Old and Broken at 22 Years Old
I always considered myself a pretty healthy kid. I started training when I was 13 years old, and started competing in powerlifting at 16. I loved to lift weights, I loved to see the changes and development in my strength. The feeling of training to the point that I could lift something I used to not be able to was intoxicating. I loved to be strong and to take care of my health.
In my younger days of training, my mindset was that unless I was leaving feeling absolutely destroyed… it wasn’t a good workout. I would lift as heavy as possible, as often as possible with little regard for muscular imbalances, overuse injury, or other forms of pain / discomfort. There was a long time that this worked really well for me. Unfortunately, I was so unaware of the mistakes I was making, and what was to come.
Over the next 7-8 years I continued to push that way despite many warning signs. I would develop random pains in my shoulders, knees, hips, low back, etc. and think “meh, it’s alright, it’ll pass.” Generally I was right. Eventually, the pain would pass, and I would keep on pushing. By age 21, I had partially dislocated both shoulders, had chronic pain in my right knee, two torn muscles in my lower back and pain in my right ankle so bad that I was rarely able to stay on my feet for more than an hour without having to sit down. For lack of a nicer term, I was a MESS.
It wasn’t until I woke up one morning around age 22 physically unable to get out of bed that I realized hmmm… maybe there was a smarter way to do this.
I began to take things slowly. Not trying to jump back into 400 lbs squat and deadlifts, just working on balancing out my body and feeling better before just throwing weight on the bar.
Four years later, my knee pain has gone away, my shoulders are stronger and more table than ever, my back is completely healed and pain free for the first time in three years, and although my ankle still causes me some issues, I am getting closer to 100% every day. Although I will never claim to have all the answers, as I am always learning new, different, better ways to train, I can say with ABSOLUTE certainty, it is SO much better to be patient, then it is to rush into training too hard and too fast.
The human body is capable of AMAZING things. However, the best way to ensure you are able to achieve those amazing things is by treating your body with respect. Don’t overload it with weights you think look impressive to the people around you. Train your body to be able to adapt to the stressors you are putting it through. Whether you are training for powerlifting like I was, training for a sport of your choice, or just training to live a better life, there is a better way to do it!
Be honest with yourself and where you’re at. If you are newer to strength training, that’s okay! Keep the weights light for right now, learn how to lift them and then start to progress. Going too hard too fast is a recipe for disaster.
Strength training is a major passion of mine, and I firmly believe it should be an important part of everyone’s lives. However, it is a challenging game. If you learn to build your body up instead of beat your body up, I can promise you, it will be the best investment of your time you have ever made.