Nerve damage from lifting is real. I trained for bodybuilding and powerlifting meets for around 25 years. I am now 39 and only casually lift anymore. Kids, work, house etc. I always trained heavy... 6 rep failures were my weapon of choice even while dieting. Had local success at bodybuilding, but national success in powerlifting.
Did one cycle in my life at 17 and realized the amount of drugs needed for bodybuilding success, and switched to powerlifting and natural bodybuilding... still always lifted heavy...and now...
(Sorry for the long set up) I have tingling hands/forearms feet/lower legs. I been through every test there is for illness, deficiencies, you name it. All normal. Neurologist blame neck and lower back nerve damage from the years of lifting. In my case no atrophy yet... more of a constant inconvienience. Like permanent carpel tunnel.
I still function ok just use Tylenol when I have a really rough day. Moral of the story is even with competitive success, heavy lifting (I mean correct lifting too not cheats etc) is not good for you long term. In case if I had continued drug use along with my style of lifting... I prolly would be all shriveled and hurting even worse.
Agree 100% with this, and galeniko.
I had the same thing...lots of powerlifting led to a neck problem (from bridging on the bench press), which caused some nerve damage to the right side shoulder internal and external rotators. Next thing you know, my shoulder is unstable, then it gets hurt because it's unstable because my rotators couldn't fire properly. It was just 100lb dumbell warm-ups, but they did me in. I tried like crazy to rehab it, strengthen rotators, build it back up...nothing. I'd do 30 minutes of activation, foam rolling, stretching, all kinds of crazy stuff...nothing. I was spending more time warming up than I was lifting. It was getting stupid and out of control. I just looked at myself one day and said..."what the fuck are you doing?". I'm not going to win a national meet, and even if I did, I'd probably permantely fuck myself up doing it. I just don't have the genetics, but I suspect most don't.
I can't go above a certain weight when lifting now. Too risky.
Now I lift like a girl, I'm slowly building up my right side to get better symmetry with the left side, and it's working slowly but surely, but it'll never come back. I live with what I've done to my body every time I look in the mirror. But I will never powerlift again. I missed it a lot at first. But now it's fading away, and I'm moving on to other things. Lots of reps, light weights...the body actually looks a lot better. I'm way weaker, but I actually LOOK stronger, to the average person.
Honestly...heavy weights are stupid. Unless you just want to lift for a few years, get good, then give it all up. But if you want to lift long-term, you should really try to lay off the heavy weights. The risk is not worth the reward.