Weightlifting for Kiwis - Discussion and support regarding the art of swole

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While we're on the topic: How do you know if the pain is bad enough to warrant seeing a doctor? How do you know if you should just go through with it or stop and seek professional help?

I recently started lifting again and was being pretty careful. Back in my teen years when I first started lifting I did something to my left shoulder and it was the reason I stopped. It was just when I was getting extra serious so it was a real bummer but the pain was almost unbearable. Especially while doing pull ups and bench press.

So bearing that in mind I was trying not to overload myself but last week I felt it again during chest day. Then back day. It manifests mostly on bench and pull ups, almost nothing when doing shoulders. It's a sharp, searing pain in the inner part of the shoulder.

Reduce the weight? It's not that heavy to begin with, I do my reps with 75kg because I'm trying to be careful and not fuck up the shoulder again. Should I do even more reps with like 70 or something?

Should I see a doctor?
 
postfeetpls said:
While we're on the topic: How do you know if the pain is bad enough to warrant seeing a doctor? How do you know if you should just go through with it or stop and seek professional help?

I recently started lifting again and was being pretty careful. Back in my teen years when I first started lifting I did something to my left shoulder and it was the reason I stopped. It was just when I was getting extra serious so it was a real bummer but the pain was almost unbearable. Especially while doing pull ups and bench press.

So bearing that in mind I was trying not to overload myself but last week I felt it again during chest day. Then back day. It manifests mostly on bench and pull ups, almost nothing when doing shoulders. It's a sharp, searing pain in the inner part of the shoulder.

Reduce the weight? It's not that heavy to begin with, I do my reps with 75kg because I'm trying to be careful and not fuck up the shoulder again. Should I do even more reps with like 70 or something?

Should I see a doctor?
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A good orthopaedic doctor specializing in sports medicine is worth its weight in gold. If the pain is bad enough that you notice and it doesn't go away within a couple days, I personally would just go and check it out- especially if you're in your 20s, early 30s.
If you define pain as being 'unbearable', then there is absolutely no question in my mind.

Again, it depends on your goals, but health is generally not cheap. You can make it a lot cheaper though, and that's through prevention.

Here's what I'd advise you: After you get your injury sorted out, get a foam roller (and a tennis ball for certain muscle groups like the pecs), watch a couple videos on efficient ways to do it to set up a nice little routine, and do it post workout. It's possibly going to hurt at first in some places until you get used to it (you do have to make sure you're doing it right and it's the right kind of pain and not you attempting to break your spine or whatever) and it's fucking boring, but it greatly reduces injury risk.

Some people are lucky and have injuries extremely infrequently, but if you lift for many years it really is just a matter of when, how often, and how bad. This is why earlier in the thread I've recommended someone who's relatively new to lifting and suddenly doing compound lifts with reasonably high weights for his level to just get a personal trainer (ideally a powerlifter) to make it absolutely sure his form is impeccable- shit will go wrong sometimes even when you're doing everything right, imagine what happens if you're not.

But again, I think if you're experiencing almost unbearable pain- and I'm not being sarcastic, I believe you- you absolutely need to get to a doctor and stop working out in the meantime- you can lose a week or two of gains now or lose god knows how many months if you manage to somehow injure yourself further and fuck something up real bad.
 
latinlover said:
you can lose a week or two of gains now or lose god knows how many months if you manage to somehow injure yourself further and fuck something up real bad.
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Fuck I'm worried... I mean, it's not unbearable now but it used to be last time I felt it and it's the reason I stopped lifting years ago. I suppose if it's headed that way again I need to take measures.

Thanks man, I needed this. I'll make an orthopedist appointment next week. Damn I hate it when I can't just ignore a problem until it vanishes.
 
Should have added this, but do any of you guys have fab plans for gym equipment? Been wanting to build another rack and some sort of weight tree.
 
Literally at the ER rn over the torn ligament area right now. Either I'm high as shit or I'm in trouble.

Update:

Basically they're telling me to f off, I came in because I couldn't lie down without being in excruciating pain. I had them give me a shot of morphine so I could sleep tonight without having to wait for my pharmacy to open. The only thing they did for me in the long term was prescribe a stronger variant of ibuprofen (I was to be on 1800mg a day, but they're just swapping me over to tramadol, so I have to make like three phone calls to three different doctors to get confirmation on this). They did an x-ray and only said there's no fractures. Honestly not happy they didn't do any further tests and honestly scared I'm going to dislocate something in my sleep. I was literally feeling flames all over the area in the time I was waiting to be seen. I'm only feeling nothing right now because of the morphine. Once that wears off, I'm fucked.

Fucking ridiculous honestly. I just wasted my time.
 
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AnimeSucksCopeAndSneed said:
Update:

Basically they're telling me to f off, I came in because I couldn't lie down without being in excruciating pain. I had them give me a shot of morphine so I could sleep tonight without having to wait for my pharmacy to open. The only thing they did for me in the long term was prescribe a stronger variant of ibuprofen (I was to be on 1800mg a day, but they're just swapping me over to tramadol, so I have to make like three phone calls to three different doctors to get confirmation on this). They did an xray and only said there's no fractures. Honestly not happy they didn't do any further tests and honestly scared I'm going to dislocate something in my sleep. I was literally feeling flames all over the area in the time I was waiting to be seen. I'm only feeling nothing right now because of the morphine. Once that wears off, I'm fucked.

Fucking ridiculous honestly. I just wasted my time.
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Ah, so you're a yuro then, I take it, or even the not-so-public healthcare in the US is this fucked? In yurope if you go to the ER with anything less than a freshly missing arm and the ER nurses will literally stab you in the jugulars with a butterfly knife just so you have a reason to stay and don't 'waste their time'.

Find a good doctor. You won't die in your sleep, it can wait a day, or two, or three (although if you couldn't lie down without being in excruciating pain it definitely was ER category, I don't blame you for going).

An xray will only tell them about fractures which I guess you don't have, it doesn't really give them a good idea about the state of soft tissue. Has an actual physician physically examined you and said he suspects nothing? I guess you'll need an MRI then later down the line.
 
AnimeSucksCopeAndSneed said:
Update:

Basically they're telling me to f off, I came in because I couldn't lie down without being in excruciating pain. I had them give me a shot of morphine so I could sleep tonight without having to wait for my pharmacy to open. The only thing they did for me in the long term was prescribe a stronger variant of ibuprofen (I was to be on 1800mg a day, but they're just swapping me over to tramadol, so I have to make like three phone calls to three different doctors to get confirmation on this). They did an xray and only said there's no fractures. Honestly not happy they didn't do any further tests and honestly scared I'm going to dislocate something in my sleep. I was literally feeling flames all over the area in the time I was waiting to be seen. I'm only feeling nothing right now because of the morphine. Once that wears off, I'm fucked.

Fucking ridiculous honestly. I just wasted my time.
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A few years ago my sister came over to visit and while we were making dinner she cut her finger to the bone slicing meat, tendon, blood vessels, everything. We couldn't stop the bleeding and it was squirting blood non-stop for 30 minutes so I shat myself and took her to the ER. We stood there waiting for over 2 hours in a puddle of her blood and bloody towels we had. She was pale as fuck, getting that tired look you get from blood loss and blood wouldn't stop flowing.
Nurses and doctors were constantly running around just ignoring us and at one point one of the nurses stopped to ask wtf is this blood, told her what's going on and she scolded us for coming to the ER for a cut finger. Then I had to call a colleague of mine whose wife is a doctor at the hospital to see if maybe she knows somebody from the on-duty staff who she could talk to so we can be admitted. After 20 minutes they admitted us and my sister was in the process of losing consciousness.

I can see how they'd tell you to fuck off, like this other person said unless you're missing an arm it's not an ER-worthy emergency. Apparently almost missing a finger isn't either. They can't really do much about anything even if you're bleeding. They can also decide to ignore you.
Fuck the ER, especially the yuro ER. I hate it so much it's unreal
 
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I think it's because it's summer and more teens are at the fight gym, but I have legit had this exact interaction a weird amount of times. For context, I am one of the biggest and strongest guys there.

"Hey man, you're fucking yoked. What diet do you follow?"
Shit man, I usually just eat whatever bae puts in front of me. Usually rice, veggies, some eggs, meat, just whatever.
"Really?" *looks at me in disbelief* "So, like, do you count macros and calories? How much protein do you aim for?"
Nah, I don't count anything and I eat some type of protein most meals. If I need to cut I just eat less.
"Crazy..."
 
What do you guys do about callouses? Anything that can be done to mitigate them from developing or just something you have to do with when lifting?
Lord of the Large Pants said:
Does power really go away THAT fast?
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Probably motivation/mental thing. Few months ago I took a 3 week break to let an injury heal and was able to get through my normal routine but could definitely feel the loss of power.
 
74164978231 said:
What do you guys do about callouses? Anything that can be done to mitigate them from developing or just something you have to do with when lifting?
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Gloves.

If you're in a rural gym in a post-soviet country where people are going to call you a faggot if you wear those cute gym gloves as a man, the standard protocol is to just have communal sponges thrown all over the gym that you can put between your hand and the bar to increase grip and avoid calluses. There's a higher than 0% chance of you getting warts this way, but at least you won't be called a homosexual by the beer bellied pensioner who swears he could bench 5 plates a couple decades ago.

Gloves are good though, in every other case.
 
74164978231 said:
What do you guys do about callouses? Anything that can be done to mitigate them from developing or just something you have to do with when lifting?

Probably motivation/mental thing. Few months ago I took a 3 week break to let an injury heal and was able to get through my normal routine but could definitely feel the loss of power.
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Bar lower in hand for pulls. Pumice stone
 
74164978231 said:
What do you guys do about callouses? Anything that can be done to mitigate them from developing or just something you have to do with when lifting?
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Depends on where they are at. If they are on your hands, you kind of just accept they are there and lotion to try and soften the area. If they burst on you, you are SOL.

If they are on your feet, you have to lotion all the time anytime you put socks on. If you work a laborious job (or are just lifting mad weight), they are kind of permanent unless you take a break while continuing moisturization.

If you don't have any callouses right now, immediately start moisturizing.
 
I used to take a day off so I'd be in the gym only 6 days a week. Now that I started incorporating active recovery days not only do I feel less beat to shit at the end of the week, I noticed that I can incorporate more conditioning work. The benefit there is that more conditioning work = more work capacity. Plus I started adding in more rear delt work and incline dumbbell external rotation. My shoulders are feeling much better. Give it a shot.
 
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