Your Experiences with Sickness and Recovering

I just spent a year getting my deadlift from 340 to 460. I recently got food poisoning, immediately followed by the worst stomach virus of my life, throwing up constantly for 5 days.

Its been 4 or 5 days since I was sick. My legs have lost an insane amount of muscle, and I just tried to pull 370x3 and couldn’t lift it off the ground, just a week before I did 400x5. I feel like shooting myself in the face right now. I couldn’t even finish the workout I was so depressed. I don’t even feel like doing **** anymore. It’s like I just wasted a year busting ass just to start over.

Is this normal to lose so much strength in just a few days? Post your experiences in this topic. It would be nice to hear how you recovered and reacted!

The real reason I’m pissed is because I had just started a cut right before I got sick, so the limited food intake is not helping the strength.

from sickness, yes thats normal. make sure you eat a lot of food (maybe pause the cut for a week), get plenty of rest and DONT STOP GOING TO THE GYM. strength will return quickly, its not going to take a year to get it back.

I ran a modified Smolov for squat a bit ago, got sick right after it, then lost all the gains I got from it which I thought were decent enough that I was not too happy about it.

But its a long road, so don’t sweat it, get recovered, then work back up. I don’t think 5 days of sickness presents that substantial of a stumbling block.

As a frame of reference. I was reading somewhere about a good strongman that ended up getting a MRSA infection in his chest from a stone abrasion or something similar. He lost well over 120lbs I think it was, not to mention almost dying. Coming back from that would overcoming a big hurdle.

Thanks guys. I’ll eat a little more and I guess stay on 5/3/1. I was supposed to do a very easy 370x3 and it wouldn’t budge. I guess I’ll lower my max a bit and then test my rep max in a couple weeks to see if I got stronger. Helps to hear that I’m not alone, and no I’ll never stop training, what’s the point of living if you cannot do dayd leeft?

Relax!! It will come back, and pretty quickly. Forget about your cut for a week.

I’m allergic to my tetanus vaccine so every time i have to get it I lose about 15 lbs. I also got the food poisoning and opportunistic infection a couple years back. The best advice is to get back to it ASAP and the gains will come back much faster than the first time around.

Never had anything like that happen to me but I would assume that if it went off in a few days it’ll come back on in a few weeks. So stay positive, eat big and keep lifting.

happens to all of us man. We get sick and lose gains for it bit. It will come back. Im sick as i type this with the flu. Had a week off training. Did try to train at home and almost passed out. Shit happens man

yea dude dont worry. your body isnt gonna lose strength THAT fast. just train your ass off and eat your ass off. it’ll get back up there. believe that your making progress and you will. be positive and good luck bro.

When it comes to recovering, eating can make all the difference. I recently, to put it lightly, got sick to my stomach, and then gave blood, then I went and pulled heavy. What did I do? Stuffed my face with tons of carbs.

While you were definitely sick for a while longer, same principle applies. Ignore your cut for now and stuff your face.

Thanks for your input and encouragement guys, it helped a lot. My BP, MP, and SQ are getting back up there, and i’m going to work up to a single on deadlift tonight and see if I’ve gotten stronger since last week. (I’m on week 3 on 5/3/1 so I’m doing a single today anyway). We’ll see how long it takes for me to get back to my old pr’s for the sake of the topic. And I’m eating a lot more, but still not as much as i should be. Keep on liftin heavy fellas! And appreciate the helpful words.

Got a fairly heavy 390x1, but not too bad. Looks like I should be back in business in another couple weeks.

Glad to hear its going well!

Just a few weeks back, I was sick and plastered to the couch for 4 days. Lost 12 lbs and my strength to boot. My geared squat went from 745 to 630. My pull from 575 to about 465. I couldnt budge 495. Bench went from 370 to 325. Its ben about a month and my squat and bench are almost back to normal. Pull is coming around a little slower( worst lift). It takes a little time, but like already said, pretty fast in comparison.

What these guys said. Food is your friend as is rest .