Had a new post in the works today, but all my momentum was quickly ruined by a pretty big personal setback. One of those days where you thought you'd broken past something only to find yourself in the same position you were in before. And this time, it looks like a long road back. I'll go into some detail after the jump.
Like I wrote about a few days ago, I've really been getting into health and fitness lately. Working out has become a part of my everyday routine and after about two months of moving a lot of iron, I'm starting to see some results. Waking up and looking in the mirror and noticing muscle or definition in places where previously there was none is an awesome sensation. Feeling stronger is also pretty cool. The more results I've seen from training, the more motivated I've been to continue. Everything was going great until about a week ago.
While sitting at a family dinner, I noticed that my elbow and wrist were aching and there was a numb, tingling sensation going up my forearm and into some of my fingers. It felt like I had hit my funny-bone, but it didn't go away. It got to the point where the aching and numbness were almost making me nauseous. Some Tylenol helped the pain, but I knew there was something definitely wrong.
For a week or two prior to this persistent funny-bone feeling, I had been waking up in the middle of the night with a stiff, aching elbow. I would wake and find myself with my arm folded under me and all my weight on it. Obviously this was killing my elbow and it took a few moments for me to regain a full range of motion. I didn't think anything of it until the aforementioned family dinner.
After some quick research online, I self-diagnosed myself with ulnar nerve entrapment. It's essentially your funny-bone nerve being compressed or stretched and getting inflamed. The combination of working out and sleeping on top of my arm clearly irritated it. I decided the best course of action was to take a week off from working out, brace my arms at night so I couldn't bend them far enough to sleep on them, and take plenty of Ibuprofen to ease the inflammation.
A week passed and I was feeling great, so today I decided to ease my way back into my workout routine. I started out with my chest/triceps workout, but after a few reps on the bench press, it was clear that things still aren't cleared up. My heart sank as the funny-bone tingling crept back into my arm.
Most of my reading has recommended a minimum of three weeks of nightly arm bracing, no weight lifting, and plenty of Ibuprofen. This means three weeks of negative progress, as many of my gains from the past two months will be erased relatively quickly. Nerve problems aren't something you want to mess around with. It's not an injury you just train through, because nerve damage is generally irreversible.
Needless to say, I'm pretty discouraged right now. One week seemed like a long time. Three weeks will be an eternity.
I'm trying to stay optimistic. I can still work out my legs and my core (two areas that need a lot of attention) and I have some rehabilitation exercises I can do to try to speed my recovery. Also, extra time away from the weight room means more time devoted to other things that need attention, like Things Doug Thinks, my personal reading goals and editing a research paper for a friend, to name a few.
I'll have my next post up tomorrow, Lord willing. In the meantime, if anybody has experienced this or has any advice/encouragement on setbacks/recovery from injuries, hit me up with a comment or on Twitter.
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