My wrist isn’t getting better. I bet training doesn’t help it. I’m actually considering seeing a physical therapist for the first time, on my deload week (next week).
Although I’m pretty sure I’ll just be told not to train, which I have doubts is the answer.
So, let’s talk a little bit about overreaching.
Last night, as I got home from the gym, I had my post training meal and laid in bed to watch some series and stuff.
I started noticing a pretty annoying feeling right away: I was absolutely uncomfortable. It didn’t matter how much I changed my position, I was uncomfortable laying down and couldn’t relax physically. My right lower lat was hurting as I strained it doing a hard set of Meadows rows, and so was my right wrist (which I discussed already). Also, some of that discomfort came from all the food I had just eaten.
On top of that, I just felt a general discomfort all around that I couldn’t pinpoint to a specific area. Psychologically, I wasn’t in a good spot either: I was absolutely fearing the upcoming training sessions, in particular today’s with the destroyer set and having to bench press with a hurt wrist, and tomorrow which will be a gut torching multiple dropset on the leg press followed by possibly the heaviest sets I’ve ever done on a deadlift. To add to that, the stress of the uni exam I have this Monday.
To sum it up, I felt like I was under a lot of pressure and my first thought was “if I don’t get enough sleep tonight I won’t make it tomorrow,” which started getting the best of me and it ended up taking several hours to fall asleep in the end.
Fast forward a day, and I’m fine. I got through today’s session and it was pretty good, so it’s one step closer to my deload week. I upped food intake even more and had an extra pack of meat stuffed ravioli on top of the ton of food I’m already eating because I figured I’d need all the help I can possibly get (I chose a highly palatable food because there was no way I could have squeezed in another meal otherwise).
I am not claiming to be overtraining. But I do believe that when you get to a place where you’re fearing your training so much you have issues sleeping, you’re close to needing a deload. But I’m also an anxiety-prone individual, so there’s that too.
190 kg / 420 lb x 8
200 kg / 440 lb x 8
Nice way of ending a training cycle. 
Holy f**k you got strong. Great work dude. You are in such a better place than I was at your age: you are going to blow up.
Awesome work man.
You’re going to run out of room on the sleeves of that bar soon. Way to go dude!
Nice dude! And no belt!
I’m kind of unsure what to do right now. My belly and stomach had been feeling uncomfortable for a few days, possibly due to all the food I’m eating. Yesterday, I went to the sushi all you can eat with some friends and, let’s just say that I ate a bit too much.
I wasn’t able to eat anything for the rest of the day, and I went to sleep with tremendous gut pain, all the way up to the stomach. I woke up feeling just as bad. I took buscopan too, and I doesn’t seem to help.
The discomfort is pretty bad and it’s not even the first time it happens. I think that maybe, just maybe fasting can help make this better. But I gotta train, today and tomorrow.
Normally I could take a day off, but heck these will be the last two workouts of this training cycle before an entire week off. I would like to gut this out but honestly, the issue is not training, as much as the eating that needs to come with it.
It’s currently midday and I still haven’t had food. My session is scheduled to take place at 7pm. I’m thinking I might fast until 5.30pm and then have the lightest possible meal I can: white rice and white fish. Then after training, I’ll have white rice and ground beef, and another meal of white rice and chicken breast later.
That should be better than fasting altogether, but I also know that when I’m in this situation, any food that hits my stomach means more and more pain. On the other hand, it’s not like fasting makes the pain go away so… Don’t really know what’s advisable right now. Other than not being an idiot when I go to sushi bars.
guys, at this point I’m pretty sure you all are starting to find posts about my injuries hilarious, because they keep popping out of nowhere.
this time, I severely fucked up my right shoulder. How? Well Friday, at the end of my workout I… reached up to stratch my back. I felt a pop and a sharp pain, then my shoulder felt numb for the rest of the day. The next day it started hurting, and got progressively worse over the past two days.
I’m at the point where any movement of the right arm that involves elevation, internal or external rotation, abduction, even adduction, everything hurts. It’s not the delt for sure: I feel the pain “internally” to the shoulder, and it irradiates all around the shoulder and sometimes up to the edge of my trap too.
It is very painful and makes it hard to do everyday actions. I’m going to see a doctor as soon as possible because I need to get this fixed.
I only find hilarious injuries hilarious and this isn’t one. I’ll laugh at myself for fucking up my hamstring by slipping during a weighted stretch (dumb, could have been avoided). This is just unfortunate.
Getting it checked out by a doctor seems like a good idea.
You might also want to give your rep-style, ROM, and exercise selection a think. I know you’ve been doing a lot of Meadows work recently which ordinarily is programmed to reduce risk of injury with the pre-pump work but there might still be things worth considering.
For instance, flat barbell benching is “riskier” when performed using a normal tempo (arch or not) compared to really deaccelerating the bar before touching the chest. But, if you fail to return the bar to eye level after completing a rep you’re still stressing your shoulder between reps.
Are your arms uneven in length? Do you have differences in ROM between the two sides? Can you do this on both sides?
Does this feel okay on both sides?
Not necessarily a test you can do now while in pain.
When I can perform this painlessly, I’ll let you know. Right now it’d kill me. Thank you for hue input as always. I’m looking for a doctor I can see as soon as possible.
Say that your interested to know if there is impingement and any soft tissue damage. The former will get you a physio and the latter will maybe get you an ultrasound or mri
Had a little bit of luck today, as my neighbors were seeing a physical therapist today and we just asked him to visit me as well after he was done with them.
He quickly assessed my shoulder and told me it looks like I might have impingement, but to rule out possible damages to the rotator cuff muscles we need an ecography. I’m calling my doctor right now to get an appointment for it: hopefully I’ll get it done within the next days.
After that, we’ll re-assess. I asked the doctor if there’s anything I can take meanwhile for the pain, and he told me that I might have some luck going to a pharmacy and asking for something over the counter, but in my situation there’s little short of taking cortison that can help me (according to him) right now.
Hopefully I can get everything done this week, so I don’t have much figuring out to do as to how to actually train around the issue, since I’m in my deload week. I’d hate to be set back by this, when the time comes to get back into the gym.
Hey man, I’m sorry to hear you’re hurt.
This year I’ve been dealing with pain radiating through my shoulder and seeming to move from area to area. Nothing fixed it until I did some stuff to loosen up my neck. Tight muscles in traps/neck can put pressure on nerves in your neck, causing all kinds of strange pain.
I’m not sure if this applies to you or not, but the solution is so easy I figured I’d mention it. To loosen up my neck I do some head circles, just rotating my head around on my neck like 10-15 times in each direction. Starting small and slow and moving towards bigger circles. If you hear/feel a lot of popping and cracking you’re on the right track. If it helps, great, if not, it only took a minute.
Thank you man, I’m going to be trying this right now!
Meanwhile, thought I’d post a before/after pic of the last training cycle. For who lost track, this was my second run of Colossus.
Before weight is 174, after is 180 lb.
I definitely see some progress, and I haven’t gained too much fat I’d say. Now it’s just a matter of getting my shoulder back to functioning so I can attack the next training cycle and make even more gains!
When you’re doing lateral raises or anything like upright rows - are you ‘locking your shoulders down’?
Lateral raises are definitely something where people feel like they need to have their shoulders locked down, but it causes impingement. Anything you’re doing pressing-wise you should have your scaps moving in rhythm with your shoulders. I fucked my shoulders badly pressing with my scaps retracted the whole time and doing lateral raises with my shoulders locked down.
Nope. I’m aware that can cause issues, and the movement feels awkward even without weights if I keep my shoulder depressed.
As for the presses, it’s still something I’m working on. I instinctively retract my shoulder blades and try to keep them back because I feel more stable, but I do realize I should let them kinda flow in with the rest.
A nice stretch for that kind of shoulder pain you’re describing (I think) is to sit straight up in a chair, and on the side that’s hurting, reach down with that arm and hold onto the underside of the chair, then tilt your head away from the injured side. As you ease into the stretch, you can turn your head with the tilt to get a further stretch. Does kind of loosen up all those tight muscles for me from time to time.
This is good advice. I realized that when I started doing weightlifting, because you shrug up as you press, and certainly don’t lock the scapula down
