Bodybuilding/Weight lifting causing neuropathies?

[boardn10]

A friend of mine (fitness instructor/kettle ball gym owner) who suffered through Lyme disease and multiple other infections as did I, saw a doctor today to discuss some of his symptoms. The doctor, when he found out he was a weight lifter, said that weight lifters and bodybuilders are prone to and well known to end up with numbness in the extremeties and neuropathies, pain, etc. WTF? This doctor was very out of shape, so no authority on exercise to say the least!

 

Any comments on this?

 

-Rich

[moveon1]

As far as your Dr goes, being in/out of shape and being an authority aren't related. Knowing about something and doing it are two different things. He may or may not know what he's talking about. My body, while more fit than most, certainly does not reflect everything I know about lifting. I wish it did.

 

I've never heard about these types of problems but it makes sense. Pushing your body to it's limits usually results in some kind of injury. I'm not speaking of acute injury. I'm speaking of chronic or repetitive motion types of injuries. For instance, professional dancers have a terrible time with their feet later in life. Football players have trouble with joints. Baseball players have joint problems. These chronic injuries are probably not common among the ordinary lifter. If you are regularly dead-lifting 400-500 lbs (not the average lifter) it stands to reason that eventually you'll have some problems from doing that.

 

If professional power lifters, for instance, have problems like this, I don't expect it's going to show up in the media a lot. Who's doing a story on a 52 year old power lifter who can't lift anymore because his body is worn out? That's not a story anyone wants to hear.

 

To answer your question specifically, I've never heard of lifters having these problems.

[boardn10]

Exactly...

 

I have many friends who lift, and people I have met through life who have and still do lift more than myself and have no problems....and infact have far fewer problems than others. I don't compare bodybuilding to power lifting, to football or anything similar. I think if you do not overtrain and use proper form, you hsould have years of pain free lifting. Heck I know guys in their 60s, 70s and 80s who tell me they feel great with no sign of numbness in limbs, etc!

[medman]

Keep in mind many people use bad form, or do bizarre exercises with high weights (like bosu ball squats). If you deadlifted improperly for years, I'd be shocked if you DIDN'T have neuropathies related to a herniated disc.

 

Another one that springs to mind is behind-the-neck overhead presses. I see many people doing this, especially in smith machines (even worse from a joint perspective). I would NOT be surprised if that exercise caused brachial plexus injuries (the brachial plexus is a collection of nerves in near where your chest meets your shoulder, and is where the nerves in the arm originate). The brachial plexus is prone to injuries when the shoulder is externally rotated and the arms are pulled back - and this is the exact position that exercise puts you into (with lots of weight to boot). I've seen patients who have suffered injuries to those nerves simply from having their arms in that kind of position during a surgery...they woke up with permanent nerve injuries.