my arm is swolen
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my arm is swolen - 5/5/2006 3:32:13 PM
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heheh
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Joined: 5/5/2006
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i have not done any exercise in the last years, two days ago i decided to try it again and i used a bar without any weights on it that is laying in the attic.
I did 100 consecutive bicep curls with it and this was about the maximum i could do, mainly my left arm was exhausted, later i did some more bicep curls with more weight and exhausted my left arm some more by helping it with my right arm.
The day after i had a little pain in it at the joint on the elbow but not much but today it got a lot worse and in my whole bicep and now i just noticed its much bigger than my right arm, my right bicep looks tiny in comparison.
Is this some of the stuff that goes in it that you call pump(i think) or is something else going on?
Im worried my arm is ruined ... this isnt normal.
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/5/2006 3:56:36 PM
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cpl
Posts: 4780
Joined: 5/26/2003
From: New York City
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It'll go away- But don't train that way again. As you said yourself, you exhausted your arms doing that- And that's it. Doing that many repetitions of an exercise does nothing more than exhaust the muscle, it doesn't promote muscle growth.
The trick is, use enough weight to challenge your muscles within your chosen rep range. For example- If you wanted to do three sets of bicep curls for eight to ten reps, use a weight that you can't lift more than ten times on your first set with good form. That way, by the time you go to lift your third set, you might only be able to get eight or nine reps out- But you're still challenging that muscle with weight, which is how you build muscle.
You did get a pump from your workout- But the pump also doesn't really help build muscle. Your arm might get pumped and swollen, but that's only a temporary condition, the extra size isn't muscle at all. Here's a decent bicep workout for you to try once your arms are all better-
Standing bicep curls, 3 sets
alternating dumbbell curls, 3 sets
reverse curls, 3 sets
Choose a rep range, like I said earlier- And use the correct amount of weight to work with- It might take a couple of weeks to really know how much you should be working with, but you'll get it. DO NOT work your biceps, or any other muscle, more than twice a week if you want results- Muscle is built when your body's resting and recovering from your workouts- And it can take from four to seven days for a muscle to fully recover from a workout- Whether you still feel sore or not has nothing to do with it.
Now- How about your plans for the rest of your muscles?
(in reply to heheh)
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/5/2006 4:33:52 PM
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heheh
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Joined: 5/5/2006
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Thanks for your quick reply :)
I thought pump was something you had for a few minutes or maybe hours after the exercise but not 2 days after.
Well i hope it goes away, im really worried, my muscle isnt working normal either.
I had read somewhere about high intensity exercise where they say a single set is anough and you should do reps until failure.
I read this many years ago and have no idea where i read it.
You do say the last set should be done to failure?
You said its better to do multiple sets, what is the reason for this?
When you gave the three exercises did you mean i should do them all or chose one?
I just started doing only pushups a few weeks ago, my plan was just to try it and see if i get progress and eventually going to the gym to do a full body workout maybe in a half year.
I did see the private message linking to the pdf text for beginners and im planning to read it soon, i figured my problem wouldnt be in it and i wanted to know quickly what was happening with my arm.
So if most of this is explained in there just tell me and you dont need to spend time explaining it :)
(in reply to cpl)
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/5/2006 5:22:35 PM
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cpl
Posts: 4780
Joined: 5/26/2003
From: New York City
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Not sure what pm you're talking about, why not post the link here- I know I didn't send you one.
Single sets aren't enough, and doing exercise to failure- Definitely not good, not that sort of failure. Around here, most people use proper form as an indicator of failure. If the weight you're using is heavy enough, your reps end when you can't do another rep with proper form- So, if you're aiming for six to eight reps, and your arms start to shake or you start to swing your body to get the weight up at about the eighth rep, you know you're done. Once your body has to try to "cheat" the weight into position by using different muscles, you're not working the target muscle much anymore, so it's pointless to go on. That's what we refer to as failure around here, really- Some people think failure means lifting until you can barely move your arms anymore. That's no good for you.
It's better to do multiple sets, because you're making sure you're sending the signal to your brain to build more muscle- You want to make sure that signal's sent properly. Also, doing more sets with the same amount of weight increases your stamina at the same time as strength- If you train your body to lift for just one set, that's what your body will adjust to. You will get increased strength, but your stamina will be way down there- It's better to do both at the same time.
When I listed three exercises, I meant you do all three. Three sets per exercise, for a total of nine sets, is an example of a routine you could do- There are many rep/set/#of exercise schemes out there, this one isn't any better than any other- But it should give you an idea of what to expect. Some routines might have you doing more sets, less sets, more or less reps, same with exercises- But this amount seems to be right in the middle somewhere. Normally, most people work all their muscles with the same sort of workout- In this example, every muscle would get three exercises, three sets per. The muscle groups are generally divided this way-
Chest, back, shoulders, legs, abs, biceps, triceps.
It's good that you started doing pushups- But I think it'd be a better idea to get into a full body program sooner than six months from now. Pushups are a good exercise, but your body will adapt to them fairly quickly- It's really not a lot of weight for the chest to move, and before you know it, you'll be able to do so many pushups it won't really be a challenge for your body anymore- Sure, you can do more reps until you feel tired, sort of like what happened with your arms and the above workout- But you won't get any real gains from getting tired. You get gains by challenging the muscle.
As far as your arm being swollen two days after- Yes, the pump normally goes away a lot sooner, and you've probably done a little more than simply "pump" it a bit- What you have could be some swelling from a minor injury you inflicted on your arms with that high rep workout- Probably nothing to be worried about, give it a week or so and you should be fine- Don't touch the weights for seven days. If a week from now, things aren't showing any improvement- Go to the doc.
Anyway- Hope this cleared things up a bit.
(in reply to heheh)
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/5/2006 6:21:28 PM
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heheh
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Joined: 5/5/2006
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It was a welcome message from admin with this link: http://freedomfly.net/x.php?adminid=355&tid=2540
I thought it would be good to do an exercise to failure with about 10reps and then decrease the weight and again to failure and keep doing this until you are at a weight you can almost do indefinitely, i guess this is not a good idea :)
Thanks for your advice i will definitely change my plan for training after reading this, i thought it was not good to do more than one exercise for the same muscles so thats a big change.
Im going to be now, i hope my arm improves by morning.
(in reply to cpl)
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/5/2006 8:34:31 PM
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cpl
Posts: 4780
Joined: 5/26/2003
From: New York City
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quote:
I thought it would be good to do an exercise to failure with about 10reps and then decrease the weight and again to failure and keep doing this until you are at a weight you can almost do indefinitely, i guess this is not a good idea :)
This is generally known as doing "drop sets", more or less- It's not that it's a bad idea or anything, plenty of people use them- It's just that most people use them as a workout tool to throw at the muscles once in a while, not as part of a set routine. Normally, people will stick to a certain weight for their required number of sets and reps- And then, every few weeks, throw something like drop sets, negatives or one rep maxes at their muscles to keep the body adapting. Also, it's a good idea to switch up your whole routine every few months, for the same reason- To keep the body adapting.
The human body will try it's best to adapt to whatever situation it finds itself in- When it's hot, we sweat to regulate our body temp. When we get cold, we shiver to stay warm. Our bodies will also try to adapt to our workout routines so they don't have to grow anymore- Your body is actually most comfortable staying at one size, and it will fight you to do so. It's only through adding or removing calories, and keeping our training diverse, that we're able to keep our bodies actively responding to our workouts.
I know you're new to all this, and it might be a lot to take in- Just rest those arms, and when you hit the weights again, do it nice and easy- You'll see progress soon enough.
(in reply to heheh)
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/6/2006 7:58:26 AM
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No Pain No Gain
Posts: 551
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It depends on what arms stronger. usually one is stronger than the other.
_____________________________
No Matter How Much You Succeed, Never Stop Striving.
(in reply to cpl)
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/6/2006 5:40:49 PM
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heheh
Posts: 6
Joined: 5/5/2006
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My arm is still the same size, it did become more solid than yesterday.
Is it possible it just grew this much extra muscle?
About the exercise routines: i dont like it seems to be such a guess game where youre not really sure what you need to do to have the body do what you want.
Is there no detail knowledge of what is behind the way the body responds to changing routines and what happens when you dont change it, how come it doesnt improve anymore?
It would be much easyer if we could just activate whatever is necessary in the brain to control muscle and fat in the body. Any idea when thats gonna happen? :)
And i have one more question :)
I am not sure if i want to gain weight since i hate eating though i am unsure how much extra you have to eat for every extra pound of muscle you have, i read somewhere its 75-150kcal a day but this doesnt seem a realistic number.
But even if it is only 100kcal per kg thats still quite a lot if i want to gain 5kg or more.
So i thought about going to the gym anyways but without a goal of gaining weight since i have other reasons for going, i want to keep my muscles active since i dont normally do any physical activities and i would also like to gain strenght and endurance.
Is it possible to improve those without increasing muscle mass?
Maybe the muscle structure can change? I dont have any knowledge of the way muscles work but some people seem very strong even with small muscles and marathon runners obviously have good endurance with their thin legs :)
(in reply to cpl)
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/7/2006 9:42:58 AM
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cpl
Posts: 4780
Joined: 5/26/2003
From: New York City
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I doubt your arm gained that much muscle after just the one workout.
As far as your concerns about making the body do what you want it to- Diet's the key, and here's the reasoning behind it.
In order to build new muscle, we do need to eat an excess of calories. The ingredients in our food can be used as the building blocks for new muscle- Without those materials, our bodies can't do much. We need an excess of calories because our bodies use tons of calories already just to perform all the other functions- Blinking, walking, digesting, breathing- Calories are the fuel for all of those things. If we use all the calories we eat, there's nothing left over to build muscle with. It's that simple.
In order to lose fat, we need to eat slightly less calories than our bodies actually need- This forces the body to burn fat for fuel. Notice, I said SLIGHTLY less calories- If you don't eat enough, your body will think it's being starved- And will try to hold on to as much fat as possible as a defense mechanism. This is why you see people who only eat once or twice a day, and still can't seem to lose the weight- Burning fat itself requires calories, and if your body's not getting enough calories to function properly, this is definitely one of the areas it decides to cut back on.
So, depending on your fitness goals, the amount of calories you eat every day will determine how your body reacts- Your workout can even remain the same. Most people here go through bulking and cutting phases- Bulking phases where they eat tons of calories and lift heavy to pack on the muscle, and cutting phases where they eat slightly less than they need- And still continue to lift heavy. Why?
Your workout is simply the signal you're sending to your brain that it needs muscle. If you do your workout correctly, the signal's been sent, you've done your job. The brain tells the body to build more muscle. So- If you're not eating enough calories to build, but you're still sending that signal to your brain- Your brain simply gets the message that it still needs all the muscle it already built, and tries it's best to hold on to it even though you're not getting as many calories as you used to. See, when you're trying to get rid of fat, it's also possible to lose some muscle in the process because of the lack of calories. Sending that signal by lifting heavy weights helps minimize this muscle loss.
So- No matter what your goals, if you have a good routine, the way to get your body to respond is through how and what you eat more than how you lift. Of course, there are some very different routines out there, some designed for strength more than size, but you get the picture. You also mentioned building strength without building new muscle- Definitely possible. But you also have to watch your calories for this- Even now, as a beginner, you have a certain amount of muscle that hasn't really been put to use before when it comes to lifting. When you first start out, you won't be able to lift much at all- Then, you'll notice huge amounts of strength gain, even though you're not going to get any bigger. This is because your body is actually learning how to use the muscle it already has more efficiently. If you continue to lift like this, and make sure you're getting enough calories to properly support your body every day- But don't put an excess amount in- Then you will continue to gain strength for a while. You will also lose some fat, and generally look a little more muscular- But you won't pack on a lot of new muscle, because you're not feeding your body to build. Your body will learn, to the best of it's ability, to use the muscle it has. There will come a point though, where, in order to be able to lift more weight, you're going to need more muscle.
To find out how many calories per day YOU need, check out the calorie calculators near the top of the nutrition forum. Using your stats, you can find out how many calories your body requires in order to maintain it's current size effectively- You might be surprised at the result.
(in reply to heheh)
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RE: my arm is swolen - 5/7/2006 5:06:21 PM
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heheh
Posts: 6
Joined: 5/5/2006
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I am 180cm and 72kg now.
My plan was to get to 75kg with 1kg fat loss and 4kg muscle gain.
From looking at the thickness of the fat layer on my body i figured 1kg is about the most i could lose but i looked at that calorie calculation page and saw the 20% body fat example, do people really have this much fat? I didnt know it actually meant the part of total body weight.
Im guessing i probably have more than 1kg then :) where is all this hiding?
I calculated my calorie requirement for 75kg as being about 2500 wich isnt too bad, i thought it would be around 3000, so maybe i can still do it :)
Do you know how much more you need to eat to maintain 4kg extra muscle?
I do not believe that 75-150kcal per pound figure i got somewhere else is accurate.
It seems to me most people must have 20kg muscle or more, with numbers like these the calorie need would be huge.
(in reply to cpl)
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