Are There Disadvantages of Weight Training? What to Know (Updated for 2025)

Weight training offers many benefits. It helps you build muscle, relieve stress, and keep your mind and body healthy. If you’re dedicated enough to your nutrition, you could even sport the fabled six-pack on the beach this summer. However, being aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of weight training is key to staying healthy and getting in better shape.

What Is Weight Training?

Weight training is a workout using weights as resistance to strengthen your muscles and improve their tone. It may enhance your balance and flexibility, allowing you to live more independently as you age. This activity may also reduce blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, increase bone density, accelerate metabolism and contribute to brain health.

Recent research also suggests that weight training can improve cardiovascular health and support joint longevity when done correctly. Just 30 minutes of strength-building exercises per week can lower your chances of premature death due to heart disease.

If you experience chronic pain, live with a heart condition and struggle with weight management, this training may be beneficial. Aside from aiding physical health, this workout may also help you be more mentally fit. Weight training may alleviate symptoms of depression, boost your self-confidence and sharpen your cognitive skills — like thinking and learning.

This workout generally involves free weights, including:

• Fixed-weight barbells with bumper, metal or fractional plates
• Olympic barbells
• Specialty bars — such as axle, cambered bench press, EZ curl, hex weight, open trap, safety squat and strongman log bars
• Adjustable, rubber hex and urethane dumbbells
• Adjustable, cast iron, and competition kettlebells
• Medicine and slam balls
• Steel clubs
• Heavy hammers and maces
• Weighted vests
• Farmer’s walk handles
• Yokes
• Sandbags

You can also do various exercises with weight machines. Examples include:

• Seated arm extension, curl or arm row
• Seated press, overhead press, leg curl or lat pulldown
• Lying leg curl
• Assisted close-grip pull-up
• Rear leg extension
• Hanging leg raise

The suitable exercise and equipment depend on your health goals, fitness level and experience. Regardless of what you aim for, how fit you are and how many times you’ve done weight training before, you should observe some of these best practices to notice gains more quickly and protect yourself:

• Take your time.
• Mind your breathing.
• Switch to a heavier weight slowly.
• Finish at least one set of every exercise.
• Put a premium on variety.
• Get plenty of rest.

Benefits, Risks and Essential Safety Tips for Weight Training

Weight training offers numerous advantages, including building muscle, relieving stress, and supporting overall mental and physical health. However, it’s equally important to understand the disadvantages of weight training, so you can train safely and effectively. Although there are not many disadvantages to going to the gym, new gym-goers may experience some form of injury within the first few months of training. This highlights the need for caution.

Cons of Weight Lifting

As with any other physical activity, proper techniques and planning are essential to obtaining the desired results. Otherwise, things could go terribly awry — it’s rare, but it happens. Here’s what you should know about the disadvantages of strength training, and other forms of weight training for that matter, and ways to minimize the risks.

1. Acute Injuries

Hitting the gym isn’t inherently dangerous, but the injury statistics bear a grim warning. A study of 4,785 male and 542 female members of a U.S. Army Division revealed that 4.5% of men and 0.6% of women got hurt throughout one year of weight training. These figures translate to 0.31 and 0.05 injury incidents per 1,000 hours between the two genders. What lurks behind these fitness foibles?

The most significant disadvantage of weight training is that anyone can do it. The gym’s accessibility should be a huge benefit, but people vary widely in their fitness expertise and don’t always get their information from reliable sources. Beginners usually don’t realize their mistakes until too late, resulting in a sudden and often severe injury. This vicious cycle is one of the main cons of weightlifting that turns skeptics away.

Far too many gym-goers use improper or even dangerous techniques they see online or witness other people doing. Improper form in exercises like deadlifts or bench presses accounts for many gym injuries. For example, it’s not uncommon for folks doing Romanian deadlifts to strain their lower back and cause chronic back pain.

Back strains are statistically the most common weight-training injuries, but there are many others. Shoulders, knees and elbows are also injury-prone areas because of the pressure they have to endure. These disadvantages of lifting heavy weights often scare people away from specific exercises.

What’s your best bet for avoiding injury? Hire a personal trainer — even if only for a session or two. You might even get this service for free. Many fitness facilities help new members learn proper weight-lifting techniques as part of the package. Please take advantage of this benefit if offered.

You might also consider sticking with strength training machines instead of heading to the free weights — especially if you’re a novice. The fixed nature of these devices reduces your injury risk by operating in a fixed range of motion to guide weights up and down. You won’t work as many complementary and opposing muscle groups, but you’ll prevent unnecessary strain.

Another pro-tip: go light. Far too many injuries occur when people bite off more than they can chew — a classic example involves getting pinned under a bench press bar. It also helps to have a spotter, even if they aren’t a professional trainer. They can help you with those heavy lifts and critique your form. Plus, working out with a buddy motivates you to stick with the program.

2. Overtraining

Most people understand the “weekend warrior” syndrome — you remain relatively sedentary all week, then hit the gym hard on the weekends. Come Monday, you hobble back into the office with every part of your body screaming.

Overtraining — which happens to be one of the disadvantages of powerlifting — is a significant risk of weight training. It can occur when you work out at an intensity level that is too high for too long without a break while ignoring the subtle signs that you should slow down. Ironically, training too hard or too frequently can derail your progress because it can result in injuries or performance plateaus.

Overtraining can also lead to elevated cortisol levels, disrupted sleep patterns and immune system suppression, thereby increasing the risk of illness and injury.

How can you recognize when you’ve pushed past your limits? Look for the following signs:

• Persistent soreness: While many people experience delayed-onset muscle soreness when starting an unfamiliar strenuous exercise, you shouldn’t always feel sore. If your muscles continuously ache throughout your training or randomly experience spasms during the day, you should take things down a notch.
• “Heavy” muscles: No, we’re not referring to your bulk. Rather, this heaviness is a subjective feeling — you might find it challenging to do basic physical activities throughout the day, such as walking up a flight of stairs, sitting on the toilet or doing household chores.
• Increase in tension, anger or confusion: One of the overlooked cons of weight training is how physical exercise can negatively impact your mental state. Overtraining can increase the stress hormone cortisol, aggravating your mood and making you anxious.
• Inability to relax and poor quality sleep: Going too hard also keeps your central nervous system in a constant “high alert” state. As a result, you may feel perpetually restless and find it impossible to stay asleep even though you’re exhausted.

There is a common misconception among fitness beginners that you need to train two or three hours a day. This idea could not be further from the truth. To avoid the disadvantages of resistance training, limit most sessions to one hour to maximize the benefits. After one hour, the benefits plateau. After two hours, you’re doing more harm than good. You may even be able to get a good pump in with an at-home workout that lasts around 45 minutes.

Overtraining not only slows progress but may also lead to quitting your fitness program altogether. You must train in moderation for the good of your physical and mental state. Gradually elevating your exercise routine may help you sustain the habit longer rather than burning out or experiencing an injury.

Here you can see a powerlifter wearing a belt and knee wraps while performing a heavy squat. These accessories are absolute must-haves if you want to reach maximum strength levels with minimum injury risk.

3. Joint Damage

Lifting something heavy can result in joint strains and sprains, which is ironic because exercising can ease your pain if you have arthritis. It builds the muscle around your joints so your cartilage doesn’t have to do all the work. Whether you benefit from healthier joints depends on your form and the resistance level you select.

You can avoid or minimize joint pain by following these tips:

• Warm up: Your warm-up is the place for dynamic stretching. Moves like lunges and squats without weights prepare your lower body, while tai chi twists and shoulder rolls prepare your upper body for action.
• Stay light: Take a cue from the story of the tortoise and the hare when it comes to weight training. You’re in this for the long haul, so stay on the lighter side with your weight selection, gradually increasing it as it feels safe.
• Maintain proper posture: Focusing on your form when working out is more important than transitioning to a heavier weight. Good posture protects your muscles as you build them and removes unnecessary stress on your joints. You can get better results when you can concentrate on your form and maximize your full range of motion even if you lift lighter weights.
• Perform various exercises: Mixing things up enables the joints you frequently use to recuperate when doing your favorite activities. Target a different body part in every lifting session to avoid overworking your joints and experience less pain.
• Cool down: You should stretch — and rest. Taking adequate time allows your body to repair the microscopic tears that lead to strength gains.
• Stick to your program: It may take a while for your joints to get used to your training. The more you commit to it, the more your body becomes accustomed to your activity level.
• Listen to your body: Every day in the gym is different. Minor changes in hormonal or hydration levels can impact performance. You could even have a mild infection without knowing it — you may only feel more tired than usual. Honor your body’s cues and take it easy when need be.
• Use a trainer: A credentialed exercise coach can point out what you do wrong and teach you safe workout habits. Comparing notes with fellow gymgoers helps, but no opinion matters more than professional advice. Listening to average fitness enthusiasts may endanger your joint health and sabotage your strength goals.
• Seek physical therapy: If your joint problems are ongoing, consider visiting a physical therapist. Massage therapy or chiropractic therapy could be the solution you’re looking for.
• Wear supportive equipment: You can wear a weight lifting belt along with sleeves or wraps on your elbows, knees and wrists to increase stability and safety during heavy lifts.

Some low-impact workouts like swimming, walking or golf are gentler on your joints and will help you work out without getting injured. Moreover, you may feel joint pain due to improper diet. You should eat anti-inflammatory foods, such as beans, berries, fish and green tea. You could also take a collagen protein supplement to improve skin and joint elasticity.

4. Tight Muscles

Everyone’s flexibility range differs. You could find yourself limited compared to your previous stretching ability. Although you can gradually improve your flexibility with specific activities, your genes, age, height and injury history may limit your range of movement.

Fortunately, you can easily address this concern. You will see noticeable benefits to your tight muscles by performing some post-workout flexibility exercises. Incorporating post-workout yoga and stretching can mitigate tightness, improving performance and reducing weight lifting side effects. You can do this simple routine at the gym or at home with some resistance bands whenever you can.

Additionally, you should devote your rest day to yoga practice to balance strength with elasticity. Strength training can still be the foundation of your exercise routine, but mixing in other workout styles is always a good idea so you don’t have any significant weaknesses.

5. Arterial Tears

If the thought of tearing open a major blood vessel inside your body scares you, it should. Arterial tears are probably the scariest disadvantage of lifting heavy weights. Although women mainly deal with spontaneous coronary artery dissection, men may sustain it after carrying a heavy object or doing strength training. Occasionally, other blood vessels — like the celiac artery — may also incur damage.

If you want to avoid rupturing a blood vessel at all costs but don’t want to give up strength training, avoid the heaviest exercises — like the bench press, deadlift or squat. Most arterial tears occur in a powerlifting setting when performing these three compound movements. Stick to machines, cables and lighter free weights.

Other Considerations for Weight Training

Aside from the main disadvantages of weight training, there are several other factors to keep in mind if you want to achieve long-term success:

• Cost: Gym memberships, personal training sessions and specialized equipment can be expensive. Home setups may also require significant investment. Take your budget into account and use gym sessions to test out equipment before purchasing an at-home version.
• Time commitment: Consistency is key in strength training, but many people struggle to balance workouts with jobs, family and social life. Start small and don’t get discouraged if you miss a session on an abnormally busy day.
• Plateaus: Progress may stall after several months, requiring program changes, nutrition adjustments or professional guidance. Seek out new ways to challenge yourself and boost your progress.
• Dietary needs: Adequate protein, micronutrients and hydration are essential for avoiding the negative effects of heavy weight lifting on recovery.
• Mental pressure: Social media and gym culture can create unrealistic expectations, contributing to body image concerns or unhealthy competition. Set your own goals based on your body and lifestyle.

Recognizing these factors early helps you develop a sustainable fitness routine and prevents burnout.

Who Needs Weight Training?

While weight training is advantageous for health in general, these groups of people can find it more beneficial:

Blue-Collar Workers

Any individual whose occupation involves backbreaking tasks needs to work on their strength. Firefighters, construction helpers, farmers, ranchers, warehouse workers, auto mechanics and the like are susceptible to musculoskeletal disorders, causing them to have bad knees, achy hip joints and lower limb discomfort.

Lifting heavy objects when you’re physically unprepared makes you prone to chronic pain and limitations in dexterity and mobility. These health problems may linger after you retire, so you should pursue weight training to condition your body and reduce your risk of injury.

Professional Athletes

While strength isn’t the primary determinant of success in some sports, this quality can take athletic performance to the next level.

For instance, height and skill are more vital to success in basketball than strength. However, players who lift weights can improve their durability, explosiveness, endurance, and stamina.

A good example is Giannis Antetokounmpo’s body transformation. He started as a lanky 6-foot and 8-and-a-half-inch forward and became a muscular near-7-foot MVP after pumping iron in the summer who’s unstoppable in the paint.

Stephen Curry is another living proof of what you can gain in weight training. Although he’ll forever be known as the greatest shooter in NBA history who ushered in the current era of the league, he’s an underrated scorer under the basket. His game also involves nonstop motion to free himself from pesky defenders. Curry’s strong legs allow him to remain active until he gets to his spots without getting tired quickly.

Aspiring Bodybuilders

Being comfortable with resistance comes with the territory if you dream of being Mr. Olympia. Rigorous weight training is crucial to achieving a healthy balance of size, definition, and symmetry. Although genetics plays a significant role in developing the winning physique, unwavering dedication to weight training is the X factor.

Actors

Muscularity isn’t a requirement to win an Oscar or Golden Globe. However, many roles demand certain levels of muscle definition, aiding the audience’s suspension of disbelief.

Many actors exercise and diet to look good in public. Some are so dedicated to their craft they take weight training to the extremes, shocking viewers with mind-blowing physical transformations.

Christian Bale is one of the first celebrities to come to mind. A year after portraying a scraggy insomniac in The Machinist, Bale got bigger to fit the Batman suit for the first installment of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy.

Skinny People

Those with a scrawny physique can benefit from weight training to improve their health and raise their attractiveness.

Setting foot into a gym with a slim frame can be intimidating. However, you can muscle up quickly when you concentrate on compound movements, eat at least 300 more calories than you should based on your current height and weight and take a break from training a few days weekly.

Aging Individuals

As you age, you naturally lose muscle mass. The more volume you lose, the more it can affect your motor function and negatively impact your quality of life. Weight training can help you keep or regain what you naturally lose as you get older, helping you move well for your age. Even two to three sessions per week can improve muscle strength, bone density and overall health for older populations.

Avoid the Disadvantages of Weight Training

Strength training is one of the best physical activities you can do. It tones your body while benefiting your mental health. It can even help you meet friends and make meaningful business connections in the gym.

However, you have to recognize the risks. Now that you know the disadvantages of weight training, you can take adequate measures to make your next sweat session safer and more productive.

Want to learn to weight train safely and effectively? Check out our breakdown of how to get started in weightlifting and our exercise recommendations to boost fat loss in various body parts.

Originally written 2/5/2023 — Updated 10/3/25

Jack Shaw

Senior Writer

Jack is an avid outdoorsman with a taste for the finer things. An ideal day for him consists of lounging in a hammock and enjoying a nice glass of rosé.

Read full bio