Body Building Injuries - When Strength Training Starts to Hurt

When Training Pain Feels Different

Bodybuilding places enormous demands on the body.

Heavy presses, curls, squats, deadlifts, pull-downs, and repetitive training can stress muscles, tendons, joints, and surrounding soft tissues. Sometimes an injury happens suddenly during a lift. Other times, discomfort gradually builds until a familiar movement no longer feels right.

There is a difference between the normal soreness that follows a hard workout and pain that persists, causes weakness, limits movement, or returns every time you perform a particular exercise.

Common Bodybuilding Injuries

Bodybuilders may experience problems involving the:

Rotator cuff and shoulder tendons
Biceps and triceps tendons
Pectoral muscles and tendons
Elbow and forearm tendons
Wrist and hand structures
Quadriceps and hamstring muscles
Patellar tendon
Achilles tendon
Other muscles, tendons, and soft tissues stressed by repetitive lifting

A sudden pop, bruising, swelling, weakness, or loss of normal function should be evaluated promptly.

Seeing What Happens During Movement

A bodybuilding injury doesn't always hurt while you're sitting still.

Your shoulder may hurt during a press. Your elbow may become painful during a curl. A tendon may bother you only when the muscle contracts against resistance.

MSK ultrasound provides real-time imaging, allowing many accessible muscles, tendons, nerves, ligaments, and other soft tissues to be evaluated dynamically.

When appropriate, the painful area can be examined while you move, contract a muscle, or reproduce the position that causes your symptoms.

Sometimes seeing what happens during the movement that hurts can provide valuable information.

MSK ultrasound is safe, noninvasive, and uses no radiation.

Before He Ever Picks Up the Probe

At the Center for Musculoskeletal Ultrasound, every examination begins with the patient—not the machine.

We start by listening. Which exercise causes the pain? Did something happen during one particular lift? Was there a pull, pop, or sudden weakness? Or has the discomfort gradually increased over weeks of training?

At the heart of the Jablon Protocol is something technology can't replace—the human connection. Michael Jablon listens, examines, and observes how your body moves and where it hurts before ever picking up the probe.

The ultrasound then becomes an extension of that examination, allowing him to see in real time what his clinical evaluation has already begun to uncover.

Don't Train Through an Injury You Don't Understand

Dedicated athletes are accustomed to pushing through discomfort. But persistent pain, weakness, swelling, or a change in performance may be your body's way of telling you that something needs attention.

Understanding what is injured can help determine the appropriate next step—and whether additional imaging or evaluation may be necessary.