Military Muscle: Reduce joint stress when lifting free weights - Military Health, military health and wellness, military physical fitness - Military Times

Military Muscle: Reduce joint stress when lifting free weights

Many people in the gym hurt themselves when lifting weights — usually individuals who try one-rep max lifts that are too heavy or can’t keep their back neutral during dead lifts, squats or bent-over rows.

But an even greater hazard is the cumulative effect of executing lifts in a way that puts maximum stress on a specific joint.

Some of the more common issues that I counsel my clients on:

Bench press: Don’t hyperextend your wrists. This can cause damage to the metacarpal bones. In fact, don’t bend your wrists at all when performing the lift.

Bench dumbbell fly: Don’t lock your elbows, and keep your upper arms about parallel to the floor. Lowering your arm much farther than parallel results in unnecessary stress on your shoulders and elbows. Pretend there is a big tree on your chest and hug the tree as you complete the exercise.

Dumbbell lateral raise: Raising the dumbbell higher than shoulder height with elbows locked puts additional stress on your shoulders and elbows. Keep elbows slightly bent and raise the weight to shoulder height.

Shoulder shrugs: Don’t lower your head forward or roll your shoulders back on the ascent or forward on the descent. This puts stress on your cervical disks and increases risk to shoulders. Keep your head facing forward and move your shoulders up and down in the lift.

Nutrition tip

You hear a lot about getting away from “processed foods” and going more natural whenever you can. Now there is a website devoted to that very issue: www.localharvest.org.

Enter either the ZIP code or town you’re interested in, and the site generates a list of the local farms; farmers markets; community-supported agriculture programs; co-ops that sell fresh produce; meat and poultry; and restaurants that serve local produce and meat. Type in “Denver,” for example, and you’ll find several large urban gardens.

Some farms sell good produce and meat and have a great history. The Clark family, for example, owners of Elioak Farm in Howard County, Md., have been farming that property since 1797. They have a sign that reads, “Never Sell the Land.”

Now all you have to do to find fresh, locally grown produce, meat and poultry is look.

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Bob Thomas is director of the Navy Wellness Center in Pensacola, Fla. Look for more advice on safe lifting in his next column. Write to him at jomof14@cox.net.