Hey dude, i had similar issues. For me, the partying made my body adapt to a new homeostasis of reduced joint movment and muscular work. tons of alcohol, not working out at all, lack of sleep and more sex than a human being deserves to have in one lifetime (ever been to brazil? OMG).
In other words, my body (and my mind) got lazy. so, when i returned to the states, i was in the weight room doing my pre-partying routine, and my joints signaled to me it was a bad idea to continue because it wasn?t used to that kind of work anymore. Long story short, i did the following:
a. reduce/cut out alcohol intake to pre-party levels. Me likes my beer indeed, but i decided to take it easy. (Our livers work hard to dehydrogenate alcohol because ETOH doesn?t belong in the body. So, why abuse our body and the only liver we got, you know?)
b. returned food and fluid intake to pre-party levels and added changes to diet to address whatever issue, joint issues in this case (more good fats, water, and joint support supps).
c. returned to weight room not with thought of continuing where i left off, but to allow RE-ADAPTATION to movement (joints) and work (muscles) it was once used to performing. Just by moving more, a healthy joint naturally lubes itself. Just by exerting more force on a muscle, a healthy muscle strengthens. After doing light weights for 3 weeks, i didn?t have any discomfort, so i dedicated about a month to slowly upping the poundage to pre-party levels. good to keep in mind things take time to recover.
you can go uber slow like i did if you are busy with school and work or much faster depending on your situation, but it is good to keep in mind that if your discomfort persists or worsens to see a ortho md and then a pt. It would be royally asinine to work through pain and cause injury.
Sorry. Long winded and boring. I?ll post someday about brazil next time, for sure, hell of a lot more interesting…