Help me figure this out...

[BigVrunga]

I injured myself a few months back, cracked or displaced a couple ribs doing heavy DB pullovers. (explained in my 'Wacky Chest Injury' thread a while ago). I didnt quite know what was going on, so I kept trying to work through it and ended up fu*king myself up pretty bad. My shoulder tendons went out, my knees started to crack. Hell, every joint in my body starting snapping or cracking to some degree. I can directly correlate this with this blood pressure med my doc (soon to be ex-doc) told me to take...its a calcium channel blocker and two weeks after I was on it I felt like I was falling apart. (on a side note - I bought my own BP monitor and my average blood pressure is 121/68 - pill pushing doc had me on Norvasc after one reading at 134/78)

So anyway, I knew I needed to recouperate, but I couldnt just stay out of the gym. So I devised this regimen:

3 days a week of

20 minutes cardio on elliptical machine
2 sets of rotator cuff exercises
2 sets close grip preacher curls
1 set behind-back wrist curls
1 set reverse curls
2 sets rope press-downs
3 sets standing calf raises
2 sets reverse calf raises
2 sets on the adductor machine(inner thigh)

Abs every other day.

I cant do squats because of the knee problem, can't work chest because of the chest injury, cant do shoudlers or back because of the rotator cuff problems - so Im trying to work every muscle I could that didnt involve the major groups and hopefully end up stronger and fully recovered in the end.

I also cut my cals back from 3800 to about 2800.

Ive been on my little program for 4 weeks now, and I feel great. All shoudler issues are gone, knee is healed up great, chest has a week or two to go but its definately healing up fine.

Thing is - I havent lost a pound! I was expecting to lose weight with the reduced cals and extra cardio - but I have actually gained 2 lbs over the past four weeks. I look less 'full' in the thighs, chest, shoulders, and back but I havent pumped them in weeks...

So whats going on with my system? Could I have just been overtraining myself? Has anyone ever heard of BP medication causing tendon inflammation/joint problems? Why am I gaining weight on reduced cals and no heavy lifting? (with no obvious increase in chunk)

Thanks,
BigV

 

[whale]

well here is the scoop! If you went off bp meds you have probably increased water weight. This is typical of bp drugs so no worries there. If you are doing more stuff with cardio and gaining weight you actuallty could be storing more cals as fat for later. The body goes into a mode that if you are taking in neg calories then it will hold on to them at any given time. That is why humans will live and other animals will starve we have a safty feature for the ease of explaining it that makes us hold calories or in lamens terms slow the metabolism down. I feel if it has only been a short time it is probably the water though not the later. actually according to science the amount of cardio that you are doing really wont give you that crazy of weight loss truely so that is not an issue in this case. it might be much more but the truth is it still is not a great amount per say. so to sum it up it is probably water weight from stopping the bp meds!

whale

 

[BigVrunga]

Hmmm...thanks for the input whale!! I have felt like Im carrying a little extra water now that you mention it...been off the meds for about a month now though.

BigV

 

[DieTrying]

This is a nice thread for me because I plan on having surgery soon, and won't be able to lift heavy for probably 3 weeks. I plan on getting back in the gym ASAP but im going to ease back slowly..im wondering if maybe the light training and cardio(as long as I keep the muscles active) will help retain the muscle I have. My biggest fear of the whole surgery (needles, anesthesia, medicine, etc.) is losing LBM.

 

[whale]

yeah the water can last for months as I have a few clients that stopped their meds cold turkey and gained about 4-8 lbs for good. Now they only work out a bit not like you I am sure so this might not e an accurate lbs measurment. By the way not giving you a hard time but dude with a reading like that why would your doc even think of putting you on bp meds?? i have a weird feeling about this doc I hope you get a second opinion quick! That is not even what I run now and I have never even been counciled on high bp? No worries though sounds like you have it under control for sure! good luck

whale

 

[BigVrunga]

By the way not giving you a hard time but dude with a reading like that why would your doc even think of putting you on bp meds?? i have a weird feeling about this doc I hope you get a second opinion quick!

Well - let me tell ya...I hadnt been to a doctor in about 10 years so I figured it was time for a checkup. I picked this doc based on the recommendation from one of the people I work with. He prescribed BP meds to me after two blood pressure readings, each one a month apart. I didnt know about blood pressure at the time so I just listened to him. (him being a doctor and all). I did think it was kind of fishy, because as soon as I got home I started researching and found that 140/90 is borderline hypertensive. 135/78 has a slightly high systolic, but the diastolic is fine. And besides, your true blood pressure can only be found by taking the average of several readings over the course of a few weeks or so.

The doc told me to stop lifting weights (forever), and that I would need to take Norvasc for the rest of my life. To his credit, he did tell me to get my own BP monitor.

So I went through the bottle of meds, felt like ****, and decided to get my own monitor and start supplementing with magnesium, zinc, potassium, and calcium. I stopped taking the meds.

In 3 weeks of the mineral supplmentation and the mild cardio, my blood pressure is averaging 121/69 with an average pulse of 64. The only thing that concerns me is that my pulse pressure is ~50, and it should be ~40.

So now I have to go in for a lipid profile, which Ill do because I just want to know where I stand. My Dad has diabetes and my mom is hypertensive (as is most of her family), so it would be good to check things out.

DieTrying -
What are you going in for? It takes 6-8 weeks for a muscle to atrophy, but I dont know what the effects of surgery and the stresses it places on your body will have. I wouldnt worry too much about it. Muscles have memory, so if you do lose anything youll get it back really quick.

BigV