Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

So I see a new chirocpractor today who says to stop doing deadlifts, squats and shrugs immediately. They are causing more harm than good. He said the shrugs could be causing my arm pain because my next muscle feel very tight....most likely from pointless shrugs he says. Says squats are destroying my spine.

Instead of deadlifts you could do hyperextensions

Instead of squats you could do leg presses, leg extensions and leg curls.

don't know about shrugs though.

Hi Nicholas,

I find leg presses really bad for the lower back! It is a very unnatural position. I only believe in using extensions for rehabilitation. Too risky for the knee joint!
Do you have an example of someone doing hyperextensions to build mass?

How did he/she motivate this advice? If the chiropractor only gave vague reasons like "squats are destroying your back" without being more precise, I would go see someone specialized in sports medicine. A lot of health professionals have little knowledge about training and believe squats and deadlifts are bad for everybody and other nonsense.

Note: I am in no way saying it is safe for you to squat and deadlift because I have no idea what kind of problems you have, just suggesting that if your chiropractor did not seem to know much about training you should see someone else.

Why were you seeing the chiropractor in the first place, you have some back problems?

I see the chiropractor as well as their massage therapist due to chronic pain in my left arm. A lot of the docs I have seen say it is most likely MGUS (A blood condition I have or an autoimmune issue) The Chiro thinks it is pain cause from tight and spasming scalene muscles, they are tight and sore. He said this could be from shrugs or deadlifts, anything that works those muscles. He said that probably my wiring for whatever reason is not built or designed to be doing those exercises. He also said nobody should be doing exercises to work the traps, they are strong enough and are purely cosmetic. Lets just say, he doesn't agree with bodybuilding.
He also went on to say squating is a horrible exercise due to the stress and compression of the spine.

I also hurt my right shoulder, appears to be trap or small muscle under clavicle. He said this again could be my body telling me to not do shrugs.

Not saying I agree with him.....just his opinion.

Which part of your left arm? Joint area?

I'm going to hazard a guess that your doc has never set foot in a weight room in his life. Either that, or he was intimidated by the big boys in high school gym class and he never got over it.

I've met several sports savvy chiros and docs. They're out there. Keep lookin'.

Baby Herc

Yeah a lot of chiro's are quacks, maybe you should consider going to a new one.

You already know what I'll say about people NOT involved in sports medicine who say such things That statement alone would tell me right there that your chiro knows zero about weight training's benefits and only sees the "bad" in what uneducated folks still hold on to as fact.

Personally, I don't trust most chiros as far as I'd throw them - they simply aren't qualified enough in my opnion to really be able to make certain statements, if it causes any compression on the spine it's automatically "evil" to them. Just like the guy who was happy to perform treatments on my sister's 2-year-old son and claim that they were helping him in numerous ways (nevermind that my sister is an idiot for taking a toddler to a chiro...that's a whole different story...), but told my sister that weight training would be bad for her in any capacity despite having zero health issues that would make such a statement valid. Too many out there who think they're physicians and are far outstepping their boundaries to give poor advice - when it doesn't seem right, ask someone with credentials, it'll do you more good.

The only chiro I'd trust now would be Dr. Ken Leistner, but that's probably because he can squat 405 lbs. for a set of 20 at under 200 lbs. bodyweight

Eh, personally I don't like traditional squats. Not cool with having shit crushing my spine.

Most doctors are nuts, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, and most of them are fat, so I can't throw them that far.

Bet you could throw them farther if you did squats.

My PCP, the last time I went to see him, advised me to stretch. lol. he wasn't impressed with me being vegan, running 40 miles a week, or lifting heavy ass weight, or the fact that i had lost 40 lbs of fat since the last time i had seen him...

Not impressed? Sometimes I wonder about doctors... (No, actually I *always* wonder about them)

Many doctors are clueless!