Very Swollen Arms

Last week at the gym, there '4 sets x 45' seconds of pull-ups. I might have over-exerted myself. I knew that DOMS would set in promptly. However, I didn't bargain for the pain. OMG. OUCH OUCH OUCH. Obviously wearing tees and sports bras was this exercise in crazy pain. I couldn't even stretch out to pet Ryo under the table on the other side when we were out for lunch. Gosh. 

Now, the muscle aches in the lats and traps were normal. BUT the biceps, deltoids and brachioradialis muscle (in the forearm) were really hurting. I made the rookie mistake of not applying Biofreeze or an ice pack to the biceps and forearms, but I used a massage gun on them a day later. After cooking dinner, I mopped the floor with a cloth (using my arms) on my knees. That night, while reading, I felt weird. My arms felt warm. At some point while reading, both my arms had markedly swelled, my right arm was worse. I was stunned. The man was like, "Wow, you look really buff." WALOEH. That was sooo not the point. I've never had my arms swelled up like that before! There was reduced bilateral elbow extension. 

Rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo) instantly popped into my mind, although it the possibility of that happening was maybe 20%. That workout wasn't that bad. I didn't go all out. Still. OMG. You can get rhabdo from over-doing leg day, bench presses and of course, pull-ups. It's not just a spin class/cycling/triathlon thing. Drank a ton of water and watched the color of my pee for the night and the next day. I felt fine, but the arms were burning up, very swollen, red and tender. I had to decide if I should pop by the emergency room. For tonight, ice packs were used to lend some comfort to the arms.

I was totally flooded with work and whatnot the next day. But I managed to borrow an ultrasound stick. Turned it on for five minutes on each arm, and gave the right arm an extra five minutes. I was hoping to have thermal ultrasound pulses on soft tissues to reduce inflammation, and hopefully encourage the muscles to heal faster at the cellular level. 

The short 15 minutes with the ultrasound stick wouldn't help very much, but it was better than not doing anything at all. The left arm wasn't that swollen and didn't have marked reduction in swelling, although the pain eased. Now, the right arm — the effects were almost instant. Gosh, to have that swelling go down immediately by 10% helped A LOT. Okay. No rhabdo. Whewwwwwww. Didn't need a deep tissue massage (wouldn't dare to, really) or an osteopath either.

It took another two days for the swelling to go down. The joints felt fine. There were still twinges and little knots of aches in the muscles. I decided to skip the gym, pilates and HIIT this week in favor of easy swims, and two gyrotonic classes with a chuckling non-sympathetic instructor who did stretch out my arms and shoulders. That's my physiotherapy done.