Welcome back Warriors! Have you ever felt pain in your joints from bodybuilding? Like in your elbows or your knees? Or in your wrists or your shoulders?
In the world of weight training, there’s good pain and bad pain. Good pain is where you’ve worked your butt off in the gym, to the point where your targeted muscles are sore the next day. That kind of pain is your muscles repairing themselves so they will get stronger. Bad pain comes from injuries. I was experiencing a bad pain recently while training, it was discomfort on the inside of my elbow, in my right arm. I wasn’t 100% sure what it was, but I did some research and asked some people I know what it could be and how to treat it.
Now, I’m not a doctor or some other kind of medical expert, I’m just telling you what I know, what I learned, and how it felt in my experience.
If you start to feel discomforting pain in your joints like your knees or elbows, you should ask yourself these questions:
- WHAT IS CAUSING THE PAIN?
- HOW BAD DOES IT HURT? WHERE DOES IT HURT?
- HOW CAN YOU REDUCE THE RISK OF SEVERE INJURY?
- IF YOUR JOINT IS INJURED, HOW DO YOU TREAT IT?
What Could Be the Cause?
There could be many reasons why your joints are experiencing a bad pain that is discomforting, and the possibilities include:
- IMPROPER FORM: This is something that can really creep up on guys without them realizing it. It’s happened to me a few times in the past as well. You have to make sure you’re doing an exercise with proper form. If you can’t do the exercise properly, drop the weights and find an alternative exercise that targets the same muscle group.
- LIFTING MORE WEIGHT THAN YOU CAN HANDLE: You’ll have to listen to your body with this one. This is another thing that bit me in the butt when I thought I was doing everything right. You could be doing an exercise properly, but lifting too heavy can cause pain in your joints. If this is the case, drop the weights and go lighter. So basically, know your limits. Don’t try to show off and see how much weight you can lift if your body can’t handle it. If you can lift heavy weight and there’s no issues with your joints, you can disregard this key point.
- TENDONITIS: Personally, this is what I think the pain was in my arm. Tendonitis is where you feel pain in your ligaments or your tendons around a joint. It feels as if a ligament or a tendon is about to snap right in half. The pain can vary between mild and severe. If you have a ligament or a tendon that feels sore, that’s minor. But if you’re not careful, something could tear and you’d have to get surgery immediately.
- LAGGING MUSCLES: One possibility could be that the muscles in and around the affected joint could be weaker than your other muscles. You might want to consider training those muscles that could be lagging so you can build them up and make them stronger, just in case. Sometimes there are muscle groups that are overlooked or ignored, so be sure to know how to train them so they can build up and not cause you any joint pain.
- OVERTRAINING: I’ve heard some bodybuilders say that overtraining is just a myth. And others have said that overtraining is real. Based on my experience, I am one of the guys who believes that overtraining is indeed real and you need to watch out for it. You don’t want to train so much to the point where your muscles don’t have enough time to recover and repair themselves. It also helps if you separate similar muscle groups throughout the week. For example, I wouldn’t do chest one day and then do arms or back the next. Split it up with doing legs after chest or something. Or do upper body one day and then lower body the next day.
How Bad Is the Pain? Where Does It Hurt?
If you start to feel pain in your joint, see if you can pinpoint it and determine how much it hurts. Personally, I would recommend you give yourself a scale from 0 to 5 that describes your pain.
- 0: No pain
- 1: Mild pain
- 2: Tolerable pain
- 3: Distressing pain
- 4: Severe pain
- 5: Extreme pain
Personally, in my experience with pain in my elbow, I would say my pain level would be between a 2 and a 3 at its peak. Afterwards I switched from using free weights to using machines, and it brought my pain down to 0.
What Can You Do to Reduce the Risk of Severe Injury?
Having a fitness goal and then having a lingering pain in your joints that prevents you from working towards your goal is no fun. In fact, it could be the worst thing in the world. But, if you follow these tips, you’ll protect your joints so that you won’t get hurt.
- REST: This is one of the best and most common things you can do to prevent a joint from getting injured. Just remember not to take too much time off, especially if you’re following a bodybuilder’s diet. Remember, if you’re trying to build muscle and you’re not putting in the training, all the nutrients you take in will be stored as unwanted fat. So don’t take too much time off.
- ICE: Applying an ice pack is one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to treating injuries. Taking an ice pack and applying it to the affected area will help reduce any swelling. I did that before with the pain in my right elbow and it helped.
- FISH OIL: An old friend of mine from high school is a bodybuilder and a personal trainer. He told me that fish oil is a good supplement to take to prevent joint pain while bodybuilding. I haven’t invested in fish oil before, because I didn’t know much about it. Now I’ll consider it the next time I have a joint problem.
- LIFT LIGHTER WEIGHT: If your joint pain is because you’re lifting too heavy weight, use lighter weight. I know that might be the last thing you want to hear if you’re trying to build your muscles and get stronger, but if your joints are falling behind your muscles in strength, you should go lighter. It’s not going to kill you to sacrifice a couple of pounds.
- PROPER FORM: This is super, super important. The only way you’re going to get results and not injure yourself is by lifting with proper form. If you’re lifting heavier weight, you have to go slow and controlled. If you’re just swinging weights around, you’re only going to hurt yourself. So if you’re going to do it, do it right.
- SWITCH TO MACHINES: If you feel you can’t lift free weights with proper form, I recommend switching to machines since they’re designed to only move one way, limiting your range of motion. When lifting free weights, you also have to worry about balancing the weight as you lift. If you stick with machines, you won’t have to worry about balancing heavy weight if you don’t feel you can handle it.
- PHYSICAL THERAPY: If the joint feels tight or stiff at all, I would recommend you do some simple exercises like stretching so you’ll feel a little more loose and not as stiff. Personally, that works for me. Also invest in training any lagging muscles in and around the joint, just in case.
- WEAR PROTECTIVE GEAR FOR ADDED SUPPORT: This was something I was investing in already. If I’m at the gym and I feel discomfort anywhere in my body, I’ll wear a sleeve or a brace around the bothered area for support. In my case, since the discomfort has been present in my arm, I would wear elbow sleeves or a padded elbow strap and those do help me. You should do the same if you have problems in your joints that are fitness-related. Look into sleeves, braces, wraps, anything you can find that will protect the affected area from getting worse.
I Injured My Joint. How Do I Treat It?
If your joint is injured, it really depends on the type of injury and the severity of the injury. If a ligament or a tendon in your joint is torn, you have to get surgery immediately. Otherwise, your joint could be permanently damaged if left untreated. If you start to feel pain in your joint from training, drop the weights and resort to one of the tips on how to reduce the risk of injury. The worst thing that could happen is for your hopes and dreams of getting in shape to be dashed because of an injury.
If you do find yourself in the worst-case scenario that you injured your joint, the first thing you should do is to stay off of it for a while. If it’s just sore, remember to not take too much time off from your workout routine.
I’m not a doctor or a medical expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do recommend you talk to your doctor or any other medical expert that you know and they will be glad to help you with your situation.
What Was My Experience?
I talked about this briefly before, but I did experience discomfort and pain on the inside of my elbow in my right arm. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint it before, but I can pinpoint it now. It was in my distal biceps tendon, which connects the biceps muscle to the radius bone, in the forearm. Just earlier this year, I ended up hurting my arm and I had to stay off of it for 2 weeks. In hindsight, that was too much time I took off. But that was before I learned the lesson of not taking too much time off, injury or no injury.
So how have I responded to my arm problem? I would rest it when I needed to. I put ice on the affected area and hold it there for a bit. That and I started training my forearm muscles at least twice a week. The thing that bothered me about my situation is that the pain is in my right arm. Why? Because my right hand is my dominant hand. I feared that I would have to get my arm amputated or something. But for something as minor as this? I can perish that thought.
Now I make sure I always have my elbow sleeves and elbow straps with me, especially if I’m doing exercises that involve my arms. I also switched to using machines instead of free weights. So far, it’s working like a charm. I haven’t experienced any pain ever since switching to machines. The limited range of motion really helps.
What Else Should You Consider?
A close friend of mine told me about some other ways you can treat joint pain. One of them is taking a bath in Epson salt. A close friend of mine told me that if you soak in a hot Epson salt bath for at least 30 minutes, it will help soothe the pain around the affected area.
My friend also told me that you could try getting a professional massage. However, those can be pricey if you’re on a budget.
Closing Words
I hope I taught you a thing or two about one of the dangers of bodybuilding. Because it certainly has happened to me. So far, I haven’t had any tears or ruptures in my biceps tendon or in any ligaments.
What about you? Have you experienced any pain in your joints from training? If so, tell me about it in the comments! What did you do for treatment? Let’s share our experiences together!
Do you have any other recommendations on how to treat joint pain? Tell me in the comments! I’m always open to learning new things and building a community!
Until next time, keep training hard, and listen to what your body tells you so you can stay safe!