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Comment by Hydraulix989 | Hacker News Reader

Make sure you use the right lifting posture and don't overdo it with weight, or you can seriously and permanently mess up your back.

When I was 16 years old, I somehow twisted my spine in my lower back in a way that it wasn't meant to be twisted doing 250 lbs max rep seated leg press, and ever since then, my lower back has been alternating between bouts of sharp pain and dull pain (but never subsiding) ever side for 10+ years now.

Backpain (and the resultant osteoarthritis) is still a modern medical mystery too so the usual suggestions of exercise and stretching from my doctors are something I have been doing all along but have not actually worked.

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In my opinion weight lifting shouldn t be done until 18yo unless you re a professional athlete. Chances are you will get injured sooner or later since your body is not fully developped for it. Also gaining muscular mass at a young age can cause metabolism issues later (after 30), gaining weight easier and such. Studies show it might also stunt your growth in height. Practicing sports only till about 18 then slowly moving towards weight lifting will ensure a fit&healthy body, those big biceps all kids want will come up later in life, no need to speed that up.

At the time, I was on that trajectory -- trying to get recruited for college-level track and field. All of the other state-caliber athletes (my competition) were intensely weight training.

What messed me up wasn't the fact that I was weight lifting (I still have remnants of my high school athletic physique now even as an engineer who sits and codes for 10+ hours a day), but rather, overtraining and incompetent coaching.

> Also gaining muscular mass at a young age can cause metabolism issues later (after 30), gaining weight easier and such.

I've always heard the opposite. Do you have a source for this?

Not really, but have seen plenty of real-life examples.

Main point is you can NOT gain muscular mass at that age unless you take supplements or start eating protein foods like crazy! Both will mess up with your metabolism, do you agree? I m not saying going to the gym for exercising is bad per se, just early mass gain.

Have you talked to anyone about nerve cauterization and whether you might be a candidate? I had a family member who fairly severely injured her neck in an auto accident. Of all the solutions she tried, she swears by it as most cleanly fixing pain problems. And given that the nerves grow back in ~5 years, it's a nice balance between "not permanent" and "long enough to be worth it."

iyengar yoga is great for me. I started with exercises at level 0 with a competent instructor (15+ years) ...

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