Joint Pain/Stiffness Question

[Bicepzilla]

Hey everyone---been a few months since I've posted and since you were all such a great help last time I thought I'd look for some advice:

Just do give you some background info (I figure knowing that i'm not lifting heavy weight might influence advice): When I started lifting 3.5 months ago I weighed 150lbs (I'm 6ft1)---the only real figure I remember was that my max bench was 115 lbs. I started lifting 6 days/week but thanks to the advice of this board now lift 3-4 days/week. I'm now 165 lbs (still thin but I have a really really hard time gaining weight---I know...i need to eat more!). I've seen good improvement (for example my bench is now 185 lbs and this morning I did 10 reps at 145 which was a new best for me). The problem is that while all of my lifts have undergone similar gains, i'm starting to have a good amount of pain. At first it was just in my wrists/forearms (which I attributed to my previous life as a cyclist and subsequent wrist strain and also just skinny wrists). But now I'm always experiencing a lot of pain in my shoulders as well. For example when I do dips (just 3 sets of 10 or so with usually around a 25lb weight) after each set my shoulders are in quite a bit of pain. Other lifts leave my joints with a lot of pain/stifness and cracking (sounds like when you crack your knuckles). I'm still lifting relatively light amounts of weight so I don't know what to do as I assume as I continue to lift heavier weight it will only get worse. Any advice? Thanks.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

my joints crack all the time... no pain though (when the crack and pop).

I get achy (in my joints) when my fat intake is low... check your fat intake (or just eat more healthy fats: ANPB, olive oil, red meat, eggs, nuts...).

Also check your form to make sure you're doing the movements correctly.

Tucking elbows on bench and keeping elbows in while dipping too (i noticed tht today also... my right shoulder hurt cuz i wasn't paying attention and flared my elbows).

Strech more.

 

[Scotsman]

"Heavy" is a realative term, what is heavy for someone else may not be for you and vice versa. Joint pain is usually an indication of several factors. First you need to cycle your weights into light, medium, and heavy periods so that you train your muscles, joints, and connective tissues equally. Secondly your fluid intake is an important factor in joint health. Lastly diet, if you aren't eating enough food your joints suffer, also if you aren't intaking enough vitamins and minerals (from natural sources as well as supplements) your joints suffer. My best advice is up your calories, drink more water, and lift lighter for a couple of weeks (8-12 rep range on lifts)

Cheers,
Scotsman

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

take glucosamine.

http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=78

 

[Jim Ouini]

"Heavy" is a realative term, what is heavy for someone else may not be for you and vice versa. Joint pain is usually an indication of several factors. First you need to cycle your weights into light, medium, and heavy periods so that you train your muscles, joints, and connective tissues equally. Secondly your fluid intake is an important factor in joint health. Lastly diet, if you aren't eating enough food your joints suffer, also if you aren't intaking enough vitamins and minerals (from natural sources as well as supplements) your joints suffer. My best advice is up your calories, drink more water, and lift lighter for a couple of weeks (8-12 rep range on lifts)

Cheers,
Scotsman

Great advice.

take glucosamine.

I've been on it for about 3-4 weeks now, I throw a couple tablets in with my smoothie and grind it up. My joints have been feeling pretty dang good and I'm near the end of a training cycle.

 

[fortunatesun]

All excellent suggestions up top. Once you've deal with the pain there's a few things you can do to strengthen your aggreivated joints and tissue.
One is overload training. This is simply loading the bar with more than your one rep max and hold the bar. For legs (squats) they're called walkouts- walking the bar out of the rack, holding for about 15 sec., and walking it back in. For shoulders and joints affected by bench pressing they're called rack lockouts or partials- place the bar on the safety rails of a power rack 2-4 inches from your maximum extention lift until lockout and hold. Don't worry about controlling the weight on the way down, let rack stop the bar. For dips you can hold your position at the top with added weight.
Overloading forces your muscle to hold the weight but doesn't tax them by forcing them to contract as you would by moving the bar. This stimulates the growth of new connective tissue which in turn strengthens and protects the joints and muscle in the region of the affected areas.
The other type of training is plyometrics. Here, your moving light weights at ballistic speed. This produces the opposite effect of overloading. By suddenly moving the weights at great speed you've produced a shock to your muscle that makes it to contract at a rate of force that will then cause them to expand and stress the surrounding tendons and connective tissue. Your joints, tendons and bones receive the shock of this expansion and respond by increasing in density. Examples of exercises would be box squat, speed work on bench, or any other exercise performed in this manner. The key is to use only about 40% of your max and move it 2-3 times faster than normal. That's the point at which the force and velocity causes the effect you want to acheive.
Doing these exercises doesn't take much time and can be done after you finish your normal set, at the end of your workout, or on a cardio day.