Why are Physicians Afraid of Strength Training?

Last week, my sister-in-law, a primary care physician, sent me an article titled “Why are physicians afraid of iron?” written by Dr. Ragav Sharma. The article was published on a social platform for physicians (and was written by a physician for his physician colleagues). The article echoed what I’ve witnessed for 25 years: physicians are seemingly afraid of strength training.

Dr. Ragav’s thought-provoking take-home messages:

“My experience in medicine thus far has led me to understand that physicians have an irrational fear of lifting weights due to some perceived injury risk. Whether due to previous biases and stories we’ve heard growing up, a simple lack of knowledge, or plain inexperience, we are always scared of telling our patients to lift weights. Instead, we hide behind the guise of ‘recommending exercise.’ When pressed further by patients, that recommended exercise more than likely ends up being walking, jogging, playing a sport, etc., which are all thought of as ‘safe’ exercises.

As physicians, we must recognize the unique benefits of resistance training and recommend it to our patients whether young, old, relatively healthy, or with multiple comorbidities… Let’s stop the fear-inducing statements and avoidance of weight training and help deliver the multitude of associated benefits to our patients!”

Final Note: To be fair, physicians probably shouldn’t be expected to have knowledge or expertise around exercise. Medical schools in the United States do not include curricula around exercise. In a recent survey of a cohort of Harvard Medical School graduates, over 90% of Harvard-educated MDs believed exercise was important for their patients but less than 10% felt comfortable prescribing exercise. The bottom line is your physician is simply not educated about exercise (and perhaps this is okay because they have a lot of other knowledge to stay abreast on).