COVID 19 /training

[Mark Rippetoe]

My question is does 2 weeks of rest enough to get back on regular strength training, ?

Are you still sick?

[newtoss2022]

Are you still sick?

I am not sick anymore sir mark, The symptoms i had is some sorethroat, fever that lasted about 5 days, no chest pain, no muscle pain and shit,

Just a cough,

[Mark Rippetoe]

Better wait till June, just to be on the safe side. An overabundance of caution, never can be too careful, that sort of thing.

[newguyray]

I am not trolling sir mark, i have this problem since a kid, whenever i got sick, i can’t eat, i have no appetite, as i am recovering now, i am eating normal again, after a week,

12-14 weeks ago i was 185lbs, then before covid i was up to 207.5, the training is so good, as i am not hitting plateu, eating enough and sleeping enough,
Then covid hit, I didn’t eat for a week you are right, i just cant,


My question is does 2 weeks of rest enough to get back on regular strength training, ?

I suppose only you will know best in what you can tolerate in trying to drive a full recovery. I'll share a bit of my own Covid saga as a real-world data point.

I first started experiencing Covid symptoms on Dec 16, 2021 (the Delta variant predominant at the time where I live). Within one week of progressively getting worse, I was hospitalized with pneumonia in both lungs (I tried obtaining ivermectin but it didn't arrive until the day after I was hospitalized - should have been better prepared).

I spent the next three weeks in the hospital focused on nothing but surviving. Within a day or two of hospitalization, I lost all my appetite. I believe it is now referred to as something like Covid Anorexia. It was disconcerting how little attention the hospital staff paid to my nutrition and food intake. I lost a little over 35 pounds of BW during the three weeks I was hospitalized.

At the worst of the pneumonia, my O2 sat would drop into the low 70s if I tried to stand. Two of the three weeks I spent lying on my stomach for about 23.5 hours per day on a 15L O2 flow barely maintaining an O2 sat of 90 - 91. A few days before I was discharged, I had a consult with a respiratory specialist. He told me my lungs were a mess and it could be several months before I could tolerate meaningful exercise. I was discharged to home with supplemental O2.

Being part of the SS community, I know that following stupid medical advice is for pussies. On the day of discharge, I reached out to my SS coach and asked him to poll the SS coaching community for the collective advice on how to get me recovered. I was discharged from the hospital with exactly zero instructions on how to get better when I got home, other than following up with my PCP within x days.

I managed to get myself off of the O2 in about 4 days. The effort consisted of pushing myself to stay active by taking care of my own needs all through the discomfort of every trip to the kitchen, for instance, resulting in coughing up a couple of ounces of crap from my lungs when I sat back down. Every time I got up, I pushed myself to stay standing a little longer and to do a bit more.

So now off of O2 but still with lingering double pneumonia, I worked with my PCP and SS coach for a return date to the gym. My PCP was surprisingly supportive and reasonable. The restrictions he requested were, to take a portable O2 tank to the gym with me whether I thought I needed it or not (never needed it), to not push myself into fatigue (systemic inflammation was still a concern), and to check my O2 sat after every set and ensure that no sets would be long enough or intense enough to push my O2 sat below 90.

I was back in the gym with my SS coach exactly 2 weeks to the day after being discharged from the hospital. The workout that first day consisted of three empty-bar squat triples and three ascending rack pull triples with a top triple of 135 Lbs. We never looked back from there. I was feeling pretty much fully recovered within a month of that first day. One year later, I feel great and all of my lifts have progressed significantly from where they were prior to getting sick.

So I'll end with a special thank you to coach Austin Khamiss. I will be forever grateful for the incredible support he provided. Coach Khamiss is sorely missed in Boston.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Still, better wait till June. Or just stop training. But ask your Doctor. After all, he IS your Doctor.

[Jdcuth]

Your doctors job (as he sees it) is to make sure you don’t die. If you go home and spend the next 6 months a depressed atrophying mess on the sofa he or she won’t give a shit.

When you go from lying prone 23 hours a day to sitting up and taking short walks your body has had a stress to which it has adapted. If only there was a way to predictably continue this adaptation long term to regain muscle mass, conditioning, strength and all the physical variables that allow truly independent living. Anyone have any ideas?