I thoroughly enjoy Kelly Baggetts work, and I was wondering what people thought about what he said here.
This statement is from Eric Cressey’s newsletter and is on Kelly Baggetts website under his articles.
- It’s been said that your muscles don’t know how much weight you’re lifting; they only know tension. This is true. I can also assure you that your joints DO know how much weight you’re lifting and will eventually let you know about it if you train heavy enough for long enough. The large majority of people over the age of 65 have some degree of “wear and tear” arthritis. That’s without subjecting their joints to 45 years of heavy weights. Keep that in mind if you want to be just as active at 75 as you are now. For optimal long-term joint health, not only should you pay close attention to structural balance, but in my opinion, the majority of the time you shouldn’t be lifting anything that you can’t lift with a two-second pause at the hardest part of the movement. This will ensure you’re directing tension to the muscles instead of the connective tissue.
Do people agree that the average joe should stay away from a lot of heavier lifting. I know if I used only weights where I had to pause at the hardest part, my weight I would use would go down significantly. I know people are saying that weekend warriors should train more like athletes, and to me that means more of moving heavy weights. Any thoughts?