Comment by Jcampuzano2 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Jcampuzano2 | Hacker News Reader

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I'm an avid lifter and last year had to get 2 surgeries on both elbows. This kept me from doing any upper body training for about 8 months, and I just did basic things for my legs that I could do. I.e. no squats, no leg press since I couldn't even carry the weight plates myself. Basically just leg extensions, leg curls and biking on a stationary bike.

I kept most of the leg strength and muscle mass with even just this but my whole upper body basically went back to not looking like I lift at all.

The upside though and what proves your point around muscle memory is as I'm writing this it has been 12 weeks since my second surgery finished. I started going back to the gym after about 6 weeks with the lightest dumbells on the rack, literally starting from 5lb on every exercise.

In just this 6 weeks I basically look like I never stopped lifting and have approximately 85-90% strength back on all of my upper body lifts (for example 6 weeks ago I couldn't even bench press the bar and struggled to do 10 reps with a 5lb db, yesterday I'm back to hitting 225 for 6-8 reps) and I'm sure if it wasn't just due to surgeries and was just a long break I'd probably be back at 100%, that's how powerful muscle memory is.

I've had the same experience with my legs and cycling. I usually cycle pretty regularly from spring to mid autumn. But I rarely do during winter. It's just not enjoyable for me when it's -10°C.

Every year during the winter, my legs basically turn into sticks. This year especially since I broke a bone a few months ago. For the first few weeks of spring my stamina and leg strength is at most a third of what it was the previous year. But once I've regularly cycled again for a handful of weeks, the strength returns incredibly quickly.

Curious why you needed surgery on your elbows. Was it lifting related?

I was diagnosed with bilateral cubital tunnel syndrome. It may have been slightly related to lifting in that while lifting didn't cause it, it may have made it more apparent. My surgeon told me that based on what she saw it may just have been to me being unfortunate in how my elbows were constructed.

At first I had to stop lifting altogether and rest hoping it would go away because it was getting really bad to the point I could not work (type) for more than 5 minutes at a time without my hands/forearms going numb and holding anything in my hands. It got so bad that even just lifting up a cup to drink from or using utensils for more than a minute or so caused a lot of pain.

After 3 months of physical therapy and limiting usage of my arms altogether it hadn't gotten any better so I was told the only remedy was surgery. It started with one of my hands/forearms suddenly starting to go numb one day while working, and about a week later started in the other hand. I was told its fairly rare to occur in both sides except in cases of it being a genetic issue so I think I was just unlucky.

So I had surgery on one side and then waited until that side mostly recovered in terms of pain and had the other side done.

Technically my hands do still sometimes get a bit of numbness/tingling but I was told by my surgeon and from research that its fairly common for people who get surgery for this to still have occasional mild numbness for even years, or basically forever after surgery since nerves heal super slow. But it is so much more bearable than it was to prior.

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