Hi Jordan, Austin -
This is a new account, but I used to post periodically here and on the SS forum under this name, and Jordan, you used to do my training diet (back in 2013-14).
Anyway, I’m debating whether to get evaluated for rhabdo. I’m male, 42, 6’1" 230lbs. I barbell trained pretty continuously (with occasional breaks) for about 12 years, and then 2.5 years ago, my wife and I had a kid, and I didn’t train at all until about 6 weeks ago. I’ve been doing short lifting workouts twice a week, and some other scattered cardio (rower, swimming). Just testing my strength and starting some basic LP in deadlift and front squat, and rehabbing a bad shoulder with band work. Just starting chins, too.
This past Friday morning (so 4 days ago as I write), I had a bit of a sore throat, but nothing major, and I did a couple hours of yard work that wasn’t particularly intense, but involved lots of crouching and awkward positions and movements I’m not used to. It was a cooler day for July (70s), but I was in long sleeves, pants, and gloves (pulling poison ivy and whatnot). I got pretty sweaty, and wasn’t drinking water during, but I never felt any heat stress.
I showered, hydrated, rested a bit. Later that afternoon, after a good pre-workout meal (bunch of carbs and protein), I did my normal workout. Just some band work, band assisted chins, and 3 sets of front squat. Wasn’t unusually heavy, and I had even lifted a much higher weight the previous workouts, for fewer reps (still finding where my LP should start).
That night (Friday), I started to feel pretty sore, but went to bed without thinking much of it. The next morning (Saturday), I had bad DOMS in many places, including some new spots, presumably from the awkward yard work (like the feet, groin, from crouching in boots).
I could also tell that my sore throat was progressing, and that I was fighting some kind of virus. Probably just a summer cold thing, but I had a low grade fever, some chills, aches all over (alongside the DOMS), occasional cough. Tylenol helped a lot, controlling fever and pain pretty well. But once it wore off, the pain was still there and not really improving.
Yesterday, I switched to ibuprofen, since I figured I needed to deal with the inflammation. It works great. Basically kills all the pain, though I could still feel the muscular fatigue, especially in my forearms. Certain fine motor skills were tougher, and I even had some tremor with fine motor positions.
Today I wanted to tough it out without meds, to see where the pain was at. My fever was mostly gone by the morning, 99.4, and then dropped to normal after that without meds. I had a very painful morning getting our daughter ready for school, and then rested a while. I’ve since taken a walk and a shower, and did some stretching.
Some of the pain has improved; particularly the pains associated with the weird yardwork positions. The thigh, hip, and arm pain, especially the forearms, has not seemed to improve. I would not say there is muscle weakness, exactly, though certainly reluctance to attempt anything painful, and the forearms do feel fatigued enough that I don’t have completely normal fine motor control.
I wouldn’t say I’ve noticed swelling, but maybe the forearms feel a bit tight. Certainly stiffness after lying down.
No urinary symptoms; urination has been normal in volume and appearance throughout.
At what point should I seek medical attention, assuming the muscle pain persists? I’ve had bad DOMS before, though I think if it went another day (making 5), that’d be a longer run than I’ve ever had. Thus far, I’ve been attributing the intensity and duration of the DOMS to the overlapping of weird new activity, normal-butt-early-in-returning-to-training workout, and battling some kind of virus all at the same time.
I have no history of kidney issues, or really any underlying conditions here.
Thanks!