In my experience weightlifting is one of the safer sports when it comes to injuries. I have hardly had an injury from lifting weights yet have a shopping list of injuries from playing footy.
The stress of lifting weights is heavy, but it's controlled. Out on the footy field it's uncontrolled. It's like drag-racing on a straight track compared to hooning in a demolition derby.
It frustrates me sometimes that I take so much care to keep my clients safe with good technique and getting them stronger and fitter steadily over time, then they go and play soccer and sprain their ankle or something like that.
The same goes for gym members generally, it's rarely something in the gym that injures them (unless they are true fuckknuckles). What often happens is that as a weak unfit clumsy person becomes stronger, fitter and more agile, they get overconfident and leap into some other physical activity without really being ready for that level of intensity.
pistachio said:
i like to think (perhaps foolishly) that is IS possible to avoid injury. not if you want to compete in a PL comp or anything, but if you are just a recreational bodybuilder.
I agree. Let's remember that
"strength training / power lifting" doesn't only mean
"... for competitions." If you're looking at achieving strength like squatting your bodyweight for reps, putting 3/4 BW overhead and deadlifting 3/2 BW - a level of strength that would set you up well for everyday life and recreational sports, improve your posture and in combination with better food improve your looks and health - well you'd have to try pretty hard to get injured working up to and maintaining lifts like that.
But if you want to deadlift triple bodyweight or the like, well it's beyond my experience, but it seems like a much greater stress, leaving less room for error.
As always, depends on goals. I agree that getting seriously strong increases the risk of injury, and over the years some kind of injury or other is certain. But we can minimise the risks. It's like that nuclear thing in Japan. Nuclear reactors may be inherently risky, but we can minimise the risk and build them in nice stable areas, or maximise the risk and build them on an active fault line near the coast.
As Rippetoe says, injuries are the price we pay for the thrill of not sitting on our arse. But when paying the price, let's not
overpay.