The Health and Fitness Thread

[Keith Houchen]

1 minute ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

I've been trying to downplay the covid thing as I don't want to sound like one of those tinfoil hat guys

Those fuckers would blame the vaccine and not Covid! Hope you get answers, mate, it sounds terrifying. 

[DiscoPistol]

49 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

36 years old, 18 stone and a dickie ticker? Good grief. Where did it all go so wrong? (Not a question that needs answering, you bastards).

I was 34 when I was diagnosed with a heart issue, and in a similar situation (I was about 18 stone, playing football regularly). My condition turned out to be atrial fibrillation though (my heart didn’t stop, it just went really quickly and really erratically) and I remember the time between it happening and being diagnosed was awful so you have my full sympathy.

The worst element was knowing that I needed to exercise to lose the weight to help prevent occurrences, but not wanting to exercise in case it set off an occurrence and I ended up back in hospital and that remains to this day.

I’d genuinely forgotten this but it got pretty bad for a while and is probably the cause of my anxiety issues now.

I’m now 53, still 18 stone and still have a couple of episodes a year and I’m starting to see that this post might not be the win I was hoping for 🧐

Anyway, I genuinely hope it all works out for you, and always happy to talk through my experience.

 

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Every night for weeks up at 3am as my heart just completely stops every 20 seconds or so. 

This is absolutely terrifying.

I hope you're all b-b-b-better soon Daz.

[d-d-d-dAz]

4 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

This is absolutely terrifying.

I hope you're all b-b-b-better soon Daz.

Very kind, thank you.

It is terrifying, as there's a total stillness in your body for like 2 or 3 seconds that just feels so unnatural and horrible. Just... there's nothing happening inside for a bit.

It's why when the doc says 'I don't think it'll be anything to worry about', you sort of just have to internalise the thoughts of "nothing to worry about? You fucking sure mate?".

Edited March 3 by d-d-d-dAz

[Jesse]

Nothing as scary as the heart, but the last few years I've decided to have a real good go at my health. I've always been fat, but used to be fit with it and then I got sick early in 2020; felt like I bounced back pretty quickly in terms of feeling sick, but my body just couldn't hack exercise in the same way. It felt so demoralising to go from someone who could have a good run at completing a deck of cards workout to not being able to string ten push-ups together. I even tried doing yoga and I couldn't get through a whole one of those without my body just giving in.

With all that came fatigue, and the chronic shoulder/neck pain I had started flaring up a lot more regularly off the back of it and my exercising dropped to zero. And then I was so out of shape that I stopped wanting to leave the house, because I was embarassed to be the friend that couldn't keep up with everyone, so I just walked between the same three rooms for a couple of years.

We decided to move house, meaning we're up near a city and near friends & fun things to go to, so I decided it was time to sort my shit out. I'm now on medicine for my depression/anxiety, can leave the house (though my heart hammers hard enough that my watch thinks I'm doing exercise even though I'm just sat on the bus) and I've started doing daily stretches & low impact exercise this month. My body still hurts, but I have more control of it thanks to a physio giving me a set of stretches to do, and I've got a small stationary bike that I'm doing one minute more of each day. 20 days in and I can now bike for 20mins at low tension without needing to pause. It's a small start, but I already feel better getting about the house.

[Scratch]

9 years ago, my GP told me I had osteoarthritis in both of my knees after referring me for an X-Ray.

At 35, I was devastated, as he'd also told me to stop running, playing football or pretty much anything else that would put strain on my joints.

Fast forward to now, and I decided to go private and find out what could be done as I was getting next to nothing through the NHS.

Long story short, I don't have osteoarthritis, but severe Patella Tendinopathy. The specialist I saw who gave me an initial ultrasound said my left knee in particular was "on fire" and he couldn't quite comprehend how someone could have been living in so much pain for so long, at such a "young" age.

He referred me to a physio, and I've been working with them for the past 2 weeks to build strength around the tendon which I am told will cure my problem. Great.

At this morning's session, I was offered shockwave treatment which I had previously discussed with them, and I was more than willing to give it a go. He warned me it was quite painful and some people can't tolerate it, but I was very keen as I've researched it and I have a somewhat ridiculously high pain threshold, have no problems with needles and am not squeamish in the slightest - no pain, no gain and all that.

So it starts, and he told me he would begin at a very low level to see how it felt. I felt nothing, so that was fine. Then he turned it up to 2-out-of-5 and I could certainly feel it. It didn't hurt as such, but it was quite an odd feeling. I would describe it as a very hard, dull ache constantly hitting what is a very sensitive part of the knee. He then went up to 2.5 and started targeting where the tendon joins the knee cap. That was rather painful and uncomfortable, but tolerable.

5 minutes later and the machine is turned off, I'd already gotten used to the sensation and the pain it was causing and I felt fine. I then had a sudden wash of heat and nausea, before fainting back onto the bed.

I was out for about 10 seconds, and when I came around, I had absolutely no idea where I was, who the man peering down at me was, why I was there and generally what the fuck was going on. The whole team were great and made sure I was ok, gave me food and some water etc. I asked if that's common, and they all said they've never known it to happen. In fact, the physio who administered the treatment did his masters in it, and it really took him be surprise. I felt a bit bad for him to be honest, he looked quite shaken.

Has anyone else ever had shockwave treatment, even if not on the knee? I've been offered 2 more sessions which I'd gladly take if it has a good chance of fixing my knee, but I genuinely wouldn't look forward to fainting again - that alone was rather unpleasant and took me completely be surprise.

 

[SuperBacon]

I haven't, but as someone who has chronic knee issues, I feel your pain.

I've damaged the same ligament playing football twice, it was never addressed properly, and as someone with dreadful knee problems prior to that, it's not looking good for the future. The last time I went to the doctors about it they mentioned something like a cortisone injection and that put me off for a good while.

I've also reached the point where when I get up off my knees, the knee doesn't click anymore, but rather it's more of a crunch these days. Which is nice.

I absolutely love playing football, and haven't really played since moving to Hampshire, certainly not as regularly as I did, and I fear the time might have come to accept I won't again. I've definitely got out of shape since not playing and it was a wonderful energy outlet for my dreadful depression so I miss that too.

I shouldn't even have been playing football with my knee problems, but I did manage to keep the pain under control and wore a support etc.

Maybe it's time to embrace walking football (which is a concept I invented when I was working in social housing by the way, back in the mid 00s. It was then stolen by Barclays. And no I'm not joking! 😆)

Keep on Scratch! 

[Bus Surfer]

Knees over toes! 

I don't really have knee issues aside from clicking, but I've definitely noticed a loss of leg strength/stability  while I've been skating recently, so I've been trying to do some of these exercises (Plenty on YouTube) and I've found it really does help to strengthen and apparently it's really good for repairing any issues too. 

During lockdown I bought a basic weight bench with a 50kg plates and barbell. Since we've cleaned out the garage I've been trying to bench the 50kg for 3 sets of 5 reps. Not much but I'm only around 72kg (11.2 stone) so It feels heavy as shit to me. Also trying to get into a routine of doing kettlebell/dumbell exercises whilst I'm WFH.  Also trying to grt back into the Yoga routine. Stretching feels absolutely wonderful. 

Nothing crazy, but I've certainly see a small difference over the last few weeks.  Hopefully I'll keep it up. 

 

 

Edited March 15 by Bus Surfer
Weighed myself

[Scratch]

@SuperBacon Thanks man, and also sorry to hear about your predicament 😔

I’ve lived in quite severe pain for years now, I just needed to get that solved if nothing else. Being told I’ve wasted 8 years not doing what I enjoy in gutting, but also good to know I’ve got nothing serious wrong and it can be fixed with hard work and time.

I actually played football again on Monday as advised by my physio (what a guy) and easily had the best game I can remember - probably as I knew I wasn’t making anything serious worse.

I’m not sure if there’s a second opinion somewhere for you, I’m sure you’ve done what you need to do, but the one I got a few weeks back has been delightful, surprising and life changing in equal measures.

[SuperBacon]

10 minutes ago, Scratch said:

I’m not sure if there’s a second opinion somewhere for you,

It's a complicated long story but short version is had knee problems all my life and two arthroscopies and scrapes of right knee when 13.

Then damaged my left knee LCL in 2008 and never went to physio as I was an absolute donut and living a chaotic life (I was the sort of person who was on crutches the Friday after I did it on the Oceana dancefloor, on painkillers and getting shitfaced. On bloody crutches. Bad times)

Then did it again in 2013 (Same ligament) and we then had our 2nd daughter and life got busy, and so I never addressed it and then started playing again in 2015 regularly with no real issues until last year, although with the knowledge that it could go at any time, which is a stupid thing to do.

So its some of my own doing, but I'm in so much pain these days (and especially when the pressure changes in the weather) that this has made me think I do need to get it sorted. So thanks

[westlondonmist]

I started calisthenics about 6 weeks back. I always thought the Facebook ads for it looked shit but thought I'd give it a go in an actual class. The class is great, and I still think the ads look shit. I weigh about 100kg but after doing this I can do press ups (not on my knees) and can do loads of them (diamond push ups still on knees), do poses I didn't think I could do, hang on a bar, proper tricep dips and basically got a load of muscles that were there but not being used effectively, now working.

 

I tried DDP yoga years back and it shares some resemblance (from what I can remember). 

I'd definitely recommend it.

[SuperBacon]

I've pulled my lower back and it's absolutely horrific. Just cannot be in a position that isn't complete agony.

Send ibuprofen and crisps.

[Joe Blog]

22 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

I've pulled my lower back and it's absolutely horrific. Just cannot be in a position that isn't complete agony.

Send ibuprofen and crisps.

I did this last week, I turned 36 and was cleaning out the rabbits, leant over too far and my back completely went. I was doubled over in the garden. Hobbled inside and found some Codeine left over from my partners c-section so took one of them. Couldn’t stand up straight for a day or so. 

[deathrey]

The joys of being over 35!

I've signed up for walking Mount Snowdon with some of my cousins in August in memory of my uncle and my cousin who both passed away from cancer last year. I climbed it 8 years ago with my friends but didn't make it to the top, I got about a third of the way up and started to have issues with my asthma and had forgotten my inhaler because I'm an idiot. 

This time round I will be 41, I've had 2 kids in the last few years and I'm about 2 stone heavier than last time (I was under weight previously so still have a good BMI) and currently do no exercise other than running around after my kids, I've had 2 c-sections, have a collapsed arch in my left foot and my back has seen better days. I'm determined to reach the summit this time - I don't know how many mountains I'll get to climb but can't imagine it will be many so I want to do it this time. My parents are joining us, they are both seasoned walkers and just shy of 70, and they will make the summit, I can't be left behind, my dad will never let me hear the end of it! 

As I have this to aim for I'm hoping it will kick my ass in to gear for exercising. We have a cross trainer in the garage which I need to start using. I've been going out for walks at lunch times since I signed up last week (only manage Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays as the kids are at nursery). I'm really going to step myself up, three months is enough time isn't it?

Edited 10 hours ago by deathrey