I’ll save the details, but I’m 22, 6’3", and probably around 180lbs right now. I started at around 154lbs 6 years ago, hit 200lbs in march, then got sick. I’ve also got love-handles and could lose 10 lbs of fat.
The kicker? My joints are jacked. Ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows, wrists. I was going to rehab for the summer with limited results. I’m thinking plenty of soft tissue work and addressing some muscular imbalances will do me some good, but main point is I can’t go heavy.
For my own mental sanity, I need to change my body composition one way or the other, but I can’t keep destroying my joints. What should I be doing?
Supplements and straps. The key is to injest and wear something that will let your joints be stronger while you train.
As far as training is concerned, stick to movements that use as many joints as possible while not putting much pressure in just one joint. I’m thinking light deadlifts would do the trick. Keep the volume low as not to overuse your joints.
I don’t know how bad your joints are but glucosamine has worked great for me. It’s marketed to the elderly but in my opinion everybody should be taking it.
No offense but you kind of sound like a pussy. Maybe you just need to get the sand out of your vagina and do it.
Man, I was in the same place as you for a long time. Went from 140 to 200 in six years, weak joints and all that. Start with compound movements and 10 fish oils a day. PM me if you want.
Generally, pushing movements hurt more than pulling movements, although I can only do hammer curls without what feels like shin splints in my forearms, and recently my elbows have started to hurt with pullups. It seems that high tension is the enemy.
Seriously, I wish I was just being a pussy, but even my 60 year old dad said that my body is more run down than his. I’m very big into athletics, and I’ve adopted an all-or-nothing mentality that basically left me where I am now. If I didn’t have to keep backing off every once in a while, I would probably be pretty jacked with the amount of time I put in, but alas, it hasn’t been so.
I would take a joint supplement or make your own - glucosamine and celedrin (sp). Also i would add lots of Vitamin C. Lots. Vitamin C helps support and recover tendons ligaments and all those good things in your joints.
I obviously used to wrestle, it destroyed my joints. Since i have stopped wrestling i am still able to lift heavy but not until i started taking these supplements.
hope this helps.
You are 22 years old. Thats way to young to have irreversible joint damage unless you spent your entire life doing break-falls on a concrete pad.
I think you need a medical eval. You may have a disease or disorder causing joint pain.
Things to consider:
limited hyaluronic acid production (joint lubrication)
kidney disease
excess bile production
You mentioned rehab in your 1st post.
Was is prescribed or was this something concocted on your own.
Without understanding the root cause of your symptoms it’s unlikely that you will find a successful treatment.
I used to have tons of joint probs from just banging the heavy weights. Here’s a simple solution…
-Use pre-exhaust and T.U.T. techniques
-Don’t worry about how strong you are, no one really cares anyway.
-Use fish oils, Glucosamine/Chondroitin (may help, may not, but try it and see)
-Don’t train 7 days a week, not only is it counterproductive, but your joints will hurt more.
-Make better use of flyes and lateral movements, heavy pressing will not make you huge all by itself, save it for later in your workouts.
-Even if you want to train, but your joints feel a little ‘achey’, take an extra day off. In the longrun it will be better for you.
Yes, I’m not as big as I used to be, BUT I look better, and I’m still busting my ass after 14 years in the gym (and plan to keep doing so).
I am really fighting my genetics trying to get big. My dad is 5’8 ~130 and my mom used to be 5’8, 98lbs. I first had issues when I started lifting, probably from jumping right into 5x5 after soccer practice and not eating nearly enough.
I was first diagnosed (albeit a casual diagnosis) by a doctor as having wrist and elbow tendonitis and had to sleep with braces for a couple months (and this was also probably from spending a whole summer in front of the computer, which caused my wrists to start clicking like the mouse). Everything else seemed to just pop up steadily with all the sports and lifting. I saw a sports med. doc. this summer who prescribed the rehab, which was supervised.
In reality, it probably comes down to not backing off and sticking with a proper rehab routine. It’s been tough working so hard and seeing minimal results compared to a lot of guys on these forums.
I’ll probably get flamed for this, but you might want to consider focusing primarily on machine exercises until you’ve built up a decent level tolerance for load bearing exercise.
[quote]MC sp3 wrote:
I’ll probably get flamed for this, but you might want to consider focusing primarily on machine exercises until you’ve built up a decent level tolerance for load bearing exercise.[/quote]
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
MC sp3 wrote:
I’ll probably get flamed for this, but you might want to consider focusing primarily on machine exercises until you’ve built up a decent level tolerance for load bearing exercise.
And Machines don’t force you to bear loads?!
[/quote]
WTF, of course machines are load bearing. If you need it spoon fed then here goes…
OP has difficulty with lifts due to stress on joints. OP is working or has worked in the past primarily with free weights. Free weights require increased effort by muscles and joints to stabilize the load. This is generally considered a good thing for the great majority of people who are strength training.
However it may not be the best option for someone with SEVERE joint and mobility issues. Some machines offer a more constricted plane of movement. This may not be optimal for strength/size development, however, it would allow the OP to continue training, albeit at a diminished capacity, and continue to develop some strength and size gains. Or at the bare minimum it could be used as a tool to prevent futher atrophy while a more permanent solution is sought.
Is that clear enough?
edit: I reread this and realized that I sound like a dick. I was extremely hungry when I wrote it. Now that I’ve had dinner and wiped all the sand out of my vagina I feel much better.
Physical Therapy is essentially a strengthening of the muscles in an injured or imbalanced area so as to improve overall performance and functionality. Selecting exercises (machines) that will effectively eliminate the auxillary and secondary muscles necessary for the body to perform specific movements will most likely hinder any ‘catching up’ of muscle imbalances, and result in more atrophy of the muscles not being called into play.
If the problem is indeed joint related, an attempt to reduce overall load on the joints while preseving the perceived load on the working muscles is what would most likely (baring any real medical ‘problems’) will be beneficial.
If you want to ‘spoon feed’ someone on here, find someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, then you can sound like a big man. Everyone else on this thread has provided genuinely worthwhile suggestions or advice. Try to learn from their examples, and not just add your own two cents, even writing how you’ll most likely get flamed for it.
Did either of these Docs request any blood work or urinalysis?
Did either of them specifically rule out rheumatoid arthritis?
There are a few simple assays for RA that are relatively quick and inexpensive and can also be used as indicators of other metabolic or autoimmune illnesses.
RA in young people is not uncommon and if treated early it’s usually manageable.
Lots of stuff like hand circles and arm circles to warm up the wrists and shoulders. Start off nice and slow with a limited range of motion and slowly increase the ROM and eventually the speed if you feel it is safe to do so.
I was first diagnosed (albeit a casual diagnosis) by a doctor as having wrist and elbow tendonitis and had to sleep with braces for a couple months (and this was also probably from spending a whole summer in front of the computer, which caused my wrists to start clicking like the mouse). Everything else seemed to just pop up steadily with all the sports and lifting. I saw a sports med. doc. this summer who prescribed the rehab, which was supervised.
Did either of these Docs request any blood work or urinalysis?
Did either of them specifically rule out rheumatoid arthritis?
There are a few simple assays for RA that are relatively quick and inexpensive and can also be used as indicators of other metabolic or autoimmune illnesses.
RA in young people is not uncommon and if treated early it’s usually manageable.
[/quote]
Both docs did a very cursory examination of me. I even saw Cressey and had an eval, and with his more thorough exam he still didn’t see anything especially unusual.
My college “rheumy”, as I liked to call him, actually had juvenile rheumatoid arhtritis. That would be an unfortunate twist of fate if that’s what I have after making fun of him.
I’m going to repeat what others have said: joint-preserving supplements (especially fish oil) and straps.
You sound a lot like my friend, who’s around 6’4" and weighs as much as I do (I’m 5’6", we weigh 165). I hope you’re not like him, though, in the sense that he complains too loudly and frequently to take good advice.