Muscle Twitches and Spasms!

Hey CB! Was just reminded by a friend of a funny incident that occurred back in my high school days. It was my gr. 11 year and it was my second last exam. It was an English exam and so what they would do is give you a large booklet with subjects that you had to write upon. My exam was about 1:30-ish and whenever I planned out my day, I always made sure to walk to my gym when it was still daylight out because well... It's Winnipeg. Anyways, on that very day was my arms day, biceps and triceps had to be done. So I went in there and went hard to the paint, drop sets and giant sets and all with my partner. Afterwards it was about 12:30 so we went to get some grub to eat. I should probably mention that my partner also had the same exam as I did. We get to the exam about 10 mins early and wait outside the gymnasium before the pre-exam lecture begins. At about this time, my hand starts shaking so badly. It didn't hurt or anything, but I just could not stop the tremors that were happening in my hand. I told my friend about it and he said his fingers were twitching a bit too. I wasn't too worried. I had had some pretty bad twitches before, a lot of the time on my shoulders and it usually went away fairly quickly. However, I knew it was going to be a problem when 15 mins went by and I was staring at the front of my booklet with my pencil waving around like I was signaling an airplane to backup.

I think that was one of the worst exams I had ever written. Not that I didn't get the topics, but my writing probably would have flunked a 1st grader. I used up the whole 3 hours writing a sentence and then erasing the letters that I knew my teacher wouldn't recognize. At the end of the exam, I wrote at the bottom "I'm so sorry for my terrible spelling, I was doing some manual labor before this and my hand won't stop twitching. I promise I won't do anything like this ever again." My hand would stop trembling at some times, but then my thumb would go, and then my shoulder would go too. It was the longest twitching I have ever had to this day.

I went back to my teacher still on exam week just to make sure that I could squeeze out any additional marks in any way. She laughed when I told her my story and got me to read some of my writing in the booklet to her. I still ended up over and 85% but I certainly learned a valuable lesson that I still remind myself this day about. Don't go train and then write an exam.

Well, this was just a short story I wanted to share! Does anybody else have any funny or interesting stories about muscle twitches or spasms? I still have a lot of them (twitches) to this day but none quite as bad as my exam story...:p

-Primal

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Originally Posted by Primal

Hey CB! Was just reminded by a friend of a funny incident that occurred back in my high school days. It was my gr. 11 year and it was my second last exam. It was an English exam and so what they would do is give you a large booklet with subjects that you had to write upon. My exam was about 1:30-ish and whenever I planned out my day, I always made sure to walk to my gym when it was still daylight out because well... It's Winnipeg. Anyways, on that very day was my arms day, biceps and triceps had to be done. So I went in there and went hard to the paint, drop sets and giant sets and all with my partner. Afterwards it was about 12:30 so we went to get some grub to eat. I should probably mention that my partner also had the same exam as I did. We get to the exam about 10 mins early and wait outside the gymnasium before the pre-exam lecture begins. At about this time, my hand starts shaking so badly. It didn't hurt or anything, but I just could not stop the tremors that were happening in my hand. I told my friend about it and he said his fingers were twitching a bit too. I wasn't too worried. I had had some pretty bad twitches before, a lot of the time on my shoulders and it usually went away fairly quickly. However, I knew it was going to be a problem when 15 mins went by and I was staring at the front of my booklet with my pencil waving around like I was signaling an airplane to backup.

I think that was one of the worst exams I had ever written. Not that I didn't get the topics, but my writing probably would have flunked a 1st grader. I used up the whole 3 hours writing a sentence and then erasing the letters that I knew my teacher wouldn't recognize. At the end of the exam, I wrote at the bottom "I'm so sorry for my terrible spelling, I was doing some manual labor before this and my hand won't stop twitching. I promise I won't do anything like this ever again." My hand would stop trembling at some times, but then my thumb would go, and then my shoulder would go too. It was the longest twitching I have ever had to this day.

I went back to my teacher still on exam week just to make sure that I could squeeze out any additional marks in any way. She laughed when I told her my story and got me to read some of my writing in the booklet to her. I still ended up over and 85% but I certainly learned a valuable lesson that I still remind myself this day about. Don't go train and then write an exam.

Well, this was just a short story I wanted to share! Does anybody else have any funny or interesting stories about muscle twitches or spasms? I still have a lot of them (twitches) to this day but none quite as bad as my exam story...:p

-Primal

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I ended up immobilized in bed for three days with spasms in my neck.Used my head to balance a large heavy headache rack,figured my neck was still as strong as when I wrestled in high school and played football.Wrong.

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Originally Posted by cog

I ended up immobilized in bed for three days with spasms in my neck.Used my head to balance a large heavy headache rack,figured my neck was still as strong as when I wrestled in high school and played football.Wrong.

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Jesus, you could have killed yourself cog!! That sounds terrible, I couldn't imagine being immobilized for more than 3 hours... Don't but heavy things on you neck I guess. Lesson learned.

-Primal

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Originally Posted by Primal

Jesus, you could have killed yourself cog!! That sounds terrible, I couldn't imagine being immobilized for more than 3 hours... Don't but heavy things on you neck I guess. Lesson learned.

-Primal

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No.I started training it again to make it stronger,quit at 45 because I thought it might have something to do with vision decline.It's normal,recently started training it again,but no bridging.

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Originally Posted by cog

No.I started training it again to make it stronger,quit at 45 because I thought it might have something to do with vision decline.It's normal,recently started training it again,but no bridging.

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Wow 45 years... Reminds me of how young I am. I wouldn't think that neck training would influence vision loss or else that would be quite scary to be honest. Probably ADM right? Or was it cataracts? Also what is bridging? Is it a certain way to train the neck or is it a condition. Actually, how do you train the neck? I remember seeing a video of Allistair Overeem having a strap around his neck with a weight hanging below him. He was sitting down and looking down and then would bring his head up to eye level and back down again. Is this the only 'real' way to isolate the neck? I know in some movements, like the deadlift, they really work my neck muscles. After each session if I try looking directly upwards, sometimes I can't even.

-Primal

Most people will experience a decline by 45,everybody I know in their 50's needs glasses to read comfortably.Bridging is supporting your weight on your head from various angles,I rely on a head strap and bands and some old ankle weights for extended sets.I would really love a Rogers Athletic 5 way,or the Atlantis that Poliquin likes.Years back Nautilus made a great one that allowed twisting resistance as well,never see them anymore.

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Originally Posted by cog

Most people will experience a decline by 45,everybody I know in their 50's needs glasses to read comfortably.Bridging is supporting your weight on your head from various angles,I rely on a head strap and bands and some old ankle weights for extended sets.I would really love a Rogers Athletic 5 way,or the Atlantis that Poliquin likes.Years back Nautilus made a great one that allowed twisting resistance as well,never see them anymore.

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Well that's good that you don't have a condition with your eyes! Now that I think about it, my dad says that he's been experiencing some difficulty reading things far and near and he is close to 50... Happens to the best of us I guess. I have never heard of bridging before, I'll give it a look online and see if there are any articles about it, reminds me of the Guinness world record holder who could balance a motorbike on his teeth for some reason. I'm sure his neck would have to be incredibly strong to hold that weight. Is there any use trying to build up your neck strength outside of a fighting sport? I could see why they do exercises like that in MMA and such, you would be able to take hits better for sure. But I don't think it is useful in any other sports really right?

-Primal

Sure its useful,Just to maintain posture.All muscles decline if not stressed.Some people might notice their neck is not strong enough during shrugs.You never know where you might be involved in an accident.I once helped a guy in a car accident,he ended up just twitching and begged me to move his head,which I did very,very slowly to relieve the pressure,I was reluctant to move it very much,but it helped till the ambulance got there.

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Originally Posted by cog

Sure its useful,Just to maintain posture.All muscles decline if not stressed.Some people might notice their neck is not strong enough during shrugs.You never know where you might be involved in an accident.I once helped a guy in a car accident,he ended up just twitching and begged me to move his head,which I did very,very slowly to relieve the pressure,I was reluctant to move it very much,but it helped till the ambulance got there.

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Hmm, what do you mean by some people's necks aren't strong enough during shrugs? I don't feel close to anything in my neck at all when I do them. I am always looking down at the ground when I do them. I find this give me a lot better ROM. Is this the correct way to do them or should I stick my head up so I can hit my neck a bit too?

-Primal

You should be neutral in alignment.Maybe try shrugs and pulling shrugs with a trap bar to get a good feel of neutral.Head should be back,jaw packed.

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Originally Posted by cog

You should be neutral in alignment.Maybe try shrugs and pulling shrugs with a trap bar to get a good feel of neutral.Head should be back,jaw packed.

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Oh cool, I didn't know that that bar was called a trap bar. Yeah sure, I'll try the shrugs on the trap bar. The 100 lbs were getting too easy anyways :P Thanks cog!

-Primal