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"I want to lift x amount one day" is not for everyone, it's what lead me to destroy my spine. I went years without any problems and I was in the best shape of m

"I want to lift x amount one day" is not for everyone, it's what lead me to destroy my spine. I went years without any problems and I was in the best shape of my life, but I never thought about the level of compression my spine was taking on. I ended up having multiple bulging discs from C5-C7, a severe disc herniation in T8-T9 (which happened mid workout, very painful), L4-S1 herniations and L4-L5 breaking away chunks of my vertebrae. I eventually had to get emergency surgery on C5-C7 due to the narrowing of spinal cord. I still "work out" with resistance bands, but I'm never allowed to properly lift weights again thanks to my foolishness. It's horribly depressing and I don't wish this on anybody. Moral of the story is you might be just fine and have the skeletal structure to support lifting, or it could be a ticking time bomb like in my case. Lifting goals should carry disclaimers about the possible dangers.

Infinitesimus 7y ago
That sucks. What lift did you in? Was it gradual or a sudden injury? I hope the recovery is going smoothly now at least :/
- sbmthakur 7y ago
  My guess is that it could be deadlifts.
- y-c-o-m-b 7y ago
  Gradual. When my T8-T9 popped, I was doing pull-ups of all things, so there was no compression which means it could have been anything preceding that, but I suspect years of military/shoulder press or squats contributed. I did dead-lifts several years prior to the injuries and stopped those when I had a funny "clammy skin" sensation in one of my arms; it freaked me out a little and I hated deadlifts anyway so I always thought it was just my excuse not to do them, but in retrospect I think that was probably a wise decision.
graeme 7y ago
Yikes. What sort of loads were you lifting, if I may ask? Would possibly help make the warning more concrete to those of us reading.
- y-c-o-m-b 7y ago
  At the time I was about 180lbs/6' and just got done cutting. I was lifting in the 12-15 rep range so the load was relatively light-moderate enough to hit those reps without losing form. I am an ectomorph, so my skeletal structure is weak by design, really poor bone density.
sbmthakur 7y ago
Thank you for sharing your experience. Lifting is great but it should always be done in moderation (as always with anything that one does with their body).

Infinitesimus 7y ago

That sucks. What lift did you in? Was it gradual or a sudden injury? I hope the recovery is going smoothly now at least :/

sbmthakur 7y ago
My guess is that it could be deadlifts.
y-c-o-m-b 7y ago
Gradual. When my T8-T9 popped, I was doing pull-ups of all things, so there was no compression which means it could have been anything preceding that, but I suspect years of military/shoulder press or squats contributed. I did dead-lifts several years prior to the injuries and stopped those when I had a funny "clammy skin" sensation in one of my arms; it freaked me out a little and I hated deadlifts anyway so I always thought it was just my excuse not to do them, but in retrospect I think that was probably a wise decision.

graeme 7y ago

Yikes. What sort of loads were you lifting, if I may ask? Would possibly help make the warning more concrete to those of us reading.

y-c-o-m-b 7y ago
At the time I was about 180lbs/6' and just got done cutting. I was lifting in the 12-15 rep range so the load was relatively light-moderate enough to hit those reps without losing form. I am an ectomorph, so my skeletal structure is weak by design, really poor bone density.

sbmthakur 7y ago

Thank you for sharing your experience. Lifting is great but it should always be done in moderation (as always with anything that one does with their body).