Tripping at the start line

[Akura]

Hey guys,

I'm new around here and I'd like to hear your opinion on my current situation. On my background: I'm 28 years old, 6'2" tall and weighing up to 230 lb. I'm semi-muscular and sporting a huge beer belly (though not from beer). So, I'm your typical ogre.

A couple month back I started to walk every day for at least 30 min -- > 60 min if I can -- and got on a low-carb diet. I lost about 15 pounds. Then for the last teo month I had a lot to work, so I was "only" able to maintain my weight. But three weeks ago I started jogging, light dumbell and bodyweight training and stretching each day. (But I realized that jogging is not really fun, so I started walking to Mordor.)

Right now I'm on a part Paleo, part low-carb, part intermittent fasting diet: I.e. I'm stuffing my face with meat and veggies and start it in the late afternoon. And tomorrow I have an appointment at my gym for some instructions on barbells with a trainer. So right now I'm totally thrilled, especially after finding Nerd Fitness.

But then, on last sunday SNAP! I slipped a disk (while trying to stand up from the floor after stretching). Well, the doctor said I probably tore some fibres in my back muscles. And now I'm scared as hell!

So, do you have suggestions what kind of training or excercises I should do after by back get's better? And have you an idea how to not lose my momentum? Everything was going so well -- I even wanted to start Tea Kwon Do end of the year. But right now I can't do anything but planning and hoping. I can't even walk reasonably (I try to circle my kitchen table, but that's the maximum). I'll problably be able to go back to work next week, but I know I'll be very reluctant to pick up my dumbells or to try a push-up.

As far as I know me, it'll be month before I consider sport again. So, yes, I know the diet is 80% of the success, and my diet goes well. But I'm very afraid of coming into a downward spiral if I lose my focus on training.

So, to make a long story short: Has anyone of you recovered from a similiar injury and can give me some hints on how to progress in the very near future?

p.S.: As this is first post, it's probably in the wrong section of the forums. Sorry for that.

[Leego]

Welcome to the Rebellion.

 

I myself have just recently recovered from a similar thing. Last summer, I ran Starting Strength and did treadmill intervals three days a week, and tried eating two meals a day (with a snack after morning workouts) while reducing my carbs, calorie, and sugars intake.

 

Although I had some success in losing weight, maybe more than I believe, I somehow hurt my left knee warming up for squats with an empty bar...Even though I was at 100 lbs in my squats. It turns out that squatting over 100 lbs when you weigh 280 lbs (maybe 240 lbs?) isn't such a good idea.

 

That tells me that either what happened to my knee was a gradual thing, or that 105 lbs was just my breaking point.

 

Long story short, I got lazy while waiting for my left knee to recover, and then my right knee which got worn out from supporting my left one, and even though I still weigh less than I did before, I'm gonna have to start all over with strength training.

 

I don't mind anymore. I might suggest that you try yoga or some form of stretching with guidance from a teacher to help your back recover. Stretching helped my knee recover, I think, if I did it right.

 

Did the doctor tell you to let your back rest? I would do the RAICE (Rest, Anti-inflammatories, Ice, Compression, Elevation) thing for about 2-4 weeks, if you haven't already. And then after that, IMMEDIATELY get back to doing stretches to restore flexibility in your back muscles and help them recover and strengthen up again.

 

I'm not sure if your issues is related to your weightlifting style, but you could try bodyweight training. It's what I'm doing. Me being 5'9 inches tall and weighing 240 lbs, and being in college (sorry for those on the metric system, I will convert), I think bodyweight training would be best for me because not only does it increase strength, but it offers a more natural progression.

 

By "natural progression", I mean you keep doing the same thing until you gain the strength and stamina needed to do it effortlessly, and then you move up to a more challenging movement. Like, you keep doing push-ups until you can easily do 3 sets of 30 reps without much challenge. Then you try doing one-handed pushups. And if you aren't strong enough to do it, you can just collapse. No fear of dropping a barbell on your head.

 

Also, from my understanding, bodyweight training helps burn calories more than weightlifting, and, if you do it fast enough, it may even help increase your stamina.

 

Now I could be bat-shit insane. So, it would be best if someone else came in to verify some things I just said.

[Akura]

Thanks a lot! My doctor said to move as much as possible without putting preasure on my back (i.e. by lifting things). Right now my back is pretty good. I can stand up/sit down without holding on to something. Only the transition in the morning from lying to standing is still quite hard.

 

Right now I don't even have a "weightlifting style" as you said, since I wanted to start it this week. But as I'm aiming for Ranger (with a little Monk in it) I'll want focus on bodyweight exercises anyway. I just want to augment my training with some free weights because my main quest is "to be able to lift (heavy) stuff". E.g. I would like be able to carry furniture while moving without collapsing. Building muscle and losing weight is merely a bonus (as far as my training goals are concerned). So my next "big" goal is the beginner bodyweight routine from Nerd Fitness.

 

Couple of weeks back I got my lumber spine x-rayed and it's perfectly fine. So I think my back problems really come from underdeveloped muscles.

 

I'll probably try to go for a walk (~ 20 min) on the weekend. In two weeks or so I'll incorporate some easy bodyweight exercises and stretching back into my daily schedule and I'll search for a pysical therapist. I really have to force me to get back into physical activities as slowly as possible -- or, at least, as necessary -- as I'm the all-or-nothing type.

[Leego]

Sounds like a good plan! Bodyweight training WILL give you the same function strength you can get from weightlifting, just slower.

 

That being said, I remember that I used to want to try to incorporate some free weights use in MY bodyweight routine just because I liked weights so much. If you find a way to incorporate weights into your routine, let me know.

 

One thing you could try are simple kettleball swing routines, which, somehow for some reason, greatly increase your entire body strength over time...something called the "WTH effect". I think I still have a link to the page I read about it on when I first got interested in training for the military: http://www.strongfirst.com/what-the-hell/ I don't really know what weight the kettleball should be, though.

 

Good luck.