Overtraining

[ouroborous 519]

So, back story. An embarrassing bit of trivia about me: I'm a hypochondriac. I mean, a major hypochondriac. Any little ache or twinge, and my mind immediately jumps to "it's the cancer!" I've learned how to combat this, in two primary ways. The first was just knowledge -- part of the reason that I'm a walking encyclopedia of medical knowledge is that I've learned that by training my brain about the things that REALLY go wrong with the body, and how likely they are, I can talk back to myself (often with a touch of humor) and tell myself "yes, it's possible that that twinge in your gut is cancer. But given that you literally have no other symptoms whatsoever, it's far more likely to be be gas." And lo and behold, it's gas! The second way that I fight my hypochondria is just by being as healthy as I can be; I don't smoke, I don't drink to excess (well, not very frequently anyway) and aside from an occasional (and I DO mean occasional, like a couple times a year tops) hint of the chronic (mostly to help me sleep -- I don't much care for the effects, but I'm a chronic insomniac), I have essentially no vices except coffee. According to my doctor, since the sleeve I'm in stupendous health, so I have absolutely no rational reason to be afraid for my health. But unfortunately, that doesn't stop my monkey mind from seizing on every little ache and pain and worrying about it incessantly.

Lately, I've been noticing a couple of things. My hands ache -- especially my knuckles, especially in my right hand. Now, before I lost the weight, before I got my sleep apnea treated, I used to have horrible problems with stiff, swollen joints in the morning. It used to be that my hands would be so stiff in the morning that I couldn't bend my fingers; I discovered that by running them under hot Water for a few minutes, I could at least bend them, but they still hurt -- all day long. After I got on the CPAP for my apnea, that went away pretty much overnight. My sleep doctor explained that the strain of trying to breathe through a collapsed airway caused the body to retain Fluid, leading to joint swelling, so I guess that makes sense. Lately, I've been sleeping without the CPAP because after my last sleep study, where I was 100 lbs down from the previous one, my sleep doctor basically said "you're cured; it almost never happens, but as far as we can tell, you don't need the CPAP to get into REM sleep anymore." SO, I've been wondering if my stiff fingers have been a symptom of apnea creeping back in, and I've been experimenting with using my CPAP but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Also, my hips and lower back have been sort of sore (and of course, my hypochondria tells me that it's the colon cancer, which is pretty damn unlikely given I have zero other symptoms).

It occurred to me on the way in to work today that I may be simply over-training. I lift weights every single week day -- in the mornings I have a dumbbell routine, and in the evenings I go to the gym where at a minimum I do crunches and lat pulldowns (I've been really trying to bulk up my back). Plus I've been doing a LOT of leg work lately to try to bulk up my legs... I may be overdoing it! My sore fingers MIGHT actually be the result of doing weights almost every single day. And my sore back and hips might be the result of bad form doing squats at the gym; I recently switched to squats from the leg press machine to try to get more intensity, but I don't think it's helping and it might have been the trigger for the pain.

It's a little surprising to me because I've been so excited about actually seeing progress in my weight loss and body toning (for the first time ever) that I just want more, more, more... but there may be a point where it's too much! I'm thinking that a condensed routine three days a week might be a good start. The trainer at the gym seemed to think that maybe even two days a week, but intense, might be best.

Has anyone else had this experience, where in order to keep making progress you have to work out less frequently?

[Tlmiller2971 10]

Thank you for posting this. I too am a horrible hypochondriac, but am working really hard on it. I also have a very addictive personality. The person that did my orientation at the Y started noticing what I'm doing and how often which resulted in a talk about over training. it's hard for me to cut back but I am actually feeling better and now I only have that good kind of hurt after a great workout and not the nagging pain from doing more than I should.

[Liliana Arleen 173]

My trainer told me to do weights every other day,your body needs a break to rest,I mean that day that I am supposed to rest from weights I go and do some cardio because I really want to lose this weight and besides that,it helps with my mood. I was reading and some recent studies shown that lifting weights as much as 3 times per week will help you to tone your body and you will keep losing weight.

[Ms skinniness 3,003]

Your body needs some time to heal. When your weight training, your tearing down you muscles. That means that your muscles have to heal and build to repair them. I would alternate with cardio just to keep going. You will get there. It doesn't have to be overnight. Hang in there and give it a try and see how your body is responding.

[ouroborous 519]

Yeah, I'm doing cardio basically every single day because the kind of low-impact, high-intensity cardio I do I'm pretty sure isn't going to cause any problems, and I honestly think that unless you go insane with it, you CAN'T overdo it on cardio. I also do a body weight calisthenics style routine every weekday -- pushups, lunges, crunches -- and I don't think those are going to cause any lasting problems since I do them with body weight only and try to focus on good form.

It's just the weight training that I think I need to regroup with and focus on good form and high intensity, rather than doing the training every single day. It's hard because I'm enjoying bulking up and getting leaner, and so I naturally want more. But sometimes I think maybe less really is more!

[aroundhky 1,174]

Good point! The weight lifting is more about intensity instead of quantity and hours in the gym. I go to the gym 4 days a week to lift, no more than about 45 minutes per session. I don't fly around from lift to lift, I take a minute or two between each set, but when I lift, I lift heavy (with good technique as priority). If we don't lift to failure, muscles cannot grow. It's not really about tons of sets and tons of reps. For each body part, I do about 3 sets (4-8 reps each) with that last rep sometimes not being finished due to failure. But before doing these heavy, gradually build up and learn technique and always try to find a spotter to help. I do this for about 4-5 weeks, then I take at least a week off to help heal and recover, not counting the 2-3 days recovery between lifts. I also think that the body and muscles respond better when they are shocked or awaken a little. So that week or so off without any lifting helps with this too. As soon as your muscles think that they don't need to grow anymore, you wake them up and get back to lifting. However, I have found that the recovery period is now longer for me than it was 10-12 years ago. : P

[ouroborous 519]

Good recommendations; I'm basically taking ZERO time off for healing. I think I need to find a way to work this into my schedule (without letting it become just another excuse for slacking off, of course -- I'm really good at that!)

[Sassygirl06 962]

haha probably not the greatest thing to say to a hypochondriac...but i too had stiff sore hands, every morning, and i being not a hypochondriac didnt think anything of it until i was doing my labs one time and my doc asked me if i had stiff joints. i thought about it and then of course it all came flooding in...yes i do. the doc diagnosed me with gout. i have been avoiding the red meats and cured meats since then, and no more problems with stiff hands. just thought i would chime in good luck

[ouroborous 519]

Heh, thanks for the tip. I suspect I don't have gout since my last blood tests came back fine, and I know they tested my kidney function (which I assume would include ureic acid). Just on the off chance, however, I emailed my doc to ask him (gotta love doctors available by email). It doesn't hurt to ask, right?

If I have gout at 41, I will be extremely pissed off.

[Kris 78]

Hey there Ourobourous, is there any chance it could be your mattress causing the aches and pains? If it's over 5 years old (and especially if it's the same mattress you had before beingsleeved) it might be the culprit ... your body may be doing weird contortions in the night due to the mattress. Just a thought.

[june13sleever 223]

I need a new mattress! That will be my skinny girl no more saggy mattress gift to me.

[Lissa 2,631]

ourborous, I had to laugh at your description of your hypochondriac nature! It made me think of my Granny, who used to sit around telling us all that "the Arthur-itis has got me!" It took me years to quit hearing Granny saying arthur-itis every time I saw the word!

I agree that you could be overtraining. I seriously thought I was UNDERtraining until I read something about how the muscles must heal in between workouts, even doing the low weights and high reps that I do. Two of my uncles were drill instructors back in the day. The one who is still alive has given me some good information about what I should do to keep my cardio at optimal levels without hurting myself. He used to coach me when I ran track in high school, so he knows what I'm capable of doing.

You're well advanced from where I am at, but working out as hard as you state is very tough on the body. It's especially tough when you're basically trying to rebuild your fitness level from scratch like most of us are doing. Maybe switch up so that you do weights one day and cardio the next day in order to keep yourself in the routine of working out without actually hurting yourself?

[Sassygirl06 962]

i was so shocked when he said that i had it! i had no signs on my last blood work that i had done...but then i didnt have any sx of gout at that time either. i thought it was more of a mans disease. i really hadnt heard of a woman having it before. my uric acid levels werent that high the next time, but it definatly was a red flag. im glad your levels are fine.....that is great that you can email your doc. i work in the health care field so i just ask one of my docs at the hospital.....they love telling me everything they know...and showing off....hehe

[ouroborous 519]

Hey there Ourobourous, is there any chance it could be your mattress causing the aches and pains? If it's over 5 years old (and especially if it's the same mattress you had before beingsleeved) it might be the culprit ... your body may be doing weird contortions in the night due to the mattress. Just a thought.

This could definitely explain the aching hips and back; I AM using the same mattress that I had before losing the weight. Not only that, but when I got the mattress, I was so tired of having to buy a new mattress every year (because my whale-like body would carve a huge canyon into it otherwise!) that I got one of the hardest mattresses I could find. I've had "buy a new, softer mattress" on my to-do list for a while now.

I still don't know if that can explain the finger stiffness, though.

[ouroborous 519]

i was so shocked when he said that i had it! i had no signs on my last blood work that i had done...but then i didnt have any sx of gout at that time either. i thought it was more of a mans disease. i really hadnt heard of a woman having it before. my uric acid levels werent that high the next time, but it definatly was a red flag. im glad your levels are fine.....that is great that you can email your doc. i work in the health care field so i just ask one of my docs at the hospital.....they love telling me everything they know...and showing off....hehe

Yeah, I don't actually know for sure that my levels were fine; all I know is that nothing was mentioned on my last blood tests. If you can have gout without high ureic acid on the blood tests, how on earth can they diagnose it? I thought high blood levels of ureic acid was the definition of gout... I need to go do some research!