Having a break from the gym

Big Chris

Big Chris

Big Chris

Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2004
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Bloxham
Mainly through niggling injury, but also due to increased workload, I'm going to take a 3 month break from the gym.

I've been going properly for 4 years now, 4 or 5 times a week and eating the right food etc, so how's this gonna feel? My worst fear is obviously that I'll be all skinny and flabby within a week (or so), is there stuff I can do at home or should I just stop completely to let my various injuries heal?

It's going to be quite a shock, me and the gym have been best mates after work for ages now! :(

Anyone else done the same?
 
I've been told by my Doc and a physiotherapist that I just need to rest to get things working again.

I've got tendonitis in my left arm which has been around for over a year now. I can train around it, but pretty much anything that involves my forearm muscle (such as lifting pretty much any weight, including just picking them up) is very painful. I stopped training for 3 weeks at one point and it was no better. Then there's my knee which I hurt doing squats about 2 months ago. I can't put any weight on it if it's bent, so standing up from a chair, getting out of my car, sitting on the bog etc unless I put all my weight on my other leg, is very painful. I left that for 2 months without doing a single leg exercise and it's no better. Turning 30 really did take its toll! :(

In addition to the above, I'm being made redundant next year so am doing some IT courses in the evenings so I have some options (I work in IT already but am hoping to move into another area). These are taking a lot of my time and I need to concentrate and devote some attention to them otherwise it's a waste of money.

Bumping the gym from my schedule for a few months will give me time to do all that and also let everything heal, then I can come back fighting next year. At least that's the plan anyway...
 
Yeah, I've knocked it on the head completely too, due to a severe injury.

There is a lot to be said for swimming, as any GP will tell you!
 
I've not been in the gym properly or stuck to a good diet in nearly 6 months since starting my new job and I could still get back into the shape I was at my best within a month or 2, don't worry too much about instantly becoming a mess as soon as you stop.
 
What exactly are these injuries?

Just from what you've written, they sound very fixable. Who was your physio?

Not knowing what the issue is I could be completely wrong here, but rest is often over prescribed by... well, idiots.
 
The physio I saw for my forearm was the head physio at my gym (Nuffield). I had 5 sessions with him including massage and ultrasound. He said he thought it was tendonitis, but in short I get a sharp pain in the top of my forearm muscle in pretty much any weight bearing situation. If I attempt a pull-up, or to pick up a dumbell for a shoulder/chest press, or pick up a plate to put on a bar when loading up for squats/deads then it's very painful. It's been around for about a year now and I've not managed to shake it. The physio made it marginally better and I didn't lift a single weight for 3 weeks but as I've kept bothering it by carrying on training around it, it won't go.

As for the knee, no idea what I've done but as per previous post, it 'went' while squatting (PB of 100KG too which sucks!) and since then, about 2 months ago, I can't put any weight on it when it's bent without a very sharp shooting pain from inside. So getting out of the car as you normally would with my weight on my right leg is a no-no, I have to swivel around in the seat until I can get my left leg out. Same goes for standing from/sitting in a chair, getting out of bed etc. My Doc said she wasn't sure so gave me some exercises and said to take Ibuprofen for a month then go back if it's still an issue (which I guess it will be). I can just about walk up stairs without it giving me grief but anything more than that and and start making old man noises.

So I figured not stressing either issue with more training for a couple of months would give them both time to heal.
 
Simply judge it on a week by week/ month basis. Only you will know how you feel and look as a result. ;)
 
Yeah that's the plan, just gonna take it easy until things stop hurting, then test the water again.

The knee is the one that worries me the most, I tried sitting on the exercise bike for 20mins a few weeks ago to see how it was coming along and I could barely walk for a couple of days afterwards. Not good since I'm hoping to get back into cycling next Spring :(
 
Big Chris said:
The physio I saw for my forearm was the head physio at my gym (Nuffield). I had 5 sessions with him including massage and ultrasound. He said he thought it was tendonitis, but in short I get a sharp pain in the top of my forearm muscle in pretty much any weight bearing situation. If I attempt a pull-up, or to pick up a dumbell for a shoulder/chest press, or pick up a plate to put on a bar when loading up for squats/deads then it's very painful. It's been around for about a year now and I've not managed to shake it. The physio made it marginally better and I didn't lift a single weight for 3 weeks but as I've kept bothering it by carrying on training around it, it won't go.

As for the knee, no idea what I've done but as per previous post, it 'went' while squatting (PB of 100KG too which sucks!) and since then, about 2 months ago, I can't put any weight on it when it's bent without a very sharp shooting pain from inside. So getting out of the car as you normally would with my weight on my right leg is a no-no, I have to swivel around in the seat until I can get my left leg out. Same goes for standing from/sitting in a chair, getting out of bed etc. My Doc said she wasn't sure so gave me some exercises and said to take Ibuprofen for a month then go back if it's still an issue (which I guess it will be). I can just about walk up stairs without it giving me grief but anything more than that and and start making old man noises.

So I figured not stressing either issue with more training for a couple of months would give them both time to heal.
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Physios can be a lot like PTs, massively variable in quality. I know some that are terrible, giving out treatment and advice that could make things worse.

For your forearm:
Did he look at your shoulder at all?
Where exactly did he massage treat?

What can be the problem here (assuming it is a soft tissue problem) is that a faulty movement pattern (possibly resulting from upstream tightness in the shoulder complex) causes the muscle/tendon in your forearm to burn out and become ropey.

For some general self maintenance of your shoulder, have a look in the mobility thread. Everyone should have full range in your shoulders, so it would be worth working on them even if it isn't related to your problem.


I take it you didn't go to a physio for your knee problem?

Again, this could be down to a faulty movement pattern (pretty likely considering you were squatting). Are you aware of what your form was like? Did your knees tend to collapse inwards?

Look in the mobility thread and attack everything in your lower body, and if you have flat feet, fix them.
 
The physio was actually very good, he asked all sorts of questions about my lifestyle and mainly if I'd made any significant changes in the run up to the pain appearing. For example, was I now driving more or less than usual, had I stopped/started doing any sport, had I got a new bed/sofa etc. He identified some tightness in my left shoulder and massaged out a golf ball sized knot, then gave me some exercises to try. He said there was an obvious difference in the way that sat too which having looked properly in a mirror was true. My left shoulder seems to sit higher suggesting tension.

I went with the exercises and it did feel better along with the ultrasound, but I hurried back to weights too quickly.

As for squats, I've been doing them quite happily for a while now and never had any problems with my knees. I train alone so can't really comment on my form.

Will have a check through the mobility thread though and see what's what. Cheers
 
Have you performed your own soft tissue treatment on your forearm? It's really easy, and you can't really do any damage.

With squatting, it's entirely possible that you've been doing it wrong the entire time. Soft tissue "breaks" after many repetitions of a faulty movement, and it might only hurt after the thousandth rep.

Post a video of your squats!
 
Not sure what you mean by soft tissue treatment? I give the area a good massaging when it hurts but it doesn't make any difference. Weirdly, I can't poke/prod/squeeze it at any point to replicate the pain. However, if I tense my arm/bicep then rotate my fist it starts off fine when the palm of my hand is facing me but begins to hurt when the palm of my hand is facing to my right having turned 90 degrees.

I see your point with squats though, can't really post a vid as I can't complete a squat at the moment but once I'm back in the game I'll get a vid up and see if anyone can spot any issues.
 
Big Chris said:
Not sure what you mean by soft tissue treatment? I give the area a good massaging when it hurts but it doesn't make any difference. Weirdly, I can't poke/prod/squeeze it at any point to replicate the pain. However, if I tense my arm/bicep then rotate my fist it starts off fine when the palm of my hand is facing me but begins to hurt when the palm of my hand is facing to my right having turned 90 degrees.

I see your point with squats though, can't really post a vid as I can't complete a squat at the moment but once I'm back in the game I'll get a vid up and see if anyone can spot any issues.
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Lean on it with a hockey ball whilst clenching/unclenching your fist. Hockey balls make everything hurt. ;)

Actually sounds like a funked-up bicep more than anything else (but I'm not a physio): if you can clench and not hurt, but hurt when you engage the two functions of biceps (it's not really the primary elbow flexor but hey), chances are it's probably biceps. As posted, however, I am NOT a physio.

Ice is right about movement patterns, however - you probably got injured because of erroneous or impinged movement (due to unresolved tightness) that had never been corrected and eventually bit you.
 
Is the hockey ball to do with the soft tissue treatment then? What exactly should I be doing with it?

The bicep in my left arm is fine as far as I know, I can for example complete a chin-up (palms facing me) more or less pain free, although it does twinge a little bit. But if I tried to do a pull-up (palms facing away) then my forearm is on fire. Same goes for a bicep curl for example, palm facing me is fine but if I did a hammer curl then again it would be very painful. I guess it could be linked into the bicep though yeah, but it's the forearm that hurts.
 
Chins are more or less ok, I can feel it a bit but my the bicep takes the brunt of it and it doesn't bother me too much. It's when I do pull-ups which is predominantly my forearm that I'm in trouble. The pain is in the upper/middle part of my forearm as in this pic:

2111aif.gif


Same goes for things such as lat-pulldown, or if I'm lifting a bar back onto the squat rack from the floor. If my forearm is called into action in any exercise then it moans at me.
 
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Sometimes you just have to have a break if your life cannot cope with that extra impact of exercise. As long as you jump back on it as soon as you can or keep active and your diet in check it should minimise issues. :)
 
Big Chris said:
Chins are more or less ok, I can feel it a bit but my the bicep takes the brunt of it and it doesn't bother me too much. It's when I do pull-ups which is predominantly my forearm that I'm in trouble. The pain is in the upper/middle part of my forearm as in this pic:

2111aif.gif


Same goes for things such as lat-pulldown, or if I'm lifting a bar back onto the squat rack from the floor. If my forearm is called into action in any exercise then it moans at me.
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Minor tear?
 
Freefaller said:
Sometimes you just have to have a break if your life cannot cope with that extra impact of exercise. As long as you jump back on it as soon as you can or keep active and your diet in check it should minimise issues. :)
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Yeah that's the plan. I've never really given my arm a good chance to heal. It didn't feel better with 3 weeks off so I need to give it more. I'm still eating well and I'm going to keep stretching and doing some mobility stuff once I've read up on it properly. Just doing my knee exercises as directed by the Doc til the end of Nov and will go from there.

ethan said:
Minor tear?
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Could be, it certainly feels like that rather than a strain.
 
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