3 months of working out going down the drain

[Everlong]

What I'm venting about isn't as serious as some of the other things being posted here, but it is still frustrating and a bit depressing and I just wanted to talk about it somewhere to get it off my chest. Also, I've read this many times before from people on here, so its nothing new, just new to me.

So, my whole life I've been a skinny guy. One summer, years ago, I joined the gym and had some good results, but wasn't able to put on weight. I recently got back from a hectic 4 months of freelance work away from home. I decided I wanted to join a gym again, get healthy and put on weight and muscle. I bought personal training sessions for 3 sessions a week for 2 months, and those just finished up about 3 weeks ago. It was a big investment and I have been very dedicated with my schedule and my diet and had been seeing some results. I had put on quite a bit of size all over and packed on almost 7 lbs.

Last weekend I had a flare-up from Thursday-Sunday. It caused me to miss the gym for the first time since I had started a few months back. I had lost a bit of weight during this time, but it wasn't too bad. The flare had passed by end of day Sunday and I was very excited to get to hit the weights again on Monday. The workout didn't go too great because I was in a weakened state from the weekend, but I was happy to be back.

Then Tuesday night last week I caught a bug. My family had brought something into the house recently and I am guessing I finally caught it from them. I was really worried because the first day I had it my symptoms sounded a lot like H1N1. Fortunately those symptoms only lasted about half a day and by Friday I felt good enough again to get back to the gym. Again, my workout didn't go all that great because I was in a weakened state. Sunday came around and my symptoms started kicking up again.

I am now almost 2 weeks out of my regular routine and I have gone back down to just about the same weight as when I started a few months back. I feel really unhealthy and weak right now and it sucks. I am still having the occasional D here and there because my overall health has never recovered to a full 100% since my initial flare, and I still am having a huge of appetite (having trouble finishing off a single chicken breast at times).

This hasn't all been because of my Crohn's, but it definitely started there and it has always made it tricky for me to put on weight. Its really discouraging to have to start back at the bottom of the hill when it felt like such a climb in the first place to get to where I was at. I don't even think where I was at, 168lbs, is anything to write home about, but I felt like I was accomplishing something. I am 5'11" and my lowest weight ever, when I was first diagnosed and very sick 7 years ago, was 110lbs. Average weight since then has hovered at 130lbs, and more recently 150lbs. Gain since joining the gym recently was 160lbs to 167lbs. I hope this doesn't last too much longer and I'm able to get back in there soon. My motivation is still there, but its fading a bit for every little bit further back I go. I am currently at 162lbs.

I am thinking my flare might have been triggered by adding almonds into my diet. Has anybody had any experiences with almonds? I have heard conflicting things about them. Some sources say they are great for Crohn's, others say they are terrible. I know it is different for everyone and should be based on personal experience, so I am currently avoiding them. I'm thinking of looking into almond butter though, as I think it was more that I was reacting to eating too many nuts than I was reacting to almonds. Just curious.

 

[shazamataz]

Hey Everlong, sounds very frustrating, but I am sure you will get back into it soon. I expect it takes longer for muscle to be lost than it does for fluids/fat (Benson will know this), so any loss in the past couple of weeks could be fluid loss from being sick?
I don't believe 2 weeks is all undone after all that work. You have still been keeping fit and will have more strength to recover than you would have if you didnlt exercise.
Better being a skinny guy than a fat guy!

 

[D Bergy]

It is too bad that you have had the bad string of health lately, but you will build up very fast once you are well again.

I noticed that if you are in shape once, it comes back easier the next time. I lost much of my muscle mass when really ill with Crohn's. I gained it all back, without the fat and am in the best shape I have been in for years. I did not even work at it much.

It is hard to say if Almonds would be the problem. We all seem to have our individual things that bother us. Mine are Malt and Onions. I can eat nuts by the handful with no problem. Others here would be sick as a dog if they did that.

I have not had a problem with Almonds, but that does not mean they won't bother you.

Keep at the workout, it is good for the Crohn's too.

Dan

 

[CanadianBella]

I can relate to your frustration although mine is the opposite way. I have never been huge, but I needed to get in shape. I worked out with a personal trainer for 3 months and was in the best shape of my life lost 25 pounds, then I got put on steroids and gained 30 in 3 weeks. Im sorry you had to go through that.

is your name from the foo fighters song? first thing that came to my mind!!

 

[Everlong]

Thanks guys for your replies. I am starting to feel well again, though I'm still not fully recovered. I am going to wait another day to make sure I am as close to 100% as possible before going back. Hopefully I will be back on my regular schedule starting Friday morning. We'll see how I am feeling tomorrow.

shazamataz - That would be great if it was just from loss of fluids. It is interesting that I'm maintaining most of the size gains while losing most of the weight. Maybe that is what is happening.

Dan - Thanks for the encouragement. It is good to hear you've had such luck with returning after getting sick. Hopefully my experience will be similar. I really was feeling good from the exercising. The past few weeks has given me something to compare against now, and its amazing how much the difference is.

CanadianBella - I'm very sorry to hear that. That must have been a huge disappointment after making the progress that you did. And for it to happen so quickly as well. That is very frustrating. My name is from the Foo Fighters song .

 

[BWS1982]

Actually Shaz, muscle and water are the quickest things lost, and fat is the most difficult, because when quickly losing weight, it's likely to spur the body into thinking there's a famine at hand and it will conserve calories from the least costly sources (meaning fat stores). Muscle is costly, so it goes before fat. That is why bodybuilding and Crohn's are enemies, one is the antithesis of the other. But, water weight will go the quickest.

As for the water weight, that happens with illness or Crohn's or perspiration, or a low sodium diet, and is likely the first thing that went if weight is dropped fast. That's most likely what you've lost Everlong, because it's a little soon to be mostly muscle (so far), too soon to be mostly fat, and perfectly timed for water weight. If you are losing 7 pounds within 7 days, the majority of it will be water weight, that's just too quick of a loss to be fat and muscle, and will primarily be retained water being let go, from either subcutaneous or intramuscular or otherwise. Next thing to go, without proper stimulation (working out) or fuel (protein/calories) will be muscle, because it's costing a couple dozen calories a day to exist for each pound of it. That would explain why you've lost little to no size, but the scale changed. An NBA player can lose 10 pounds of sweat in one game during a few hours time.

Another source of water weight lost could be from creatine-induced water retention (intramuscular) because if you were eating more meat products, you may have been getting a good bit more creatine in your food, and as a result stored a little more water than you ordinarily would be, and when you don't use that or continue that consumption due to illness or whatnot, the body gives it up, causing a rapid depletion of that water within.

Fat is usually only lost in substantial amounts when the body is being tricked with hard work and strategy. Eating a decent amount of food, but burning off even more in calories, meanwhile telling the body via activity and usage that the muscle needs to stay.

I'm right there with you Everlong. In 2006 I got sick and lost my first 40 pounds of muscle or so over the winter heading into 2007, down to 150 lbs at 5'11", then I put it back on and then some, cut some fat off, and had gotten into the best shape/size/physique of my life yet, which is in the sig pics between Arnold. Then I lost all that and then some, dropping down 50 pounds of muscle or so in late 2007 getting to the sickest I've ever been, and dropped to 145 at your height. I have a wide frame and shoulder girdle, so it didn't disperse well either. I felt awful and like nothing. It didn't help that everyone was telling me "Oh, I'm jealous, all that weight loss" Society is so obsessed, blindly, with "weight loss" they don't care where it comes from, and most of them don't grasp that you HAVE to differentiate what is lost, or you're going to look worse than before. I'd tell them I didn't mean to lose 50 pounds in 3.5 months, but they still went with the "lucky you" mantras and it made me shudder with frustration. The fact that I was as pale as Casper should have told them something wasn't right, and it was not "healthy" or "desirable"...

When you have to work your ass off just to put on 3-4 pounds of muscle a month (naturally), 4-5 times a week working out, eating the right foods that make society cringe because you eat for purpose and not pleasure, losing 50 of it is like losing a year of work or even more. It's heartbreaking and makes you want Crohn's to be a person so you can strangle them slowly.

I'd say if it comes to it, work out the major muscles if you will have to cut a workout short or not get everything in. Anything to signal to the body that it should keep the muscle you have, and heavy sets (like 5 reps) of benching, squats, rowing, shoulder presses, deadlifts, leg presses, things like that, will use practically every major muscle, signal the body to retain what size of fibers it has, and minimize any loss.

Another thing of note would be not to focus too much on the scale. One could drop 5 pounds just between morning and night or vice versa, and scales are very misleading unless talking about major changes. How your clothes fit and how you look in the mirror, or how your limb circumferences measure are much more telling of progress lost or gained, because it cuts out factors like water weight, food/waste, etc... much more. It's more accurate to notice how a shirt fits or how some jeans fit to see how you've changed, because it's a better standard in that light.

 

[Everlong]

Thanks for taking the time to reply BWS1982. You obviously have very good knowledge of all this, so I'm really glad to have heard some of these things from you. It puts a lot of my worries to rest.

I think I am now actually starting to lose some muscle though, as I notice some of the size starting to disappear. Luckily I got back into the gym today and started back up with my routine. It didn't go as well as I would have liked it to, but it will take a week or two to get back into the swing of things.

I was starting a new routine just as I was getting sick. What you described with the short sets and heavy weight for the major muscle groups sounds similar to what I was just starting. I was planning on using the routine for building muscle though, and it sounds like you were recommending it for maintaining muscle through the rough patches. Did I just mis-interpret what you were saying? I'm no expert on any of this stuff. I'm just following the advice of a book I bought. and learning bits along the way.

 

[BWS1982]

Actually you read it correctly, but I suppose I didn't include the whole potential for that type of workout. The best way to hold onto muscle is most often, essentially, the best way to build it too, the difference mainly being volume (number of sets) when time is short. High protein is great for keeping muscle, and great for building, similarly. The reason I mentioned the major workouts as an abbreviated workout was because in a short time, it will work the most amount of muscle, release the most amount of testosterone, burn the highest number of calories (though that's not a primary goal), and also keep your CNS trained (central nervous system also has to stay on top of things, as it's involved with activating fibers during muscle contraction, and it can go "dormant" too)...all these things, the number of fibers worked, the testosterone released, and the CNS training, are all advantages for building size too.

I guess it's like this: If you are on a fat loss routine, and have to cut your cardio down to 10 minutes, you'll do what's most effective for those 10 minutes, to get the most out of every second. And if you do what you did in those 10 minutes for 30 when you have much more time next time, that's a very productive 30 minutes too...Same theory, really. You're building muscle working the biggest muscles and working them well, but if you have to cut it short, you want to maximize it and do what's best. To maximize the effect, you want to do compound movements before isolation work (isolation would be curls, extensions, press downs, chest flyes, etc..and compound versions would be the ones I mentioned previously like benching and squats)...Because no matter the goal, both strategies will get the most bang for your buck by working out lots of fibers, and going heavier, and intensely.

You don't "have to" work out your biceps independently, for example, if you do a very good job with some rowing and pulldown movements, because you hit the back quite well and the biceps quite well. Curls have their place and are still valuable, but they're secondary and not going to add size that fast in the big picture. After 5 good sets of benching, for example, I'll only do 1 or 2 with triceps because I've then done 6 or 7 that worked my triceps pretty well, and on top of that, they assisted with massive amounts of weight during benching, so they got used to the resistance of much more than isolation work could. The thing about the isolation work that is good is that it's great at working the heads of each muscle very precisely. For example, during curls I can work the inner and outer heads of the bicep very well by curling inwards or outwards on the concentric (curling portion) and emphasizing the heads a little more than the others. Same with triceps applies with where you'd place them on a press down bar for cable press downs. Hand placement hits them differently, and that's one benefit you can't get with compound movements as easily.

Isolation, though, is sometimes the only way to fully contract a muscle, because you're making it do all the work, so you can force it to go all the way. With compound movements, your secondary muscles are limited to ROM (range of motion) of the movement, ie: your rows will work your back well, but your biceps might be able to contract a little tighter before your back has to stop the movement. The secondaries are limited in that sense in some cases, so isolation work is still crucial for sculpting and maximum benefits, but compound movements will put on mass with ease.

Sorry to ramble, hope that deciphers some confusion.

 

[Everlong]

No need to apologize, that is all good information!

I am familiar with a lot of what you were talking about there, but the way you were explaining things was slightly different from how I had previously been thinking about them and helped some things make a little more sense.

The stage of the program I am currently at is like 95% compound exercises. The main goal is to put on mass, so that makes a lot more sense. I was going with it, but didn't totally understand why there were pretty much no isolation exercises in there. Logic made sense that since isolation works those individual muscle groups harder, it would help put mass on in those isolated areas. The next stage of the program, which I think might be 2 months down the line or something, is introducing some isolation exercises. So I can see how the process is meant to work now. This goes hand-in-hand with the diet concept of bulk then cut. I kind of understood before, but I was more just doing what the program was telling me to.

 

[BWS1982]

Yeah, when I started out and really ramped up the role of compounds, my weight started climbing like two fold what it was before just eating the same. You're working so many muscles, including stablizer muscles in the core, etc.. that everythings always being worked, hence repairing, hence growing.

Good luck, just ask if anything still needs figuring.

 

[Everlong]

Just wanted to thank you guys again for the support. I've been frequenting the gym and eating like crazy since this thread, and I have now gained back what I lost and then some. I am at about 170lbs now.

Had a bit of a flare last week around Christmas. Interesting, as I also had a flare during Thanksgiving back in October. Similar foods during both holidays, and flares from each. Anyways, it was very minor and has already passed. I have an appointment with a new GI coming up at the beginning of March. Looking forward to meeting my new doctor!

 

[ChronsSUCKS]

Thats how it is bro ive been getting in shape for 5 years. I was going to have a sportscareer but now im sick for two years without hardly leaving the house.

After being an absolute machine suddenly there is no cardio, no strength, no energy,. And every ounce of sweat feels wasted. Get back on track and TRY AGAIN after this keeps happening? Cmon honestly who would see a purpose in that besides that you love your sport

 

[BWS1982]

Awesome Everlong, sounds like you've made the right steps forward.

 

[crazycanuck]

Sorry for stealing you thread here everlong but BWS I'm desperately trying to gain muscle mass. Although all over would be good I'm more focusing on the arms, chest, and abs. What could you suggest to do so?

 

[BWS1982]

Pretty much the same, lots of protein, calories, compound movements. The body won't develop muscle in any specific place at an unbalanced rate, meaning you will have to work out legs to maximize and realize the full potential of growth on the chest, arms, etc...lots of rest too, as you grow the most when you're sleeping. Abs are a unique "muscle" in that they are fairly existent as is, the prime goal most seek or should seek is mainly to uncover them, more so than to build them up. Everyone "has" abs, it's the people who have low enough bodyfat levels that allow them show that are more rare, and then after that it's the people who also do heavier (not numerous, but heavier weighted) exercises who also make them "pop" more than before too. Regular situps will condition and work the muscles, but you need heavier resistance to make them pop out more, and develop. Think of walking, you're doing lots of muscle activation by walking, but squats and leg presses, when you add weight, that's when the quad muscles will grow. Same with abs for the most part, you need heavy resistance to make a muscle grow, as that's when you target the type II fibers (the fast twitch, ones responsible for most size potential)...Those are some basics, at least, some foundation.

 

[britt_l_andy]

Had a bit of a flare last week around Christmas. Interesting, as I also had a flare during Thanksgiving back in October. Similar foods during both holidays, and flares from each.

I had the same problem and found out it was the turkey! I cannot eat turkey! Needless to say that thanksgiving sucks now but anyways something to think about!

 

[Swirl]

Maybe you should think of buying weights and having a home gym?
I have a home gym and do a total body workout and I am glad I did choose to do this instead of having to go to a gym.
I was always 114lbs at 5'9. My Panamanian side of my family is lean. My american side is also lean. So no big wonder I'm lean. Most I've been was 140lbs after working out. I'm 135lbs now, lost 5lbs due to colitis.
Many times I would stop working out anywhere from a week to 3 months. But my mind is always condition to know I've worked so well and was able to be rip that when I do lose a lot from not working out, I know I atleast have the power to get back into it.
It would be hard for me to do what I do if I went to gym. (The having to wait to use certain weights and machines at times and not having loud music to motivate me).

So don't stress it. Get back into it. For me, its me vs the weights everytime. Stay strong!