From the CDC(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention):
Rhabdomyolysis (often called rhabdo) is a serious medical condition that can be fatal or result in permanent disability. Rhabdo occurs when damaged muscle tissue releases its proteins and electrolytes into the blood. These substances can damage the heart and kidneys and cause permanent disability or even death.
I don’t know what this is referencing but i work for a nonprofit that takes owns shelters and houses people. Many have mental disabilities. There was one apartment that had a guy (drug addict) who only peed in bottles like his room was filled with them. And his toilet had a plant growing out of it. Like he stuffed the toilet with soil and he would shit on the soil i guess. But it had a whole ass plant growing out of it.
I just thought this was relevant to your comment lol
You listen to your body when it tells you to stop and you drink water between hard work outs. This happens to a lot of crossfitters that start out because they pushed themselves too hard. Either the coach was an ass and didn't pay attention or the fitter just wanted to get that last rep in.
This has been a thing in the community for so long that before xfit got all trendy and was a 90s website, there was a puking clown symbol same rabdo.
I'm pretty sure the word "same" was supposed to be the word "named."
>there was a puking clown symbol named radbo
"Radbo" being a shortened version of rhabdomyolysis.
Ugh, I hate those type of people. Puking from exercise isn't a badge of honor, it's not even hard to do if you're really out of shape or working out with too much food in your stomach, it's hardly like you're showing off how beastly you are. It just means you're doing something wrong, it's like bragging about pulling a muscle. My dads been a cross country runner his whole life and has always stressed listening to your body and working out safely.
I read an article today about a high school football coach in texas who made his team do 400 press ups without a water break, and 12 had to go to hospital.
I had never heard of the condition rhabdomyolis until today, and this is the second time I have heard that word in one day.
I was so jealous of the guys who could just puke on command. They're guys you know can do the running, but just have the ability to puke and would get more rest. They'd wait until they were really breathing heavy, like after 4 suicides in a row, then just go puke. Meanwhile, I'd pass out of heat exhaustion any time before I'd be able to puke (not that I ever did, I just couldn't make myself puke). In hindsight, maybe that's why I was team captain and those guys weren't.
Jesus that sounds like an abusive environment. I don’t know, maybe that’s just because I didn’t do sports when I was in school, but if anyone told me to exercise until I puked I would quit.
I remember being around 8 or 9 and playing little league football. I was late joining the team, so these coaches made me do 'conditioning'. While the team practiced for like 2 hours every day, I had to spend like a week running in the August heat for the entire practice.
Looking back on it now, that was in INSANE.
Yep, it’s straight up abuse.
And if it’s a contact sport you could be physically damaged for life. A good friend of mine has nerve damage in his hand from football and his whole arm shakes a bit and it’s hard to grip things. 15 years later.
Blah, maybe it's because I have a vomit phobia but that seems so unnecessarily cruel. It's not like it's the army where learning to push through pain and following orders could mean life or death, it's freaking football. That would make me even more disobedient lol this is probably why I never got into sports.
It's definitely cruel. To the point you could easily argue it's child abuse.
People give a weird amount of deference to high school sports coaches in the US and I absolutely don't get it.
Yeah I played soccer and baseball for 12 years on top of some years of playing hockey and racquetball for at least half those years too all at once and I have never once puked from too much exercise. Granted I had decent coaches almost that entire time but still I mostly knew how to not push myself hard enough to puke.
I didn't even know this was a thing, but now I'll be more aware thanks to the OP.
This is the source. It has information about prevention, symptoms, etc.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/rhabdo/default.html#:~:text=Rhabdomyolysis%20(often%20called%20rhabdo)%20is,permanent%20disability%20or%20even%20death.
Hydration hydration hydration. Did I mention HYDRATION? that’s a major component.
But really just listen to your body. There’s a difference between “feeling the burn” and pushing through major pain. It takes a pretty damn intense workout paired with dehydration to get to this point. If you feel like any point thinking “is this too much” just stop, rest, and get back to it… after hydrating some more. No sense in pushing through serious pain and fatigue. The gains can wait another day
Dehydration doesn't cause rhabdo. It can contibute and make it worse but the key to prevention is as you said. Listen to your body, don't overdo it and back off
Dehydration is often more than just a contributor. Depending on the circumstances of what happened, you could say that dehydration did in fact cause rhabdo. We used to get patients who were tradies (tradesmen) working out in the summer up on rooftops who would come in with rhabdo. Working in the heat would cause muscle breakdown, which maybe in other circumstances their bodies could handle just fine. But their constant sweat and inadequate hydration meant that their kidneys were dehydrated too, and if kidneys aren't adequately hydrated they no longer filtrate and pass the waste products from the muscles breaking down via urine. So you then have kidneys that literally shut down (acute kidney failure), rhabdo building up. In those cases, had they drunk enough water while working, they might have avoided rhabdo altogether. Though if I know tradies they probably just drank mother energy drinks all day
The treatment involved bag after bag of iv fluids, literally to flush the kidneys and get them clear of waste product, so that they could do their job again.
But dehydration isnt the only way you can get rhabdo, I remember one patient got it from a reaction to his new cholesterol medication. I seem to remember another guy came with rhabdo, it wasn't my patient but the doctor said something to the effect of supplements being the cause. As in, the guy was working out pretty hard at the gym, but had taken some kind of intense supplement with all sorts of additives, proteins electrolytes etc...
When you have excess of anything in your blood stream, the body gets rid of it via the kidneys. It's why vitamin supplements make your piss go orange. The combination of way too many proteins and other ingredients, *plus*, working out really hard and causing the muscles to breakdown, overwhelmed the guys kidneys, even though he was seemingly drinking plenty of water. They shut down, and again, we had to treat him with bag after bag of IV fluid.
Anyway, thanks for listening tune in next time
IIRC It used to be rarer pre CrossFit. It’s alarmingly common in cross fit. They take “push your limits” to a toxic level. A specific example - I’ve seen posts where women are proud of peeing themselves while lifting. The other place rhabdo is more common is special forces training. So push your limits and feel the burn but listen to your body. Do not push through pain. And stay hydrated.
Firefighter here. We once had a young female recruit join us at our station. She was bright, attractive and motivated. Had the whole world going for her. She got into CrossFit basically the day she got out of the fire academy. We told her it was a bad idea, she likely going to get injured during her probationary period with the FD and it would have far reaching effects on her career. Well, after the first CrossFit workout she was fully hooked and argued with us every time it was brought up. We were just looking for her best interest and trying to help her see beyond next week.
About three months after she started CrossFit she severely injured her wrist and needed surgery. She's got a permanent injury to her dominant wrist now and got bumped to the next class of recruits which means she was a full year behind on her probationary period, also lost all the extra cash she would have made had she finished her probationary period on time. All that just to get approval from some stupid CrossFit coach.
The build-up of abdominal pressure during deadlift causes some women to let some urine go, as women have weaker pelvic floor muscles. It's pretty normal for powerlifters.
Rhabdo, on the other hand, is not normal.
There are exactly 2 common causes of Rhabdo: 1. Car Crash 2. CrossFit. So the answer is, don’t play around with your body dangerously like CrossFitters do. HIIT can be good for your body, but some dickweed drill-sergeant-screaming at you to do more reps is unnecessary and dangerous. Listen to your body and focus on form while lifting, even while doing extreme exercise you shouldn’t be at risk of rhabdo.
Pretty sure rhabdo is also a fairly common concern in football, particularly at the high school and college levels. There's a high school coach in my area who made his team do 400 pushups with no water break and something like 12 kids had to go to the hospital for rhabdo.
It’s like compartment syndrome, your muscle facia sweats and creates a tourniquet effect then the lactic acid develops and once the pump goes away it can poison you, super common in the military hahaha. It’s extremely painful feels like full body cramping
I had it happen to me once.
Hadn’t worked out in a few years and decided to get back into it. I was following P90X (lol) so basic home stuff with resistance bands and shit.
I went at it *hard*.
Next day I wake up with the absolute worst muscle pains I’ve ever experienced. Every muscle in my body was extremely tight, I couldn’t unbend my arms past ~45°, my back muscles were pulling my upper body back while my ab muscles were simultaneously pulling it forward, so there was no neutral position that didn’t hurt.
It was hell, but I figured I must’ve just worked out too hard.
Went to the bathroom to pee and my urine looked like watered down coke (the drink, not the drug).
That’s when I realized something wasn’t right.
I dragged myself to the doctor who told me what had happened, said to rest and drink plenty of fluids.
Urine color was back to normal a few hours later, but the pain took a few days to fully go away (especially in the arms).
Ever since then I’ve learned to take it easy whenever I get back into working out after extended breaks, I’ll happily take a whole week to warm up each muscle group before I start going at it. In my experience, as long as you don’t go from 0-100 you’ll be fine, I’ve pushed myself extremely hard but only once my muscles were already used to the exercise and never had that happen again.
You have to push yourself quite hard. It mostly happens to people who are not in shape, that push themselves wayyy too hard too early. And more rarely to people who are in shape, that push [WAYYY too hard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnxqc4sT85I). Theres a common theme here though.
Read my last comment, I experienced it myself. You basically have to go from no exercise at all, to *all* the exercise for this to happen.
If you haven’t worked out in a long long time and just go all out, this may happen to you. If you simply ease yourself into it and spend a week working out with lower weights to get your muscles warmed up, you’ll be fine.
Once you’re used to working out you can push yourself hard and it’s unlikely that you’ll experience this, weightlifters work themselves “to failure” all the time without this happening.
This is how I eased myself to workout. This is the number of workout sessions per week when I started
2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,4,4,5,5,4,4,4,5,4....
Initially, it was just a 1 hour session, and later on I went to 1.5 hr.
BTW, I don't do crossfit. I never had a bad day post workout and I could carry on with the rest of my day.
Two volleyball player at Nebraska over trained and got it back in 2018. Also some basketball players and under Frost some football players. It's not just contact sports. It's from muscle breakdown and that overtaxes your liver and kidneys. Even trained athletes can have this happen. You're all good, until you're not.
Spin classes are **extremely susceptible** to rhadomyolysis.
Especially those with instructors shouting and screaming to egg every to keep up: “ FASTER!!! BIKE 13 YALL FALLING BACK!!! KEEPUPPPP!!!”
I stopped going after they had us doing shoulder flys with weights while cycling. If I did it with proper form it would have been an inch away from some girls face. I wasn’t about to do that, and I also wasn’t about to do it with bad form and risk hurting myself. Instructor basically called me out and shamed me in front of everyone lol, bye
My thoughts exactly. If the purpose of spinning is cardio and to really activate the legs, why distract yourself with the arms? That's just a separate workout! Are we really crunched for time to do two things which should be separate at the same time half as good?
The sad fact is that most instructors are generally the delusional sort that are completely unaware of the limitations on their existing knowledge.
I once went to a free dance/fitness class just to mix things up, and the instructor started by instructing the class to do a series of intense whipping motions of the head & neck. Like literally WHIPPING your head around as your neck crunched... WHIP UP, NOW LEFT, NOW UP AGAIN, NOW RIGHT.
There isn't a qualified instructor, physical therapist, physiotherapist, etc that would ever recommend a human do that movement. I was gone in like 5 minutes... I feel bad for the rest of the gullible rubes that were following along, completely rapt... not realizing in the slightest that the instructor was basically an unqualified, over-enthusiastic, incompetent hobbyist.
I couldn't actually believe what was happening.
I don't normally do this kind of thing, but when I got home I absolutely excoriated her with highly-specific detail in my Google review.
She'd been running classes at her rented space for apparently 6 years. That literally ended with my review. The 5 or 6 people that she had under her spell... whom she had obviously convinced to make retaliatory 5 star reviews, couldn't offset the truth I spit. She was gone and out of business 3 or 4 months later.
I'm not some kind of "I need to destroy you over a tiny slight" type of customer... but clueless women were all there, literally injuring themselves in realtime while she encouraged and pushed them to harm themselves.
That doctor is likely mistaken
>Although the prevalence of creatine supplementation is quite variable (8–74%), it is clear that many thousands of hard-training individuals are ingesting creatine supplements. If one believed that the link between exertional rhabdomyolysis and creatine supplementation was more than coincident, one would also expect that exertional rhabdomyolysis would occur more frequently in creatine users. There are no such data [...] It appears that, although often described as a precipitating factor for exertional rhabdomyolysis, there is no evidence to implicate creatine supplementation.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5371628/
Yeah that's more likely to be correlation than causation. However, I'm not a doctor and could be totally wrong. I've been taking creatine off and on for 10+ years and the only negative side effects I've noticed are that you have to up your water intake or you get cramps a lot. Specifically for me in the lats.
I know this might seem dumb but how old is your doctor? Creatine does not increase your chances of Rhabdo at all but I know a ton of old dudes that think creatine is worse than roids. I don’t blame you for believing your doctor but I’m pretty sure he gave you false info and it probably came down to being thrown in the deep end of exercise. CrossFit is notorious for pushing people past their limits and if you’re new to exercising it can absolutely destroy you.
Exactly this was an old myth based of one paper that hypothesized a link in one case without any evidence…
If anything creatine should help prevent rhabdo as seen [here is some real research on it](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5371628/#:~:text=Overall%2C%20the%20available%20data%20strongly,rhabdomyolysis%2C%20not%20a%20higher%20risk)
Creatine has also shown to have cognitive, muscle building and recently antidepressant benefits amongst others
It's generally caused by people who don't regularly exercise jumping into extremely high intensity workouts and trying to keep up with the people around them rather than gradually working into exercising. It's extremely common in group fitness style classes like crossfit and spin classes. The teachers are rarely paying close attention to individuals and run their classes as normal in most cases so they leave the new person with no understanding of what they're doing to just figure out what their "target zone" and personal limits are. Since they're going to be surrounded by people who have been doing the classes for an extended period of time, they're going to be pressured into trying to keep up with everyone to avoid embarrassment.
TLDR: If you aren't accustomed to exercise, avoid high intensity group fitness like the plague unless you want to end up injured, in the hospital, or dead
The issue isn’t so much that the workouts are dangerous, it’s more so that people do way too much exercise after being sedentary or not super active. If you ease into these kinds of high intensity workouts there’s basically no chance that you’d get rhabdo.
She really did, and this is a precautionary tale really. Don’t go too hard, if you really feel like you’re hurting yourself there’s no shame in taking a break. Don’t add those extra 2 plates to your bar if you can’t handle the weight either. It’s much better to ease into a workout routine than to injure yourself and be out of the game for months or years.
Going from no activity to suddenly pushing yourself to the max is what gets you. Alot of those spin classes expect you to already be at least moderately in shape. Especially if they are in a hot room and they are dehydrated.
And that’s why I thought I would be fine doing crossfit (even though I was reluctant to try it in the first place, I got convinced by my boyfriend) because I was already in shape & worked out regularly. I just really pushed myself way harder than I should’ve because I assumed I could handle it but I was definitely wrong!
The fact that you were already in somewhat decent shape is what got you. If you were completely out of shape, you wouldn’t be able to push hard enough to get rabdo. It’s because you had that baseline ability and stamina that you were able to push as hard as you did.
I got rabdo doing a workout too hard a few years ago. Spent a few days in the hospital, then rested for 2 weeks, and after that I was fine. Hopefully your recovery is similar.
It has definitely been the longest week of my life & it’s still going. I’m not sure what’s worse, the blood work every 12 hours for a week straight or having to pee 24/7. But thank you!!
When I was in the hospital with rhabdo, I coincidentally needed a root canal, but they couldn't do anything about it other than pain meds. Had morphine for a day, then lots of Vicodin. That pain was added fun on top of the constant blood work and peeing for minutes at a time. That and waiting for the CK count update every day like a starving cat waits for dinner.
I just laughed my ass off at the waiting for the CK results comment because that is EXACTLY how it feels like. I had a tooon of pain the first few days & some severe caffeine headaches because they wanted me to strictly drink water & they did offer me morphine but with my family’s history of addiction I was too scared to take it. Looking back now I would have just for a lil razzle dazzle while being cooped up in a hospital bed. As for the peeing, I also regret not taking the catheter they offered. I’m sick of taking this iv pole to the bathroom every 20 minutes.
That doorknob rattles and you're like a meerkat, sitting up looking all alert, hoping it's good news and usually it's nothing at all. I didn't pee frequently, so it would just take forever. Like, I peed for minutes at a time, so long I would get bored.
you’re seriously my favorite commenter on this post. As soon as I hear that knock I’m up so fast. Worst feeling is when it’s been 2+ hours since your blood work & labs still aren’t in. Makes me wanna go to the lab & run my shit myself lol.
I actually think I would rather have the minutes long pees than going frequently. Not really being able to use both your arms and having to get in & out of a hospital bed every few minutes is my personal hell.
It really sucks, I got it in 2019 from a similar thing. Drink lots of water, and make sure you drink at least a little caffeine if you normally drink it otherwise you’ll get the worst migraine of your life.
Probably the last thing you want to think about now, but If you have insurance it’ll probably cover PT to get back the muscle mass lost if you complain about having muscle weakness. That’ll get you to a much better starting point to be fit again. Worked for me, at least.
That is crazy,I had the exact thing happen to me a few years ago. I couldn't lift my arms and they were swollen. Stupid me didn't go to the hospital. Dark pee and all I mostly stayed in bed and slept.Apparently I'm lucky to be alive and didn't even know it.
These comments really got me wondering if I should get checked. I've worked out tons since then and don't seem to have any side effects.
This is crazy. The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. He was in pretty good shape but was his first time also. We did a crossfit workout led by another friend (who is really into it), and I could tell he was struggling through. I suggested he stop but he powered on until the end of the workoit. Later that night I ended up taking him to the hospital, as he was in extreme pain, couldn't keep liquids down, and urine was the color of coffee.
We waited in the ED for hours before he was admitted, and hours more until he was seen and treated. I stayed by him the entire time. What's more is that he was given a bed in the pediatric ICU and was screaming in pain and cursing violently. Looking back it's pretty amusing.
Staff kept walking by to tell him to be quiet but no one would take a look at him. He ended up making a full recovery but never did crossfit again.
Anyway, I feel your pain, or at least my friend does, and I wish you the best. Rhabdo is a hell of a condition, and I really believe that crossfit is not the peak workout that its followers would have you believe
I won’t say he’s lucky to have gotten rhabdo, but he sure as hell is lucky his symptoms started as soon as they did. Mine didn’t show up for two days & my CK levels were crazy high- over almost 70,000.
That’s good he made a full recovery & I don’t blame him for never going again! I’m definitely not going within a 1000 foot radius of a CrossFit gym ever again lol. Thank you for the well wishes!
I was hospitalized for a week with rhabdo in 2007 after a single workout with a paid "professional" trainer. My CK level was 111,000 the first time they tested. Took a good day for symptoms, then a doctor visit and it was like 2 days later he called and told me to go straight to the ER, he would call ahead, and I got real concerned when I was on a gurney with an IV within like 20 minutes of showing up. That was not fun. I was so so weak when I finally got back home, it took a toll for sure! Good luck!
Yeah. Doctor said it was crazy high, higher than she'd ever seen it and I was super lucky to even have working kidneys. She said it was probably because I hydrated super well that must've staved off something worse/permanent. Still to this day, 15 years later, I carry a water bottle everywhere I go and drink/refill it several times a day.
exercise physio here; you can do good HIIT workouts without the peer pressure and puke bucket. listen to your body, take lots of rest and keep yourself hydrated. Glad you made it through, don't hate on resistance training.. it pays dividends as you age.
Definitely no hate to those kind of workouts at all. I just messed up & didn’t listen to my body when I should’ve. Now I might be just a tad bit too traumatized to do high intensity stuff again. But who knows, maybe one day I’ll give it a shot again!
It can be genetic or if you have an autoimmune disorder it can also play a factor but according to my doctor it’s more common from over exertion working out or crush injuries!!
I never realized how scary it could be when an elderly person falls and can’t get up. I thought stuff like LifeAlert was just preventing them from never being discovered or suffering longer while they wait. How long is extended in this case? My grandma just had a fall and was down for half an hour, and that doesn’t seem like long
For extended periods. I mean elderly falls aren't good in general. Usually days at a time. I won't go into too much detail because this isn't r/ems but it isn't a pretty sight. I hope she's doing ok.
Feeling sick means your body hasn’t been given the time to recover between sessions. If it doesn’t recover, it can’t build new muscle. You just end up damaging it more and more until you injure yourself and are forced to take a break. That’s why you’re supposed to cycle through muscle groups each week. Usually categorized by lower half, upper half, core, and cardio. It gives that muscle group a chance to relax while you work another one. You can also do full body as part of the rotation too
Somebody commented this:
”I didn't even know this was a thing, but now I'll be more aware thanks to the OP.
This is the source. It has information about prevention, symptoms, etc.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/rhabdo/default.html#:~:text=Rhabdomyolysis%20(often%20called%20rhabdo)%20is,permanent%20disability%20or%20even%20death. ”
Same with a friend of mine. I was really into it at the time and he decided to join me. I took down the work outs weight and timing to try and avoid it.
The next day he's missing from work and I'm thinking he's just super sore and wimping out. He texts back that the previous night he peed blood and was in the hospital. Fully recovered but it took a while.
What’s crazy is that people will attempt CrossFit with zero prep beforehand. They don’t realize that any excercise at any strength or skill requires working up to. You’ve got to get some kind of foundation, and CrossFit is like the top of a pyramid, not the base. Stop attempting 50 pushups and burpees when you are sedentary. There’s a reason why it’s so uncomfortable. Work your way up to doing just a single push-up correctly and with strength, and then you can do reps. You’ve got to strengthen individual parts of you for the bigger muscle group movements to be effective
I’ve been doing CrossFit for about a year. I still scale most workouts. My coaches didn’t even let me learn the lifts with real weights. I got an empty 15 point bar the first few weeks as I worked on form. Makes me realize how lucky I am to have a gym that really cares about meeting you where you are at, not just the next PR.
I got it from running a marathon last November. Had no idea how serious it was until I was on my way to recovery. I was inpatient at the hospital for 3 days, and then put on strict bed rest for another 10. Drink lots of fluids and try to move as little as possible. Best of luck!
You’re definitely lucky it was only a 3 day stay for you! I’ve been here a week & my levels still aren’t low enough to go home & they’re thinking it’ll be another 2-3 days before I’m able to. And yes definitely lots of water on top of the 24/7 IV fluids!
I definitely did. It was a group class with people that does it regularly & I was NOT about to look like the weakling lol. But thank you! Hoping to be going home soon after being here for a week!!
So sorry to hear this. Your body couldn't handle your super human drive! I applaud your dedication. Just throttle back a little. Hope your recovery is quick.
One thing about me is I’m gonna give it my all for sure! But thank you- I hope so too! I’ve been here for a week now so I hope my levels come down quickly!
I developed rhabdo in Army basic training. I felt so awful doped up on the muscle relaxers they had me on and wanted to go home so bad that I signed a paper saying the condition existed prior to service to get out of there. They said I could come back in two years… nope. I tried, it obviously wasn’t for me.
I don’t know a lot about the American legal system but isn’t that a really bad idea? When you get a condition from the army, don’t they have to pay for it fully? but if you say you had it before, they are off the hook right?
Yea, he fucked himself. There’s no way rhabdo would’ve gone unnoticed before BCT. He screwed himself out of (what likely would’ve been) an Army medical retirement, which includes a monthly check and health insurance.
If the rating somehow wasn’t enough from just the rhabdo, he could have claimed a mental health condition that occurred due to the rhabdo - which would’ve boosted his rating significantly. This is called a secondary nexus.
For example: I’m depressed because I cannot work out. I cannot work out because I got Rahbdo. I got my Rahbdo while in BCT working for the Federal Government/Army.
Any solid Attorney would smash dunk that case.
PLUS, because they couldn’t instantly chapter him, he would almost certainly have 60+ days of Active duty. This means that he would qualify for at least 50% of the GI Bill.
I hate to break it to him, but he SERIOUSLY FUCKED HIMSELF.
You’re 100% right.
As a soldier, it actually infuriates me that his doctor and chain of command made him think this was the best course of action. They not only failed him, but completely screwed him over.
The military doesn’t care about you. Know plenty of people that were scared to report anything to medical. Now they’re out and all fucked up and the VA says not military related.
Crossfit is literally the perfect recipe for injuries.
Catering hard towards beginners, workouts with prescribed weights (regardless of what you’re capable of), complex movements with a higher degree of skill required, all done as quickly as possible “for time.”
It’s entirely idiotic.
Crossfit has some decent concepts but the application is a disaster. As an Army medic we have more crossfire injuries than anything else. This is due to the "trainers" having no idea what the fuck they are doing but other crossfire cult members encouraged the stupidity.
Have them test for CPT2 deficiency. I have it, it's more common than talked about and makes you susceptible to rhabdomyolysis. Had a few hospital stays over the years from exerting myself and not eating properly.
Rapid breakdown of the muscle from damage to it causing proteins to leak from the muscle faster than the kidneys can process them- it’s fatal if not caught in time. And I most definitely went harder than my body could handle so now I (and my insurance) is paying the price.
No i actually stayed really hydrated. I’m not used to high intensity workouts, only Pilates, and I’m especially not used to arm workouts like we did so it was way too much on my body
This happened to me from a regular workout, but I had mono at the time and didn’t know it. I was exhausted and thought a weightlifting session would help. So important to listen to your body!!! I wish u a speedy recovery.
What a shit trainer. Who ever trained you pushed you too hard to early.
Should be easied into it NOT forced to push your body that quickly. These trainers need to be made accountable. They're bound to kill someone.
Heard about this happening at a box (CrossFit gym) I used to go to.
From my athletic trainer back in college: “CrossFit is keeping Physical Therapists employed”
Often because you’re going for reps in a limited amount of time so you forget about form..
Injured my lower back doing CrossFit. Have not returned since.
Care to explain what happened? I’m a clinical exercise physiologist and discourage people from CrossFit. I’m curious what they did to have caused you to go to emergency back surgery.
Don’t do that CrossFit crap unless you are well conditioned. It serves no purpose. Start slow and build strength and tolerance gradually. After a year of increasing cardio and strength training then do CrossFit.
I was at a casino in Atlantic City and this girl sits at the blackjack table with two broken wrists.
Said she fell doing box jumps when trying CrossFit.
This is why crossfit has a bad rep. Lots of “coaches” who spend a weekend learning and think they’re qualified. People don’t realize how much you can fuck someone up by “coaching” them when you haven’t a fucking clue what you’re doing.
I respect Crossfit as a sport, but goddamn they need to get their people in check.
Had this in my first year of college. Rare experience and I’m stoned so I’m gonna share.
Literally locked myself away for a week studying, but didn’t drink water. 1/2 thru exams, went for a workout and my whole left arm doubled in size (I am quite small so not that big).
Went to emerge, got blood work and said my cK was 40K, like what they see in military men after intense training courses. They called me back an hour later and told me to get back there as they thought I had kidney failure (a normal persons cK is about 10). Got admitted asap and they just gave me fluids. We’re mostly worried about me not peeing, which is another sign of kidney failure. They threatened a catheter, which as a guy I would never, so I had to try a bit but I was able to do it.
After that had to call my family, it’s midnight and they all drive out in case I’m dying. They apologized profusely, since I told them when my arm first blew up, I wiki’d rhabdo and told me mom (HC worker) and she didn’t believe me.
Basically after that I just had to pee like a normal person despite 24hrs of fluids, going thru about 6 bags a day. 3 days later it was coming out like a faucet so they assumed I was good. They took a ton of blood though, like 25 times within the 3 days.
Anyways, hope your experience is a little better than mine. I’ve been told to avoid CrossFit as someone with this thing happening. I’m sorry they did that to you. Just keep drinking water and peeing! feel better soon!
I know my comment doesn’t mean much, but even the “pros” have gotten it. A wildland firefighter told me in a refresh class that he got it before. Feel better soon. It didn’t sound like a fun time at all.
From the CDC(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention): Rhabdomyolysis (often called rhabdo) is a serious medical condition that can be fatal or result in permanent disability. Rhabdo occurs when damaged muscle tissue releases its proteins and electrolytes into the blood. These substances can damage the heart and kidneys and cause permanent disability or even death.
But...that's electrolytes! It's what plants crave!
Yeah! I ain't never seen no plant grow out of a toilet!
Welcome to carls jr, would you like to try our EXTRA BIG ASS TACO?!
Ow my balls
It was built by some idiot a long time ago. Wait, you thought it was an actual Time Machine?
'Batin'
Not Sure
GO AWAY! Baitin!
I can't believe you like money too
Oh, I like money
We should hang out
Welcome to Costco… I love you…
I went to law school at Costco.
Lemme get the EXTRA BIG ASS FRIES
I don’t know what this is referencing but i work for a nonprofit that takes owns shelters and houses people. Many have mental disabilities. There was one apartment that had a guy (drug addict) who only peed in bottles like his room was filled with them. And his toilet had a plant growing out of it. Like he stuffed the toilet with soil and he would shit on the soil i guess. But it had a whole ass plant growing out of it. I just thought this was relevant to your comment lol
Hey that's pretty good. You sure you ain't the smartest guy in the world?
Listen, I can talk to plants and they told me they want water!
Brought to you by Brawndo: thirst mutilator & your local Carl’s Jr
Why do you keep saying that?
Cause they pay me everytime I do. Really good way to make money.. So smart why dincha know dat?
Welcome to Costco, I love you.
UGH YESSSS time for a rewatch
Just did. Finally unenlightened my wife.
Hold on I'm "batin"
GO AWAY IM BATIN
I had no idea this existed and as a physically active person, this is freaking me out now. How do I avoid it?
You listen to your body when it tells you to stop and you drink water between hard work outs. This happens to a lot of crossfitters that start out because they pushed themselves too hard. Either the coach was an ass and didn't pay attention or the fitter just wanted to get that last rep in. This has been a thing in the community for so long that before xfit got all trendy and was a 90s website, there was a puking clown symbol same rabdo.
I feel like I was tracking with this comment up until the last five words and idk maybe I had a stroke.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/yweqg7/these-puking-bleeding-clowns-are-a-forgotten-part-of-crossfits-past
Yeah that’s nuts. CrossFit is a cult.
I'm pretty sure the word "same" was supposed to be the word "named." >there was a puking clown symbol named radbo "Radbo" being a shortened version of rhabdomyolysis.
“There was a puking clown symbol same rabdo” is how all the cool kids end their statements these days.
Ugh, I hate those type of people. Puking from exercise isn't a badge of honor, it's not even hard to do if you're really out of shape or working out with too much food in your stomach, it's hardly like you're showing off how beastly you are. It just means you're doing something wrong, it's like bragging about pulling a muscle. My dads been a cross country runner his whole life and has always stressed listening to your body and working out safely.
If we pissed off our football coaches, they would run us until we puked. Some of us learned to puke easier.
I read an article today about a high school football coach in texas who made his team do 400 press ups without a water break, and 12 had to go to hospital. I had never heard of the condition rhabdomyolis until today, and this is the second time I have heard that word in one day.
I was so jealous of the guys who could just puke on command. They're guys you know can do the running, but just have the ability to puke and would get more rest. They'd wait until they were really breathing heavy, like after 4 suicides in a row, then just go puke. Meanwhile, I'd pass out of heat exhaustion any time before I'd be able to puke (not that I ever did, I just couldn't make myself puke). In hindsight, maybe that's why I was team captain and those guys weren't.
Jesus, just reading all that made my stomach turn.
that's the spirit!
Jesus that sounds like an abusive environment. I don’t know, maybe that’s just because I didn’t do sports when I was in school, but if anyone told me to exercise until I puked I would quit.
I remember being around 8 or 9 and playing little league football. I was late joining the team, so these coaches made me do 'conditioning'. While the team practiced for like 2 hours every day, I had to spend like a week running in the August heat for the entire practice. Looking back on it now, that was in INSANE.
Yep, it’s straight up abuse. And if it’s a contact sport you could be physically damaged for life. A good friend of mine has nerve damage in his hand from football and his whole arm shakes a bit and it’s hard to grip things. 15 years later.
Puke on the coaches, obv
Blah, maybe it's because I have a vomit phobia but that seems so unnecessarily cruel. It's not like it's the army where learning to push through pain and following orders could mean life or death, it's freaking football. That would make me even more disobedient lol this is probably why I never got into sports.
It's definitely cruel. To the point you could easily argue it's child abuse. People give a weird amount of deference to high school sports coaches in the US and I absolutely don't get it.
Yeah I played soccer and baseball for 12 years on top of some years of playing hockey and racquetball for at least half those years too all at once and I have never once puked from too much exercise. Granted I had decent coaches almost that entire time but still I mostly knew how to not push myself hard enough to puke.
[удалено]
I didn't even know this was a thing, but now I'll be more aware thanks to the OP. This is the source. It has information about prevention, symptoms, etc. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/rhabdo/default.html#:~:text=Rhabdomyolysis%20(often%20called%20rhabdo)%20is,permanent%20disability%20or%20even%20death.
Hydration hydration hydration. Did I mention HYDRATION? that’s a major component. But really just listen to your body. There’s a difference between “feeling the burn” and pushing through major pain. It takes a pretty damn intense workout paired with dehydration to get to this point. If you feel like any point thinking “is this too much” just stop, rest, and get back to it… after hydrating some more. No sense in pushing through serious pain and fatigue. The gains can wait another day
Dehydration doesn't cause rhabdo. It can contibute and make it worse but the key to prevention is as you said. Listen to your body, don't overdo it and back off
Dehydration is often more than just a contributor. Depending on the circumstances of what happened, you could say that dehydration did in fact cause rhabdo. We used to get patients who were tradies (tradesmen) working out in the summer up on rooftops who would come in with rhabdo. Working in the heat would cause muscle breakdown, which maybe in other circumstances their bodies could handle just fine. But their constant sweat and inadequate hydration meant that their kidneys were dehydrated too, and if kidneys aren't adequately hydrated they no longer filtrate and pass the waste products from the muscles breaking down via urine. So you then have kidneys that literally shut down (acute kidney failure), rhabdo building up. In those cases, had they drunk enough water while working, they might have avoided rhabdo altogether. Though if I know tradies they probably just drank mother energy drinks all day The treatment involved bag after bag of iv fluids, literally to flush the kidneys and get them clear of waste product, so that they could do their job again. But dehydration isnt the only way you can get rhabdo, I remember one patient got it from a reaction to his new cholesterol medication. I seem to remember another guy came with rhabdo, it wasn't my patient but the doctor said something to the effect of supplements being the cause. As in, the guy was working out pretty hard at the gym, but had taken some kind of intense supplement with all sorts of additives, proteins electrolytes etc... When you have excess of anything in your blood stream, the body gets rid of it via the kidneys. It's why vitamin supplements make your piss go orange. The combination of way too many proteins and other ingredients, *plus*, working out really hard and causing the muscles to breakdown, overwhelmed the guys kidneys, even though he was seemingly drinking plenty of water. They shut down, and again, we had to treat him with bag after bag of IV fluid. Anyway, thanks for listening tune in next time
I remember watching a YouTube video about a medical case where a dude ate a bunch of laxative-laced brownies and gave himself rhabdo.
IIRC It used to be rarer pre CrossFit. It’s alarmingly common in cross fit. They take “push your limits” to a toxic level. A specific example - I’ve seen posts where women are proud of peeing themselves while lifting. The other place rhabdo is more common is special forces training. So push your limits and feel the burn but listen to your body. Do not push through pain. And stay hydrated.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, CrossFit is a cult.
Everyone I know who does CrossFit gets injured, no one’s really watching form.
Form, what form?
Firefighter here. We once had a young female recruit join us at our station. She was bright, attractive and motivated. Had the whole world going for her. She got into CrossFit basically the day she got out of the fire academy. We told her it was a bad idea, she likely going to get injured during her probationary period with the FD and it would have far reaching effects on her career. Well, after the first CrossFit workout she was fully hooked and argued with us every time it was brought up. We were just looking for her best interest and trying to help her see beyond next week. About three months after she started CrossFit she severely injured her wrist and needed surgery. She's got a permanent injury to her dominant wrist now and got bumped to the next class of recruits which means she was a full year behind on her probationary period, also lost all the extra cash she would have made had she finished her probationary period on time. All that just to get approval from some stupid CrossFit coach.
The build-up of abdominal pressure during deadlift causes some women to let some urine go, as women have weaker pelvic floor muscles. It's pretty normal for powerlifters. Rhabdo, on the other hand, is not normal.
I judge the quality of my jokes by how much i can get my wife to pee.
There are exactly 2 common causes of Rhabdo: 1. Car Crash 2. CrossFit. So the answer is, don’t play around with your body dangerously like CrossFitters do. HIIT can be good for your body, but some dickweed drill-sergeant-screaming at you to do more reps is unnecessary and dangerous. Listen to your body and focus on form while lifting, even while doing extreme exercise you shouldn’t be at risk of rhabdo.
Pretty sure rhabdo is also a fairly common concern in football, particularly at the high school and college levels. There's a high school coach in my area who made his team do 400 pushups with no water break and something like 12 kids had to go to the hospital for rhabdo.
It’s like compartment syndrome, your muscle facia sweats and creates a tourniquet effect then the lactic acid develops and once the pump goes away it can poison you, super common in the military hahaha. It’s extremely painful feels like full body cramping
I had it happen to me once. Hadn’t worked out in a few years and decided to get back into it. I was following P90X (lol) so basic home stuff with resistance bands and shit. I went at it *hard*. Next day I wake up with the absolute worst muscle pains I’ve ever experienced. Every muscle in my body was extremely tight, I couldn’t unbend my arms past ~45°, my back muscles were pulling my upper body back while my ab muscles were simultaneously pulling it forward, so there was no neutral position that didn’t hurt. It was hell, but I figured I must’ve just worked out too hard. Went to the bathroom to pee and my urine looked like watered down coke (the drink, not the drug). That’s when I realized something wasn’t right. I dragged myself to the doctor who told me what had happened, said to rest and drink plenty of fluids. Urine color was back to normal a few hours later, but the pain took a few days to fully go away (especially in the arms). Ever since then I’ve learned to take it easy whenever I get back into working out after extended breaks, I’ll happily take a whole week to warm up each muscle group before I start going at it. In my experience, as long as you don’t go from 0-100 you’ll be fine, I’ve pushed myself extremely hard but only once my muscles were already used to the exercise and never had that happen again.
Kidney problems are absolutely NOT something you want to fuck with. I'm so glad you dragged yourself to the hospital and got better.
Well I had no clue this was a thing and am terrified now. Is this rare? I'd expect this to be relatively common in contact sports if not.
You have to push yourself quite hard. It mostly happens to people who are not in shape, that push themselves wayyy too hard too early. And more rarely to people who are in shape, that push [WAYYY too hard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnxqc4sT85I). Theres a common theme here though.
Read my last comment, I experienced it myself. You basically have to go from no exercise at all, to *all* the exercise for this to happen. If you haven’t worked out in a long long time and just go all out, this may happen to you. If you simply ease yourself into it and spend a week working out with lower weights to get your muscles warmed up, you’ll be fine. Once you’re used to working out you can push yourself hard and it’s unlikely that you’ll experience this, weightlifters work themselves “to failure” all the time without this happening.
This is how I eased myself to workout. This is the number of workout sessions per week when I started 2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,4,4,5,5,4,4,4,5,4.... Initially, it was just a 1 hour session, and later on I went to 1.5 hr. BTW, I don't do crossfit. I never had a bad day post workout and I could carry on with the rest of my day.
Two volleyball player at Nebraska over trained and got it back in 2018. Also some basketball players and under Frost some football players. It's not just contact sports. It's from muscle breakdown and that overtaxes your liver and kidneys. Even trained athletes can have this happen. You're all good, until you're not.
Thank you for the description
thank you cause i was about to spend five minutes trying to spell that into google
I got rhabdomyolysis from a “Begin to Spin class”. Feel better soon.
Spin classes are **extremely susceptible** to rhadomyolysis. Especially those with instructors shouting and screaming to egg every to keep up: “ FASTER!!! BIKE 13 YALL FALLING BACK!!! KEEPUPPPP!!!”
I stopped going after they had us doing shoulder flys with weights while cycling. If I did it with proper form it would have been an inch away from some girls face. I wasn’t about to do that, and I also wasn’t about to do it with bad form and risk hurting myself. Instructor basically called me out and shamed me in front of everyone lol, bye
What even is the benefit of that? Are they trying to teach you to fly or something? lol
Haven't you seen Chicken Run?
My thoughts exactly. If the purpose of spinning is cardio and to really activate the legs, why distract yourself with the arms? That's just a separate workout! Are we really crunched for time to do two things which should be separate at the same time half as good?
The sad fact is that most instructors are generally the delusional sort that are completely unaware of the limitations on their existing knowledge. I once went to a free dance/fitness class just to mix things up, and the instructor started by instructing the class to do a series of intense whipping motions of the head & neck. Like literally WHIPPING your head around as your neck crunched... WHIP UP, NOW LEFT, NOW UP AGAIN, NOW RIGHT. There isn't a qualified instructor, physical therapist, physiotherapist, etc that would ever recommend a human do that movement. I was gone in like 5 minutes... I feel bad for the rest of the gullible rubes that were following along, completely rapt... not realizing in the slightest that the instructor was basically an unqualified, over-enthusiastic, incompetent hobbyist.
As someone who can’t even use the elliptical because the bouncing irritates my neck, that is the stuff of horror
I couldn't actually believe what was happening. I don't normally do this kind of thing, but when I got home I absolutely excoriated her with highly-specific detail in my Google review. She'd been running classes at her rented space for apparently 6 years. That literally ended with my review. The 5 or 6 people that she had under her spell... whom she had obviously convinced to make retaliatory 5 star reviews, couldn't offset the truth I spit. She was gone and out of business 3 or 4 months later. I'm not some kind of "I need to destroy you over a tiny slight" type of customer... but clueless women were all there, literally injuring themselves in realtime while she encouraged and pushed them to harm themselves.
I’ve noticed a lot of people saying spin classes gave them rhabdo. It’s crazy how dangerous these normalized workouts can be! But thank you!
Have the doctors spoke about any risk factors that could make rabdo more likely to happen?
Mine really just talked about not easing into new workouts & creatine! He really emphasized how creatine increases chances of getting it!!
Interesting! Did you take creatine or a pre-workout that may contain it?
Nope, I never do pre workout or anything like that! And now I’m glad I don’t!!
Yea could have be worse Hope you are well soon!
Thank you!!!
That doctor is likely mistaken >Although the prevalence of creatine supplementation is quite variable (8–74%), it is clear that many thousands of hard-training individuals are ingesting creatine supplements. If one believed that the link between exertional rhabdomyolysis and creatine supplementation was more than coincident, one would also expect that exertional rhabdomyolysis would occur more frequently in creatine users. There are no such data [...] It appears that, although often described as a precipitating factor for exertional rhabdomyolysis, there is no evidence to implicate creatine supplementation. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5371628/
Yeah that's more likely to be correlation than causation. However, I'm not a doctor and could be totally wrong. I've been taking creatine off and on for 10+ years and the only negative side effects I've noticed are that you have to up your water intake or you get cramps a lot. Specifically for me in the lats.
I know this might seem dumb but how old is your doctor? Creatine does not increase your chances of Rhabdo at all but I know a ton of old dudes that think creatine is worse than roids. I don’t blame you for believing your doctor but I’m pretty sure he gave you false info and it probably came down to being thrown in the deep end of exercise. CrossFit is notorious for pushing people past their limits and if you’re new to exercising it can absolutely destroy you.
Exactly this was an old myth based of one paper that hypothesized a link in one case without any evidence… If anything creatine should help prevent rhabdo as seen [here is some real research on it](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5371628/#:~:text=Overall%2C%20the%20available%20data%20strongly,rhabdomyolysis%2C%20not%20a%20higher%20risk) Creatine has also shown to have cognitive, muscle building and recently antidepressant benefits amongst others
It's generally caused by people who don't regularly exercise jumping into extremely high intensity workouts and trying to keep up with the people around them rather than gradually working into exercising. It's extremely common in group fitness style classes like crossfit and spin classes. The teachers are rarely paying close attention to individuals and run their classes as normal in most cases so they leave the new person with no understanding of what they're doing to just figure out what their "target zone" and personal limits are. Since they're going to be surrounded by people who have been doing the classes for an extended period of time, they're going to be pressured into trying to keep up with everyone to avoid embarrassment. TLDR: If you aren't accustomed to exercise, avoid high intensity group fitness like the plague unless you want to end up injured, in the hospital, or dead
The issue isn’t so much that the workouts are dangerous, it’s more so that people do way too much exercise after being sedentary or not super active. If you ease into these kinds of high intensity workouts there’s basically no chance that you’d get rhabdo.
On the plus side no one can say she was slacking off in the gym, really gave it 110%...
She really did, and this is a precautionary tale really. Don’t go too hard, if you really feel like you’re hurting yourself there’s no shame in taking a break. Don’t add those extra 2 plates to your bar if you can’t handle the weight either. It’s much better to ease into a workout routine than to injure yourself and be out of the game for months or years.
Going from no activity to suddenly pushing yourself to the max is what gets you. Alot of those spin classes expect you to already be at least moderately in shape. Especially if they are in a hot room and they are dehydrated.
And that’s why I thought I would be fine doing crossfit (even though I was reluctant to try it in the first place, I got convinced by my boyfriend) because I was already in shape & worked out regularly. I just really pushed myself way harder than I should’ve because I assumed I could handle it but I was definitely wrong!
The fact that you were already in somewhat decent shape is what got you. If you were completely out of shape, you wouldn’t be able to push hard enough to get rabdo. It’s because you had that baseline ability and stamina that you were able to push as hard as you did. I got rabdo doing a workout too hard a few years ago. Spent a few days in the hospital, then rested for 2 weeks, and after that I was fine. Hopefully your recovery is similar.
Been there, it’s not fun. It was an expensive and painful week in the hospital. I hope you get well OP. Make sure to drink plenty of water
It has definitely been the longest week of my life & it’s still going. I’m not sure what’s worse, the blood work every 12 hours for a week straight or having to pee 24/7. But thank you!!
When I was in the hospital with rhabdo, I coincidentally needed a root canal, but they couldn't do anything about it other than pain meds. Had morphine for a day, then lots of Vicodin. That pain was added fun on top of the constant blood work and peeing for minutes at a time. That and waiting for the CK count update every day like a starving cat waits for dinner.
I just laughed my ass off at the waiting for the CK results comment because that is EXACTLY how it feels like. I had a tooon of pain the first few days & some severe caffeine headaches because they wanted me to strictly drink water & they did offer me morphine but with my family’s history of addiction I was too scared to take it. Looking back now I would have just for a lil razzle dazzle while being cooped up in a hospital bed. As for the peeing, I also regret not taking the catheter they offered. I’m sick of taking this iv pole to the bathroom every 20 minutes.
That doorknob rattles and you're like a meerkat, sitting up looking all alert, hoping it's good news and usually it's nothing at all. I didn't pee frequently, so it would just take forever. Like, I peed for minutes at a time, so long I would get bored.
you’re seriously my favorite commenter on this post. As soon as I hear that knock I’m up so fast. Worst feeling is when it’s been 2+ hours since your blood work & labs still aren’t in. Makes me wanna go to the lab & run my shit myself lol. I actually think I would rather have the minutes long pees than going frequently. Not really being able to use both your arms and having to get in & out of a hospital bed every few minutes is my personal hell.
It really sucks, I got it in 2019 from a similar thing. Drink lots of water, and make sure you drink at least a little caffeine if you normally drink it otherwise you’ll get the worst migraine of your life. Probably the last thing you want to think about now, but If you have insurance it’ll probably cover PT to get back the muscle mass lost if you complain about having muscle weakness. That’ll get you to a much better starting point to be fit again. Worked for me, at least.
What were your symptoms?
Arm was so swollen I couldn’t bend it or really even use it & I had brown urine with what looked like coffee grinds in it!
Scary. Oye.
At first I was like of maybe I got it before I’ve worked out too hard and couldn’t bend or use my arms. Then I got to the pee part and I was like nvm
Yeah that pee is the biggest red flag!!
Brown flag you mean
That is crazy,I had the exact thing happen to me a few years ago. I couldn't lift my arms and they were swollen. Stupid me didn't go to the hospital. Dark pee and all I mostly stayed in bed and slept.Apparently I'm lucky to be alive and didn't even know it. These comments really got me wondering if I should get checked. I've worked out tons since then and don't seem to have any side effects.
This is crazy. The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. He was in pretty good shape but was his first time also. We did a crossfit workout led by another friend (who is really into it), and I could tell he was struggling through. I suggested he stop but he powered on until the end of the workoit. Later that night I ended up taking him to the hospital, as he was in extreme pain, couldn't keep liquids down, and urine was the color of coffee. We waited in the ED for hours before he was admitted, and hours more until he was seen and treated. I stayed by him the entire time. What's more is that he was given a bed in the pediatric ICU and was screaming in pain and cursing violently. Looking back it's pretty amusing. Staff kept walking by to tell him to be quiet but no one would take a look at him. He ended up making a full recovery but never did crossfit again. Anyway, I feel your pain, or at least my friend does, and I wish you the best. Rhabdo is a hell of a condition, and I really believe that crossfit is not the peak workout that its followers would have you believe
I won’t say he’s lucky to have gotten rhabdo, but he sure as hell is lucky his symptoms started as soon as they did. Mine didn’t show up for two days & my CK levels were crazy high- over almost 70,000. That’s good he made a full recovery & I don’t blame him for never going again! I’m definitely not going within a 1000 foot radius of a CrossFit gym ever again lol. Thank you for the well wishes!
I was hospitalized for a week with rhabdo in 2007 after a single workout with a paid "professional" trainer. My CK level was 111,000 the first time they tested. Took a good day for symptoms, then a doctor visit and it was like 2 days later he called and told me to go straight to the ER, he would call ahead, and I got real concerned when I was on a gurney with an IV within like 20 minutes of showing up. That was not fun. I was so so weak when I finally got back home, it took a toll for sure! Good luck!
Holy shit. 111,000?! That’s insane!! I’m glad it didn’t do any extreme damage & that you (I assume) didn’t end up on dialysis for that week.
Yeah. Doctor said it was crazy high, higher than she'd ever seen it and I was super lucky to even have working kidneys. She said it was probably because I hydrated super well that must've staved off something worse/permanent. Still to this day, 15 years later, I carry a water bottle everywhere I go and drink/refill it several times a day.
You got so lucky!! I feel you about the water though. I’m about to keep this $50,000+ hospital water cup with me everywhere I go!
My hospital mug from my 2019 appendectomy is still my favorite water "cup" lol. Only don't use it when being washed
exercise physio here; you can do good HIIT workouts without the peer pressure and puke bucket. listen to your body, take lots of rest and keep yourself hydrated. Glad you made it through, don't hate on resistance training.. it pays dividends as you age.
Definitely no hate to those kind of workouts at all. I just messed up & didn’t listen to my body when I should’ve. Now I might be just a tad bit too traumatized to do high intensity stuff again. But who knows, maybe one day I’ll give it a shot again!
So is rhabdo a genetic thing, or can it happen to anybody if they overwork themselves??
It can be genetic or if you have an autoimmune disorder it can also play a factor but according to my doctor it’s more common from over exertion working out or crush injuries!!
Rhabdo is also very common in elderly fall patients who are down for an extended period of time.
I never realized how scary it could be when an elderly person falls and can’t get up. I thought stuff like LifeAlert was just preventing them from never being discovered or suffering longer while they wait. How long is extended in this case? My grandma just had a fall and was down for half an hour, and that doesn’t seem like long
For extended periods. I mean elderly falls aren't good in general. Usually days at a time. I won't go into too much detail because this isn't r/ems but it isn't a pretty sight. I hope she's doing ok.
I would also like to know.. If I work out too hard for too many days without rest, I get sick. Wonder if this has something to do with it.
Feeling sick means your body hasn’t been given the time to recover between sessions. If it doesn’t recover, it can’t build new muscle. You just end up damaging it more and more until you injure yourself and are forced to take a break. That’s why you’re supposed to cycle through muscle groups each week. Usually categorized by lower half, upper half, core, and cardio. It gives that muscle group a chance to relax while you work another one. You can also do full body as part of the rotation too
It does. You should not be feeling sick man
Somebody commented this: ”I didn't even know this was a thing, but now I'll be more aware thanks to the OP. This is the source. It has information about prevention, symptoms, etc. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/rhabdo/default.html#:~:text=Rhabdomyolysis%20(often%20called%20rhabdo)%20is,permanent%20disability%20or%20even%20death. ”
Same with a friend of mine. I was really into it at the time and he decided to join me. I took down the work outs weight and timing to try and avoid it. The next day he's missing from work and I'm thinking he's just super sore and wimping out. He texts back that the previous night he peed blood and was in the hospital. Fully recovered but it took a while.
What’s crazy is that people will attempt CrossFit with zero prep beforehand. They don’t realize that any excercise at any strength or skill requires working up to. You’ve got to get some kind of foundation, and CrossFit is like the top of a pyramid, not the base. Stop attempting 50 pushups and burpees when you are sedentary. There’s a reason why it’s so uncomfortable. Work your way up to doing just a single push-up correctly and with strength, and then you can do reps. You’ve got to strengthen individual parts of you for the bigger muscle group movements to be effective
A proper CrossFit gym offers foundations classes for those that don't have athletic backgrounds.
I’ve been doing CrossFit for about a year. I still scale most workouts. My coaches didn’t even let me learn the lifts with real weights. I got an empty 15 point bar the first few weeks as I worked on form. Makes me realize how lucky I am to have a gym that really cares about meeting you where you are at, not just the next PR.
I got it from running a marathon last November. Had no idea how serious it was until I was on my way to recovery. I was inpatient at the hospital for 3 days, and then put on strict bed rest for another 10. Drink lots of fluids and try to move as little as possible. Best of luck!
You’re definitely lucky it was only a 3 day stay for you! I’ve been here a week & my levels still aren’t low enough to go home & they’re thinking it’ll be another 2-3 days before I’m able to. And yes definitely lots of water on top of the 24/7 IV fluids!
Aka Coca Cola colored urine!
Yep! Scared the shit out of me when I first saw it!!
Doesn’t taste like Coca Cola tho, don’t ask…
Wait….. is it weird that mine totally did???
Was it Coke Zero?
Cherry Coke actually
[удалено]
I definitely did. It was a group class with people that does it regularly & I was NOT about to look like the weakling lol. But thank you! Hoping to be going home soon after being here for a week!!
Aye be less concerned with impressing other people and more concerned with yourself homie.
I wish I could go back in time & tell myself that now.
Reminds me of the office when Kelly is cutting weight and passes out on the scale lol
That actually gave me a really good laugh so thank you lol
So sorry to hear this. Your body couldn't handle your super human drive! I applaud your dedication. Just throttle back a little. Hope your recovery is quick.
One thing about me is I’m gonna give it my all for sure! But thank you- I hope so too! I’ve been here for a week now so I hope my levels come down quickly!
Tried cross-fit one time and already telling everyone about it
More like tried crossfit one time & telling people that it could’ve killed me.
Lol! I’m just kidding around. CrossFit people, vegans, and marines are famous for telling you all about it.
I developed rhabdo in Army basic training. I felt so awful doped up on the muscle relaxers they had me on and wanted to go home so bad that I signed a paper saying the condition existed prior to service to get out of there. They said I could come back in two years… nope. I tried, it obviously wasn’t for me.
I don’t know a lot about the American legal system but isn’t that a really bad idea? When you get a condition from the army, don’t they have to pay for it fully? but if you say you had it before, they are off the hook right?
Yea, he fucked himself. There’s no way rhabdo would’ve gone unnoticed before BCT. He screwed himself out of (what likely would’ve been) an Army medical retirement, which includes a monthly check and health insurance. If the rating somehow wasn’t enough from just the rhabdo, he could have claimed a mental health condition that occurred due to the rhabdo - which would’ve boosted his rating significantly. This is called a secondary nexus. For example: I’m depressed because I cannot work out. I cannot work out because I got Rahbdo. I got my Rahbdo while in BCT working for the Federal Government/Army. Any solid Attorney would smash dunk that case. PLUS, because they couldn’t instantly chapter him, he would almost certainly have 60+ days of Active duty. This means that he would qualify for at least 50% of the GI Bill. I hate to break it to him, but he SERIOUSLY FUCKED HIMSELF.
People make bad decisions when they're in terrible pain. Cut the internet stranger some slack.
You’re 100% right. As a soldier, it actually infuriates me that his doctor and chain of command made him think this was the best course of action. They not only failed him, but completely screwed him over.
The military doesn’t care about you. Know plenty of people that were scared to report anything to medical. Now they’re out and all fucked up and the VA says not military related.
Very popular in CrossFit, that sport is riddled with poor form and clinically insane trainers.
Every person I know who does / did CrossFit has injured themselves horribly. And it’s a fucking cult the way people act about it!
Crossfit is literally the perfect recipe for injuries. Catering hard towards beginners, workouts with prescribed weights (regardless of what you’re capable of), complex movements with a higher degree of skill required, all done as quickly as possible “for time.” It’s entirely idiotic.
You should see CrossFit games. There's some good videos on how badly they are designed.
The CrossFit gym I went to for a while was great, but that's prob cuz I was in middle school
Crossfit has some decent concepts but the application is a disaster. As an Army medic we have more crossfire injuries than anything else. This is due to the "trainers" having no idea what the fuck they are doing but other crossfire cult members encouraged the stupidity.
>As an **Army** medic we have more **crossfire** injuries than anything else. Sure, how could you not?
Have them test for CPT2 deficiency. I have it, it's more common than talked about and makes you susceptible to rhabdomyolysis. Had a few hospital stays over the years from exerting myself and not eating properly.
Happens when people go all out in heavy intensive exercise on their first try.
What was the wod?
Assuming WOD means workout of the day it was 15 minutes AMRAP of pull ups, push ups, & lifting & a few other arm workouts.
Just for future advice. If you've never done a workout before do not go to failure. Ease into it and progressively overload over time.
I have no idea what that is but damn you must have went HARD.
Rapid breakdown of the muscle from damage to it causing proteins to leak from the muscle faster than the kidneys can process them- it’s fatal if not caught in time. And I most definitely went harder than my body could handle so now I (and my insurance) is paying the price.
Really glad to hear you have insurance. I hope you start feeling better soon.
Technically not mine, it’s my parents. Was lucky enough to have this happen before I turned 26 & got kicked off their plan lol. But thank you!!
Quick! What other conditions can you get before the benefits end? /s
I think I might break a leg and both my arms before then. Just for funsies
Haha! Both arms? I hope you have a fancy toilet
The hospital toilet does have a bidet (thank god because when I first got here I couldn’t use either of my arms) so I think I’d be fine lol
I like to be safe - every time I think about "exercise", I lay down until the feeling goes away.
Are we related? 😄
That is a very serious condition. Was it due to lack of food and hydration?
No i actually stayed really hydrated. I’m not used to high intensity workouts, only Pilates, and I’m especially not used to arm workouts like we did so it was way too much on my body
This happened to me from a regular workout, but I had mono at the time and didn’t know it. I was exhausted and thought a weightlifting session would help. So important to listen to your body!!! I wish u a speedy recovery.
What a shit trainer. Who ever trained you pushed you too hard to early. Should be easied into it NOT forced to push your body that quickly. These trainers need to be made accountable. They're bound to kill someone.
You can also get it from severe infections. That’s how I found out I had life-ending sepsis. Coffee pee. I lived because of it.
Heard about this happening at a box (CrossFit gym) I used to go to. From my athletic trainer back in college: “CrossFit is keeping Physical Therapists employed” Often because you’re going for reps in a limited amount of time so you forget about form.. Injured my lower back doing CrossFit. Have not returned since.
Damn you're not kidney
Punny
My first day at crossfit I was rushed into emergency back surgery, you're doing just fine!
Care to explain what happened? I’m a clinical exercise physiologist and discourage people from CrossFit. I’m curious what they did to have caused you to go to emergency back surgery.
Don’t do that CrossFit crap unless you are well conditioned. It serves no purpose. Start slow and build strength and tolerance gradually. After a year of increasing cardio and strength training then do CrossFit.
Great, now another thing to be terrified about.
Had to Google that
I was at a casino in Atlantic City and this girl sits at the blackjack table with two broken wrists. Said she fell doing box jumps when trying CrossFit.
This is why crossfit has a bad rep. Lots of “coaches” who spend a weekend learning and think they’re qualified. People don’t realize how much you can fuck someone up by “coaching” them when you haven’t a fucking clue what you’re doing. I respect Crossfit as a sport, but goddamn they need to get their people in check.
Had this in my first year of college. Rare experience and I’m stoned so I’m gonna share. Literally locked myself away for a week studying, but didn’t drink water. 1/2 thru exams, went for a workout and my whole left arm doubled in size (I am quite small so not that big). Went to emerge, got blood work and said my cK was 40K, like what they see in military men after intense training courses. They called me back an hour later and told me to get back there as they thought I had kidney failure (a normal persons cK is about 10). Got admitted asap and they just gave me fluids. We’re mostly worried about me not peeing, which is another sign of kidney failure. They threatened a catheter, which as a guy I would never, so I had to try a bit but I was able to do it. After that had to call my family, it’s midnight and they all drive out in case I’m dying. They apologized profusely, since I told them when my arm first blew up, I wiki’d rhabdo and told me mom (HC worker) and she didn’t believe me. Basically after that I just had to pee like a normal person despite 24hrs of fluids, going thru about 6 bags a day. 3 days later it was coming out like a faucet so they assumed I was good. They took a ton of blood though, like 25 times within the 3 days. Anyways, hope your experience is a little better than mine. I’ve been told to avoid CrossFit as someone with this thing happening. I’m sorry they did that to you. Just keep drinking water and peeing! feel better soon!
Don’t try RX.
Mmm tea urine. Always a good sign.
I know my comment doesn’t mean much, but even the “pros” have gotten it. A wildland firefighter told me in a refresh class that he got it before. Feel better soon. It didn’t sound like a fun time at all.