Body went into bizzarro mode during my lifting session.

Sutnak
Sutnak Posts: 227 Member
Little about me.. I'm 34, 6'7, 267lbs. I eat around maintenance, maybe slight weight loss. It's slow.
I'm doing all-pros routine, based on my 10rms.
I don't take any kind of workout supplements. I'm a fish oil and vitamin D kinda guy only.


Tonight, something happened while I was doing squats.



First, my skin began to itch. Not the normal sort of i'm-wearing-wool-itch, but more the tear-your-skin-from-your-body-to-make-it-stop itch. This lasted a short while.
Nearly immediately after, I had a weird butterfly sensation. Somewhere between how you feel before a fight, and how you feel falling on a vertical roller coaster. Rather than in my stomach, it was in my whole body.
Also, I felt like I was inflated. Like someone was pumping my body full of air, like my ribcage would explode.
Finally, I felt a weird sense of mental acumen, combined with my body feeling very aggressive. A bit like what happens when you get a really good set in, and you feel a bit of adrenaline. But to a much higher degree.

I'd start to feel ok, but between sets, I'd get more and more anxious to hit the weights again. Some rest periods were under 10 seconds.

As to the effect it had on my workout...
Last week, the same workout, I lifted a total of 21,000lbs in 75minutes.
This workout, with all the extra sets, lack of rest, I lifted a total of 53,000lbs in 78minutes.

For the sake of brevity - my stiff legged deadlifts are generally tiring at 6 reps. On my 6th set (out of a 2 set workset mind you) I repped up to 20. The 20th rep was no more difficult than the first rep. I only stopped because of my herniated disc.

Finally, hit the shower and the feeling went away.

Has this happened to you?
Does this mean I set my weights way too damn low and I'm just in LAZYMODE the rest of the time?

If you encounter this, how can it be avoided?
I know it sounds pretty awesome, but it's very uncomfortable, and I hated the feeling.


Replies

  • IvanOcampo
    IvanOcampo Posts: 226 Member
    sounds like a serious hit of a beta alanine based pre-workout!
    nice!!

  • annette_15
    annette_15 Posts: 1,657 Member
    lol yeah, sounds a lot like a pre-workout :P
  • Sutnak
    Sutnak Posts: 227 Member
    edited April 2015
    It was kind of like the first time I took a PWO.

    Way, way, way more intense though.

    It's been about a year since I've taken any kind of PWO.

    the stuff doesn't do anything for me anymore, just makes me nauseous.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    Little about me.. I'm 34, 6'7, 267lbs. I eat around maintenance, maybe slight weight loss. It's slow.
    I'm doing all-pros routine, based on my 10rms.
    I don't take any kind of workout supplements. I'm a fish oil and vitamin D kinda guy only.


    Tonight, something happened while I was doing squats.



    First, my skin began to itch. Not the normal sort of i'm-wearing-wool-itch, but more the tear-your-skin-from-your-body-to-make-it-stop itch. This lasted a short while.
    Nearly immediately after, I had a weird butterfly sensation. Somewhere between how you feel before a fight, and how you feel falling on a vertical roller coaster. Rather than in my stomach, it was in my whole body.
    Also, I felt like I was inflated. Like someone was pumping my body full of air, like my ribcage would explode.
    Finally, I felt a weird sense of mental acumen, combined with my body feeling very aggressive. A bit like what happens when you get a really good set in, and you feel a bit of adrenaline. But to a much higher degree.

    I'd start to feel ok, but between sets, I'd get more and more anxious to hit the weights again. Some rest periods were under 10 seconds.

    As to the effect it had on my workout...
    Last week, the same workout, I lifted a total of 21,000lbs in 75minutes.
    This workout, with all the extra sets, lack of rest, I lifted a total of 53,000lbs in 78minutes.

    For the sake of brevity - my stiff legged deadlifts are generally tiring at 6 reps. On my 6th set (out of a 2 set workset mind you) I repped up to 20. The 20th rep was no more difficult than the first rep. I only stopped because of my herniated disc.

    Finally, hit the shower and the feeling went away.

    Has this happened to you?
    Does this mean I set my weights way too damn low and I'm just in LAZYMODE the rest of the time?

    If you encounter this, how can it be avoided?

    I know it sounds pretty awesome, but it's very uncomfortable, and I hated the feeling.


    Probably. If you pushed 20 reps easily when you normally do 6, you've probably been mailing in your workouts (a lot). The ability to have a 10 second rest period is another indication. The solution is more weight.

    As far as the odd feelings, I'm not really sure. I've definitely come into the gym extremely pumped up sometimes but it doesn't really seem to affect my lifts in much of a meaningful way. I'll FEEL stronger but then I get to my max set and MAYBE I might eek out an extra 5lbs or one rep or something (If I'm lucky). But I push myself as far as I can go every time so I know I'm never mailing it in.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
    DopeItUp wrote: »
    Little about me.. I'm 34, 6'7, 267lbs. I eat around maintenance, maybe slight weight loss. It's slow.
    I'm doing all-pros routine, based on my 10rms.
    I don't take any kind of workout supplements. I'm a fish oil and vitamin D kinda guy only.


    Tonight, something happened while I was doing squats.



    First, my skin began to itch. Not the normal sort of i'm-wearing-wool-itch, but more the tear-your-skin-from-your-body-to-make-it-stop itch. This lasted a short while.
    Nearly immediately after, I had a weird butterfly sensation. Somewhere between how you feel before a fight, and how you feel falling on a vertical roller coaster. Rather than in my stomach, it was in my whole body.
    Also, I felt like I was inflated. Like someone was pumping my body full of air, like my ribcage would explode.
    Finally, I felt a weird sense of mental acumen, combined with my body feeling very aggressive. A bit like what happens when you get a really good set in, and you feel a bit of adrenaline. But to a much higher degree.

    I'd start to feel ok, but between sets, I'd get more and more anxious to hit the weights again. Some rest periods were under 10 seconds.

    As to the effect it had on my workout...
    Last week, the same workout, I lifted a total of 21,000lbs in 75minutes.
    This workout, with all the extra sets, lack of rest, I lifted a total of 53,000lbs in 78minutes.

    For the sake of brevity - my stiff legged deadlifts are generally tiring at 6 reps. On my 6th set (out of a 2 set workset mind you) I repped up to 20. The 20th rep was no more difficult than the first rep. I only stopped because of my herniated disc.

    Finally, hit the shower and the feeling went away.

    Has this happened to you?
    Does this mean I set my weights way too damn low and I'm just in LAZYMODE the rest of the time?

    If you encounter this, how can it be avoided?

    I know it sounds pretty awesome, but it's very uncomfortable, and I hated the feeling.


    Probably. If you pushed 20 reps easily when you normally do 6, you've probably been mailing in your workouts (a lot). The ability to have a 10 second rest period is another indication. The solution is more weight.

    As far as the odd feelings, I'm not really sure. I've definitely come into the gym extremely pumped up sometimes but it doesn't really seem to affect my lifts in much of a meaningful way. I'll FEEL stronger but then I get to my max set and MAYBE I might eek out an extra 5lbs or one rep or something (If I'm lucky). But I push myself as far as I can go every time so I know I'm never mailing it in.

    I'd tend to disagree. Sounds like he had an unusually strong adrenaline surge, and if that's the case he'd be capable of lifting much more than he would be normally.

    OP, if this is a once in a long while thing, it's probably nothing to worry about. If you start to have these symptoms regularly, get to a doc. Those kind of surges without something to cause them (like a seriously high-stress situation) aren't normal and could be an indication that something's gone wonky with your catecholamine production/metabolism.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    stealthq wrote: »
    DopeItUp wrote: »
    Little about me.. I'm 34, 6'7, 267lbs. I eat around maintenance, maybe slight weight loss. It's slow.
    I'm doing all-pros routine, based on my 10rms.
    I don't take any kind of workout supplements. I'm a fish oil and vitamin D kinda guy only.


    Tonight, something happened while I was doing squats.



    First, my skin began to itch. Not the normal sort of i'm-wearing-wool-itch, but more the tear-your-skin-from-your-body-to-make-it-stop itch. This lasted a short while.
    Nearly immediately after, I had a weird butterfly sensation. Somewhere between how you feel before a fight, and how you feel falling on a vertical roller coaster. Rather than in my stomach, it was in my whole body.
    Also, I felt like I was inflated. Like someone was pumping my body full of air, like my ribcage would explode.
    Finally, I felt a weird sense of mental acumen, combined with my body feeling very aggressive. A bit like what happens when you get a really good set in, and you feel a bit of adrenaline. But to a much higher degree.

    I'd start to feel ok, but between sets, I'd get more and more anxious to hit the weights again. Some rest periods were under 10 seconds.

    As to the effect it had on my workout...
    Last week, the same workout, I lifted a total of 21,000lbs in 75minutes.
    This workout, with all the extra sets, lack of rest, I lifted a total of 53,000lbs in 78minutes.

    For the sake of brevity - my stiff legged deadlifts are generally tiring at 6 reps. On my 6th set (out of a 2 set workset mind you) I repped up to 20. The 20th rep was no more difficult than the first rep. I only stopped because of my herniated disc.

    Finally, hit the shower and the feeling went away.

    Has this happened to you?
    Does this mean I set my weights way too damn low and I'm just in LAZYMODE the rest of the time?

    If you encounter this, how can it be avoided?

    I know it sounds pretty awesome, but it's very uncomfortable, and I hated the feeling.


    Probably. If you pushed 20 reps easily when you normally do 6, you've probably been mailing in your workouts (a lot). The ability to have a 10 second rest period is another indication. The solution is more weight.

    As far as the odd feelings, I'm not really sure. I've definitely come into the gym extremely pumped up sometimes but it doesn't really seem to affect my lifts in much of a meaningful way. I'll FEEL stronger but then I get to my max set and MAYBE I might eek out an extra 5lbs or one rep or something (If I'm lucky). But I push myself as far as I can go every time so I know I'm never mailing it in.

    I'd tend to disagree. Sounds like he had an unusually strong adrenaline surge, and if that's the case he'd be capable of lifting much more than he would be normally.

    OP, if this is a once in a long while thing, it's probably nothing to worry about. If you start to have these symptoms regularly, get to a doc. Those kind of surges without something to cause them (like a seriously high-stress situation) aren't normal and could be an indication that something's gone wonky with your catecholamine production/metabolism.

    An adrenaline surge? For 78 minutes? I could see for a single exceptional set or lift, but 53klbs in 78 minutes is a long time and a lot of volume to be running on adrenaline.

    Even assuming that that is what happened, he would have been shaky and nauseous for a long time afterwards and would have slept for about a week. I've had plenty of adrenaline hits during lifting, it's brief at best and wiped me out for a significant period afterwards (say, big squat PR where I had to lay down for 20 minutes afterwards). No way I could have done heavy volume for almost an hour and a half.
  • Sutnak
    Sutnak Posts: 227 Member
    I actually felt pretty OK once it wore off. No crash at all. I'm not sure I'd say I was stronger... it was more like my atp-pc system was overflowing.

    I started getting the feeling again today while sitting at work doing nothing. I relaxed very carefully for about 20 minutes and it ebbed away. I'm curious how i'll do tomorrow.


  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
    DopeItUp wrote: »
    stealthq wrote: »
    DopeItUp wrote: »
    Little about me.. I'm 34, 6'7, 267lbs. I eat around maintenance, maybe slight weight loss. It's slow.
    I'm doing all-pros routine, based on my 10rms.
    I don't take any kind of workout supplements. I'm a fish oil and vitamin D kinda guy only.


    Tonight, something happened while I was doing squats.



    First, my skin began to itch. Not the normal sort of i'm-wearing-wool-itch, but more the tear-your-skin-from-your-body-to-make-it-stop itch. This lasted a short while.
    Nearly immediately after, I had a weird butterfly sensation. Somewhere between how you feel before a fight, and how you feel falling on a vertical roller coaster. Rather than in my stomach, it was in my whole body.
    Also, I felt like I was inflated. Like someone was pumping my body full of air, like my ribcage would explode.
    Finally, I felt a weird sense of mental acumen, combined with my body feeling very aggressive. A bit like what happens when you get a really good set in, and you feel a bit of adrenaline. But to a much higher degree.

    I'd start to feel ok, but between sets, I'd get more and more anxious to hit the weights again. Some rest periods were under 10 seconds.

    As to the effect it had on my workout...
    Last week, the same workout, I lifted a total of 21,000lbs in 75minutes.
    This workout, with all the extra sets, lack of rest, I lifted a total of 53,000lbs in 78minutes.

    For the sake of brevity - my stiff legged deadlifts are generally tiring at 6 reps. On my 6th set (out of a 2 set workset mind you) I repped up to 20. The 20th rep was no more difficult than the first rep. I only stopped because of my herniated disc.

    Finally, hit the shower and the feeling went away.

    Has this happened to you?
    Does this mean I set my weights way too damn low and I'm just in LAZYMODE the rest of the time?

    If you encounter this, how can it be avoided?

    I know it sounds pretty awesome, but it's very uncomfortable, and I hated the feeling.


    Probably. If you pushed 20 reps easily when you normally do 6, you've probably been mailing in your workouts (a lot). The ability to have a 10 second rest period is another indication. The solution is more weight.

    As far as the odd feelings, I'm not really sure. I've definitely come into the gym extremely pumped up sometimes but it doesn't really seem to affect my lifts in much of a meaningful way. I'll FEEL stronger but then I get to my max set and MAYBE I might eek out an extra 5lbs or one rep or something (If I'm lucky). But I push myself as far as I can go every time so I know I'm never mailing it in.

    I'd tend to disagree. Sounds like he had an unusually strong adrenaline surge, and if that's the case he'd be capable of lifting much more than he would be normally.

    OP, if this is a once in a long while thing, it's probably nothing to worry about. If you start to have these symptoms regularly, get to a doc. Those kind of surges without something to cause them (like a seriously high-stress situation) aren't normal and could be an indication that something's gone wonky with your catecholamine production/metabolism.

    An adrenaline surge? For 78 minutes? I could see for a single exceptional set or lift, but 53klbs in 78 minutes is a long time and a lot of volume to be running on adrenaline.

    Even assuming that that is what happened, he would have been shaky and nauseous for a long time afterwards and would have slept for about a week. I've had plenty of adrenaline hits during lifting, it's brief at best and wiped me out for a significant period afterwards (say, big squat PR where I had to lay down for 20 minutes afterwards). No way I could have done heavy volume for almost an hour and a half.

    It happens.

    I usually see it with a medical issue as the cause. In fact, that surge is what sent them to the doc to get checked out. But, I work in a medical complex, so the people I see and hear about are here because their primary doc recognized a problem that needs a specialist. Clearly that population is heavily biased. It can happen without an apparent medical cause, too.

    In a way, OP is fortunate. It's not unusual for these surges to be misconstrued as a panic attack. They're not generally comfortable things to experience.
  • Sutnak
    Sutnak Posts: 227 Member
    So, today was lifting day again. Slightly lighter weight (medium day.) I was able to add the extra sets even though I wasnt' feeling... strange... I'm definitely capable of a lot more volume than I thought.

    At least I learned something.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    most people can push harder than they think- with lifting it's more mental- doesn't sound like a full on crisis honestly. I'd be inclined to agree with Dope on the full adrenaline surge- I'm DONE after wards- usually and I need sleep- badly.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    JoRocka wrote: »
    most people can push harder than they think- with lifting it's more mental- doesn't sound like a full on crisis honestly. I'd be inclined to agree with Dope on the full adrenaline surge- I'm DONE after wards- usually and I need sleep- badly.

    Agreed. After switching programs, I can push myself much harder it seems, but I'm still mentally limiting myself. Something I need to work on, but I always have problems with higher reps mentally.
  • nakima
    nakima Posts: 37 Member
    I have gotten these feelings when I didnt eat enough an hour before my workout but without the bloat not really sure about that but it does sound to me that you should be lifting heavier if you can bang out 20 reps. maybe it's time to change up your routine?
This discussion has been closed.