Hey Doctors Baraki and Feigenbaum,
I’ve posted here a few times, but I’ve finally found my stride with consistent strength training using your resources, so thanks for all the great content as always.
I’m prepping for my first meet, which I’m planning to participate in somewhat casually/for fun later this year. Otherwise I live a fairly active lifestyle and have young kids that I try to keep up with regularly.
On to the medical questions:
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I had an inguinal hernia repair (open) in 2018 that is obviously fully healed at this point. My surgeon cleared me for exercise maybe 6-8 weeks after the procedure. I have been able to train with no issues until very recently when I started developing some very sharp ‘tearing’ like pain in my center line under my waist band area, which coincides with the medial portion of the repair incision scar. I first noticed this while rock climbing, and it has since happened once or twice while doing deadlifts or bench press (not so much with squat). It seems that it doesn’t correlate with the weight or effort level, and has more to do with my positioning. If I am in extension and bracing my core tightly it seems to cause pain, but I am usually able to adjust my positioning slightly and work through it. Each time it has resolved on its own after resting it for a day or so, but I’m curious if there is any major concern here? My philosophy with it has been to stop doing a movement if it hurts and try to find positioning that works for me, if none can be found call it for the day (luckily this hasn’t been necessary yet). I feel like if I had ripped open a years-old incision or created a new herniation I’d know without a doubt, but I want to be sure I’m not likely to be doing any major damage.
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I was recently diagnosed with Lupus and have finally gotten my treatment dialed in pretty well. I take Plaquenil and Methotrexate to manage disease activity, and I very rarely will take Prednisone to manage acute flares per my rheumatologist’s recommendation - but I have only needed that once since coming off it as my initial treatment around October last year. This has given me substantially improved and consistent energy levels, but I do still have times where my fatigue is higher, joint and muscle pains are worse, etc. My approach for these days is to decrease my RPE across the board by 1 or even 2 if it’s really bad. This has allowed me to stay in the gym lifting even when I’m on the downswing. Any issues with this approach? Or anything further to consider in the management of Lupus alongside my regular training?
Thanks in advance for your advice.