Listening to my body . . .

[Java Cafe]

“Listen to your body.” ~ Unknown wise person.
“Never, never skip a workout.” ~ Sensible, motivational admonition.
________

Here are my vitals:
Age: 56
Height: 5’ 7”
Weight: 160 lbs.
Waist: 37”

Some background info:

A year and a half ago, just about month into a modified version of Stronglifts 5x5, I developed a sudden acute pain in my right knee. After about three weeks of diagnostics, including X-rays, MRIs and visits to two orthopedic surgeons (one of whom gave me a steroid shot in the knee), I began to reluctantly accept the possibility of never being able to “deep squat” again; I had a torn meniscus. “Those things don’t heal; we can trim off the loose portion of it that is causing you the pain,” I was told. Both the specialists exhorted me against trying deep squats in the future. “Perhaps, six months to a year later, you can try half squats; don’t go beyond that,” was the advice of the more renowned specialist. I quit exercising for a year.

Then, I started with very light body weight exercises, including tentative half-squats. They did not hurt. I slowly graduated to full body-weight squats. After four weeks of that, I thought it was time for me to ease back into Stronglifts 5x5. Much to my surprise, by this time, the recommended version of SL 5x5 had become more streamlined – only three routines per day!

So, nine weeks ago, I began my 5 sets x 5 reps of squats with 45 lbs. Yesterday (9 weeks later), I squatted 5x5 with 160 lbs – my current body weight! I am delighted that I could do that. In my life, I have never been this strong before. But, today, my body is really, really, sore. Getting out of the chair, I will look to an onlooker like an octogenarian – grimacing, groaning. To me, it feels as if my back and hips are creaking. I have had similar sensations on the way to this milestone, but at much milder levels of intensity.

Today, it is almost overwhelming. I feel kind of feverish. My joints and muscles are aching. I must also have pulled some muscle in my left arm . . . my left elbow was hurting as I did the bent over barbells rows yesterday. Hurts quite a bit even now.
I can hear my body, clear and loud, telling to ease up. But, at the back of my head, a voice keeps telling me that if I don’t add 5 lbs to my routines tomorrow (ten pounds of the dead lift – which is scaring the bejezzus out of me right now, by the way), I will have broken the streak. It is telling me that I will feel better tomorrow.

I feel that in many of the routines, I am close to hitting the levels where I will begin to stall. I had stalled twice on the overhead lift, but eventually broke through those plateaus.

My body wants to skip a day; my stubborn brain does not like the idea. I worry about my joints. Remember my age – I am 56. I look much younger than that, but my bones won’t care about such superficial things, I am certain.

My question to you all is . . . what would you advise me to do? Should I just let the natural plateaus dictate how much I can do (or not do), while I methodically give it my all – three times a week, never skipping a scheduled day?

I have often thought that a Stronglifts 5x5-G (where G stands for geriatric version) should be instituted wherein one works out for a day, and then gets two days in between to recover. Surely, the muscles in my 20-year old son’s body and mine cannot be recovering at the same rate. Could they?

Tell me, please, what is your advice for me? What would you do?

Thank you for reading this. I appreciate this community and its collective wisdom.

~ JC ~

 

[mechBgon]

It sounds like you're overdoing it, more recovery time seems advisable. And in the big picture, if it were me, I would recognize "hey, I'm one plateau past where I should've stopped and just maintained. This is no longer beneficial to me, I'm taking it a notch too far."

 

[the DRIZZLE]

You will find as you get stronger you absolutely do need time off or at least a deload week. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that you come back stronger after a break.

 

[bhanson]

“Listen to your body.” ~ Unknown wise person.
“Never, never skip a workout.” ~ Sensible, motivational admonition.
________

Here are my vitals:
Age: 56
Height: 5’ 7”
Weight: 160 lbs.
Waist: 37”

Some background info:

A year and a half ago, just about month into a modified version of Stronglifts 5x5, I developed a sudden acute pain in my right knee. After about three weeks of diagnostics, including X-rays, MRIs and visits to two orthopedic surgeons (one of whom gave me a steroid shot in the knee), I began to reluctantly accept the possibility of never being able to “deep squat” again; I had a torn meniscus. “Those things don’t heal; we can trim off the loose portion of it that is causing you the pain,” I was told. Both the specialists exhorted me against trying deep squats in the future. “Perhaps, six months to a year later, you can try half squats; don’t go beyond that,” was the advice of the more renowned specialist. I quit exercising for a year.

Then, I started with very light body weight exercises, including tentative half-squats. They did not hurt. I slowly graduated to full body-weight squats. After four weeks of that, I thought it was time for me to ease back into Stronglifts 5x5. Much to my surprise, by this time, the recommended version of SL 5x5 had become more streamlined – only three routines per day!

So, nine weeks ago, I began my 5 sets x 5 reps of squats with 45 lbs. Yesterday (9 weeks later), I squatted 5x5 with 160 lbs – my current body weight! I am delighted that I could do that. In my life, I have never been this strong before. But, today, my body is really, really, sore. Getting out of the chair, I will look to an onlooker like an octogenarian – grimacing, groaning. To me, it feels as if my back and hips are creaking. I have had similar sensations on the way to this milestone, but at much milder levels of intensity.

Today, it is almost overwhelming. I feel kind of feverish. My joints and muscles are aching. I must also have pulled some muscle in my left arm . . . my left elbow was hurting as I did the bent over barbells rows yesterday. Hurts quite a bit even now.
I can hear my body, clear and loud, telling to ease up. But, at the back of my head, a voice keeps telling me that if I don’t add 5 lbs to my routines tomorrow (ten pounds of the dead lift – which is scaring the bejezzus out of me right now, by the way), I will have broken the streak. It is telling me that I will feel better tomorrow.

I feel that in many of the routines, I am close to hitting the levels where I will begin to stall. I had stalled twice on the overhead lift, but eventually broke through those plateaus.

My body wants to skip a day; my stubborn brain does not like the idea. I worry about my joints. Remember my age – I am 56. I look much younger than that, but my bones won’t care about such superficial things, I am certain.

My question to you all is . . . what would you advise me to do? Should I just let the natural plateaus dictate how much I can do (or not do), while I methodically give it my all – three times a week, never skipping a scheduled day?

I have often thought that a Stronglifts 5x5-G (where G stands for geriatric version) should be instituted wherein one works out for a day, and then gets two days in between to recover. Surely, the muscles in my 20-year old son’s body and mine cannot be recovering at the same rate. Could they?

Tell me, please, what is your advice for me? What would you do?

Thank you for reading this. I appreciate this community and its collective wisdom.

~ JC ~

I've been doing a similar program (Starting Strength) and these are my thoughts on this particular issue.

With the default programming you lift three days a week. After one workout per week you would get two days of rest. Since this is a beginning strength training program it uses workout-to-workout programming. It really doesn't matter where the break falls as your strength gains come after every workout and not a longer interval.

Therefore I have used a balance between listening to my body and not missing workouts. For beginner programming personally I define missing a workout as more than two days between workouts. At my discretion I can take a second day of rest if I feel I need it, but after that I have to go in no matter what (if not it's a missed workout). Some days I feel good and even though I'm due for a two day recovery period I go in after only one.

This method doesn't work for intermediate programming but for beginners I have found it works well.

 

[Java Cafe]

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I appreciate them very much.

I don't know why I had been thinking of any deviation from the norm as complete failure.

@mechBgon: So, there is such a thing known as "maintenance weight." How do I know what that is? Will I not keep wondering that if I tried, I would keep being able to lift more?

@the DRIZZLE: How much, in your opinion, is an "adequate" amount of time off? I know, like everything else, the real answer is, "It depends." But, if I do not work out for a week. will I not start undoing (or have undone) quite a bit of my strength gains?

@bhanson: Thank you for the suggestion. Makes good sense to me. But, I must aadmit with some guilt, that I took a 4-day break and went back to squatting with +5 lbs., as stipulated. It was hard, but I did manage to do the 5x5. It does feel like I am getting up to the point where I will not be able to add these increments as easily, if at all, as I have done in the first 10 weeks.

Warm regards,

~ JC ~

 

[tedrodai]

@mechBgon: So, there is such a thing known as "maintenance weight." How do I know what that is? Will I not keep wondering that if I tried, I would keep being able to lift more?

Well, there's no magic "maitenance weight" when refering to how much you lift, but I'm assuming he means that you should stop trying to progress if you're risking injury from it. Your thread title was aptly chosen: you should listen to your body (your heart, your muscles, your joints, etc). If your muscles are very sore, tired, or tight, you should give them more rest. Those conditions can interfere with you being in control of the full range of motion for your exercises (muscle spasms, etc), so they increase your risk of injury. The only thing that should make you question whether you should keep going is if you feel like your body can't handle it. hint: when you're body is screaming at you with pain, it's telling you that you can't handle it . If you heal/rest up and feel like you can handle it again, then go for it.

@the DRIZZLE: How much, in your opinion, is an "adequate" amount of time off? I know, like everything else, the real answer is, "It depends." But, if I do not work out for a week. will I not start undoing (or have undone) quite a bit of my strength gains?

"It depends"..."Listen to your body"...same thing. You probably don't want to take off every other week, but it will actually HELP you to take off a week (+/-...there's no magic number here either) when you've been going strong for a while and your body is getting worn out. I usually take a week off every ~6-8 weeks when following a rigorous routine, but I didn't really feel like I needed one when I recently took off 2 weeks due to the birth of my daughter (1st time parent brag brag). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see some relatively big strength gains when I got back to it. My cardio took a big hit though lol, and I'm working through some soreness again.

edit: Oh, and don't skimp on nutrition whether you're working out or resting either. You still need your protein and all the other good stuff.

 

[Java Cafe]

Thank you, tedrodai. And, congratulations on becoming a parent.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

You gotta be foam rolling, stretching, and doing strengthening exercises for important musculature that supports the hips and shoulders (shoulder external rotators, hip abductors/external rotators). Foam rolling has saved me from being in daily pain. I've been where you've been - destroyed. Get a good foam roller (I've upgraded to the aggressive Rumble Roller) and loosen up everything in your hips, thighs, and calves. Then work your way to your upper body. If it's tender, roll on it.

 

[Java Cafe]

Thank you, SC. Appreciate your response.

I have just had a foam roller delivered to me. Now, my task is to learn how to do it properly. I located the "Cressey Performance Foam Roller Series" video on YouTube. If there are other instructional videos you can recommend, I would be very grateful.

Also, if you could provide pointers to resources on "strengthening exercises for important musculature that supports the hips and shoulders (shoulder external rotators, hip abductors/external rotators)," I would appreciate that very much.

Regards,

~ JC ~

 

[txsizzler]

You definately should listen to your body, and take a couple of days off. Otherwise, as a previous poster noted, you will be overtraining, and can really injure yourself. Generally, most people who do body building or strength training, exercise a certain part of their body vigorously once (twice, tops) a week.

Remember, when doing resistance training, like you are doing, you are actually tearing (breaking down) into the muscle. Your body can only grow in strength when it gets the chance to heal this tear down. Thats why most folks at the very minimum have a 48-72 hour rest time between workouts on the same body parts. Diet is also important in strength training (1-1.5 grams/protein per pound, etc).


Ian

 

[the DRIZZLE]

@the DRIZZLE: How much, in your opinion, is an "adequate" amount of time off? I know, like everything else, the real answer is, "It depends." But, if I do not work out for a week. will I not start undoing (or have undone) quite a bit of my strength gains?

@bhanson: Thank you for the suggestion. Makes good sense to me. But, I must aadmit with some guilt, that I took a 4-day break and went back to squatting with +5 lbs., as stipulated. It was hard, but I did manage to do the 5x5. It does feel like I am getting up to the point where I will not be able to add these increments as easily, if at all, as I have done in the first 10 weeks.

Warm regards,

~ JC ~

It depends but I like to take 5-7 days off every 30 days or so. Some people advocate deloading and doing very light weight but I prefer to just take the time off. You also will not make linear gains forever which means you won't be able to add 5lbs every week indefinitely. If you still aren't recovering well after a break it may to be time to move to intermediate level programming.