The Workout Thread

[Tortorella's Rant]

I guess several weeks of doing lunges, split squats and other various leg exercises with obviously noticeable gains do absolutely nothing in terms of improve squat strength overall. Did hack squats the other night and it sucked. I was stronger months ago rotfl.

[Mainly Mattias]

Well, I think my days in the gym are done.

For over a couple years I have had recurring lower back problems and I think it has something to do with my alignment which probably needs some extensive Chiro (Which I don't have the money to pay for right now).

Went to the gym today to do squats, my back was super sore but figured maybe I could just stretch it out or fight through it, I couldn't even bend down to tie up my shoes it hurt so bad.

Might just be doing my workouts in a pool from now on. This is so frustrating, my body is falling apart.

Yeah, I'll second PS on 'don't push through the pain'. I was lifting weights and found that I was in enormous pain. Finally went to the physio since I had to quit one of my two jobs due to the pain. Best thing I did was to get fixed by the physio, who straightened my alignment and loosened some muscles so that the proper ones could get built. Taught me some stuff along the way too. I had overdeveloped my pecs, making me hunch and pull my shoulders in. I was having back spasms because of weak, under-developed back muscles, and was essentially uneven. The exercises were working the wrong muscles and further exacerbating the problems too.

Took awhile and cost a lot but no regrets on spending that money to get out of what would have been a lifetime of pain. If you're in Van (but you're not, are you?), look for Kelvin Tam (or Tan?) Physiotherapy on broadway. Just a warning though - you're gonna hurt. People scream, yell and cry when he works on them.

[PlayStation]

Yeah, I'll second PS on 'don't push through the pain'. I was lifting weights and found that I was in enormous pain. Finally went to the physio since I had to quit one of my two jobs due to the pain. Best thing I did was to get fixed by the physio, who straightened my alignment and loosened some muscles so that the proper ones could get built. Taught me some stuff along the way too. I had overdeveloped my pecs, making me hunch and pull my shoulders in. I was having back spasms because of weak, under-developed back muscles, and was essentially uneven. The exercises were working the wrong muscles and further exacerbating the problems too.

Took awhile and cost a lot but no regrets on spending that money to get out of what would have been a lifetime of pain. If you're in Van (but you're not, are you?), look for Kelvin Tam (or Tan?) Physiotherapy on broadway. Just a warning though - you're gonna hurt. People scream, yell and cry when he works on them.

You overdeveloped you pecs? Meaning what exactly?:S like was there a certain area that was really lacking that caused that to happen to you?

[Henrik Kesler]

You overdeveloped you pecs? Meaning what exactly?:S like was there a certain area that was really lacking that caused that to happen to you?

Didn't do enough back work (lat pulldowns, rows) to keep the shoulder in correct anatomical position. The pecs pulled the shoulder forward because the antagonistic muscles (rhomboids, lats, traps, rear delts) weren't strong enough to balance out the strength of the pecs.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Henrik Kesler

[Henrik Kesler]

I guess several weeks of doing lunges, split squats and other various leg exercises with obviously noticeable gains do absolutely nothing in terms of improve squat strength overall. Did hack squats the other night and it sucked. I was stronger months ago rotfl.

I've noticed the same thing. It is partly a coordination issue in that you are out of practice when you don't do a movement for months, but also because single leg work doesn't do frack all for improving squat strength.

The biggest thing I have learned this past year: if you want (insert barbell lift) to go up, you have to do (insert same barbell lift). In other words, you build your squat by squatting. Same goes for benching and deadlifting.

[Mainly Mattias]

Didn't do enough back work (lat pulldowns, rows) to keep the shoulder in correct anatomical position.

Yep. Ended up facedown balanced on a ball doing lifts (eventually with weights on ankles and wrists) to work my lower and upper back to get the shoulder back into place. I blame my heavy backpacks all throughout my school years actually.

[Henrik Kesler]

Yep. Ended up facedown balanced on a ball doing lifts (eventually with weights on ankles and wrists) to work my lower and upper back to get the shoulder back into place. I blame my heavy backpacks all throughout my school years actually.

This isn't really the right way to fix your issue though. Do your back work (rows, etc) with double the volume of what you do for your chest work and the issue will balance itself out over time.

[Mainly Mattias]

This isn't really the right way to fix your issue though. Do your back work (rows, etc) with double the volume of what you do for your chest work and the issue will balance itself out over time.

Hmm. Well I did what the physio and kinesiologist told me to do and it fixed me out just fine.

[Mainly Mattias]

Any of you know any crossfitters?

"Rhabdomyolysis... is an uncool, serious and potentially fatal condition resulting from the catastrophic breakdown of muscle cells."

http://www.huffingto..._b_3977598.html

Please allow me to introduce you to Uncle Rhabdo, CrossFit's unofficial and disturbing mascot. Uncle Rhabdo is a cartoon commonly referenced in CrossFit literature and representative of a troubling trend among CrossFitters.

He's a clown. Literally.

The "Uncle Rhabdo" cartoon depicts an exhausted, yet well-muscled clown, connected to a dialysis machine standing next to some workout equipment. Concernedly, his kidney has fallen out and lies on the floor underneath him, along with some portion of his bowel. He's left a pool of blood on the floor below him, but it's not clear if this is from the disembowelment, the kidney's arterial supply, or the collection of fasciotomies he appears to have endured. Uncle Rhabdo, of course, has rhabdomyolysis.

Rhabdomyolysis, apart from being a subtly pleasant and melodic sounding word, is an uncool, serious and potentially fatal condition resulting from the catastrophic breakdown of muscle cells. We'll get more into the specifics in just a bit, but first let's begin with a story.

A Tale of Rhabdomyolysis

One day, a very fit, young, physical therapist colleague of mine went to CrossFit. She had been many times before. On this warm Texas evening, she performed a partner workout, where each would trade off performing sets of 10 for each exercise. The workout consisted of pushups. Lots of them. Copious amounts of overhead press were also included.

She performed hundreds of repetitions of each. She was a champ!

"I didn't want to not match my partner. Normally I may have rested a little, but the partner workout kept me going."

Both of these activities heavily involve the triceps muscles and so she wasn't surprised to have her beautiful, sculpted arms feel like poorly set bowls of JELL-O on the way home from CrossFit. Perhaps it was the heat. Maybe it was the sheer number of exercises she did. Her muscles were in crisis. She iced and hydrated when she got home, like a good little exerciser, but the damage was already done.

As physical therapists, we're finely tuned detection machines looking for normal versus abnormal response to exercise and activity. "Is this supposed to hurt?" is a question we respond to hundreds of times in a week. Sometimes the answer to this question is yes and we encourage the individual to press on, and other times it's a signal to initiate some rest and recovery. This signal detection is one of the things that's deeply embedded into physical therapists. We can't help it. And so when my friend awoke the next morning, her abnormal response alarms were blaring. She couldn't bend her elbows! She couldn't even reach her mouth to brush her teeth.

Still entrenched in the CrossFit culture of deplete, endure, repeat, she quieted the alarms and stoically pressed on to go to work. It didn't take long to realize she not only couldn't bend her arms, they also had no strength. She wasn't able to treat her patients. By that evening, her slender arms had continued to swell into plump hotdogs of ache and regret, and she was starting to come to the realization that the morning's danger alarms were legitimate.

Unbelievably, it took another 24 hours for her professional sense to break through the grip of the CrossFit culture, and seek medical attention. She was diagnosed with acute rhabdomyolysis, and ended up in the hospital for over a week. While in the emergency department they tested her creatinine kinase (CPK) levels. Normal is about 100. Her CPK levels were more than 45,000, a number that indicated damage to the kidneys.

While in the hospital, she called to cancel her CrossFit membership. As is standard when something is cancelled, the CrossFit coach asked the reason for her decision. She replied, "I'm in the hospital." The instructor quickly asked, "Is it rhabdo?"

And here we have arrived at CrossFit's dirty little secret. The coach was unusually familiar with what is normally a very rarely seen disorder. It's so rare that one study reported the overall annual incidence of rhabdomyolysis to be 0.06 percent. That represents single digits of cases out of hundreds of thousands of patients. How, I wondered, is it possible that the layperson exercise instructor is on a first-name basis with a serious, yet rare medical condition? Is this a thing with CrossFit? It turns out it is.

Rhabdomyolysis: As Told By CrossFit?

A quick search of the Interwebs reveals copious amounts of information about rhabdo purveyed by none other than CrossFit trainers. Scouring the scientific literature in mainstream medical journals, however, reveals a only a few peer-reviewed papers. The science confirms that exertional rhabdomyolysis, as this form is sometimes referred to, is uncommon and normally reserved for the elite military trainee, ultra-endurance monsters, and for victims of the occasional psychotic football coach. Rhabdomyolysis isn't a common condition, yet it's so commonly encountered in CrossFit that they have a cartoon about it, nonchalantly casting humor on something that should never happen.

So what is rhabdomyolysis exactly? Under extreme conditions your muscles cells explode. They die. They leach protein out into the blood stream, including one form called myoglobin. Ever stalwart, your kidneys take up the job of clearing these dangerous proteins from the blood. Why? It's just what they do. Unfortunately, myoglobin proteins aren't designed to be in the blood in the first place and they can easily overload the kidney. This can produce injury or death to all or part of the kidney in a short amount of time, and is potentially lethal. Locally, the muscles are left damaged and dying. Swelling ensues and weakness occurs as pressure builds around the remaining muscle cells. Your body's systems that normally can assist with this local muscle damage are now offline trying to help you not die. If you get to this stage, you're in serious trouble.

In some cases, acute compartment syndrome ensues, which is an emergency condition that can result in loss of a limb unless your connective tissue is slashed open to release the swelling , a procedure called a fasciotomy. None of this is something that people should be handling in such a cavalier manner.

So what gives? As early as 2005, the New York Times documented rhabdomyolysis associated with the culture of CrossFit in a piece entitled, "Getting Fit, Even If It Kills You." The article included this gem of a quote:

"Yet six months later Mr. Anderson, a former Army Ranger, was back in the gym, performing the very exercises that nearly killed him. "I see pushing my body to the point where the muscles destroy themselves as a huge benefit of CrossFit," he said."

What does CrossFit's founder, Greg Glassman think of this?

"It can kill you," he said. "I've always been completely honest about that."

Fast forward to 2013 and this culture has changed little, perhaps even accelerated. As Jason Kessler pointed out in "Why I Quit CrossFit," the elitist, push yourself to the limit culture of the discipline has increased in light of commercial interests taking hold. Regarding culture, Jason points out:

"If you ask a CrossFit coach, the injuries were all my fault. In a culture that drives you to go as hard and fast as possible, it's difficult not to get caught up in the hype. You're supposed to push yourself to the limit, but when you hit the limit and pay the price, you're the idiot who went too far."

In another psychotic example of how the overwhelming culture of CrossFit can diminish professional common sense, one gynecologist was quoted dishing this nonsense:

"Ladies, in my professional opinion, it is okay to pee during double unders."

No, peeing during a workout is not alright. Ever.

To underline the point, MoveForwardPT.com, the official consumer information website of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), hosted an online radio show specifically responding to CrossFit's irresponsible glorification of stress-induced urinary incontinence.

The Impact of Rhabdomyolysis

Sometimes rhabdomyolysis gets better with treatment. Sometimes it lingers. Sometimes your kidneys are never the same again. One message board commenter remarked:

"I seem to "flare" after any resistance training. I came into this by over training -- I was in phenomenal shape. I have gained weight. I get swollen and puffy. I feel as though the quality of my muscle tissue decreases on a daily basis -- more so than the lack of weight training -- seems to be disintegration."

My friend experienced a similar, though thankfully less severe long term effect. It's been several months and her triceps strength is not back to normal. Her sculpted arms are gone, replaced by semi-swollen jiggly tissue. Once a muscle tears, damaged, fatty scar tissue replaces the injured muscle tissue. The result is a permanently damaged muscle, and a decreased ability to strength train. The irony of pushups causing flabby arms underscores the age-old mantra: There really is too much of a good thing.

CrossFitters, largely unaware of the rhabdo risk, will continue to charge ahead, pressured and happily coerced into exercising to depletion and exhaustion. My prediction: in a few years, the peer-reviewed scientific literature will be ripe with articles about CrossFit and rhabdomyolysis. Health providers will be there to scoop up the pieces, but who is there to protect those people unknowingly at risk?

Exercise is just about the best thing you can do for your body, but in the case of CrossFit, we're left to ponder the question, is this workout worth the risk? Can the culture adapt to one that embraces safe training principles? Do coaches truly have the ability to detect what a proper training load is for their athletes? Only time will tell, but the future of CrossFit may depend on it.

Eric Robertson is assistant professor of physical therapy at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. He operates and writes for the website PTThinkTank.com. This piece first appeared on Medium.

[diesel_3]

Yeah, I'll second PS on 'don't push through the pain'. I was lifting weights and found that I was in enormous pain. Finally went to the physio since I had to quit one of my two jobs due to the pain. Best thing I did was to get fixed by the physio, who straightened my alignment and loosened some muscles so that the proper ones could get built. Taught me some stuff along the way too. I had overdeveloped my pecs, making me hunch and pull my shoulders in. I was having back spasms because of weak, under-developed back muscles, and was essentially uneven. The exercises were working the wrong muscles and further exacerbating the problems too.

Took awhile and cost a lot but no regrets on spending that money to get out of what would have been a lifetime of pain. If you're in Van (but you're not, are you?), look for Kelvin Tam (or Tan?) Physiotherapy on broadway. Just a warning though - you're gonna hurt. People scream, yell and cry when he works on them.

Ya, i've cut out squats and deads but my back isn't getting any better, in fact, a couple days ago I could barely move...feeling the pain tingle down into my feet, too.

It's serious enough now that I am going to see a doctor on monday and hopefully get in with a chiropractor here. I know it's going to be expensive, but I am sick of feeling like an 80 year old man.

I think it's an alignment thing/weak muscles from being overweight for so long earlier on in my life.

[LeanBeef]

Finally reached my bench goal last Wednesday (255lbs)... Got pretty sick from Thursday-Sunday. Gave it another try, couldn't do it, tried 245; couldn't do it, tried 225 and barely squeezed out 5 reps...

Probably the most disappointing session I've had.

[Gustavo Fring]

I strained my wrist. I've been out of commision for about a week. This is killing me! Anyone know how to relieve wrist muscle strains quick and fast?

[PlayStation]

I strained my wrist. I've been out of commision for about a week. This is killing me! Anyone know how to relieve wrist muscle strains quick and fast?

Wait and rest. I had wrist problems for over a month this summer, would not go away, kept going to the gym anyways. Of course it never got better, only worse at times. Then I finally said, thats it, take a break till its better. And when I felt ah its good enough to go, doesn't hurt anymore, went back, and it started hurting once again. Stopped right away, few more days or was it a week and I was good since.

Also bought wrists wraps that I used a lot after. But I ditched high weight low rep for high rep medium weight for now, so not too much strain on my wrists and they feel good!

Edit: did use one of those hot to cold muscle creams for awhile, then switched up to using ice throughout the day.

Edited October 1, 2013 by PlayStation

[Henrik Kesler]

Finally reached my bench goal last Wednesday (255lbs)... Got pretty sick from Thursday-Sunday. Gave it another try, couldn't do it, tried 245; couldn't do it, tried 225 and barely squeezed out 5 reps...

Probably the most disappointing session I've had.

You really thought you could tie a new PR after being sick for 4 days? Your recovery ability was hampered by being sick so having a less than great workout is to be expected.

[RyanKeslord17]

Starting my cut today. Anyone recommend high reps lower weight? Or just stick to regular weight routine?

[Henrik Kesler]

Starting my cut today. Anyone recommend high reps lower weight? Or just stick to regular weight routine?

Doing the "traditional wisdom" of going light with high reps while cutting is a good way to lose a whole lot of muscle along with the fat. Keep the majority of your training in the 5-8 rep range for the big stuff (bench, squat, deadlift, rows) and you'll do just fine.

[Karlsson`s Flo]

I strained my wrist. I've been out of commision for about a week. This is killing me! Anyone know how to relieve wrist muscle strains quick and fast?

Deer antler spray

[Gustavo Fring]

Wait and rest. I had wrist problems for over a month this summer, would not go away, kept going to the gym anyways. Of course it never got better, only worse at times. Then I finally said, thats it, take a break till its better. And when I felt ah its good enough to go, doesn't hurt anymore, went back, and it started hurting once again. Stopped right away, few more days or was it a week and I was good since.

Also bought wrists wraps that I used a lot after. But I ditched high weight low rep for high rep medium weight for now, so not too much strain on my wrists and they feel good!

Edit: did use one of those hot to cold muscle creams for awhile, then switched up to using ice throughout the day.

Great advice. I have been going to the gym but only doing lower body workouts. My gym membership expired so I'll be waiting till it fully heals before I renew it.

[key2thecup]

Stupid shin splints

[diesel_3]

Seeing a chiropractor twice a week now, I guess my back is in fairly rough shape.

Have had a couple treatments so far and haven't noticed anything get better, I know it's a long road to recovery ahead. Only went to the gym once this week because of soreness but kept my diet in check.