To an extent. I’ve done longer, more technical, and more strenuous hikes but not while bearing a load like I did this time. I’ve camped longer and in worse conditions but not while I was as remote as I was this time. The religion I grew up in was a big part of the Boy Scout community, so I did quite a bit of camping and hiking growing up. Some of the scout camps were in pretty gross conditions at altitude and some nights were sleeping in terribly constructed (by me) shelters but I think this probably takes the cake, on the whole, for most absurd set of circumstances. I actually ended up really enjoying being in such a demanding environment
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Did a Mike I. Delt workout yesterday, took like 15 min, used light weights and they’re pretty sore today. Enjoyed it
60 min peloton @ 167
warmup then zone 2 until the last 4 min. Did this with no fan, like last time, sweat was at absurd levels and HR was too high but felt like good work
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Hit some glutes and hams, followed this video, kind of.
Deficit sumo DL: 135 x 8, 225 x 8, 275 x 6, 325 2 x 6
RDL: 135 x 10, 225 x 8, 275 2 x 8
Lunges: bw x 10, 20 x 10, 50 x 10, 90 x 10
Single leg glute kickback: 50 x 10, 110 x 10
Both deadlift variants kicked my butt, lunges were fine except for my left knee which has been bothering me since the beginning of the week. Hip flexor is also sore but feels not as bad as I imagined it would’ve, so that’s a win, I guess.
@Spock81 i did the below like 3 days ago and my shoulders are still sore, kinda digging the narrow body part focus while doing easy, long conditioning on the side
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Dude, I am so happy you’re trying this shit!! Ahhh!! This excites me muchly! 
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Went to a friends going away party yesterday, had a few smokes, a few drinks, and a lot of snack. Weight ballooned but not too worried about it.
Bench/tris
Bench: 135 x 10, 5, 225 x 5, 245 2 x 6, 265 x 6
Smith skullcrusher: 95 (w/bar) 4 x 10
Dips (small pause at the bottom): 2 x 10, -52 2 x 10
Incline machine press: 90 x 15, 13
Hammer hi row: 180 x 15, 230 2 x 10
The plate loaded hi row is a weird in between of a pulldown and a low row, feels great on the lats tho. Dips were strong at the bottom and my shoulder felt pretty solid but was having trouble locking out, triceps were already tired. Bench was a bit slow and I was careful with the shoulder but it went okay, all things considered.
Hams and glutes are sore, especially the left side.
Inspiration for most of the workout. Going to be sore tomorrow.
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Didn’t know what to do today but had gym energy, so took a quad focused workout from the interwebs and did it, plus a few random pull-ups and curls.
Seated ham curl: 115 15, 13, 12, 12
Squat press: 380 x 20, 16, 15
SSB: 255 3 x 8
KB hammer curls: 25 2 x 12
EZ preacher curl: 60 3 x 10 (slow descent)
Hamstrings were sore going into this, hamstrings were sore during this, hamstrings will be sore. Probably should’ve done something else since I’m going to be on a plane and in a car for a decent chunk of tomorrow, oh well, will walk a lot in the big easy.
The ham curl is plate loaded and works as a quad extension too, took a bit of configuration before it felt okay. Everything else was fine (hard).
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Damn bro that hike sounded extremely intense, and those pictures you took are amazing!
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Oh man, New Orleans boomed me. Ate a ton of good food, drank many sazeracs, smoked too much but had a very fun time. Absolutely exhausted by the time we left and didn’t get home until 1am. Hotel gym was under renovation and closed but honestly might not have used it anyway. Lower back is a mess, walked in sandals and getting tingling and some pain in my left leg.
Knocked out a quick shoulder workout, same at the one I’m replying to.
Super ROM lateral raises, slow descent : 10lb plates 20, 18, 15, 13, 13
After 5th set straight into a set of 25 with 5lb played then a set of 10 with just my hands
Superset with axle:
Facepulls: 15,15,14
High upright row: 3 x 12
Pull throughs: 2 x 20
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Thanks dude, it was a blast would love to do it again, ideally somewhere a touch warmer haha
You ever done much hiking/backpacking in our area? Thinking about doing a long weekend or so on the finger lakes trail early next summer
I’m sure the cold makes everything substantially more difficult to accomplish, haha.
I’ve never been much of a backpacker/tent-camp type. Wifey and I will tackle day trips around the area on some easyish trails in the finger lakes when we have a day off and it’s nice out.
My parents own 14 acres up in the Adirondacks where we have a cabin that my father built. Its the perfect mix of barebones and luxury. Beds, propane stove, propane lights… No electricity or cell service, no plumbing etc. I really love going up there and exploring/hiking the mountains and trails. There are so many amazing spots close by, and with the park being absolutely massive, I haven’t even begun to touch everything it has to offer.
If you find yourself with a free weekend I’d highly recommend spending some time up there.
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Did some poundstones the other day but haven’t done much else. Back is regressing, neck is sore, things are tingling. Definitely a nerve issue. Went to the Dr today, said maybe sciatica maybe something else. Will get rads done tomorrow then probably an MRI down the road, hoping PT can do enough to avoid any surgeries.
Good news is the Dr said I was buff at one point lol
Also should be fine to do upper (that doesn’t stress the low back), maybe some light legs and the peloton at low intensities for the foreseeable future. Should b enough to keep me in shape
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I usually don’t like to give too much medical advice on here unless I’m very specifically asked. Ironically the reason is that I do work in the field.
I will say however: Only get an MRI for back pain if you have a good reason (specific neurological symptoms or to exclude red flag factors). Only get surgery - under any circumstances - if there is a very strong neurological indication for it (ie. loss of bladder and bowel control).
Best of luck mate! And remember that ‘nerve issues’ aren’t a death sentence or even a sign of something sinister/ a bad pathology or prognosis. Which is not to say that a condition like your’s doesn’t cause a lot of suffering and pain. I don’t want to demean that.
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Appreciate the info/general advice.
My doctor (actually a Nurse Practitioner) yesterday said the MRI would probably happen but that taking rads would give them (and the insurance companies) enough info to decide if they were necessary. I’ve hit my deductible this year, so I will pay almost nothing for the imaging, which is nice.
I appreciate the positive sentiment about the potential outcomes, this is new territory for me. A friend just had (literally yesterday) surgery on his back and he isn’t yet 40, I don’t know his entire medical history but I’m going to do everything and anything under the sun to avoid that. I’d rather be a yogi without pain than jacked but incapable of moving.
Don’t worry about potential demeaning of experience, I know that’s not where you are coming from and honestly, my pain levels are pretty tolerable I just freaked out when the tingling started spreading
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That’s completely understandable. But even a loss of unilateral strength (up to a certain point) wouldn’t be a strong enough indicator for a back surgery.
The reason I caution people (actually I’m trying to caution practitioners tbh) on imaging is this: It’s very likely to find some kind of anomaly on an MRI. The older the person, the more likely. That image alone does tell you absolutely nothing about the cause of pain (as it could be an asymptomatic anomaly or an old finding, not related to the current symptoms). There’s literally tons of data on this. What happens though, especially if the practitioners aren’t very cautious and sensible with the words they use, is that it’s very easy to nocebo people, install fear leading to kinesiophobia and loss of self efficacy (which has to be the sole number 1 priority of rehab!).
From what we know so far, there is no reason to believe you can’t return to the things you love or have in any way suffered lasting damage.
Just to let you know why I’m so hesitant on seemingly harmless imaging. This is a huge and still growing problem, that most folks and even practitioners of various occupations aren’t that aware of. The cycle I described above is yet something I see every single day.
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Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing. My partner is finishing her radiology residency (veterinarian though), so the application to her work is tangible.
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General update:
Been trying to keep walking and stretching, did a little workout a few days ago but that made things worse, will try to hit some bands at least today.
Neck is in a solid amount of pain and tingling has increased in terms of both surface area and consistency so my Dr ordered an MRI of the brain and cervical spine. Somewhat oddly, my historic issue area has been my lower back but I think this is probably an appropriate triage and makes it less likely to find old injuries that aren’t particularly relevant (like @Koestrizer mentions).
Luckily I got in super quickly so I will be getting it done in Saturday, then we’ll go from there.
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Yep, that’s a reasoning for an MRI I can absolutely get behind. Especially since red flags need to be ruled out. The neck is something I’m much more careful around than the lower back.
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Alrighty, so I have done one Peloton (20 min) since my last post and been told that I can’t lift for a while.
MRI was of the cervical spine and brain.
Cervical spine found mild stenosis in c2-c3
Also found extrusion of 4mm in c4-c5 which contacts the ventral surface of the spinal cord.
c5-c7 found protrusion of 3mm and 2mm, respectively.
I honestly don’t know much about what this means because, unfortunately, the brain has been the focus.
Found a few things that might matter (ha), including a pineal gland cyst (1.4cm) and some white matter signal alteration. The thing that is definitely mattering right now is .6cm mass that is touching my 5th cranial nerve, which has started to cause my face to tingle. Radiologist said it was likely a benign neurogenic tumor, a meningioma, or, somewhat unlikely, an aneurysm.
So, that sucks. The good news is that I have a decent amount of people I know in medical fields and they seem pretty confident this isn’t going to be cancer. I also have a friend finishing up his radiology residency that is going to take a look at the images, so I can have a second opinion. I’ve got an appt with a neurosurgeon in a few weeks and am hoping to get a CTA to rule out an aneurysm before I go to that. Doesn’t seem like it is necessarily going to be immediate but since I am symptomatic, brain surgery seems like a not-so-far-down-the-road reality 
Going to keep doing easy peloton and figuring out what else I can do that is low impact so I don’t screw my neck up any further. I don’t think lifting is going to make a tumor grow, so that’s nice.
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That’s nothing one likes to hear. I’m really sorry, dude. I’m hoping for good news about further diagnosis and treatment and a speedy recovery
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Sorry to hear and hope it all works out OK mate.
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Hey bro, hope you’re doing well these past couple weeks.
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