Sorry I have not posted in a while! Ive been deeply focused on the hip and pelvis at work. I still have to enter some pictures into my next hip blog before I post it. Until then here is a short statement to chew on…
When building bone through exercises one important thing to consider is avoiding injury. There is a fine balance between gradually increasing the difficulty (good stress) of an exercise on bone and too much stress causing “bad pain” and injury.
Listen to your body and focus on the following three components…
1) Alignment – the resistance you use should be at an amount where you maintain proper alignment. In general the spine should be elongated, the shoulders rolled back and the knees should point in the same direction as the toes. You want to try to lift a weight that is challenging enough where you can maintain good alignment yet fatigue after 8-12 repetitions.
2) Feel the burn in the muscles NOT pain in joints – The “burn” when lifting weights is the normal lactic acid by product in the muscles from an anaerobic energy state. The muscle burn is not necessary for building bone but a good sign you are working hard. The burn should occur after around 8 repetitions. If you feel the burn sooner try warming up more with a light weight or some cardio, then try lifting an appropriate weight where the burn occurs between 8-12 reps. A burn after 3-4 reps puts you at a higher chance of injury such as a muscle strain causing searing pain in the muscle (it could take 12 weeks to recover!) You should not feel sharp pain or pain in a joint. For example in the knee, a sharp pain could be from the patella (knee cap) rubbing on the femur (thigh bone.) this is not a pain to “work through,” stop, check your alignment, stretch and/or lighten the weight. Burning pain when not working out is a sign of an injury and could be due to a nerve impingement, this too is not a pain to work through.
3) Enjoy the workout – when you enjoy what you are doing, you will return for more! Consistency is key.
