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Off-Topic Getting sick from S&S??

TedM

Level 6 Valued Member
This will probably sound crazy to most of you, but here goes:
I first picked up a KB 6 months ago. I'd never done strength training before. I swam regularly although I was off swimming for 3 months due to pool closure (which is how I got to kettlebells...)
62 yrs old, 80 kilos

Started on S&S after a month of just working on form with Deadlifts and the three warmups. 16kg bell. Didn't progress too far with GU'S due to some small functional constraints (iliopsoas weakness, and toe mobility that precluded moving to lunge).
Progressed to 24kg swings, 2 2H and 8 1H

That's the overall progress.

However, in the last 5 months I've had 4 bouts of some viral thing that knocked me out for several days to a week. The first two times, I didn't think much about it, but last month was the 3rd and that got me thinking. Yesterday I came down with a fever again...

Nothing in my daily routine has significantly changed- except for the kb training.

I know 0 about this kind of thing - I was wondering if my CNS was overtaxed and this is the result.

Anyone have any thoughts here?
 
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TedM said:
I know 0 about this kind of thing - I was wondering if my CNS was overtaxed and this is the result.

Anyone have any thoughts here?
Click to expand...
Training is a stressor. The right dose makes you stronger and more resistant and resilient over time. It is entirely possible that it might add too much to your overall stress before it was able to increase your resilience.

That being said, there might be different factors at play. Strong viral infections can lower the immune response for months and even years (for example, Covid-19, or measles). And maybe you have had more social contact after 2+ years of more or less social distancing? Your immune system might not be trained enough to handle everything at once. Apparently, colds were more severe last winter, as people were not that used to them anymore. It might be a similar effect.

Anyway, next time back off little when the the bells feel unusually heavy during your warm up.
 
Viral infections will flatten you. I once ended up using an empty bar and essentially starting again because of a viral infection. I’m a bloody soldier with illness and keep going but that thing whooped me. I’ve never been as sick in my adult lift and it kept going away and coming back. It began in November and the following March I was still a mess from it. There is a viral infection doing the rounds here just now. I’ve met a few folk that have had it for weeks at this stage and I had the unhappy experience of being in a pharmacy 2 days ago and everyone was dying of this thing. Rest up
 
TedM said:
This will probably sound crazy to most of you, but here goes:
I first picked up a KB 6 months ago. I'd never done strength training before. I swam regularly although I was off swimming for 3 months due to pool closure (which is how I got to kettlebells...)
62 yrs old, 80 kilos

Started on S&S after a month of just working on form with Deadlifts and the three warmups. 16kg bell. Didn't progress too far with GU'S due to some small functional constraints (iliopsoas weakness, and toe mobility that precluded moving to lunge).
Progressed to 24kg swings, 2 2H and 8 1H

That's the overall progress.

However, in the last 5 months I've had 4 bouts of some viral thing that knocked me out for several days to a week. The first two times, I didn't think much about it, but last month was the 3rd and that got me thinking. Yesterday I came down with a fever again...

Nothing in my daily routine has significantly changed- except for the kb training.

I know 0 about this kind of thing - I was wondering if my CNS was overtaxed and this is the result.

Anyone have any thoughts here?
Click to expand...
A couple of years back I had a similar experience and spent a fair amount of time with a Naturopathic doctor to clean up my metabolic issues (high ferritin levels, adrenal issues, etc) once those were cleaned up, along with some adjunctive therapies, everything else fell into place.
 
Putting this below post in here, to collect my comments on the topic, at the request of a fellow girevik:

What I do is really simple: I work on swings only and only 3 days a week. The other 3 days I do a modified @AleksSalkin 9 minute challenge: Dead bugs, crawling, and carrying.

Crawling I upped to 5 minutes, and now have been able to do 3 baby and 2 leopard (leopard in 40 second sets).

Carrying- started at 35 seconds and am now at 50 seconds:. Farmer carry a 16 & 24 then switch hands. Then waiter carry 16 (started with a 12 at 35 seconds) - each hand. Then I do Farmer carry of a 32 in one hand and repeat the waiter carries.

Also some OS nods and rocking as well as some hip flexibility. No more than 30 minutes a session and less at times, life permitting.

I did 6 days a week of swings and some attempts at get ups for some months, but it totally drained me (to put it mildly). I plan to get to 1H 32 by summer time, at which time I will cut back on swings and work on get ups.

-> The highlighted sentence is the reason I stuck this post in here.
I did end up going to the doctor a couple times, after each "bout" - and I did a full range of blood tests as well.

Perfectly fine.
My conclusion was ... that my assumption in the OP was correct. - my CNS was overtaxed and this was the result.

Since then - or soon after, when it happened last, i think - I've changed my approach to the above: Swings 3 days a week (with some OS nods, halos, goblet squats, dead bugs also) - and the other days are OS (nods, rocking, other if I have the time) plus the crawling and carrying.

I also go for hikes in the hills/trails around our home 3 to 5 days a week, for under an hour.

So far - I'm ok! keeping my eye on things...

Really just sharing this to normalize anyone else's experience.
 
TedM said:
Putting this below post in here, to collect my comments on the topic, at the request of a fellow girevik:

What I do is really simple: I work on swings only and only 3 days a week. The other 3 days I do a modified @AleksSalkin 9 minute challenge: Dead bugs, crawling, and carrying.

Crawling I upped to 5 minutes, and now have been able to do 3 baby and 2 leopard (leopard in 40 second sets).

Carrying- started at 35 seconds and am now at 50 seconds:. Farmer carry a 16 & 24 then switch hands. Then waiter carry 16 (started with a 12 at 35 seconds) - each hand. Then I do Farmer carry of a 32 in one hand and repeat the waiter carries.

Also some OS nods and rocking as well as some hip flexibility. No more than 30 minutes a session and less at times, life permitting.

I did 6 days a week of swings and some attempts at get ups for some months, but it totally drained me (to put it mildly). I plan to get to 1H 32 by summer time, at which time I will cut back on swings and work on get ups.

-> The highlighted sentence is the reason I stuck this post in here.
I did end up going to the doctor a couple times, after each "bout" - and I did a full range of blood tests as well.

Perfectly fine.
My conclusion was ... that my assumption in the OP was correct. - my CNS was overtaxed and this was the result.

Since then - or soon after, when it happened last, i think - I've changed my approach to the above: Swings 3 days a week (with some OS nods, halos, goblet squats, dead bugs also) - and the other days are OS (nods, rocking, other if I have the time) plus the crawling and carrying.

I also go for hikes in the hills/trails around our home 3 to 5 days a week, for under an hour.

So far - I'm ok! keeping my eye on things...

Really just sharing this to normalize anyone else's experience.
Click to expand...
Sir your program is fantastic IMHO. And you are acting with a very well measured and tested understanding of your self and body. Please continue to share your experiences so we can all learn. We are all different people at different stages of life and with different stress factors. But indeed what you are doing is the definition of scientific experiment. And you do it with your self. All researches or programs address average person who does not indeed exist :)) thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks for sharing! I have not been able to get to 6 days a week of practice in almost two years of S&S practice. A significant portion of that is due to lack of discipline, but the few times I have been close, I start feeling drained and lethargic. And I'm only 23 years old...

Like @Ege put it, it is a constant experiment. Per a recent SF article or newsletter, that experimentation is what makes those not genetically gifted able to succeed where most do not. Thank you again for sharing your experiments!
 
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Wifi said:
Thanks for sharing! I have not been able to get to 6 days a week of practice in almost two years of S&S practice. A significant portion of that is due to lack of discipline, but the few times I have been close, I start feeling drained and lethargic. And I'm only 23 years old...

Like @Ege put it, it is a constant experiment. Per a recent SF article or newsletter, that experimentation is what makes those not genetically gifted able to succeed where most do not. Thank you again for sharing your experiments!
Click to expand...
Keep up the good job. You have long years a head of you, you can achieve anything you want if you keep consistent!
 
Wifi said:
Thanks for sharing! I have not been able to get to 6 days a week of practice in almost two years of S&S practice. A significant portion of that is due to lack of discipline, but the few times I have been close, I start feeling drained and lethargic. And I'm only 23 years old...

Like @Ege put it, it is a constant experiment. Per a recent SF article or newsletter, that experimentation is what makes those not genetically gifted able to succeed where most do not. Thank you again for sharing your experiments!
Click to expand...
I would invest in a session or two with a senior instructor if you can. I'm sure it would be helpful.
 
Ege said:
Keep up the good job. You have long years a head of you, you can achieve anything you want if you keep consistent!
Click to expand...
Thank you!

TedM said:
I would invest in a session or two with a senior instructor if you can. I'm sure it would be helpful.
Click to expand...
It is a game changer. I attended the KB101 and 202 user courses over the summer, and I thought I had good technique going in. That didn't last very long. Once I get back to Timed Simple, I'll go in for a session and make sure my form is still close, and review press and snatch form for ROP.
 
I would take 2 weeks off and during that time focus on lots of quality sleep, healthy eating, daily walking, and maybe incorporate some light warm ups (halos and goblet squats). After the 2 weeks, ease back into training. Start with a lighter bell and /or lower volume session and gradually build up over a couple weeks. And see how you feel.
 
I’ve found that my best recipe is train for 4-6 weeks then have a rest week, when I go longer without a deload or complete rest week I start getting tweeks and pains. Also I start feeling exhausted and stressed. It’s a fine line trying to balance training, work, kids, wife, and extended family. But I don’t think I’d blame training for catching a cold, it might play a part but the overall benefits are going to far outweigh any negatives. I always just blame my kids haha because they are loveable germ factories that cough directly into your face for no reason lol. Actually just caught a darn cold from my daughter today.
 
From your post, what happens if you back off and halve to volume (keep the total time to make the reps)?

From a physiological (muscle physiology) standpoint. If you stop progressing you have one of three problems:

1) lack of recovery. Either from a high stress state (affects our ability to generate force), lack of food intake (not enough nutrients to repair/grow the fibers) or poor sleep (affects our ability with both the preceding force generation and repair/growth)

2) increased recovery time from the progression from the previous bout.

3) our previous training did not stimulate a hypertrophic response.

If we look at what of the above that is causing it we can fix it.
Are we stressed? Are we eating like an adult and sleeping like a baby.
Are we are getting enough recovery between bouts (if you are training 6 days a week, I would start with this variable).
If both above is checked it must be the third option, change it up perhaps for a different program. When that program stops progressing change it back?
 
A quick update- all has been well *since last October*. [NOTE: Originally I wrote *since this February*, but that post was an update per someone's request.]
Then I had a few nights of under 6 hours sleep, trained as usual on Sunday and Tuesday, and then crashed Tuesday night. Today, same symptoms as previous bouts: very tired, slight fever, cough.
Full rest for a couple of days and a week off of training should do the trick.

So, for me, I'd say lack of sleep was the weak link this time.

The three days of training (now, cleans and presses only) seems to be enough, if I give myself rest between each set.
 
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TedM said:
A quick update- all has been well for the last 6 months. Then I had a few nights of under 6 hours sleep, trained as usual on Sunday and Tuesday, and then crashed Tuesday night. Today, same symptoms as previous bouts: very tired, slight fever, cough.
Full rest for a couple of days and a week off of training should do the trick.

So, for me, I'd say lack of sleep was the weak link this time.
Click to expand...

When the choice is between exercising and taking a nap, I always take the nap. The best training program is the one you can follow consistently because you don't get injured or sick.

Ask your doctor about long-term things like mono and chronic fatigue syndrome and similar.

-S-
 
I'd add a day of active rest if you are still struggling..

Sometimes it also helps to have someone write your programming for you so it keeps you accountable and also makes you slow down when you would wanna speed up
 
Mark, you are probably correct. But in this case, I'm pretty certain it was trying to train normally on sub-normal sleep.

As I updated/edited: I haven't had this problem since last October switching to A&A (i.e., more rest between sets) I think has been critical to my being consistent & healthy.

But... I do need to learn to be a tough guy and take a nap....
 
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