Factory Fitness – Get Addicted!

In my last post, Injury Management, I explained the RICE protocol for minimising the impact of a sudden acute injury. If the RICE protocol doesn’t fix the problem, you will then need to seek professional help to diagnose and rehab your injury. Obtaining a clear diagnosis can be a lengthy process – be patient. Keep an injury journal, documenting when, where and how your injury manifests its ugly head – this will significantly help at both the diagnosis and rehab stages. In this series of posts I will publish my own (and current) injury and rehab journal to give you an idea of the lengths one often has to go. Don’t give up! You can be fixed, you can get back into training, and you can remain fit. My injury has stopped me training, some are less severe but nevertheless as important to diagnose and treat. Hopefully you’ll get some ideas of how to tackle yours from my own experience…

So, lets start with my “Journal of Pain”…

Friday: awoke with pins and needles in my right hand and fingers. I have had a problem for years of sleeping on my hand and waking up with a “dead arm”, so I thought nothing of it. The tingling remained in my hand most of the day, but eased off once I was up and about. It gradually got worse towards the end of the day.

Saturday: Same as above, but with pins and needles also in my forearm. Again I ignored it and trained as normal.

Sunday: This time it was painful to make a fist. The pins and needles remained in my hand and fingers, but my forearm was now very painful too. Again, it all eased off once I was up and about, however, this time training was an issue. A big issue. Trying to deadlift with pins and needles in my arm and no feeling in my hand wasn’t one of my better ideas, but I pushed on with little success.

Monday: Woke up continuously throughout the night with pain in my forearm and hand. The numbness and tingling sensation was no longer intermittent in my hand and fingers – it was permanent. I had the injury assessed by a Shiatsu & sports massage practitioner (my mum). Her opinion was that it could be carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) or a trapped nerve somewhere. She bought me some ultra violet mittens to wear in bed at night. Sexy.






In hind sight, I should have probably stopped training at this point, but I was no way near ready to give in.

Tuesday: Physio #1 – Donald @ City Chiropractic


The pain and numbness continued. Nonetheless, an upper body weights session was scheduled, so I trained.

Donald (the physio) checked me over thoroughly – he ran through a huge number of tests and questions. His opinion was that it was not CTS, nor a trapped nerve. Although I showed some symptoms of both he believed his tests showed that neither of these were conclusive. His diagnosis: some form of compartment syndrome in my forearm causing pseudo-CTS. He noted that my right forearm was considerably puffy & swollen compared to the left and looked like it had a lot of fluid in it. His recommendation was that I went to see a GP ASAP, get some strong anti-inflammatorys & something to help me sleep. He performed massage to the forearm – the pain/numbness decreased considerably until I walked out the door. He told me to see a chiropractor and I think he gave me some stretches to perform as well, which I went through once the next day.

Wednesday: Chiropractor – Pamela @ City Chiropractic


Bad night of sleep again, feeling pretty tired & slow now. Started training this morning (Squats today), but sacked it after about 30mins as I was struggling to lift my warm up weights. Considerably annoyed & frustrated.

As recommended by Physio #1, I returned the next day to see the chiropractor to check for any structural issues. More tests, stretching and questions. By this time, I had a dull pain in the back of my arm, back of my shoulder and it went right up to the back of my ear – giving me some cracking headaches. No structural issues apparently, but the chiropractor’s sensation tests lead her to believe the problem was definitely nerve related. She performs a few spine and neck adjustments (the pops and cracks are expected) and then treats me with ultrasound, some acupuncture (a first for me) and sports massage. Pain and numbness is reduced for a couple hours, but returns with a vengeance later that night.




By this point, my training was pretty useless
- I was getting very frustrated!

Thursday: GP – 1st (of MANY) Visits


Rubbish sleep again. Woke up several times during the night with a horrific burning sensation. Must have looked pretty rough for my first appointment with my drug dealer… GP sorry. Completely different approach to the physio and chiropractor – quick fire questions and assessment. Done in 15 min. I left with instructions to do no upper body weightlifting (or lower body work that affects my upper body) nor any cardio that makes my hand numb or gives me shoulder pain. Pretty limited on the exercise front then! With a prescription for pain killers (co-codomol), anti-inflammatory (diclofenac) and muscle relaxant/sleep aid (diazepam) in hand, I am told it is ok to continue with physio/massage but do not, I repeat, do not allow any chiropractors to perform any adjustments. Got it.

Conclusions thus far…


Professional	Diagnosis	Advice
Physio No. 1	maybe some form of compartment syndrome causing pseudo-CTS	massage & stretching & come back in a week
Chiropractor	Nerve related	Chiropractic adjustment, massage & acupuncture & come back in a week
GP	Nerve related	Drugs & come back in 5 days




How do I feel? RUBBISH!