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Post illness gainz (Read 4821 times)

holdfast

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Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 08:14:15 am
Not sure if this has been discussed before, but I have a general question about post-illness climbing. I've just had a nasty dose of laryngitis with a heavy cold (not Covid), coupled with a heavy week at work in rubbish weather (I work outdoors, on my own) which has meant no running, training or climbing for about 10 days. Normally, I rarely seem to get ill, and it's the first break in training this year.
As soon as I started to feel a bit better, I thought I'd get on the board and just try some easy stuff, just to pull on really. Despite not feeling weak and definitely not 100%, I had one of the best board sessions ever, including doing two long term projects, one of which I've only ever done one of the moves once before! I had a similarly good session yesterday, despite still not feeling fully recovered. Is there a simple explanation for this, beyond just enforced rest?
Cheers

dunnyg

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#1 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 08:32:33 am
Weight change if your diet changed during illness perhaps?

Fiend

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#2 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 08:35:44 am
Metabolism pumping large amounts of energy around your body to fight off the illness, you've borrowed some for the board sesh. Watch out for when you have to pay it back, with interest added.

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#3 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 08:42:07 am
I had something similar a few weeks ago. Spent around 5 days with flu or something like it (again, not covid), then went to the wall and had one of the most enjoyable sessions in probably 2 years? Was just seeming to be able to climb whatever I tried.
Hard to be sure what the cause was, but i'm think I lost 1.5/2 kg in that week so in my mind, that was the reason. I've had periods of much longer without climbing over the last few years, and never actually improved when I returned, so don't think it was the enforced rest.

Whatever the cause, it's given me a real motivation boost, so i'm just riding that wave and getting the most I can out of it. I'm prepared to gain the weight back and see the effects of that, but that's ok - it's just good to feel good once in a while :)

holdfast

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#4 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 11:15:40 am
Well, it's definitely not weight loss / diet - I've eaten really unhealthily while ill, but weight is the same. The increased energy from metabolism while fighting off a virus explanation is really interesting. I feel almost normal today so will have a rest day and do a board session tomorrow and see how it goes....hopefully the payback crash doesn't happen! Thanks for the replies

SA Chris

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#5 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 11:38:00 am
I had the best day climbing this year the day after I got second AZ Jab, succeeded on project I'd been working for a few months and not managed to do since. No doubt unrelated.

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#6 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 11:48:39 am
Well, it's definitely not weight loss / diet - I've eaten really unhealthily while ill, but weight is the same. The increased energy from metabolism while fighting off a virus explanation is really interesting. I feel almost normal today so will have a rest day and do a board session tomorrow and see how it goes....hopefully the payback crash doesn't happen! Thanks for the replies

Do you adequately fuel yourself when not ill? Perhaps your body is putting those extra calories to good use?

Bradders

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#7 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 12:02:51 pm
Well, it's definitely not weight loss / diet - I've eaten really unhealthily while ill, but weight is the same. The increased energy from metabolism while fighting off a virus explanation is really interesting. I feel almost normal today so will have a rest day and do a board session tomorrow and see how it goes....hopefully the payback crash doesn't happen! Thanks for the replies

Do you adequately fuel yourself when not ill? Perhaps your body is putting those extra calories to good use?

Was going to say the same thing...

sdm

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#8 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 12:06:54 pm
I had the best day climbing this year the day after I got second AZ Jab, succeeded on project I'd been working for a few months and not managed to do since. No doubt unrelated.

I did the same a few hours after Pfizer (I think it was jab 1, may have been 2). Completely dead arm but managed to do my project that I'd been on for about 8 sessions. It was the only session where I was able to consistently do the first 2 crux moves.

I went back a couple of weeks later to look at an alternative finish. Was back to not being able to do those 2 moves again.

Ross Barker

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#9 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 12:34:44 pm
Going to chip in with a similar anecdote, had my 2nd jab on a Tuesday, had a few days of being a bit under the weather then on Saturday managed my hardest boulder to date. Hadn't tried it before so the grade is the only metric to go off, but it seems pretty settled at that.

holdfast

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#10 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 12:47:06 pm
Well, it's definitely not weight loss / diet - I've eaten really unhealthily while ill, but weight is the same. The increased energy from metabolism while fighting off a virus explanation is really interesting. I feel almost normal today so will have a rest day and do a board session tomorrow and see how it goes....hopefully the payback crash doesn't happen! Thanks for the replies

Do you adequately fuel yourself when not ill? Perhaps your body is putting those extra calories to good use?

I think so. I've done a fair few ultra / mountain marathons in the past and I think I've got a good handle on how my body is feeling, if under-fuelled etc. All the other factors such as time of day, conditions etc were 'normal', it was just the coming out of feeling very unwell that was different as far as I can see. I also went on to repeat a PB on beastmaker small slot pull ups at the end of the session....if I'd known I was going to be bestowed temporary viral superpowers, I'd have got out on the granite!

abarro81

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#11 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 12:58:29 pm
I very rarely feel good after being ill, but do often have a day or two where I feel brilliant immediately before getting ill. I've always assumed this is my body ramping up to fight an infection and so being in super-charged mode, without yet having the shitness that comes from actually being ill. Those smashing something out just after a jab could be experiencing the same thing? Conversely after AZ1 I just felt like crap and lay in bed sweating for about 24 hrs.

SA Chris

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#12 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 01:45:17 pm
I've got the day off on Friday and weather is good, now to see if i can book a booster shot for Thursday.

MischaHY

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#13 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 02:02:38 pm
I've experienced similar a few times and have alway thought it's down to a combination of enforced rest over multiple days (including a large reduction in passive movement rather than just not doing sport) combined with top-end energy availability (feeling crap and eating biscuits/burgers) and then combining with low expectations to form a potent mix.

However.

Directly before the pandemic I had a trip to France and ended up spending the entire trip lying in bed in the Airbnb feeling utterly miserable with some kind of pneumonia. This was literally 9 days of being ill with 7 of them spent in bed all day eating pain au chocolat and drinking litres of coffee to stay awake enough to read a book. I couldn't even walk up the approach to Seynes without taking multiple sit-down rests because my body was so wrecked.

On the way home we stopped overnight in Nîmes - I was finally feeling a bit better so we went along to a bouldering gym and I had what felt like one of the best sessions of my life. Power endurance and strength just felt bottomless and I did all the hardest boulders in the gym. It was an insane contrast to just two days earlier where I couldn't even walk properly without running out of breath. It felt like the best form of my life.

I then massively dipped again and took possibly another two weeks to really come back to normal. I fully believe this was because I ground myself right down with a massive session directly after recovering, but it was worth it.

So in conclusion if you're feeling a bit sick and have a sore throat directly driving to France, just stay at home and save your holiday for another time  :boohoo:

Ross Barker

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#14 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 02:07:53 pm
At the risk of confirmation bias ruining this very scientific sharing of anecdotes, how many people haven't experienced a session of superstrength after a period of illness?

abarro81

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#15 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 02:16:52 pm
me

cheque

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#16 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 02:57:20 pm
I don’t think I’ve experienced a session of unexpected superstrength at all, certainly not after being ill- takes me ages to get back into climbing well.

jwi

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#17 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 04:27:30 pm
me

me neither.

Like abarro81 I have also experienced strong days just before an infection. I have assumed it is because the days when the stars aline and I feel particularly strong I can push myself harder and further so I become more fatigued afterwards and thus more susceptible to infections?

mark20

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#18 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 05:14:47 pm
A couple of years ago I had a couple of great bouldering sessions during a period of post-viral fatigue, felt really strong and light, but was utterly fucked for quite a few days after

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#19 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 05:39:15 pm
Tom Newberry completed his traverse project on the Cowboy block beneath the great wall at Pentire after a spell of illness, might've been food poisoning or gastroenteritis. Definitely feeling the benefits of enforced fasting/evacuation he named it 'Heroically Gaunt'.
Not sure deliberately contracting illness is something Lattice could market a training plan for though.  :shrug:

Will Hunt

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#20 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 05:46:57 pm
Lattice Door Handle. One lick, one tick. Get yours today.

Paul B

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#21 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 05:53:43 pm
Apart from getting bitten by a dog on day one and needing to seek rabies treatment in Madagascar I did a really good job of avoiding getting any form of food poisoning. That was until the final few moments of my trip where hungry in the airport I bought some questionable looking samosa type things from a food counter and devoured them without a second thought. Typically, I'd stretched my leave allowance so the flights got me back in late and very fatigued but I was in work not long after. I started feeling unwell just before leaving the house and spent the 40-50min commute getting hotter and hotter until in traffic I was eyeing up bushes by the side of the road and wondering if I could make it. After arriving at the office I of course went straight to the loo and was in there for so long my Directors thought I hadn't actually turned up for work. When I emerged they promptly sent me home where I remained for the next 2-3 weeks (every time I called the GP they kept extending the amount of time this was OK for before finally concluding that they might need to run some tests based on my recent holiday). Thankfully it passed not long after and I quickly returned to climbing as light as I've ever been but with 3wks of techy granite under my belt; it felt amazing. It may not be healthy but rapid weight loss does translate!

jwi

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#22 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 05:57:22 pm
It may not be healthy but rapid weight loss does translate!
Not for me it didn't. I lost close to 10 kg in a bout of salmonella. Took me about six months to regain my usual climbing level

Paul B

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#23 Re: Post illness gainz
December 15, 2021, 05:59:41 pm
It wouldn't be out of the question that the 3wks of techy climbing was actually responsible (i.e. remembering what feet do).

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#24 Re: Post illness gainz
December 16, 2021, 08:23:53 am
I know a few guys who've done hard/lifetime pb (sport, bouldering) after a 3 day bender of booze, powders and pills. Not recommending it but it always stuck me as odd that your could so all that shit and come out the other end on form. I'm guessing it's also probably short term weight loss more than anything, but maybe there's also something about turbocharged immune response?

 

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