I have taken alot in the past for headaches and such. But i have cut that down significantly. I have also found that taking ibuprofen helps my lifts on big days, so i usually take 800mg before the saturday lift (PR day at our gym).

I have found another solution that helps out during the week and just in general, Zyflamend.

Its pretty good stuff, boosts your natural inflamation response. So maybe you can work that in on your moderate weeks!

I just take half a dose daily and it has helped my recovery considerably.

Thanks for this write up... I've been in awe for the last two years, as Crossfit culture bags on Motrin, stating it stunts strength gains and hypertrophy, but then rave about fish oil which promotes similiar anti-inflammatory effects. We had a running joke in the Marine Corps, any injury could be fixed by drinking more water and taking Motrin... Think we were on to something.

Shawn, you just convinced me to start chewing on Ibuprofen like its a tic tac. And any article that starts out, "straight out of compton" must be good! Thanks for the thoughts and the laugh!

I used to avoid ibuprofen off-season and just hang with the pain (character building :-)) and use it during the on-season period.
Now I just use it before the clean and jerk workouts and maybe a bit more during the last week of a heavy cycle. The article reminds me of a quote at the beginning of a chapter in on of Bill Starr's books: 'The doctor has prescribed me the greatest tablet ever, it has one terrible side effect; it wears off'.

It is clear that NSAIDS are detrimental to bone and soft tissue healing for fractures and joint reconstructions by inhibiting the first phase of healing which is an inflammatory process. Inflammation is painful but a normal process of healing.

I used to take it AFTER training. Is it better to take it before?

Bad news for the liver...

s rcduee production of prostaglandins, which are required to rebuild collagen (a primary component in bone, ligament, and tendon). But they don't have a perfect study showing that this translates to a population level outcome.The 2011 review only found 12 human studies that test anything like this (this includes the studies that tested if someone on NSAIDs was more likely to get a stress fracture), and you're not going to prove this with 12 small studies and it's impossible to prove a negative.

it's apperent that you don't know what you doing. Something tells me that people like you would go for 100mg of codein after a workout. You bascially abusing a poison that shoud be bad for muscle growth too. Do I really need to explain this?

Hilarious and very true. On Ibuprofen, pistol squats are pretty straightforward. Without it? Jeez, my knees are just too "full" to hit the bottom of the squat. I feel like a freaking senior citizen even trying.

That being said - it is *absolutely* true that too much can mess with your stomach and, from the literature, your heart. So reasonable caution is definitely in order.

Around the same age as you Matt, but nowhere near the weightlifting experience... I did do strongman from 2002 until 2009, pretty seriously (up to Nationals) and I've been an on-again/off-again highland games thrower throughout from that time until the present. I have a ton of aches and pains including some hellish patella tendonitis that never seems to go away... plus I'm a super so that makes me hurt even more.

I take 2 ibuprofen (400mg) before most heavy days that I lift (2 heavy sessions/week typically), but I skip it on light/tech days, as I usually do with any pre-workout caffeine. I usually have to Ice knees and wrists after training and on my days off if I need it, but I don't need to take ibuprofen to get through my non-lifting days (I train 3-4 sessions/week). This seems to be just enough to "take the edge off" while not completely masking any pains that I'm having.

When I was heavy into strongman, I'll admit that I was taking way more ibuprofen than a normal human should... in excess of a gram a day. When the heartburn and ulcers came, I was switched to stronger prescription stuff and that's about the time I realized that a healthier sport would probably do me some good.

So compared to my younger days, I'm taking less ibuprofen weekly than I was daily. And if I am particularly achey on a peak, pre-competition week I do feel great when I take a little more before training.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18461099

Man, thank you for posting this. I have a bulging L5/S1 disc so I have not been doing free squats or deadlifts for that past few years. I recently started taking 800 mg of ibuprofen before training, but only on my heavy days (right now I'm doing 5x5 3 days a week so I only take it on those days). I just did deadlifts for the first time in a long time last week (granted, I didn't go super heavy). I think the ibuprofen is reducing the inflammation so I can do these without killing my lower back. I havent experience any side effects, but again, I don't take it every day. I also take it for headaches which isn't very often.

Not at all what I expected, thus a success! Ha

According to Dr. Rhonda Patrick and several other nerds I follow, taking ibuprofen once / twice a month is considered regular. I was kind of surprised but I can also see their POV on it. And even though we have heard of the ill effects for a while now, it was only recently where the FDA now has admitted to it causing heart attacks...

So I think it is even worse than we assume.

If you want to take it, awesome. Go ahead. I would not advise on it but whatever.

I just personally find smoking weed is much better. Helps me get to sleep a lot easier especially on those painful nights where yo have restless legs from all the heavy lifts. Helps me relax. I consider it even a healthy product to use. but whatever, just food for thought