Should I take a week off? Help!

tolygal
tolygal Posts: 602 Member
edited September 27 in Fitness and Exercise
About 3 weeks ago, I started following the New Rules of Lifting for Women. Well, something that I did must have injured me because my shoulders are KILLING me. I have this pain in both of them. I have no idea what I did, but I must have pushed them too hard. I think my problems started when I jumped from 12 lb dumbells to 15 and then straight to 20 for the overhead dumbell press thing. The only other thing i can think of would be the pushups. I think it must be one of these two things because a day or two after the 20 is when I started feeling the pain and the pushups is when it started to really hurt (because I did them when my shoulders hurt - stupid, I know).

So anyway, last week I went to get a massage and to the chiropractor (cuz my back was hurting too). My back is all better and although my shoulders aren't as bad, they still have the pain. I continued with my workouts since then but lowered my weights again. And when I did pushups, I did them against my dresser instead of on the floor (and it still hurt...). But the pain is still there. I move on to phase 2 in another 3 weeks, and I really really want this to be fixed by then. I can't stand not doing things to the fullest/hardest - and this is driving me crazy!

So....(after that long detailed background), do you think I need to take a week completely off strength (and just do cardio) or can I just keep going with it but take it easy with lighter weights, etc?

Edited to add: I should mention that this isn't just the normal after-workout sorness. It's actual pain. And I'm also wondering if I should be going into the doctor or if I can just take the word of the massage therapist/chiropractor - they think it's overuse...

Replies

  • krixi
    krixi Posts: 44 Member
    I say take a week off. I had leg and foot pain after taking on too much running too soon, and although it's not the same, it really helped to take some time off and do other exercises instead. I don't know your background, but a lot of people on here go from nothing to A LOT of exercise very suddenly and it's bound to put stress on the body. Wait a little while and let the body heal, then go back to it :)

    just my personal opinion i suppose!
  • mndamon
    mndamon Posts: 549 Member
    I changed up to take a week off after 4-6 weeks. I had gone 10 straight and burned myself out, I wasn't lifting nearly as easily. As soon as I took the week off and went back to it I was able to up the weight and lift a lot more efficiently.
  • Monsherri
    Monsherri Posts: 69
    I had a similar situation. I did pushups in my pilates class. I've done them before, but 2 days after doing them this time, my right shoulder was killing me. I went to the chiro 4 weeks in a row. They said to ice the area. It was something to do with the tendon. They told me to NOT do the push ups again till everything was healed. I am 6 weeks out now and the pain is finally gone. Took a long time. Sounds like what caused yours may have been worse than mine. I'm not in shape, YET.... Listen to your body. Pain is not OK. Maybe there is an alternate exercise you could do in place of the one causing pain? I wish you well....
  • jonsie3488
    jonsie3488 Posts: 12 Member
    Definitely take the week off. As a massage therapist, I can tell you that if you keep pushing without giving the muscles time to heal, you are very prone to further injuring your shoulders. For as much as the shoulders do, they can be easy to hurt. Listen to your body, and give it at least a week to heal. Focus on cardio and non-weight bearing exercises for the shoulder. Light stretching, and icing the shoulders should also help with the inflammation. Then after the week, ease back into it and see how it feels. There's nothing wrong with putting off moving into a next phase of a workout for a week or two.
  • tolygal
    tolygal Posts: 602 Member
    I was afraid of that.... I was hoping I'd hear that i was okay to keep going even though I know better. I just don't want to stop. But I don't want to make it worse, so I will skip a week strength training and I'll focus on cardio instead. I'll be so upset if this takes more than a week - especially if it's more like 6 weeks!!! That just can't happen!

    I work out a lot, although until a couple months ago, it was mostly cardio. Only a few things I'm doing are really brand new to me. The lat pulldown and deadlifts are new and I don't really usually do pushups much (because I'm terrible at even the girly pushups, and this program says no girly pushups - although they give other options if you can't do a real one - but of course, I pushed myself to do the real ones with major difficulties.....). But nothing else is necessarily new to me - I'm just kind of focusing on it more and I added heavier weights.

    This sucks!! But thank you for your feedback!!
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