I’m assuming the surrounding tissues are providing much of the support but still, I have a hard time understanding it. How does the spine of that Olympic lifter who just busted a world record not accordion in on itself when he lifts that 1000+ lbs? Or his knees?
In: Biology
They probably don’t. Martial artists who break boards and bricks eventually end up with arthritis. Your muscles get stronger, your bones get stronger, your joints get torn up and damaged. It’s not really the weight even. A lot of weight doesn’t help. But repetitive trauma really hurts the body in the long run.
The simplest answer is your body can take a lot of punishment when you’re young. You almost always pay for it when you get older. I wonder how much back damage 70 yo ex weight lifters have.
You can look at a lot of archeological studies too. They’re constantly finding someone with asymmetrical shoulders or hips from carrying heavy loads or being an archer or whatever. Even people who just worked hard physical labor all their life, you can detect it in bone damage.
Anyway, AFAIK there’s no way to “work out” your joints. In fact, every repetitive activity you do generally damages them in every case I can think of. It logically follows that weight lifters probably have terrible arthritis as they age. Just like fighters, construction workers, and altheletes.
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