Growing stronger via weight training
serious condition that results from severe muscle injury.
It results from the death of muscle fibres and the release of their contents into your bloodstream. It can lead to kidney failure and in rare cases, rhabdomyolysis can even cause death.
Rhabdomyolysis used to be seen about once per year and was from a crush injury in a car accident, or being crushed by a building collapse, a muscle compression caused by prolonged immobilization after a fall, electrical shock injury, lightning strike, or third-degree burns.
It can also be caused by extreme repetitive muscle strain, especially in someone who is an untrained athlete.
The number of cases of rhabdomyolysis has gone up in recent years and coincidentally so has the number of unqualified people teaching Olympic lifts, kipping chin ups and box jumps. There are enough university qualified, well experienced coaches and trainers out there that no one should ever be permanently damaged by rhabdomyolysis.
-Waikato’s Alison Storey is a personal trainer who has represented New Zealand in beach volleyball, rowing and rhythmic gymnastics. She has been awarded New Zealand Personal Trainer of the Year twice and runs Storey Sport, a mobile personal and sports training business which provides a range of services that optimise the fitness and wellbeing of its clients.