a***@gmail.com
2017-06-16 04:27:20 UTC
For years, I've had a routine of supersetting pushups and pullups. I'd do the following in quick succession:
* Knuckle pushups with fists close together (less than a foot)
* Palm pushs, hands close together
* Knuckle pushups, fists wide apart
* Palm pushups, hands far apart
* Knuckle pushups, fists shoulder width apart
* Palm pushups, hands should width apart
* Pullups
* Pullups with alternate grip
For each one of these subsets, I'd go until failure (which doesn't take too long at my age). For the pullups, I try to adjust my body position so that I'm hitting the back rather than the lats.
I'd do this superset several times a day. Sometimes half a dozen, sometimes twice, depending on stress level. Sometimes throughout the day, sometimes within an hour. It's basically a stress relief valve, as well as a way to maintain caloric balance. I realize that going to exhaustion too frequently does not cause muscle to get bigger, but I was fine with the idea of small, taught muscles.
Less than a month ago, I weakened drastically over the space of a week, to the point where I could not do one pushup, nor one pullup. I found it odd that my strength on both exercises failed at the same time. It wasn't Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. I don't get those much, probably because I stretch out every day. Because of the drasticness of this weakness, and the fact that it persisted for more than a few days, I started googling. The only candidate cause I've found is "exertional rhabdomyolysis" (ER). But I don't have the signs, such as dark urine, or soreness. More accurately, I feel taught on the chest and the back, but when I poke and knead the front, I do feel a twinge that might loosely be described as pain (but only loosely). It's like the practice of using a lacrosse ball to massage one's butt cheek. Kind of like pain, but not really.
Another symptom of ER is irregular heart rhythm. I often felt some odd quivering in the vicinity of the heart, but I was never sure whether it was really the heart or perhaps it was just the chest muscle twitching on its own. I thought it was just lack of sleep and/or streess. Since I stopped pushups and pullups, it has receded.
Anyway, it's been about 1.5 weeks since I did any real pushups or pullups. Any "test" that I do reveals that I haven't recovered much, if at all. I can still do my core (bridges for front, back, and sides). The minor use of arms to stabilize during the core training is enough to make my chest and back muscles feel like they've been through a workout. I am guessing that such minor stress might help them recover.
Without taking time off work for medical examination, is there any way to get some kind of corroboration of the possibility of ER (or just as useful, some anti-corroboration)?
* Knuckle pushups with fists close together (less than a foot)
* Palm pushs, hands close together
* Knuckle pushups, fists wide apart
* Palm pushups, hands far apart
* Knuckle pushups, fists shoulder width apart
* Palm pushups, hands should width apart
* Pullups
* Pullups with alternate grip
For each one of these subsets, I'd go until failure (which doesn't take too long at my age). For the pullups, I try to adjust my body position so that I'm hitting the back rather than the lats.
I'd do this superset several times a day. Sometimes half a dozen, sometimes twice, depending on stress level. Sometimes throughout the day, sometimes within an hour. It's basically a stress relief valve, as well as a way to maintain caloric balance. I realize that going to exhaustion too frequently does not cause muscle to get bigger, but I was fine with the idea of small, taught muscles.
Less than a month ago, I weakened drastically over the space of a week, to the point where I could not do one pushup, nor one pullup. I found it odd that my strength on both exercises failed at the same time. It wasn't Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. I don't get those much, probably because I stretch out every day. Because of the drasticness of this weakness, and the fact that it persisted for more than a few days, I started googling. The only candidate cause I've found is "exertional rhabdomyolysis" (ER). But I don't have the signs, such as dark urine, or soreness. More accurately, I feel taught on the chest and the back, but when I poke and knead the front, I do feel a twinge that might loosely be described as pain (but only loosely). It's like the practice of using a lacrosse ball to massage one's butt cheek. Kind of like pain, but not really.
Another symptom of ER is irregular heart rhythm. I often felt some odd quivering in the vicinity of the heart, but I was never sure whether it was really the heart or perhaps it was just the chest muscle twitching on its own. I thought it was just lack of sleep and/or streess. Since I stopped pushups and pullups, it has receded.
Anyway, it's been about 1.5 weeks since I did any real pushups or pullups. Any "test" that I do reveals that I haven't recovered much, if at all. I can still do my core (bridges for front, back, and sides). The minor use of arms to stabilize during the core training is enough to make my chest and back muscles feel like they've been through a workout. I am guessing that such minor stress might help them recover.
Without taking time off work for medical examination, is there any way to get some kind of corroboration of the possibility of ER (or just as useful, some anti-corroboration)?