At 17, you probably shouldn't be having aches and pains but essentially it's your body trying to tell you something.
You're burning the candle at both ends and somethings gotta give.
How long have you been training like that for? The whole time? Try running a deload or a different program for a couple of months, even going to a 3 day week for a while. Give the body some rest.
Have you seeked any advice for the issues? Is it joint problems or muscle? You may be doing long term damage or may just have tightness there that you need to rectify.
Do you supplement anything for your joints? What kind of recovery work do you do?
Yes, I'm exhausting my body, combined with my normal routine the gym just adds more strain.
About a year I've been training like this, and I've felt pretty good for most of it, I've genuinely made terrific gains for my time training, but I don't feel as if it's worth the long term damage.
I feel your comments about running something less intense for a while we would be beneficial, a 3 day split may be the answer for a few months to try and recoup for the exams coming up, etc.
I've only seen the GP about some of the soreness, and I've had a massage. I'm doing to see another GP and then a Bowen Therapist as well soon.
They're not major injuries, and they don't pain me too much, but they're worthy of some treatment.
I supplement fish oil intermittently, but I don't really supplement anything for anything.
Recovery work is mostly lying in bed trying to recoup some energy
Yoga or Meditation could be something worth trying.
If you have been using some of the anti-psychotics, they will fuck you up physically.
I know, I'm starting to realize this. I had some fu%ktard doctors who spent the best part of 7 years mucking me around trying to 'fix' me.
They put me on anti-psychotics and an SSRI way too young, like 11 years old. We all know some of the side effects that shit can have.
Put on 30kg pretty quickly because of them, no help from the doctors. The only reason I'm still alive today is because I'm a survivalist, I really had to hang on!!!
I feel these starting to take some long term effects, I won't go into detail but it's f%cked for someone my age.
My new psychiatrist aims to get me off at least the SSRI by the end of the year, have to remain stable for VCE exams at least.
We're unsure about the anti-psychotics, because I am very psychotic without them.
You're new to this and have gone straight to the high volume end of the scale. You shouldn't need to train like this at this stage and should take full advantage of your young body's capabilities. There will be plenty of time and need to push harder as you progress and it becomes harder to gain. If your progress has seemed disproportionate to the effort you have been putting in and time spent in the gym, reassess your regime. If what your write in your log is accurate I'm surprised it's taken this long for it to catch up with you considering you've only been training for a year.
Jumped in the deep end, haven't I?! I realize this now. You make some valuable points.
I've lasted a considerable time on such a taxing regime, possibly because I'm quite resilient because of what I've been through.
I might take White Lie's suggestion on regarding a 3 day program, could be what I need till I finish year 12.
when i read your training log, i see the numbers but not warmups?
do you just load up the bar and work or do you start with the bar and add weight slowly getting to the working sets? i find this progessive lefting of steadily increasing the weight, although adds volume, and means your max lift won't be as heavy, preserves your joints!
also, have you considered training every other day to give the body some rest. you can still grow like a weed training every other day.
nutrition and sleep will also be major factors that need just as much attention, if not more, than the training.
You see working sets, not my warmup sets. I always do a few warm up sets before each body part for example my bench at 95, might have a set of 60, 70, 80 before I start working sets.
Every other day is a another good plan, it just has to fit it in with what time I have during each day. I'm a good sleeper and eater, definitely not the problem, I get over 9 hours almost every night if I can and eat close to 4000 calories, this is probably how I've gone so long with high volume. I'm always open to changing parts of my diet though.
What Repacked and C_T said. You don't have to kill yourself every workout, you just need to progress over time. Stop going to failure on every single set. If you're so banged up, stay at least a rep or two clear of failure and stop doing shit that hurts, there's plenty of movements to choose from.
Work up to your working weights. Don't be like 90% of gym goers who whack on a couple of 20s for their first set of bench and proceed to rep it till absolute failure.
I'll do this. I've just started to stop going to failure. It's hard, I'm a little addicted to pushing those last few reps. But it might not be worth it.
Here is my take on it @
Puggy ;
Either you and I have the same disease or it's just the way it works, everyone one of my mates that train says the same thing "the better you look the worse you feel" we compare pain and injuries the bags under our eyes and levels of inflexibility.
Its been like that for years, we all agree it's a kunce of a sport, if you can even call it that. Discomfort and tiredness has always been present and always will be if I continue to train, pain at night, can't get comfortable, wake up like zombie, all par for the course.
Now kunce on here will tell you that you must be doing somethig wrong, check this and check that cos you should be feeling fantastic load of shit, maybe they know a secret, or maybe they are freaks, don't know, don't care.
If you're training balls out and growing, that is the way you will continue to feel, unless you stop, and than your mind starts to hurt, which is worse.
It's the grind. I know it's going to happen, but I don't like the feeling.
I'm hoping there is some more sustainable way to living a lifting lifestyle.
I feel bad enough most of the time without adding anything to make it worse.
My mind is hurting, my body is hurting, I'm being sent a message, I appreciate your take Grunta, it's wholesome and personal.
I'm glad I started later in life when I understood my limitations and was smart enough to know when my body needed a break. When I was younger I probably would've killed myself trying to make an extra rep or add lbs to the bar. You're young and have your whole life in front of you, take a break and refresh, you'll be better for it.
I'm hoping I can take on your perspective at this time in my life, so I can reap the long term benefits. Thank you for your insights.
Why are you taking medication for mental health if you're 17 and healthy? I'm sure everyone here initially got into lifting to look better, but it's not going to happen over night. I know kids these days demand instant gratification; I'm not saying you're one of them, but real goals/results take time.
Make long term goals instead of short. You need to find a maintainable workout schedule where lifting will be a lifestyle.
I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for these medications. They saved my life, they probably saved other peoples lives. I was pretty f%cked up, I mean really maybe, for such a young kid.
I realise now is the time to taper off them, I'm reaching this point, where I've fought the battles I needed to fight on them and now I need to find stability from something else, and my own mental determination. As you can see from my post, I'm not one of those 'kids' in any essence of the word. My very meaning behind coming to you all, shows this. Finding a maintainable workout regime is something on my mind now.
yeah dont ever bypass warmups, they are the body's way of unlocking the door before you get in your home, warming the car up before you drive etc.
Thanks for you analogy, appreciated. It's important isn't it!
