OK, see, this is why we never work out!
We’re obviously kidding about that. But seriously, after you read this story, you will think twice about doing that next set of push-ups that you were trying to convince yourself to do!!
So, earlier this month, a South Carolina-based fitness aficionado named Jessica Johnson (not pictured above — that’s from SNL) went to her local gym in the city of Charleston. Once there, the 25-year-old started to do a CrossFit-style workout called the Murph Challenge. Basically, that workout requires participants to do a one-mile run, then complete 300 squats, 200 push-ups, and 100 pull-ups before doing another mile run to cap it. And you have to do all of it as fast as possible, because it’s timed as part of a competition. Intense!!
Well, poor unfortunate Jessica got a bit more than she bargained for. The healthcare worker successfully completed the workout, but as soon as she finished it, she realized that she was “pretty tired.” Yeah, we would be, too! But for Johnson, the fatigue was way more intense than what she usually felt after workouts. Per the New York Post, she explained this about her severe soreness that evening and the following day:
“I was doing ten sets of five pull-ups. … I thought, ‘I haven’t done pull-ups in forever, it was a hard workout, they’ll go down, it’s fine.'”
Yeah, except it was NOT fine!! Not at all!! Over the next day, her arms continued to swell larger, and larger, and larger! It got so bad that other people couldn’t help but notice something was amiss as they “exploded” before her very eyes, as she explained! Jessica told the outlet:
“Everyone said, ‘we just thought you were super jacked or something.'”
And then, the capper. Working in healthcare herself, Johnson was incredibly attune to the symptoms of various disorders. And she started to notice something wrong with herself when she kept drinking water, but she wasn’t peeing very much! She explained:
“I was drinking tons of water but I wasn’t peeing much during the day. It was darker, almost like an orangery color.”
Yikes!!! A quick trip to her doctor led to a super-speedy referral to a hospital where blood tests in the ER determined that she was suffering from rhabdomyolysis.
*Record scratch*
Waaaaait a minute. Rhabdomyolysis?!?! You mean, the thing doctors commonly call “rhabdo”?? You mean, the same potentially deadly disorder as in that story we literally just covered involving all those poor and unfortunate Tufts University lacrosse players?! Yes, THAT rhabdo! The very same! So terrifying!!!
Basically, rhabdo (as it’s casually referred) happens when muscles are pushed past their limits during excessive exercise. Those muscles break down and disintegrate, at which point toxic fluids in the muscles enter the bloodstream and circulate into the kidneys. The most immediate risk there is serious kidney damage, and if left unchecked, it can literally be fatal! She noted:
“In rhabdomyolysis your cells are basically exploding in your muscles. It’s like blood poisoning since your body can’t really filter it out.”
Thankfully, Johnson got checked out by ER docs in time. But still, as she later explained to the outlet, her case was so severe that doctors were literally shocked that she hadn’t completely f**ked up her kidneys:
“They kept telling me, ‘we don’t know how you don’t have kidney damage right now.'”
In the end, doctors were actually forced to CUT OPEN HER ARMS TO ALLEVIATE THE SWELLING!!!
WTF!!!
She is SO lucky that her kidneys managed to survive. For now, the good news is that she has made a full recovery! Plus, the even better news is that Jessica is going to transition into calmer workouts like “more gentle pilates stuff.” Uh… yeah! Probably a good idea! She admitted:
“This was a wake-up call for me to chill out a bit. Working out too much and doing too aggressive of a workout is not good for you and not healthy.”
Seriously!!
What do U make of this wild story, Perezcious readers?! Working out to the point that your muscles literally explode is CRAZY!!! Whatever happened to just good ol’ fashioned walking for exercise?!? Ha!!
[Image via SNL/YouTube]