Originally posted by mikevru
anyone experinced such set backs and were you able to get back the gains?
thanks
more times than I can remember...
my most recent:
August 5, 2003
Woke up at around 1am with severe pain and fatigue in my right arm, had no clue what the problem was, but over the next 5 hours it got so severe that I could no longer use my right arm. It was numb, tingling and hurt so bad I was almost in tears. Went to the ER at 7am that morning, they examined me and took around 10 x-rays, of course they found nothing. They gave me percocet, a shot (anti-inflammatory) and an Rx for more percocet and some other crap.
To make a long story short I had a pinched my Brachial Plexus nerve. I had to stop training fro 3 weeks, when I finally started back not only did I work-out lightly for the next 6 weeks, but I could not even do a push-up due to the nerve damage, I had lost around 75% strength in my right arm. Also, my right pec shrunk to almost nothing and I lost over 1.5" on my right arm.
Finally, over 4 months later I am finally able to train hard and heavy again, actually the last 2 weeks I have been able to. My right pec and arm are coming back nicely, but I still lack strength in all pressing movements due to the right arm.
That is one of many injuries, but by far my worst to date.
Yes, you will re-gain all size and strength, although it's not really scientifically proven, there is something called "muscle memory". The best analogy is it's like when you blow up a balloon the first time, it's difficult, but once it's been blown up you can let the air out and it's much easier to blow it up again.