I found that the more I squat the easier it gets to get my back and shoulders into the proper position.

https://www.t-nation.com/training/squatters-shoulder-the-cause-amp-the-cure

Also, your sig was always my favorite campo.

Thanks for the link and Gig 'em. It was my favorite too.

I went to the Dr for a referral to get an MRI on my elbow.they have to do an xray first. They do the xray and see the problem. Arthritic scar tissue couple spurs. He thinks the can go in and fix it with a scope. Might be back at it until 50 after all

Damn brother !!! I wish you a speedy recovery. I'm trying to stay strong and healthy going into my 50's and on past Thanks again for sharing your experiences with us and you helped me decide I don't need to go to the 400lb bench range again. I'll stick with my plan and leave that for the young guys. Stay healthy !!!!!!

I think lifters are hyper aware of their bodies compared to the average Joe and are a little paranoid about every little ache and pain. "OH NO; MY GAINS!"

Also our society tends to think that if you lift you will hurt yourself.  However, ball sports and running have higher injury rates than recreational lifting.

I have had a couple moderate injuries, the worst I hurt my back dead lifting because the bar on the supinated side swung away from my body.  Took a couple months to resume squat and deadlift training after that.  Did not have a significant effect on my normal life.  Once I couldn't squat above 285 for a few weeks because something popped in my rib cage on my belt at the bottom of a squat.

When I have some sort of little ache or pain, I typically lift anyway.  I just approach warm-ups more cautiously and do a few more.  Usually something small will get better as I warm up and be less noticeable when I do my work sets, then I just continue as planned.  If it is something that does not get better or I feel some more acute pain then I avoid that movement for a while.  Summer 2015 I took 2 months off of benching because of minor pec issues, just OHP instead.  Did a short bench LP late summer and hit a pr in November, so it did not cost me that much time.

I think that sets of 5 are better than sets of 10, even though the load is higher I think 10's have more injury risk.  The 10's load is light enough that you can still do a couple reps with total shit technique at the end of every set. I think training to failure on the big lifts for a non competitor is generally a bad idea and I always leave 1-2 reps in the tank.  You can build strength with low risk using weights in the 70-85% range leaving 1-2 reps in the tank.

I do some heavy singles a couple times per year, looking for PRs. However, I am never going for a hail mary at some unrealistic weight I am just hoping I have in me that day.  I go for a modest PR that should be about 95-97% based on all of my recent training data.  In general I make it easily and leave on a high note feeling good and I was never at high risk.

I don't think there are some arbitrary weights that are heavy that one should avoid.  Based on your body type you will excel at some lifts and be average at others.  I think the end to pursuing heavy weights comes because due to life demands and / or age you are no longer able to train for enough time/volume and/or not able to recover from the amount of training necessary to progress.  At that point you maintain by necessity.

I have only had a couple of major lifting injuries over my 35+ years of weight training.  Decades ago I had an infraspinatus tear due to bad bench pressing form, and had a few tweaks to my lower back years ago from bad form while deadlifting for reps (I was controlling the bar too much close to the floor on the way down).  The most recent was a few years ago when I tore my teres major while deadlifting.  It sounded like a sheet being torn, and knocked me out of commission for several months.  The bruising along my arm and back was spectacular, though.  

Everything else these days is repetitious trauma type stuff, like forearm tendinitis and the like.  I'm having to re-remind myself of my age, and the need to thoroughly warm up.  And that I shouldn't keep trying to move the really heavy (to me) stuff that I did when I was younger.

I've gotten in the habit lately of taking a hot shower before I even start my warm up.

Seems to help quite a bit, but adds another 10 minutes to a workout.

Any pictures of the bruising?

On a serious note, any tips on things that keep you healthier longer? Just the constant pursuit of perfect form and not charging in cold?

No pics of the bruising, LOL.  It looked like Sci-Fi velociraptor skin, with black, purple, green and yellow blotches and streaks down my tricep to my elbow, and along my lat and serratus to my waist.  My wife said it looked like a bad tattoo.

As far as tips, if I could go back and learn from my mistakes, I would not forego form in the interest of moving heavier weight.  I would always, always warm up thoroughly before touching a weight.  I would do a better job of listening to my body when it tells me that I need to lighten the weight or take a day off.  I would not try to "work through" an injury, turning a minor issue into something chronic.  I would get better rest between workouts.  And lots of fish oil.  

"We grow too soon old, and too late smart".

What does the forearm tend. feel like?  I've started getting issues in my wrists, which I think may be ligament laxation, or some such shit, from using lifting straps.  But I really don't know.  Damn wrists are popping and locking up at times.

Sounds like an epic bruise. My wife just showed me that pretty famous picture of Scott Mendleson's pec tear bruise the other day. Gnarly stuff. Luckily I haven't torn anything yet.

Thanks for the insight. Luckily I already head a lot of your advice. If something feels off I have no issue backing off and figuring out what is going on and calling it a day if need be. It probably helps that my powerlifting gym is my garage and my lifting partner doesn't have an interest in getting hurt either. So there really isn't that hardcore machismo going around especially since our wives, kids, or neighbors are likely to stop by at any moment. We even started filming ourselves so we can spend time critiquing our own form instead of just trusting what the other guy says. I need more fish oil...

41 years old and I do the same as above and I no longer hurt myself, if I'm lifting and it doesn't right I stop. 

Lately mine has been in the proximal 1/2 of my forearm, sort of like tennis elbow but further out along my forearm.  It starts out like a dull ache, and then when I stupidly try to work through it turns into a stabbing pain when I squeeze hard.  It hasn't flared up on me for several months, though.

I haven't had the wrist issues that you describe. <knock on wood>

I have two degenerative discs in my neck. I found that the form breakdown and the pulling on my traps when doing heavy touch and go deadlifts really fucked with my neck. I now completely reset for every rep of deadlift. I get less volume by 1-3 reps at a given weight, but it doesn't make my neck tweaky for 3-5 days afterwards. I have also found that pulling sumo messes with it less as well.

I've found the only time I hurt is if my form isn't perfect. Ironically enough the gym my mom started when I was 8 was called "perfect form"

I only ever injured my self once. I was on my second set of squats at 455x5. I turned my head to get a better look of the incredible ass next to me. My hip went out at the bottom and I racked it. Dummy. I still feel when I squat over 405 which is why I hardly ever do anymore. I couldn't tie my shoes for months. A chiro and tons of stretching helped my hips get mostly back to normal.

It seems most of the guys I know get hurt doing isolation exercises with high reps and locking out their joints.

Not only do they put all the weight on the joints they also take the weight off the muscle which doesn't help build muscle.

All the times I've tweaked something have had common factors.

1) I go for more weight after a PR.
   My old strength/conditioning coach pointed this out. Once you hit a weight that is a record (currently, not last year or when you were 18), stop. You can come back again next week to improve on that. This applies to a 1rm or a rep record.
  Example: I don't remember the weight but it was around 215#. I hit 10 the week prior, was going for 11 that week. I reached 11, felt good, tried to squeeze out 12....strained my neck.

2) Half ass warm up.
  If your lifting near-maximal weight, you need to prime your body. Your warm up should not be apart of your workout. Get the blood flowing, open up your hips/shoulders/etc, then get after it.
   Example: My max was around 500# on deadlift. I was going for a triple with 440# or something like that. I was in a rush, didn't stick to my warm-up. Tweaked my trap on the 2nd rep with relatively 'light' weight.

3) Having a weak neck.
  What I mean is recognize your weakness and fix them. The most common tweaks I've had are all in the neck/trap area. I started specifically targeting my neck when doing accessory work and I haven't hurt it since....accept when I've ignored the first two rules.

4) If you can't lift something with perfect form, you can't lift it. Put it down, bail out, or have your spotter take it.


Following these rules will make you chance of injury GREATLY decrease. Good luck on your journey. It's never too late to get stronger.

Also, check out West Side for Skinny Bastards. Following this template has made me the strongest I've ever been.

30 here - spine injuries from a wreck when I was younger. Zero pain or issues since I got into powerlifting. Seriously. Something they said I couldn't and shouldn't even possibly do.

I do a fuckton of mobility work from smashwerx videos.

Injuries are very rare.

Im my experience a lot of injuries come from ignoring the "boring" stuff like mobility work and painful massage/grinding out tissues..