I have recently learned that it is possible to be an idiot even when one concurrently operates under the influence of good intentions. I've recently become the poster child for What Happens When You Do Too Much Too Fast and Don't Give Yourself a Break: I have developed lateral epicondylitis (commonly known as tennis elbow) in both arms. My condition probably started way back during the weight lifting I had newly taken up and blossomed into a full-blown problem because of overzealous swimming with poor technique.
Tendons are wily things. When you move, you use them. If you use them too much, particularly if they are given a load that's too much for them because of insufficient muscle strength, they will break down. Rest periods during lifting cycles are not just to allow your muscles ample time to regenerate and grow-- they are also time during which your tendons repair whatever small damage they've suffered because of heavy use.
I ignored this idea. Or perhaps I wasn't fully cognizant of it. I continued to lift, and increase weight, without adequate nutrition for the kind of lifting I was doing and without enough rest time.
I am deeply paying for it now. I'm an art student, and the tendonitis in my right arm is extremely irritated by drawing. That's right, drawing. Even something as seemingly innocuous as drawing can have enough repetitive motion combined with enough force to it to irritate an inflamed set of tendons. My doctor recommended I stop drawing until this thing clears up, so I did. With my right arm. Thinking my left arm was fine, I started doing nearly everything (including drawing) with it. Yesterday, the same kind of pain in the same areas flared in this arm. Given the activities that led to my tennis elbow, this is actually not surprising. They are ideally symmetrical ones. My right arm probably signaled injury first because it is my dominant one and I use it far more; when my left became my dominant side, its injury soon appeared.
So I'm done for a while. Not only am I extremely limited in terms of workouts (I'm working through the healing process of a strained peroneal tendon, too, which severely limits cardio activity), I can't do the thing that I love to do.
Because I was irresponsible. I didn't try to push too far through the pain, which only lengthens one's heal time, but I did at its beginning twinges. Don't ignore those twinges. If you feel anything other than normal muscle fatigue after a workout, automatically consider it a problem, get off of it, and figure out what's wrong BEFORE it incapacitates you. I didn't, and now I'm an art student who can't do art.
Ever push yourself harder than you should have? Are you someone who does too much too fast?
ZT
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Comments (17)
I feel that I can't answer that question without saying something dirty, so I'll just say "sometimes".
I know exactly how you feel. I managed to hurt three tendons in one week after exercising to much! I wasn't able to run the rest of that summer and I never got back into running since then. I miss it, but I'm more into biking now.
Yeah, I did a ladder workout that totaled at 3 miles, at the end of the second or third week of the track season. I pulled a muscle in my calf, and was limping for at least a week, in need of makeshift crutches right before a flag core competition. I had to take weeks off from track, and eventually had to quit the team all together. It was awful.
Oh yes. I am a flight attendant and I have to deal with whiney passengers' demands, which include helping them store their heavy hand luggages in the overhead compartments. Try doing all that as you fly cross time zones and at high attitude. You'll get dizzy more easily.
Nope. I never push myself hard enough.
Ouch, I'll remind my brother of that the next time he tries to push himself too hard. I usually don't reach my limit, but now I'm glad I don't push myself too hard.
It must hella suck.
-Kunoichi
Essentially this is a build-up of inflamed scar tissue, which is constantly getting irritated over and over again. To really get rid of the problem for good a lot of the time you need a manual therapist to get in, with their hands, and get the scar tissue out. Active Release Technique (ART) providers are great at doing this and can get really quick results a lot of the time.
Without getting rid the scar tissue that is in the muscles and tendons, you will not get rid of your pain for a long time.
For more info:
www.OrangeCountyPainManagement.com
Bruce Lee, Navy SEALs. The only easy day was yesterday.
i pamper myself, so i don't like pushing too much. even if i do, i take rest in betweens.
that sucks. i think i am usually the opposite and I am too cautious, just in case. then the next day I get mad i didn't push myself enough.
I do this all the time when it comes to running. When I first started track in high school, I ran all the workouts, no matter how slow I was or how behind I was until my legs were at the point of ridiculous pain; it hurt to walk in most cases. After track season ended, it took me a good month or two to not receive any pain while walking, and although it may just be soreness, it lasted forever and I ran far better without the pain.
I use to run the 4x800 relay in high school. Since I was the anchor leg, I'd always have to go balls to the wall every time we ran it but at regionals I had to go in super sonic turbo speed so the team would place. After I crossed the finish line I ran straight to the bathroom to throw up. But it's worth it. came in 3rd place.
i don't push myself at all.
I push myself... but nothing ever happens to me. I push myself out of the comfort zone but then realize that I can keep pushing myself... and nothing will happen, (unless I lift a 200 lb weight. thats crazy.. but i dont lift xD)
I am a doctor's nightmare and a coach's dream in this case. To set the story, I did varsity soccer, varsity cross-country, and varsity track in high school along with my gold club soccer team. I worked out an average of 8 hours a day, and I rarely (if ever) took days off. This is where my body is at now: tendonitis in both knees and both ankles that flare up just from walking (tore one tendon in my knee that really hurts and pops all the time), chronic shin splints that flare up from walking, a foot with an odd bump from breaking it and running track on it instead of getting it in a cast, wrists that hurt and pop constantly from breaking one twice and the other once, and a messed up shoulder from dislocating it in a soccer game, popping it in on my own during the game instead of seeing a doctor, and then continuing the rest of the year to lift weights with it. Honestly though, as worried as I am that I will be in a wheelchair by 30, I would do it all again. Oh, and I still run and play soccer in college. :)
Yup. I have tendinitis in both wrists from playing violin and waiting tables. I can't carry a tray without a wrist brace and sometimes it still hurts so bad that I really don't know how I make it through a work shift. I also have bad knees from a summer of running too much before I really got myself into shape.
Yesss...too much stress on my legs therefore...tiny stress fractures. No working out for 2 weeks or more now. If I could reverse, I just would have taken it slower when I increased my cardio and such!