by Victoria Tiegert

Created on: July 01, 2009

In today's era where fitness and body image have increased in importance and desirability, there are many people who choose to get the body they are hoping for by lifting weights. While there are many, particularly women, who are lifting reasonable weights for numerous repetitions, there are others who are taking an entirely different approach. They are lifting as heavy as possible for even a few repetitions,in order to break down the muscle and rebuild it, bigger and better than before.

These are the ones that we typically refer to as the "power lifters". They are trying to attain as much muscle mass as possible, rather than looking for that toned body with low body fat. They are more often men than they are women and they are almost always stubborn and even addicted to the sport of bodybuilding through weight lifting. These are the people who often wind up injured and overdoing it. While they continue to challenge themselves constantly, they forget that everyone does have a limit of how much weight they can lift without injuring themselves to the point that they may even be taken out of the sport or pastime for a time until they can heal. Of course, there are many who don't even wait that long. They only wait until they can move just enough to lift again and reinjure themselves right on top of that last mishap.

My husband and I are among those who love working out and being in the gym. I lift to a point, wanting to gain some noticable muscle, but not so much that I am willing to bypass my limits. My husband, however, is a different creature entirely. He lifts heavier than anyone else in the gym and he has the muscle mass to show for it. He also has the injuries. Just three days ago, he reinjured an old injury to his low back. Okay, so he didn't work that muscle group for a couple of days. Then today, what did he do? Just as it was beginning to heal, he tweeked it again and it's back to the wife helping put his socks and shoes on for another few days. Hopefully, this time he'll wait longer and allow himself to really heal, but probably not. The heaviest lifters rarely do.

I asked my husband, who is also a personal trainer, how you really know your limit when weight lifting. His reply was what you would expect a true lifter to say. It was, "When you can't lift anympre." and it was stated as though this was the dumbest question he'd ever heard. For the lifter, this really is the answer. For the rest of us, if it hurts, it's too heavy!

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