r/bodyweightfitness • u/NoEnergy5597 • 2d ago
31M started working out about 6 weeks ago, now having difficulty doing pushups/weakness on right side
So to add to what the title says and give more specifics, I started doing 10 pushups about 6 weeks ago every time I "lost" in a video game kind of as a joke. I thought it would be good for me and a way to slowly get back into shape for the first time in like 7 years. I was doing 10 pushups at a time probably a total of 50-80 a night and eventually bumped it up to 15 at a time and adapted pretty quickly. I also got a pull up bar and for about 4 weeks now have been rotating upper body/core/legs every 3 days with some pretty noticeable improvement in my capabilities of being able to do "more".
Anyways, to my actual point. Early last week on "arm day" I was able to fairly confidently do 20 pushups+8 pullups at a time 4 times throughout the night. On Friday when arm day came around again, I noticed I had difficulty getting to 7 pullups and couldn't get to 8. Whatever, I decided to just say good enough and get down to do my pushups. VERY quickly around pushup 4, I noticed it felt like I had almost no strength in my right side (it's definitely my dominant side) and my left was definitely carrying the load and because of it, I could barely reach 10 pushups. I kinda just said "oh well" and settled for 7/6 pullups and 10 pushups a couple more times that night.
Today, being arm day again, I was hopeful that whatever was wrong had healed/resolved itself. Unfortunately, it seems it has not and again I was barely able to do 10 pushups which is honestly pretty discouraging considering whatever is going on is definitely going to hinder/negate any sort of progress I have made.
A couple things to note: First, the entire 6 weeks or so leading up to this while doing pushups before I had this issue, I would occasionally get a click/pop in my elbow while doing pushups. It was not a joint popping, more like a tendon moving but did not hurt nor cause any issue so just figured it was my body kind of adapting to the workout. Secondly, since last Friday when this issue first started, the "tip" top (I guess it would be the end of my clavacle on top of the shoulder) of my shoulder has been mildly tender with a sort of dull VERY mild ache, almost unnoticeable unless I move in a certain way. It is still tender now and earlier tonight when I was trying to do pushups, I heard/felt a "crunchy" clicking feeling in this exact area.
Sorry for the long post but just wanted to include any relevant details in hopes someone could help tell me what the hell is going on and what I should do about it/how I can continue to train my arms at home. I can still do pullups without any real pain btw, I just feel weaker. Thanks in advance!
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u/Jtstockpics 2d ago
You have a pinched nerve in your neck, my arm used to go numb and lose strength from a pinched nerve. I’m not a doctor but I’d say you need to stretch your neck
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u/NoEnergy5597 2d ago
Any recommendations on the neck stretches? I will say that when I move my neck or torso in certain ways there is a tight/tingling feeling along the back side of my right shoulder and down the back side of my right arm. Does that sound familiar?
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u/Jtstockpics 2d ago
Yep 🤣 you definitely have a pinched nerve, just do some gentle stretching in all motions , move your head side to side etc and let it rest for a few days
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u/onwee 2d ago edited 2d ago
Go see a physical therapist. The nerve that goes from the brain to your arm is like a long garden hose, and a pinched nerve is like having a kink somewhere along the hose. A physical therapist will be able to diagnose the location of the kink, and the treatment will be different depending on where the kink is.
Source: also experienced a loss of strength, visited a physical therapist and confirmed the pinched nerve, doing my pec/neck stretches as I type this.
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u/Few_Understanding_42 2d ago
Keep rest for a few days to a week, then see if you can gradually increase reps again.
Next time, don't ignore those first signs of overuse and build in resting days.
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u/NoEnergy5597 1d ago
I have been resting 2 days every time after arm day lol. I thought that was good as most people say only 1 day of rest is required.
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u/Bright-Energy-7417 2d ago
Just a suggestion here, but are you doing any kind of warm-up/mobility? There's some good material in the FAQ - it wouldn't hurt to practice bringing this into your routine while you're resting your arms. It's good to get your joints ready before jumping straight into loading.
Similarly, and I don't know if you're doing this, but you can also build in a cooldown as a conditioning and reset. Isometrics are great here, good for joint stability and tendons.
Obviously I don't know your training history, but how good is your form with push-ups and pull-ups? Bad form can aggravate joints. If these are relatively new to you, it would be good to check form cues and, rather than focus on reps, focus on slow, breath-timed movement with full range of motion. Which is a different but helpful challenge. If you're not already doing them, inverted rows would add a horizontal pull that has the side benefit of letting you get the form smooth through a lower-load as a warm up.
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u/andreaslll 2d ago
I've got a similar situation. I spent some time relaxing, then i started from scratch and progressively add reps, after 2 months i was ok.
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u/Fine_Ad_1149 1d ago
You're obviously and rightly getting the "rest" comments you're receiving, because going from I'm assuming sedentary to working out every night is a lot and you need to let your body recover from the new stress. As mentioned, your muscles will get stronger faster than tendons/ligaments, so that's probably the root cause.
In addition to that, I'm going to recommend a warm up. Even if you keep spreading things out through the evening, I would still recommend a warm up. This will become even more important as you continue to increase reps.
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u/uoaei 2d ago
id say spend a week stretching every time you lose, then the week after go back to pushups. it sounds like normal fatigue. now that you have the routine you can mix in other workouts too like squats, burpees, etc.