I’m certainly not doing too much right now. My workouts have pretty much ceased until I determine whether I’m doing myself harm. I have been doing regular pushups and pullups, occassional HIIT (1-3 times per week). My job is a desk job so not overly taxing physically.
Two weeks ago I did a light workout with (if memory serves me correctly), 3-4 sets of bench press with (lighter weight, higher rep, I think last few sets were 15 reps at 105). I also did a few sets of deadlift (again same thing, light weight, higher rep) and some dumbbell presses.
Afterward, my elbow began to get that tingling feeling. It went away after a couple of days and never got to the point where it was a lot of pain but I assumed that was because the workload was very light.
My diet right now is about 2,800 calories per day with about 40-50% carbs, 25-30% fat and 20-30% protein. I try to target between 1-1.5g per pound of bodyweight (or 170-250 grams of protein per day), about 30% fat and the rest carbs.
My meals generally consist of three shakes (made from 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cups oats, 1 scoop protein powder, 3 cups strawberries, 1 cup blueberries, 1 banana, 4-5 cups of spinach and some greens+). I have two of these shakes as meals (1 first thing in the morning on drive to work and 1 on drive home from work in the afternoon), the other is split and drank usually with my breakfast and lunch.
Breakfast is 1/2 - 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 - 3/4 scoop protein powder and a banana (plus part of the shake mentioned above). Lunch varies (today will be tuna and a pita), sometimes a chicken panini sandwich (2 slices wheat bread, 4-6 oz chicken and a light mayo aioli sauce that I make, plus some cheese and a little bacon). Dinner is whatever the family has but usually consists of a chicken meal, a steak meal or something like spaghetti (9% ground beef and wheat pasta) or tacos occassionally.
Then, before dinner I usually have one more shake made from cottage cheese, protein powder, natrual peanut butter and some UDO’s choice oil. In the morning I take two fish oil tablets, a vitamin C tablet and a antioxidant tablet. At night I take a multivitamin and two glucosamine tablets (thought they may help but don’t seem to be).
I had been exercising (lifting weights) pretty regularly most of last year. I was also trying to do stationary bike work (10 years ago, I used to mountain bike a lot) but I was getting some pretty strong pains in that area where the groin, hip and and legs meet up–I don’t think it was actually groin pain, just to the right of that).
I also noticed that same pain to occur during squatting (I notice it now if I even do no weight squats, after about 10 I start feeling it creeping in). Then, at some point, I don’t know exactly when, I started getting more pain (the usual pain was always my back and knees). But, then my elbows slowly started getting pain (first one then both). I just worked through it, but noticed it became more persistent.
Then, I noticed that my wrists started aching more as well. I went on vacation over the Christmas holiday and then fell out of my workout routine. I basically have done very little weight lifting this year but everytime I do a bit to ease myself back into it the pain starts to creep in and I stop. I have done much more cardio this year (20 minute HIIT on a treadmill 2-3 times per week usually).
My biggest fear is that I’m creating more damage and long-lasting injuries. If that is what the pain is signaling than I don’t want to continue. But, if it’s that it needs more stretching or warmup or whatnot, then that would be great.
My plan is to do a very simple routine 2-3 times per week. I was thinking of what Csaey Butt wrote about which is day 1: incline, barbell row, seated DB and squat, day 2 is mostly stretching, grip, neck, abs and calf and day 3: overhead press, pull-up, dips and deadlift. I also try to do a small ab workout nightly.