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Hi all, I'm a young kid (22) and literally my life has turned for the worst and I need help mentally. About 2 months ago in feb I injured my lower back deadlifting with poor form. Went to the doctors and I don't have any herniations or slipped disc thankfully. It's just a muscle strain but a stubborn one at that. In the beginning I was okay knowing that It would heal but now as time has gone and with slow progress I'm literally in the ruts feeling like it will never heal. Its been 2 and bit months now and it's still hasn't fully healed. I haven't returned to the gym because every time I go i end up getting some sort of back pain. For a period of like 5-6 weeks i was just stress eating feeling sorry for myself. I've realized that and am focusing on my diet again. I'm trying to do cardio and stretch but haven't touched weights again. I used to be a kid going to the gym 3-4x a week, and now I feel like i'm crippled and can't partake in activities I used to love. Will I ever recover from this? Does anyone have personal experience they can help me with? I'm really trying hard to keep my head up, but seeing my friends accomplishing their goals and having me just go backwards has been so frustrating. This is my very first serious injury, and I think my coping abilities haven't been great. I've been going to physiotherapy for the past 6 weeks and it has helped a little bit. I would appreciate it a ton if anyone could help/share their experiences with me or have any advice! Comic UPDATES ON THE LATEST PAGE!

Evening NF World, I needed to vent a little, and for some reason I felt this was the place to do it. I have been busting my ass at the gym for the past 3 weeks.... increasing my time spent there, increasing my weight lifted, trying out new machines, increasing reps, and I've even lost 7 pounds. For those things, I was proud. Until some jerk had the nerve to confront me after my workout tonight and state, "Done working out already"? Um, excuse me sir, do I know you? Do you know how many times a week I'm in that gym? Do you realize what I'm putting my body through? Sure, you see an overweight chick who should probably be spending hours running on the treadmill or whatever. But what is really there is a mother of 3, full time student, and chronic pain sufferer giving it all she's got. Your approval is not needed. Therefore, your comments are unnecessary and downright ignorant. What the hell makes people give their two cents? I'm pretty sure I'm not wearing a sign that says "Please tell me your opinions of me" so who the f*ck does he think he is? UGH!! I needed to get that out! Thanks, FitChick_Maybe

I started going to a 24hour Fitness near me around December 2015 and was awesome for four reasons - 1.) found an excellent trainer who knew about knee injuries 2.) it is located very close to school 3.) I get student discounts on training and membership 4.) a friend joined with me - super helpful! They quit later but I needed that initial push. However, my trainer did not really like that gym very much for whatever reason, and she quit one random week:-( I lost 15 lbs when we were working out together, so I think, something was going well. For some reason, they won't give me my old trainer's notes, and I did not keep track of the workouts we did together Now, they have just found me a newbie who I am having a very hard time adjusting with. She just joined her first gym, is a fresher in college (I feel old around her), has no idea about injuries (I busted my knee and femur few years ago, and some exercises bother me), and I cannot stop comparing her to my ex-trainer. That has resulted in losing motivation to go workout or even thinking about it. (I am sorry for the rant, this is upsetting) Reasons I think I need a trainer: I get intimidated with the chiseled guys and hot gals there who know what they are doing, and I don't have that confidence just yet.I very strongly believe I need someone to spot me for form, or I'll end up with another injury and relapse to the whole no workout for you mode.A scheduled training session makes it hard to skip a workout.Motivation In short, what I need help with is - What to look for in a trainer? Can I get by without a trainer? And if you tell me YES to Q.2, also please tell me how to train without one - without being scared. It is the knee that scares me the most. The NF beginner workout has a lot of stuff that bugs my knee, so that is out. Thanks a lot for reading.

About six months ago to the day I posted a very lovely post talking about how I was going to do everything right! How I was taking control of my life and starting to take care of myself! I had a plan and knew what to do and I was going to conquer the world! I was super motivated and on point ... for a while. Then, I basically forgot about it. The only progress I've made in that time is to make the scale bounce up and down by about a 15 pound margin and ended up back in the same place. I don't think I've even really logged into the website in the last five and a half months. Life came out swinging and instead of fighting back, I hid. I hid under processed foods, candies, sweets, etc. All of it became my blanket. I'm currently approaching my 35th birthday and I don't want to keep doing to myself what I have been doing for the last dozen or so years. In that time, I've had some massive weight fluctuations with the most recent one starting when I quit smoking six years ago. I'm still a non-smoker but that's about the only good thing I've done for myself. I've tried various activities: weight lifting, martial arts, even running a 10km race (and all the training that came along with it) but none of these things have 'stuck.' I'm having a hard time finding my reason to put my running shoes on or go practice kicking things. The extra 80 pounds I've been carrying around for the last several years just feels heavier each day even if the scale isn't moving. I've worked with trainers. I've worked without trainers. At the end of the day, I know deep down that the thing I really need to change is what and how I eat. Everything else can happen well enough but eating is my kryptonite. The dumb thing is it doesn't even really matter what the food is; I just eat too much of it. I don't want to spend the next five years the way I've spent the last five years. I'd like to hit 40 rocking it. Feeling strong and confident and being healthy. I'd like to be able to shop wherever I want rather than having to make sure it's a store with my sizes in it. Currently, I'm working on taking control over what I eat. I've started canning my own foods so that the serving size is reasonable for grab-and-go lunches and also so I know what's in them! I'm trying to make food a priority rather than an after thought so that I know what it is I'm going to be eating rather than grabbing whatever is easy and close. I'm not sure how far this will take me but it feels like a step in the right direction. If people have suggestions or words of wisdom, I'd love to hear from you on things I can do! I'm frustrated and having a hard time finding the motivation or discipline to do this even though I know it's time for it.

So I have been following Nerd Fitness for a while, but have never joined the forums before so this is new to me. Let me start out by introducing myself. Hi! I am a Not So Nerdy Nerd...at least I think so. So this is long, kinda rantish, but I gotta vent to someone. Im tired of this, my family doesnt seem to understand where I am at, and I really need advice on how to deal with this and get back on track. I am about to have my 25th birthday and have devoted the entire last year to improving my health and fitness. At the end of June I had a major setback after a pretty awesome day of PRs in the gym with my trainer. I felt great after the workout. I knew I had pushed myself and accomplished new things. I even jogged home which is saying something for me. 2 days later I woke up with what felt like a knife sticking out of my knee. I am no stranger to the sensation either. I had 2 years of PT in high school for patella subluxation. I figured that in my incredibly embarrassing DOMS after the workout I had just taken a few too many goofy steps and aggravated it. Well when it didnt get better I started seeing orthopedists about it. That was a freaking fiasco in itself and maybe is contributing to why I am so frustrated now. I got to the point where I had stopped all lower body workouts trying to make the knees feel better. I gave up everything lower body strength training, upper body/core work that might put strain on the knees, even yoga. In October I finally saw a good orthopedist who sent me for PT. While I was waiting for PT to start (4 week wait for a new patient slot) I started going for sports massage and finally started feeling better. I even walked (averaged 10 miles per day) all over Italy on vacation with minimal pain killers to get me though the week. I felt pretty proud of myself and how far I had come, but I was still getting the pain on occasion. Now like I have said before, Im no stranger to PT, I have a good 5 years of PT behind me for various musculoskeletal issues growing up and being an athlete. I have seen the Therapist 4 times now and I hate it. My therapist doesnt pay any attention to me, talks down to me like Im 5, and doesn't listen when I tell her how I feel about certain exercises. She has me doing strength training exercises I can find on the internet for knee pain that are not challenging to me at all (maybe I am doing them wrong? but who knows because shes not watching). In fact, she had double patients the last time I was there and the other woman noticed how easy some of the exercises were for me (shes recovering from a torn ACL). I feel like Im at a supervised gym session with a babysitter. I think my personal trainer who is a part time rehab specialist could do better at helping me rehab than she is, he at least pays attention to me. I just feel so frustrated. This is not what I was expecting from PT at all. I was expecting personalized workout plans and attention. I was expecting them to fit me properly for a new heel lift per the doctors orders, not shrug and say well this one is close to the height of the old one, try that. I was expecting advice on how to get back to where I was, how to avoid the pain again in the future, what to do to avoid another 5 MONTH down time/recovery period if the pain comes back and most importantly for them to explain to me what they think is wrong with my knees, what is causing the pain and how they are going to help me fix it. I am paying for all this after all, insurance only goes so far. I don't know what to do. Do I go to my next session and try to get the therapist to pay attention to me long enough to try to get some of my questions answered? Knowing myself I would probably clam up and have nothing to say and walk out of there just as frustrated afterward. Do I go back to the good orthopedist who is part of a university medical school, who sent me to their renowned PT center and ask him questions and tell him I dont like the way my PT is being handled? Do I give up on PT all together, printout everything I have found on the internet about my problem (yes I got desperate and starting reading EVERYTHING I could find about patella pain and how to treat it), take it to my trainer and have him work with me? Do I have another option? Im just so frustrated and needed to talk to someone other than my family about whats going on for a change.

Hello all! I'm super frustrated!! For a year now I have been trying different things to lose body fat. I FINALLY made a break through with a super-horrible diet (in my opinion), I started carb cycling. It's awful...but it's the only way I've been able to lose body fat. I like to run and lift weights (although, I'm more passionate about running) but when I carb cycle and count all those little calories and macronutrients to death I have NO (nada, zip, zilch) energy. No running & no lifting makes this sprout quite dull. If I eat whatever I want, then I can exercise 6 days and week with no issues other than feeling like a fatty. BOOOOOO What do I eat? Nice clean healthy foods. No seriously, I rarely eat chips, ice cream, candy, pop corn (not that I don't cheat once every few weeks). I eat a lot of salad with olive oil/vinegar or fat free ranch. I eat every vegetable you can think of (no beets if I'm carb cycling and that's just sad). Lean meats? Got 'em. I have high blood pressure and a low thyroid (both controlled by meds). I have also been diagnosed with a gluten sensitivity - so no gluten for this gal. My hubby has heart disease, so there's no bad fats around our house. So at this point I need energy and to stop counting everything to death (I'm a little afraid of producing an eating disorder). My questions are this: is Paleo right for me? When I cut my carbs to just my veggies (most of the time) I stop having the energy to run, so then after a week of feeling lazy I add complex carbs back in. Then I run and lift and feel good, but after a week or two of that I end up feeling like a chunk again because the scale and the tape measure start moving up... Advice? I feel like a total dork not being able to figure this out.

Ok, so I posted this in my current challenge thread (in my sig) but I figured I would post this here as well: I've been bothered by something the past couple of workouts and maybe someone can either give advice or idk; something. I feel like my muscles can handle everything I'm doing and do even more; but my problem is other parts of my body. For example, with the tire-ups I need to take the break because the palms of my hands are killing me. It is NOT because my arm muscles are burning and need a rest. I mean, that's a big difference. For certain stretches and when trying planks; it's being on my knees/elbows that hurts and not the tightening of muscles. Now I should make note of something; I WAS 130 pounds overweight. Today I'm 100 pounds overweight. So just my sheer bodymass is most likely the cause of why my joints/bones/hands/ect are giving out before my muscles. It's just..... discouraging. It's like my muscles are doing kick-ass but I can't progress as fast as I want to because of OTHER physical limitations. I guess I'm just realy bummed about it. If there are others that are significantly overweight; does this happen to you as well? Are there solutions? (besides the obvious- lose weight- I'm doing that duh). Or am I missing something and there's something else I can do to overcome this? Thanks to anyone with advice.