EUGENIZATION.

One fear that clients (particularly older individuals) have regarding strength training is the integrity of their joints:  “Won’t I hurt my back (or knee/elbow/shoulder) lifting weights?” 

If you’re concerned at all about joint integrity on a resistance training program, don’t be.  Assuming you choose weights that are appropriately heavy, your joints should get stronger.  Here’s why:

First, positive tissue remodeling occurs.  Positive tissue remodeling is a fancy way of saying that your connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, etc.) thickens, becoming stronger and more durable.  In very much the same process as muscle building, the stimulus of lifting a heavy weight stresses connective tissue, causing microtrauma (miniscule tears in the tissue fibers) and temporarily weakening the joint.  During recovery, your body goes to work, repairing these microtears and reinforcing them, creating a stronger joint.

It’s important to note here that positive tissue remodeling takes longer than muscle recovery.  It’s postulated that the reason you see so many muscle pulls in professional sports nowadays (especially baseball and football) is rampant steroid abuse - which affords a player faster muscle recovery time, but doesn’t affect positive tissue remodeling.  As a result, their muscle becomes stronger at a much faster rate than their tendons and ligaments, eventually culminating in a muscle tear where failure occurs at the musculotendinous junction - the point at which the muscle and tendon connect.  In other words, their tendon breaks because it is not strong enough to withstand the force the muscle generates.

Second, the muscles surrounding your joints get stronger.  In an earlier post, I alluded to the fact that muscles support bones and joints by acting as a suspension unit - they assist the joint capsule and connective tissue in holding a joint together by contracting.  As muscles get stronger, they are better able to reinforce your joints by literally holding them in place while you contract.

Your spine is a great example.  Look at this picture of a human spine and note its natural curves.  Without these curves, your spine would not be able to support nearly as much weight as it does (about 16x less, if you strip all the connective tissue and muscle away).  In order to maintain these curves, you have an extensive layering of connective tissue surrounding each intervertebral joint, as well as the entire spine.  Additionally, you’ve got layer upon layer of small muscles that surround the spine, reinforcing those curves and lending the spine greater stability.  It’s estimated they contribute more than 50% to spinal stability.  The stronger these small muscles get, the better they can stabilize and protect your spine. 

Through both these mechanisms, expect your joints to strengthen as a result of resistance training.  That is, if you don’t try to lift 500 lbs on your first try.