I suffer from Fibromyalgia.
I first started noticing the day after lifting that I would be in brain fog, demotivated, and ache along the back of the body - calves, hamstrings, and spine. This ache was like the flu, without the respiratory symptoms. It was similar to the feeling I got when I had done a workout that was supposed to maximize energy output* - clean and presses, ten sets of 3, with minimal rest.
I thought I must be overtraining, so I stepped back my workout. Besides taking a lot of energy, these workouts had a heavy neural load, and I was also trying to set new PRs during this time. Backing off the intensity worked for a while, though it seemed that I was often having to downscale my workout regularly. Perhaps I was losing strength because my workouts were less intense, in a sort of downward spiral?
But over a year later, I started to experience aches and brain fog when I was tired and stressed without any workout at all. Looking for symptoms and causes on the internet, I self-diagnosed it as Fibromyalgia. One person said that it meant that they could realistically only do two things a day, and they needed to otherwise scale back their expectations of what they could do, and that nailed what it was like. Besides the aforementioned aches and pains, and brain fog, the symptoms are extreme irritability, especially with someone talking to me, inability to focus, hunger cravings, and being out of it. When it got too bad, I also had trouble sleeping.
(*Max energy output for time, or the physics term ‘work’. O-lifts are the king in energy output per instant because the speed and height more than compensate for the lighter weight compared to the squat or deadlift. The short sets and short rest intervals maximize energy output, as the weight can be heavy but can lifted a lot. The key is ATP can generate force for less than 10 seconds at which point your body has to switch to more limited energies. The expended ATP can be regenerated in as little as 20 seconds.)
As of this writing my limits are:
1. I cannot tolerate much noise, and multiple audio channels (such as someone talking to me over a baby crying or such).
2. The amount of work is limited. If I do more than 1-3 things one day, I will get tired before the day ends and will get fibro pretty bad the next day. As I have a job and small children this is pretty challenging.
3. Workouts need to be pretty small. A few sets, at a very light weight. Max efforts wreck me the day after. Working out this way has been a challenge. I loved getting into the gym and just going hard, working on new PRs and stuff. Now I am lifting maybe 40% of the weight I used to.
4. I seem to be fragile. Sports of any kind seem to damage me easily, and healing seems to take longer than I’m used to. I’ve recently started working with a youth group and we often play games. I played dodgeball with them and got a mallet fracture. Three weeks late, I played ultimate and got plantar fascitis on one foot that has been nagging me for weeks. This is 2 out of 2 sports injuries in the last month.
5. Information overload is bad. Too much time on Twitter, or trying to read/research something when a little tired is a big trigger. Twitter or Facebook feeds are bad, because in this depleted state it is hard to resist the lure, but they make things worse.
I have tried various supplements and things: α-ketoglutarate seems to help, but only slightly. Caffeine doesn’t make the aches/pains go away but I can push through it and still do some things. This is a double-edged sword, as pushing myself too much causes problems later. The best thing is to just sit in a comfortable chair and stare out the window and try to clear my mind (but don’t try too hard). If the pain hasn’t gotten very bad, I will often fall asleep, under circumstances I never would have before - at work, in a room with children, and with caffeine. But this remedy is limited, I have two toddlers and several busy children. Also, I tend to have an obsessive mind so thinking about something may keep my mind redlining when I should be resting. Writing helps clear the subject out of my head.
This isn’t a well-understood condition and may be a catch-all for a variety of related issues. There is no accepted cause nor treatment. As I have noticed it becoming worse over time, I fear sometimes that I will be condemned to live life less and less. I have been looking for treatments for some time but without success. I will create another post to log what I’ve tried, the results, and the things that I am currently trying. Update: That post is up.
A reader suggested that I am getting really dramatic about the aches and pains of aging, and thinking this has only happened to me.
Well, I have some aches and pains of aging too, but not too bad. That stuff feels like DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). I ran cross country, which in many ways gives you a preview of what its like to feel old. As you age the envelope between what you normally do, and what you can do without feeling sore shrinks, and your ability to recover from this short of damage also goes down, leading to soreness without doing much.
What I have feels, like I say, like the achy pain of the flu. Like I say too much exercise induces it, but always in the same posterior muscles, not in the muscles that are getting worked.