I’d say stretching and familiarizing yourself with what the edge of acceptable motion is goes A LOT further with not hurting yourself. You can deadlift all you want, but if you don’t know how to deal with shifting weight or an odd position once you start doing some generic activity that doesn’t mirror the lift, you’re still going to hurt yourself.
In fact, overconfidance with being able to lift a heavy amount vs dealing with shifting forces can be the reason someone tries to move too much weight in the first place. Think lifting a solid, easily grippable mass of a steel bar vs moving a heavy-ass wobbly mattress. The mattress might be a fraction of the weight but it’s still a pain in the ass. Don’t know how to deal with weight suddenly shifting? That’s a pulled back anyways.
I assumed, obviously incorrectly because this is the internet and I’m always correctable, that it would be understood I wasn’t saying “hurting yourself by exercising incorrectly” when advocating for strength training.
It is very easy to hurt yourself doing strength training without experience pushing your body’s boundaries. Getting familiar with stretching first can be the difference between starting strength training successfully and overdoing something and turning the experience in to a painful turnoff.
I’d say stretching and familiarizing yourself with what the edge of acceptable motion is goes A LOT further with not hurting yourself. You can deadlift all you want, but if you don’t know how to deal with shifting weight or an odd position once you start doing some generic activity that doesn’t mirror the lift, you’re still going to hurt yourself.
In fact, overconfidance with being able to lift a heavy amount vs dealing with shifting forces can be the reason someone tries to move too much weight in the first place. Think lifting a solid, easily grippable mass of a steel bar vs moving a heavy-ass wobbly mattress. The mattress might be a fraction of the weight but it’s still a pain in the ass. Don’t know how to deal with weight suddenly shifting? That’s a pulled back anyways.
I assumed, obviously incorrectly because this is the internet and I’m always correctable, that it would be understood I wasn’t saying “hurting yourself by exercising incorrectly” when advocating for strength training.
It is very easy to hurt yourself doing strength training without experience pushing your body’s boundaries. Getting familiar with stretching first can be the difference between starting strength training successfully and overdoing something and turning the experience in to a painful turnoff.