of the  overseas born, the major countries of birth are England, New Zealand and China.  About 8.5% of Australians were born in non-English speaking countries  [1]. In all, Australians come from over 200 birthplaces.

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Australia  has a unique history that has shaped the diversity of its peoples, their  cultures and lifestyles today. Three major contributors to Australia's  demographic make-up are a diverse Indigenous population, a British colonial  past and extensive immigration from many different countries and cultures.  Today, Australia's population of about 23 million is one of the most culturally  and linguistically diverse populations in the world.Although  the majority of the population are Australian born, more than 75% of  Australians identified with an ancestry other than Australian in the 2011  Census. About 2% of Australians come from Indigenous backgrounds and about 43%  have at least one parent who has  born overseas. 30% of the population were born in another country. Of the  overseas born, the major countries of birth are England, New Zealand and China.  About 8.5% of Australians were born in non-English speaking countries  [1]. In all, Australians come from over 200 birthplaces.

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Collectively, Australians speak over 200 languages. Languages other than English are spoken by about 16% of the population with about 61,000 people speaking an Indigenous language. Other than English, the most common languages spoken today are Chinese, Italian, Greek and Arabic. There are over 50 Indigenous languages and Australian creoles actively spoken  [2] by Australians.

The major religion in Australia is Christianity with about 61% of the population identifying as Christian. This group comprises over 70 different Christian denominations with the major denominations being Catholic; Anglican; Uniting Church; Presbyterian and Reformed; and Eastern Orthodox. Other major religions represented in Australia today include Buddhism (2.4% of the population), Islam (2.1%), Hinduism (1.28%) and Judaism (0.45%). About 7,361 Australians practise Aboriginal traditional religions. About 22% of Australians have no religion.

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The Aussie Women's team held a series of scrimmage games against the Newcastle North Stars Bantams side. The young guys gave it a really good go but the girls came home strong.

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How can we better understand the dilemmas of men and boys today? http://sydneyoperahouse.com/ideas Subscribe and find more videos from Ideas at the House: http://www.youtube.com/ideasatthehouse Get a new talk every week on our podcast: Audio - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/sydney-opera-house-ideas-at/id640445035 Video - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/sydney-opera-house-ideas-at/id640444896 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/IdeasAtTheHouse Twitter - https://twitter.com/ideasatthehouse

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