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An under-reported benefit of weight lifting: near-total elimination of RSI, at least in my experience. At some point a few years ago I decided to join a gym fo

An under-reported benefit of weight lifting: near-total elimination of RSI, at least in my experience. At some point a few years ago I decided to join a gym for the first time. While I improved my posture and BMI a good bit, I might be happiest with the elimination of RSI in my wrists and hands. It started out as something annoying in my 20s, and got very painful in my late 30s. Gyroscopes, powerballs, and other recovery devices never seemed to work. What keeps me going 2-3 days per week, most weeks, is the knowledge that RSI will come back without lifting weights. At the onset of the pandemic I tried working out from home, and while better than nothing, it isn't comparable because of equipment selection. If you have repetitive stress issues from being in front of a keyboard all day, try going to the gym and use the machines that work your arms and forearms. Keep going until you feel you feel the burn. I'll be a gym member for life, or at least as long as I type into a keyboard regularly. Maybe that's zen for me--life without pain from regular keyboard usage.

zwarag 5y ago
That is interesting to hear. After I started climbing, my RSI was also eliminated within weeks. I found that quite unintuitive and thought that maybe I did not have "real" RSI but just the symptoms of overburdened tendons.
racl101 5y ago
Repetitive strain injury?
pieterhg 5y ago
Same for me. Any RSI disappeared after starting lifting weights.
PaywallBuster 5y ago
doctors would tell you to isolate at home and use ice modern science /s
m0zg 5y ago
I can confirm. At least in my case weightlifting (basically low bar squats and deadlifts - bench press is overrated) helped me fix both my RSI and lower back pain. I post this on every RSI thread here in hopes it'd help someone else. Yet NO doctor will suggest that something like this might help. Therein lies the danger of uncritically "listening to the doctors" - most of them are simply not trained to do anything with trained individuals and have never lifted a barbell. It's like asking a Javascript developer for advice on embedded C++. Their client base is mostly sedentary, weak, and thoroughly sick. Ex: my wife is struggling with back pain, and she will continue to struggle as long as she listens to her idiot doctor who's telling her to lie down and rest, which only screws up her back musculature even more.
- david38 5y ago
  This is not true. I know several doctors who prescribe exactly this. The issue is patients. Patients throw a hissy fit when told to lose weight, exercise, improve diet, etc. 90% of the time they want something that can be done while sitting on their ass, like an injection or a brace.
  - m0zg 5y ago
    No doctor ever told me to lift weights, and I've been to many before I gave up on them. They'll tell you to lose weight, exercise, improve diet and whatever, sure, but very specifically, they will never tell you to lift weights. And not a single doctor I encountered knows what to do with men who train, besides advising them not to train. They are, presumably, afraid that you might get "injured". To me the easiest way to get injured is to let one's back musculature to atrophy, and there are likely tens of millions people in the US alone with back problems because of this. Unless you're about to die, or have a profitable chronic illness of some sort (such as, say, diabetes), US "healthcare" is borderline useless.
    - f311a 5y ago
      You just need to visit physiotherapist instead of a regular therapist.
      - tommiegannert 5y ago
        I think this is part of the problem GP is highlighting: you have to know which type of doctor you want advice from. They specialize so hard that there's barely any overlap. Which ends up meaning you have to see a boatload of doctors to find something you can use to finally draw your own conclusions. I hate visiting doctors for some reason. Probably because we're supposed to just default-respect them, and I just see no reason to do that with how they're not able to help me. Edit: able to help rather than helping.
    - pnutjam 5y ago
      I've lifted my entire life and never had a doctor tell me to stop. I go to the doctor regularly and I've changed doctors afew times. I also wish my wife and daughters would experiment with weight training, but they seem very resistant to it with some sort of fear of "bulking" up.

zwarag 5y ago

That is interesting to hear. After I started climbing, my RSI was also eliminated within weeks. I found that quite unintuitive and thought that maybe I did not have "real" RSI but just the symptoms of overburdened tendons.

racl101 5y ago

Repetitive strain injury?

pieterhg 5y ago

Same for me. Any RSI disappeared after starting lifting weights.

PaywallBuster 5y ago

doctors would tell you to isolate at home and use ice modern science /s

m0zg 5y ago

I can confirm. At least in my case weightlifting (basically low bar squats and deadlifts - bench press is overrated) helped me fix both my RSI and lower back pain. I post this on every RSI thread here in hopes it'd help someone else. Yet NO doctor will suggest that something like this might help. Therein lies the danger of uncritically "listening to the doctors" - most of them are simply not trained to do anything with trained individuals and have never lifted a barbell. It's like asking a Javascript developer for advice on embedded C++. Their client base is mostly sedentary, weak, and thoroughly sick. Ex: my wife is struggling with back pain, and she will continue to struggle as long as she listens to her idiot doctor who's telling her to lie down and rest, which only screws up her back musculature even more.

david38 5y ago
This is not true. I know several doctors who prescribe exactly this. The issue is patients. Patients throw a hissy fit when told to lose weight, exercise, improve diet, etc. 90% of the time they want something that can be done while sitting on their ass, like an injection or a brace.
- m0zg 5y ago
  No doctor ever told me to lift weights, and I've been to many before I gave up on them. They'll tell you to lose weight, exercise, improve diet and whatever, sure, but very specifically, they will never tell you to lift weights. And not a single doctor I encountered knows what to do with men who train, besides advising them not to train. They are, presumably, afraid that you might get "injured". To me the easiest way to get injured is to let one's back musculature to atrophy, and there are likely tens of millions people in the US alone with back problems because of this. Unless you're about to die, or have a profitable chronic illness of some sort (such as, say, diabetes), US "healthcare" is borderline useless.
  - f311a 5y ago
    You just need to visit physiotherapist instead of a regular therapist.
    - tommiegannert 5y ago
      I think this is part of the problem GP is highlighting: you have to know which type of doctor you want advice from. They specialize so hard that there's barely any overlap. Which ends up meaning you have to see a boatload of doctors to find something you can use to finally draw your own conclusions. I hate visiting doctors for some reason. Probably because we're supposed to just default-respect them, and I just see no reason to do that with how they're not able to help me. Edit: able to help rather than helping.
  - pnutjam 5y ago
    I've lifted my entire life and never had a doctor tell me to stop. I go to the doctor regularly and I've changed doctors afew times. I also wish my wife and daughters would experiment with weight training, but they seem very resistant to it with some sort of fear of "bulking" up.