Various Pains and Discomfort
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 2:26 pm
As a beginner, I'm experiencing various pains and discomfort, and I was hoping for some feedback on whether I am interpreting them correctly.
My overall question in raising these details is, when do we go to the doctor (because the forum is not for medical advice), and when might we be experiencing the normal effects of adaptation and other things.
BEFORE I WAS WORKING OUT - RESTLESS MUSCLES
About a year ago I used to get leg discomfort around bedtime. A doctor friend told me there is an actual syndrome called "Restless Leg Syndrome" that the doctors do not understand but which is reported here and there.
Not to get all mystical, but inasmuch as we ought to be able to listen to what our bodies are telling us, it seemed my legs were saying, "Heavens, we haven't had any fun since we were 20, PLEASE take us out for some exercise!" So I started doing Good Mornings and it went away. That was part of the chain of events that led me to a real exercise regimen, exrx.net, and this forum.
MUSCLE SORENESS
As far as I can tell, this is a Good Thing. DOMS, or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness seems to mean you did the right thing exercising, the workout was intense enough to tear down the muscle so it's telling you something significant happened.
It also seems this is a great way to judge how many rest days you need. Instead of deciding in advance "I will always do x days of rest", I can just wait until the soreness goes away. If I repeat the exercise on the first day of no soreness (so far never more than 3 days), I've always been able to do a more intense workout the next time around.
So is this all around a Good Thing?
MUSCLE PAIN THAT RESTRICTS MOTION
This I'm pretty sure is always a Bad Thing, and has so far happened to me only once. Way in the beginning, around week 3, I sat down to do my dumbbell shoulder press, and my upper left back said, "No way!" As soon as I initiated the lift I got a stabbing pain in my upper left back.
I wish I could say why it went away. I went to lateral raises for a couple of exercise days, did more general back, and it just plain "magically" went away.
Should I have taken this more seriously? Should beginners expect this once or twice, and is it as simple as just switching things around and re-focusing on form?
JOINT PAIN THAT RESTRICTS MOTION
This seems to be a Bad Thing and means you are doing something wrong.
I've had this happen twice, in my elbows and knees. For the elbows it would begin during a Triceps exercise and remain for days afterward. I wish I could say I knew why it went away, but my only clue was that I carefully observed my own motions and realized I was rotating my elbow near full extension. After concentrating very hard on not doing that, it went away and has never come back.
For my knees, it seems to have been simple form on any kind of squat, I was sending my knees very far forward past my toes. When I stopped doing that I got a more intense feeling in quads and glutes, and the knee pain went away.
So once again, it seems to be all about form, no?
CONNECTIVE TISSUE
I'm nowhere near enough knowledgeable to be able to distinguish pain in ligaments, tendons or other connective tissue, so to me it is all "connective tissue".
The only place I have this is the inside of my elbows, after any pulling motion. Stretching seems to help (unless that's all a myth and psycho-somatic), but here in Week 15 I still feel most of the time as if I wish I could stretch my arms out to about 3 times their normal length and somehow get this weird inner elbow feeling to go away.
I have no idea if this is good, bad, or indifferent, so that's what I'm curious about. Is this something to worry about? Is this a fit topic for the forum or a "see your doctor" topic?
BONE PAIN
OK, laugh at me here, I don't know what else to call this. I have no idea if we can really feel our bones, or if it just feels like that is where the pain is coming from.
The first time I tried the various intense leg exercises I got this searing pain in my left shin. A doctor friend said it was very likely shin splints, caused by improperly putting weight on your toes during leg exercises. So I've pulled out Calf Raises and, as always, refocused on form. The pain is now much less during actual exercises, and seems to be diminishing, but is also mildly present when not exercising.
So my guess here is any serious pain that does not restrict motion but does not go away is most likely an injury shaping up or already full blown. Make sense?
PAIN DURING LIFT
This is something I ran into at about week 10, and I believe is some kind of "end of innocence" thing. In short, as a skinny guy with no experience, my early weeks were blissful easy regular increases of weight and a sort of, "gosh this is easier than I thought" type of experience. Doing one set to fail was easy because somewhere around 12 or 13 reps it just wasn't going to happen.
But somewhere in there as the weights got heavier, without realizing it, I began to stop when I felt worn out, not even aware I had shifted my definition of "fail" from the muscle group to an overall feeling of being worn out. What do you know, the progress stopped.
Once I realized this I started pushing past that feeling to keep doing reps until the muscle group would fail. This was, in short, agony, and remains that way. It's this overwhelming mental pressure to put down those heavy weights and stop doing this insane and unnecessary exertion.
Is this the "no pain no gain" feeling? If so, then this is a Good Thing. It's strange because it is far more intense and non-localized than any of the pains listed above, but seems to be necessary to keep making gains. Am I out on a limb here, or is this what is supposed to be happening?
My overall question in raising these details is, when do we go to the doctor (because the forum is not for medical advice), and when might we be experiencing the normal effects of adaptation and other things.
BEFORE I WAS WORKING OUT - RESTLESS MUSCLES
About a year ago I used to get leg discomfort around bedtime. A doctor friend told me there is an actual syndrome called "Restless Leg Syndrome" that the doctors do not understand but which is reported here and there.
Not to get all mystical, but inasmuch as we ought to be able to listen to what our bodies are telling us, it seemed my legs were saying, "Heavens, we haven't had any fun since we were 20, PLEASE take us out for some exercise!" So I started doing Good Mornings and it went away. That was part of the chain of events that led me to a real exercise regimen, exrx.net, and this forum.
MUSCLE SORENESS
As far as I can tell, this is a Good Thing. DOMS, or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness seems to mean you did the right thing exercising, the workout was intense enough to tear down the muscle so it's telling you something significant happened.
It also seems this is a great way to judge how many rest days you need. Instead of deciding in advance "I will always do x days of rest", I can just wait until the soreness goes away. If I repeat the exercise on the first day of no soreness (so far never more than 3 days), I've always been able to do a more intense workout the next time around.
So is this all around a Good Thing?
MUSCLE PAIN THAT RESTRICTS MOTION
This I'm pretty sure is always a Bad Thing, and has so far happened to me only once. Way in the beginning, around week 3, I sat down to do my dumbbell shoulder press, and my upper left back said, "No way!" As soon as I initiated the lift I got a stabbing pain in my upper left back.
I wish I could say why it went away. I went to lateral raises for a couple of exercise days, did more general back, and it just plain "magically" went away.
Should I have taken this more seriously? Should beginners expect this once or twice, and is it as simple as just switching things around and re-focusing on form?
JOINT PAIN THAT RESTRICTS MOTION
This seems to be a Bad Thing and means you are doing something wrong.
I've had this happen twice, in my elbows and knees. For the elbows it would begin during a Triceps exercise and remain for days afterward. I wish I could say I knew why it went away, but my only clue was that I carefully observed my own motions and realized I was rotating my elbow near full extension. After concentrating very hard on not doing that, it went away and has never come back.
For my knees, it seems to have been simple form on any kind of squat, I was sending my knees very far forward past my toes. When I stopped doing that I got a more intense feeling in quads and glutes, and the knee pain went away.
So once again, it seems to be all about form, no?
CONNECTIVE TISSUE
I'm nowhere near enough knowledgeable to be able to distinguish pain in ligaments, tendons or other connective tissue, so to me it is all "connective tissue".
The only place I have this is the inside of my elbows, after any pulling motion. Stretching seems to help (unless that's all a myth and psycho-somatic), but here in Week 15 I still feel most of the time as if I wish I could stretch my arms out to about 3 times their normal length and somehow get this weird inner elbow feeling to go away.
I have no idea if this is good, bad, or indifferent, so that's what I'm curious about. Is this something to worry about? Is this a fit topic for the forum or a "see your doctor" topic?
BONE PAIN
OK, laugh at me here, I don't know what else to call this. I have no idea if we can really feel our bones, or if it just feels like that is where the pain is coming from.
The first time I tried the various intense leg exercises I got this searing pain in my left shin. A doctor friend said it was very likely shin splints, caused by improperly putting weight on your toes during leg exercises. So I've pulled out Calf Raises and, as always, refocused on form. The pain is now much less during actual exercises, and seems to be diminishing, but is also mildly present when not exercising.
So my guess here is any serious pain that does not restrict motion but does not go away is most likely an injury shaping up or already full blown. Make sense?
PAIN DURING LIFT
This is something I ran into at about week 10, and I believe is some kind of "end of innocence" thing. In short, as a skinny guy with no experience, my early weeks were blissful easy regular increases of weight and a sort of, "gosh this is easier than I thought" type of experience. Doing one set to fail was easy because somewhere around 12 or 13 reps it just wasn't going to happen.
But somewhere in there as the weights got heavier, without realizing it, I began to stop when I felt worn out, not even aware I had shifted my definition of "fail" from the muscle group to an overall feeling of being worn out. What do you know, the progress stopped.
Once I realized this I started pushing past that feeling to keep doing reps until the muscle group would fail. This was, in short, agony, and remains that way. It's this overwhelming mental pressure to put down those heavy weights and stop doing this insane and unnecessary exertion.
Is this the "no pain no gain" feeling? If so, then this is a Good Thing. It's strange because it is far more intense and non-localized than any of the pains listed above, but seems to be necessary to keep making gains. Am I out on a limb here, or is this what is supposed to be happening?