In all fairness @dagill2 not having a stroke is generally considered a win in any circumstances.
I know what you mean though, I’m just being a dickhead. Thanks man.
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I’m kind of in a reflective mood right now with everything that’s gone on this past week. It all seemed to somehow culminate.
On the positive side, I got the sleep apnea diagnosis I was hoping for (sounds weird, but it gave me an explanation for why I’ve felt so shit for the past few months and for me not knowing why made it suck harder). Even after a couple of days I think the CPAP is going to be a big help. So all that is a major win. Starting to do some conditioning once a week is something I’m also counting as a win. I don’t know how hard 10 30-pace sprints should be, but they sure don’t feel any harder than when I did them in the 190s. I can’t help but think that’s a good thing.
I guess somewhere in the neutral middle is my back, which isn’t the same as it was before I tweaked coming into the March meet; it but it’s keeping its shit mostly together and cooperating when I need it to. So yeah, not entirely positive because I’d like it to be as it was before, but not entirely negative because it isn’t stopping me from doing anything.
On the negative side, is this bullshit with my head. A big part is not knowing what it is, because my imagination gets to do its thing. It’s definitely something new because I’ve never felt bruised inside my head before. That whole area is still tender, and there’s a very slight ache that hasn’t gone away. That’s never happened until now. I’ve had some nasty headaches before, but they’ve all been solved by either stretching my traps, a massage or hydrating, and they never lasted more than at most six hours. I’ll admit right know it’s gotten me a little shook. I’m probably fussing over nothing, but that doesn’t change shit. I guess I should take comfort in having had a good BP reading under two months go, and good blood results in that timeframe too.
I’m just whining really. If it turns out it’s just some bullshit pain that’s going to crop up periodically that carries no risk of anything harmful I’ll be a happy man. Pain I can deal with.
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Mate it’s perfectly normal to reflect and to worry, especially when you are dealing with something new. Once you see the dr and get another view on what is happening it will allow you to deal with it or work around it. If it is a small bleed, it should hopefully heal itself and you may never have another.
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I’ll second Simo here. Totally normal.
You tried to do another workout, it was still there, you shut it down. Got an appointment. Good call Mark.
But I’m sorry to read about your struggles, It’s never fun to read about others struggle. I sincerely hope you’ll be back on full strength soon.
When’s the appointment btw.
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Woke at 261.2 lbs again, looking similar to yesterday. Got nine hours on the CPAP.
Todays training
Walking lunges
3x30 feet with 44 lbs DBs
So far, so good.
Lat pulldowns
12x165 lbs - miscalculated the existing plates. Too heavy to really feel
2x12x154 lbs - weight just right, but by the third set head hinted that things weren’t going well.
I mean, I had to wait a bit between sets for the pain to go away until it got to a point that the pain itself was getting shitty.
Jump rope
Three rounds of 20 to 30 whatever a loop is called
Sled pushes
Eight on the 30 foot track - this didn’t bother my head in the slightest
Called it there.
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I call these a “stumble”, although I’ve also been known to call them an embarrassment.
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I’ve tried skipping recently, I call it lucky passes of the trip wire.
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Dan John’s been talking about the benefits of tumbling for ages, so maybe we’re onto something.
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Woke at 261.2 lbs again, still looking similar. Another eight hours on the CPAP. A mental adjustment I’m having to make is that I wake up and I’m not tired. It’s taking some getting used to, in a very good way.
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Problem solved?
On the sleep side, very possibly. Whether this whole issue with my head was a result of accumulate lack of proper sleep over a long period, I don’t know. It it was, then yes, problem solved in that it shouldn’t happen again.
Currently regardless of sleep quality it’s impacting training because any pressure buildup above my ribcage causes the pain to come back and until I know what the pain means I’m unwilling to push through it.
If it turns out to be just pain and not a warning of some other issue I can deal with that even though it’ll be unpleasant.
At the moment I’m going with the consensus that I did something to a blood vessel in my head during that 20 rep squat set last week. Either I bruised it, or popped it; whatever I did caused shit to get rather unpleasant and while day to day I’m relatively pain free apart from tenderness in that area, any increase in blood pressure or heart rate causes the pain to return in varying degrees. I definitely don’t think it was just a blood pressure spike, because that doesn’t explain the ongoing tenderness. The previous instances of the pain I’ve had since last meet, yes, they were probably spikes because as soon as I stopped and iced my head the pain disappeared and I had no ongoing tenderness. This was a step or two beyond that.
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Todays training
Some band work, making sure no pressure built up anywhere in my head.
Bench press
Worked up to
4x1x236 lbs
3x236 lbs
2x6x236 lbs - AFSAP on the program, but to be safe capped it at six per set
I think this also may be the most volume I’ve done with this kind of weight, along with last week.
Bench to a two-board
2x7x215 lbs
DB row
3x10x120 lbs - the old adjustable DBs got set up by someone, so I used it. Nice to have a change from the fixed 80 lbs.
This was where I started to have to be really careful with my rest between sets because the pressure buildup started making the tender areas hurt
DB tricep extensions
3x12x22 lbs - for some reason the discomfort peaked with these. I wont say pain because it wasn’t bad by an standard, it was just very definitely warning me of what was to come if I pushed
DB lateral raises
2x15x22 lbs
Band facepulls
3x12
All up an hour and 30 minutes
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Definitely sounds like something like a popped blood vessel or another damage to something that’s like a scar healing up.
If you tries to hard shit flares up again. Well done going to the gym and not overdoing it.
I’ve said it before I’ll say it again, you’re a smart and clever dude.
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Thanks @mortdk you’re always very kind.
It helps have guys like you keep me in line.
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Woke at 259 lbs, looking a little less bloated. Got around 7 hours on the CPAP. Nose was a little blocked overnight though so I kept waking up. Nothing terrible, still feel fine.
Good luck at the doctors today Mark. Hope you get some answers.
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Doctor was cool. He always is.
He reckons it was an exertion headache that became a migraine. He’s sending me to get a CT scan just to be safe, but said I’m fine to train as long as I’m careful and back off when it starts to hurt.
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That is great news Mark. Will you Just relax off a little this week and slow build next week.