Damn, man. Hope the neck/headache issues aren’t too terrible. I have gotten exertion headaches, but they haven’t ever lasted any longer than an hour or two. Once my heart rate slows down and I calm down a bit they fade away pretty quickly. I have had muscle strains in my neck as well after tweaking something at work a few different times… Normally takes a week or so to go away. I’ve tried hot/cold and wrapping, but time seems to be the only thing that really helped.
Not sure about you, but I almost never get headaches. They mostly come on with squats, deads, or if I’m working out in the sun/heat for a long time. I’m a pretty idgaf sort of person but multiple days of headaches, especially when it’s not a regular thing for me, would sort of be a cause for alarm.
Rather than have the bar on your neck for squats is there an option to have in across the traps. It will still be a higher bar squat than a true low bar position but won’t hurt your neck.
7/12/2021
SQUAT
10 sets of 5, 185lb, about 60 seconds rest between sets.
Leg Press:
4x25, 225lb
Leg Ext: 3x30, pin-select 60, 60, 70.
Leg Curl: 3x15, pin-select 110, 120, 120
DB SLDL: 3x15, 55s, 60s, 60s.
5x5 Press will have to be tonight or tomorrow.
I was pretty worried, as I woke up still headachey and stiff. Took an ibuprofen with breakfast and told myself if I have to try, and if it hurts, I can stop and do bitch work or just leave.
Started squatting, and it was just below the threshhold. Told myself I could skip the leg press - have a good excuse - just finish the squats. But on the last set, my guy arrived and said “Looking good, you fixed your forward lean” and when I told him about the neck he was so nonchalant and said “Oh yeah, that happens, you pinch a nerve because of the bar on your neck, you’ll get used to it”. I was so frickin fired up just from him engaging with me I went ahead and did the leg press and everything else.
(Wore the heel inserts today, may have helped the posture)
By the end, the headache was wearing off, and at this moment I actually feel pretty good! @simo74 I did move the bar down a bit this morning and I believe that helped. @boilerman thanks. I don’t know if it’s a neck muscle strain, pinched nerve, bulged disc, or bleeding brain, but the fact that it’s feeling better now and I didn’t die the morning is encouraging! One more day off would have probably been a good idea but it would have messed up my week lol.
I really appreciate everyone (Can’t tag em all) you guys have been so helpful and supportive.
Thanks. You’ve put me to shame with some lifts, and competition with internet strangers such as yourself is a big part of the reason (although it’s honestly a stupid reason) why I’ve been performing so hard.
It may be a stupid reason but if it gets me bigger, stronger, leaner, faster, it’s a good reason!
Dude. Yes.
I’m going to sound like an asshole here, but 90% of dudes in the gym are there to do cable pec flyes 3x8, calf raises 2x20, and swingin’ front delt raises with 20s in the squat rack. And that’s it. Maybe 15 minutes on the elliptical to feel like a real badass.
I can do better than that on my worst day. And if I do nothing, I’m still beating their ass because I’m recovering from a brutal barbell session, eating like a god, pushing a lawnmower and racing my kids on their bikes.
I win.
I go to a gym with plenty of big strong boys and girls, so this doesn’t necessarily apply to me, although there are also plenty of time wasters there too. I was just meaning the general population at a football (soccer) ground. They were universally in disgustingly bad shape.
I went to a water slide park Sunday and was pleasantly surprised that I had one of the better physiques there. I dont think I’m in amazing shape or even as good shape as I’d like to be, so is probably more a reflection of how out of shape most of the population is.
Oh 100% I had a similar revelation walking around a swimming pool the other week. I had, by far the best physique there. I’m not good, the bar is absurdly low.
I think you are being hard on yourself, based on your last pics you look pretty good mate and better than a huge chunk of the population both trained and untrained.,
7/13/2021 Tuesday
An Update: Attempted to press per the program last night. Third rep the headache/pinched nerve/whateverthefuck hit me HARD. I racked the bar and was headachey the rest of the evening.
So today I did NOTHING! And now, evening, I feel GREAT. I will attempt to bench press in the morning and just accept that i’m missing some programmed work.
Unrelatedly (i guess) my right shoulder is STILL angry.
I was doing low-bar, with the bar in the groove above the rear delt.
A couple weeks ago I began using the high bar position following some advice. It seemed to help keep me from falling forward.
I have put some videos up of my squat, let me try to put them here and you can be the judge of where the bar is:
7/14 Wednesday
Bench press 5/3/1 5s week
5x 135, 5x155, 10x180. Felt the exertion headache coming on during the top set. Everything felt heavy as hell too. But I’m ok with these numbers.
BBB: 135lb 17, 14, 10, 10 - 51 reps in 4 sets.
20 pullups, mixed grips, done 2 at a time between sets of bench.
Some of these sound like stress symptoms. Do you feel stress in other parts of your life? Not trying to dig into anything, but physical stress on top of other kinds of stress can manifest itself in the same way in your nervous system.
