Heavy lifting exercises have made me feel WORSE

Therapeutic Efforts
#1

About three weeks ago I decided to start working out again by lifting weights, doing exercises like squats, bench press, dead lifts, and other similar exercises three days a week. I have gone consistently and I go for 90-120 minutes each time. But I must say that my symptoms have gotten worse since starting. Now, I may be jumping the gun on this here because I haven’t been doing it very long, and I will continue to update this thread as I progress, whether I continue to worsen, improve, or stay the same.

That being said, I:
-Urinate more frequently and have a harder time dispelling all of the urine, which has created some urinary incontinence/post-void dribble and also some urinary retention
-Have a harder time with bowel movements in that I can’t fully empty myself and have less sensation while doing so, which is really concerning
-Still have an ache on my member (the right side, which it also curve towards), and this has occurred since early March of this year
-Reduced ejaculate volume
-More fatigued during workouts than when I used to be before, and during, finasteride consumption (it’s like I can’t fully finish all of my exercises despite wanting to mentally, as if my body isn’t fully there)
-Brain fog, which is something I really questioned others having and was fairly skeptical of, but am now a believer of. This doesn’t occur much during my workouts, but sometimes throughout the days it’s as if my mind isn’t “there” in the moment, as if my body is doing things and my mind is spectating, not fully comprehending nor functioning while my body is on auto-pilot (it’s very difficult to explain). Almost as if my IQ has lowered significantly
-Member has become a lot more “veiny”, back in March when the ache started there were two prominent veins, now that number has about tripled. It also still feels cold at times, and almost always is curved to the right
-About a month ago I experienced my first ever hemorrhoid. What 24 year old gets one of those?! Two weeks ago it was at its worst. It was so painful and kept me up most of the night, I was legit worried and almost went to the ER but thankfully after taking a supplement my dad recommended to me and sitting less often, it has since cleared up on its own. Still though, why the hell would I have a hemorrhoid at 24? What the hell is going on??

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#2

This is just classic PFS. Getting worse from increased androgens. Stop the heavy lifting, your body obviously can not tolerate higher Testosterone.

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#3

That’s interesting, when i lifted weights initially i felt like i was getting weaker, my vision would kind of dim black like in sync with my heartbeat and I’d sweat a load and get light headed, that’s from only 10KG weights but i struggle to lift that more than 8 reps. I haven’t tried in the past few months but i may try build some strength again. I could push to maybe 14 KG per arm for a rep or two but i just couldn’t gain more strength, could also be my nutrition, not eating enough etc, as i said haven’t tried to lift anything really after the crash a couple months back.

#4

A lot of people report adverse reaction to heavy lifting with PFS.

That being said, 90-120 minutes of heavy lifting is a lot. I don’t know about your fitness level, but - even putting PFS aside - that could be quite taxing on your CNS. When I did heavy squats, bench presses, overhead presses and/or deadlifts; I’d be done with the heavy lifting after 60 minutes maximum and would only add some accessory work. You could try to decrease maximum stress.

With regard to the hemorrhoid. Are you sure it was one? It sounds more like a perianal hematoma, which is not uncommon in combination with heavy lifting (particularly squats).

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#5

Well, I should say that during the 90-120 minutes session I’m not always lifting heavy weights. There’s rest between sets, setting up/disassembling equipment, going to the bathroom, getting more water, going to the next station, etc,. Each day I go I do about 10-12 different exercises, usually doing 3 sets of 12 reps for each one. I should have specified that in the original post.

I googled the perianal hematoma you mentioned. Thanks for mentioning that, I’ve never heard of that. It honestly does sound like what I had. However, the Wikipedia article refers to it in the “Management” section as a thrombosed external hemorrhoid, so perhaps it was a hemorrhoid.