Weight lifting and chronic pain

jozieewart

Hi everyone,
As I am getting older I feel more committed to building muscle through free weight training and body weight exercises. I have always struggled with chronic muscle pain in my upper back and neck. When I work my upper body I often go through days of intense muscle pain, and often tension headaches. Does anyone else deal with this? If so how have you managed or mitigated the negative side effects? Right now I have lowered the weight I am using, and doing more reps instead of heavy lifting (and by heavy I mean up to 25 lbs.) I foam roll, stretch, and use a gausha almost daily. Thanks for any additional tips or tools!

Alatariel75

May I recommend you see an exercise physiologist? They're trained at working with people with chronic issues, along with other health and physical challenges, to ensure that you have a program which takes into account any needs you have and, most importantly, doesn't cause you any damage!

AnnPT77

Sort of. Not the exact same pain, but some chronic issues.

Short answer: Physical therapy, professional massage (from a well-credentialed sports massage kind of person, not just relaxation massage), stretching, in one case acupuncture, osteopathic manipulation are some of the interventions I've used with positive effects, not necessarily or always full remediation.

For me, tension headaches also had a relationship to something akin to TMJ so a night guard helped, and finding out I had sleep apnea and getting that treated also helped. You didn't give any hint that those things are issues for you, but I'm mentioning it just in case.