Ancil
A woman’s “muscles exploded” after performing too many pull-ups at the gym, prompting a serious warning.
At her local gym, Jessica Johnson, a resident of Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States, tried 50 pull-ups as she finished her first week of Crossfit’s rigorous program known as the Murph Challenge, which includes push-ups, squats, pull-ups, and runs.
In the Murph challenge, competitors run a mile, then perform a circuit of 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats before running an additional mile.
The 25-year-old thought it was because she hadn’t worked out her upper body in a long time that she woke up the following day with “extremely sore” and “swollen” arms.
Yet Johnson’s arms continued to blow up and when she lost the feeling in her hands, the healthcare worker rushed to the hospital.
Johnson said: “I was very shocked. It felt embarrassing. I was admitted into the hospital for four days.
“I thought ‘I’m here because I did too hard of a workout and I’m literally one of the fittest people I know.’ I was definitely shocked and didn’t know that this could happen.
“I was doing 10 sets of five pull-ups. I left the gym pretty tired. I was like ‘Oh man, I’m going to be so sore tomorrow.’ I hadn’t worked out my arms like that in a while.
“I was super sore and my arms were swollen on Wednesday. I’d never had swollen arms before from a workout.
“I didn’t really think anything of it. I thought ‘I haven’t done pull ups in forever, it was a hard workout, they’ll go down, it’s fine.’
“But I was trying to brush my teeth and take a shower and thought ‘Oh my god, my arms don’t want to work correctly.’ I couldn’t straighten my arms all the way.”
The gym enthusiast had also noticed that her urine had darkened to ‘almost like an orangey color.’
She added: “I was a little nervous because I didn’t know what was going on.”
Physicians determined that Johnson had rhabdomyolysis, or rhabdo, a dangerous disorder in which muscles degrade and release toxins into the blood.
It frequently happens as a result of short bursts of intense exertion. It may result in death or organ failure.
The 25-year-old almost needed her arms cut apart to relieve the swelling when doctors believed she had organ failure.
The athlete is currently raising awareness of her health scare on TikTok.
“Getting hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis was definitely not on my 2024 bingo card,” reads the caption of a video of her in the hospital.
Another clip shows Johnson explaining her diagnosis and warning: “Take it easy. You don’t need to go that hard. You’re fine.”
Many individuals were able to identify to her tale in the comments, with one person writing: “Been there, done that.” It was so embarrassing,” while another said: “I got it twice in a year from exercise.”
The medical professional has fully recovered and has been warned not to engage in “crazy workouts” going forward.
“Doctors told me I needed to wait a while until I worked out again and slowly ease back into it. And to not do crazy workouts anymore,” Johnson said.
“It goes away once your body recovers. Once you’ve had it once, you can be more prone to get it again in the future. But my body made a full recovery.”
Additionally, she has chosen to forgo preparing for the Murph challenge, citing her diagnosis as a “wake-up call.”
Johnson continued: “I decided I’m not going to be training for the Murph, it’s not worth another hospital stay. I still plan to be active and do my running and walking and more gentle pilates stuff.
“It was definitely a wake-up call that I don’t have my high school, teenage body. As we age we have to take care of our bodies.
“This was a wake-up call for me to chill out a bit. You don’t need to be doing super intense stuff all the time. It’s okay to do a little bit more of a relaxing workout.
“Listen to your body and take it easy. Yes, it’s very good to work out our bodies. It’s healthy to do that. But I think it’s important to share with people now more than ever.
“Working out too much and doing too aggressive of a workout is not good for you and not healthy. I think some people need to hear that.”
The CrossFit Hero exercise known as the “Murph challenge” honors the memory of U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy, who lost his life on June 28, 2005, while serving in Afghanistan.
