Muscle weakness

I originally posted this thread over on the Red subforum, but I didn't really get much traction there. I had this nagging thought that my current "condition" might be entirely unrelated to being pregnant, but since nobody else was stepping up to share their own personal struggles, the conversation just stalled.

To wrap it all up:

I’m currently sixteen weeks into my pregnancy, and for the last four or five days, I’ve been hit with this overwhelming weakness in my arms and legs. It’s honestly difficult to put into words—this profound sense of total physical frailty. It all came on so suddenly. There isn't any actual pain, and I'm not dealing with muscle cramps or anything like that. I actually went to see a physical therapist who assured me that my spine looks perfectly fine and suggested that if a nerve were pinched, I’d definitely be feeling some localized pain. While the massage therapy he provided helped a tiny bit, I’m still dragging myself through the day; I can't even tackle a flight of stairs without white-knuckling the handrail with both hands. To give you an idea of how desperate I am: I can't even pick up my two-year-old if they happen to trip and fall.
The bottom line is that I feel absolutely terrible. I'm at a loss as to who to turn to for actual help. Has anyone here ever dealt with something similar?

nobody knows anything 😢
I noticed this morning that I can't quite straighten my ring finger...

I'll drop this here instead of starting a whole new thread.
What could cause sudden weakness in both hands at once?
It’s hitting my forearms and hands the hardest.
I have lordosis—found out by accident—but I don't really feel any major neck pain. Just some minor stuff here and there, nothing crazy.
Thanks for any input!

Hey everyone. So, like I mentioned in the title, I’ve been dealing with this total body weakness for a while now—it’s happening right while I'm training. It’s weird, I can barely even make a fist sometimes, and it just feels like there's zero strength left in my entire body. I'm 15, and I've been hitting the gym almost every single day for a few months. I usually just try to push through it and ignore the weakness, but lately, it’s gotten pretty intense. My routine is heavy: I'm doing about 100 push-ups, 400 crunches, some pull-ups on the bar, and I use weights for stuff like biceps and shoulders, too. Some people tell me I'm overdoing it and that I should just quit working out, but I don't want to. I really want to train, I guess, but this is starting to suck... Is it possible this is related to my blood, like maybe an iron deficiency or something? Please help me out.🙂

So, what’s your diet looking like? It’s entirely possible you aren't hitting your macros or getting enough nutrients to actually fuel your body. You've got that PDF on workouts which includes a section on nutrition during training—go ahead and flip through that. Might actually be the missing link here.
Also, you might just be redlining it too hard. Try dialing back the intensity for a bit and see if that changes things.

Doing 100 pushups every single day? All in one go without stopping?
Hey man, maybe slow down just a little bit, or at least take a break once or twice a week if you can.
It might be a bit much for your age, but I guess even if you dial back the intensity a little, you'll probably end up looking like Rambo before you even hit 18.😁

Maybe check out some of those fitness PDFs online; I think there's some pretty cool stuff in there.
And if you're feeling weak, it's probably just because you're running low on energy or your muscles are getting a bit overworked, nothing more than that.
Since you're still growing, you really need to make sure you're eating plenty of good, high-quality food.
If you aren't getting enough sleep, that’s going to affect your muscle growth too, so you should probably aim for at least 10 hours a night—maybe even more since you're young. Muscles mostly grow while you're sleeping anyway.

Good luck!

Hey. About two hours ago, I was at the gym hitting some weights—roughly 10kg total, specifically 4x4kg plus a 2kg bar. Now that I’m back home gaming, my index finger on my left hand feels weird. I can't even remember the name of it, lol. It doesn't exactly hurt, it just feels... "exhausted." Is that normal? For context, I'm 15 years old. 😳
Also, my whole left arm feels a bit "fatigued" too. This happened once before when I was hanging off my high school locker doors.

Funny how nobody ever replied to the original post here, even if it’s been sitting around forever... anyway—

crimsonbear23 said:I originally posted this thread over on the Red subforum, but I didn't really get much traction there. I had this nagging thought that my current "condition" might be entirely unrelated to being pregnant, but since nobody else was stepping up to share their own personal struggles, the conversation just stalled.

To wrap it all up:

I’m currently sixteen weeks into my pregnancy, and for the last four or five days, I’ve been hit with this overwhelming weakness in my arms and legs. It’s honestly difficult to put into words—this profound sense of total physical frailty. It all came on so suddenly. There isn't any actual pain, and I'm not dealing with muscle cramps or anything like that. I actually went to see a physical therapist who assured me that my spine looks perfectly fine and suggested that if a nerve were pinched, I’d definitely be feeling some localized pain. While the massage therapy he provided helped a tiny bit, I’m still dragging myself through the day; I can't even tackle a flight of stairs without white-knuckling the handrail with both hands. To give you an idea of how desperate I am: I can't even pick up my two-year-old if they happen to trip and fall.
The bottom line is that I feel absolutely terrible. I'm at a loss as to who to turn to for actual help. Has anyone here ever dealt with something similar?

...could be myasthenia gravis, but since this post is two years old, I assume you already checked everything out and figured it out.

I wasn't quite sure where this post belonged—should I have put it here or in the fitness section?
To give you some context, my line of work involves sitting down and working for most of the day; I run my own small business from home, so
my typical day starts around 8:00 AM, though how late I go depends entirely on my workload—some days I'm stuck at my desk until 8:00 PM or even later.
I manage to take an hour or two of breaks throughout the day, but honestly, I feel so utterly exhausted that my only real movement consists of walking to the corner store on my street or just moving between floors in my house.
Once I finally wrap up work, I head straight for a hot shower and then collapse into bed to let my backside recover from such an uncomfortable chair.
And of course, because of all this sitting, I’ve gained 10 pounds over the last two years... if only I had a massive sweet tooth, I could at least tell myself it was a self-inflicted penalty, but I eat like a bird—which I know isn't ideal—yet somehow it feels like I'm gaining weight out of thin air. But, I suppose that's beside the point.

I recently started an aerobics class led by an acquaintance of mine, and she suggested I try a specific workout routine. In hindsight, I think she might have overestimated my capabilities, because for me, it felt far too intense.
It’s one of those "fat-burning" sessions—the name says it all—where you are essentially jumping and hopping until you are completely spent.
The strange thing is, while I was actually doing the movements, it felt fine; I was jumping along, it didn't feel overly difficult, even quite pleasant... but the very second I stopped, everything went wrong. My vision went dark, my ears clogged up, my mouth went pale, and I was hit by a wave of cold sweat accompanied by these intense tremors running through my arms and legs. I ended up flat on my back on the floor, lying there for about 15 minutes with my hands over my head... I simply couldn't get up. I drank a ton of water, but even my clothes felt like they were constricting me. It happened this past Monday, and frankly, I still feel a bit lightheaded today.
I really want to stick with the aerobics classes—I'm only 23, and I hate that I've put on these 10 pounds; it makes me feel terrible.
However, I am genuinely afraid that this weakness will strike again, because everything seems perfectly fine right up until the moment I stop moving.
My instructor told me to slow down as much as necessary, but that is easier said than done when the exercises themselves felt manageable while I was performing them.
Does anyone have any advice? Could these symptoms be pointing toward an underlying health issue that I'm completely unaware of?

I should probably mention that I was one of the thinnest people in the room, considering it's a class specifically designed for fat loss... and everyone else seemed to handle it without a hitch except for me. It was a little depressing, if I'm being honest—to put it bluntly, the "heavier women" in the class didn't all collapse after the workout. I'm just worried that this is something more serious regarding my health rather than just a lack of stamina.

I’m getting pretty worried. For about two years now, my legs have just felt... off. I can walk normally most of the time, but if there are stairs involved, it’s a struggle because my muscles start cramping up. Even getting onto a city bus is hard sometimes; I occasionally have to use both hands just to pull myself up. And when I squat down, I have to use my arms to push myself back up, which feels pretty heavy. I’ve tried taking magnesium, I don't smoke, and my doctors say my spine, hips, and blood work all look fine... so I guess, maybe, anyone knows what else could be causing this?

wiredotter22 said:I’m getting pretty worried. For about two years now, my legs have just felt... off. I can walk normally most of the time, but if there are stairs involved, it’s a struggle because my muscles start cramping up. Even getting onto a city bus is hard sometimes; I occasionally have to use both hands just to pull myself up. And when I squat down, I have to use my arms to push myself back up, which feels pretty heavy. I’ve tried taking magnesium, I don't smoke, and my doctors say my spine, hips, and blood work all look fine... so I guess, maybe, anyone knows what else could be causing this?

Hey, just so we can get a better idea, roughly how old are you? And what's your BMI? You can easily find a calculator online, like http://bmicalc.org/bmi-calculator-for-women (just scroll down a bit for the imperial units if you're used to pounds and inches)

Do you keep an eye on your blood pressure regularly? Also, when was your last full physical at the doctor?

...

36 years old, everything seems pretty much within the normal range

wiredotter22 said:36 years old, everything seems pretty much within the normal range

But seriously, have you actually gone in for a full physical or some blood work in the last year to confirm everything's actually okay?

Yeah, everything's fine

wiredotter22 said:Yeah, everything's fine

It could also be some kind of autoimmune thing, like rheumatoid issues. A standard CBC might come back totally normal, even if something's actually up.
But honestly, you really ought to get some deeper testing done—you know, checking for things like antibodies or RF levels and stuff...

My RA tests come back clear, but I’m pretty sure I have it since the pain flares up every now and then. It runs in my family, too.

So, here’s the situation. I have this colleague—someone who has basically been a professional couch potato her entire life. She was never into sports, didn't play anything in school, nothing... just a lot of walking, really. That was it. Just sitting around or strolling on flat ground. Well, now she’s hit her mid-30s and suddenly her muscles are giving out on her. It’s getting to the point where she struggles with stairs, finds it a real chore to get up after sitting down, and lacks strength in her hands—but especially in her legs. Her muscles just aren't performing the way they should. Is this just what happens when you've been inactive for decades, or is this something more serious that needs medical attention?
Can muscles actually get so "lazy" that they essentially betray you?

Andrew Nelson6 said:So, here’s the situation. I have this colleague—someone who has basically been a professional couch potato her entire life. She was never into sports, didn't play anything in school, nothing... just a lot of walking, really. That was it. Just sitting around or strolling on flat ground. Well, now she’s hit her mid-30s and suddenly her muscles are giving out on her. It’s getting to the point where she struggles with stairs, finds it a real chore to get up after sitting down, and lacks strength in her hands—but especially in her legs. Her muscles just aren't performing the way they should. Is this just what happens when you've been inactive for decades, or is this something more serious that needs medical attention?
Can muscles actually get so "lazy" that they essentially betray you?

Get her to a neurologist, ASAP.

So, here it is. They’ve given us the diagnosis—some kind of progressive muscular dystrophy.

A colleague over here mentioned that the main priority should be tackling Pompe disease, which honestly makes a ton of sense since there are actually treatments available for it.