TLDR: Breakdown:

 I'm not a MD nor have any credentials in the medical community, point all questions to your primary care provider.  No lifting = lower value + lower strategy.    Know what Rhabdo is.  My experience with Rhabdo: DID NOT GET WHILE LIFTING.  Drink lots of water.  Stay safe while lifting.  Be smart while lifting.

[DISCLAIMER]: Long read, but worth the time. I am in no way a medical doctor nor even close to the medical profession. I do have personal experience with the following injury described (I was hospitalized for it). Never take any medical advice from any website nor anonymous person and always consult a doctor on any questions or concerns you have.

Folks,

I'm going to try my best to keep this as close to strategy as possible, breakdown as follows:

Lifting + clean diet = good looking body. Good looking body = more eye fucks. More eye fucks = higher value. Higher value = better strategy. Better strategy = more fucks.

That being said, I wanted to point out a rare injury that can occur to anyone of you that can derail your lifts and confidence, in turn, fuck up strategy; Rhabdomyolysis.

[from the linked article below] Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle tissue that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents into the blood. These substances are harmful to the kidney and often cause kidney damage. In other words, you have too much muscle breakdown in your system and the kidney freak the fuck out and can't get rid of that shit. I'm not going into technical detail, so here is link for more information:

https://archive.today/n0zdO

NOTE: I DID NOT GET RHABDO FROM LIFTING. In fact, I'd be fucking shocked if someone got it during a normal workout routine. This is just a warning that it can happen to you. Not taking a shot at crossfiters, but it seems if you do crossfit intensely, you have run more of a risk for rhabdo than most. Do a search for "Rhabdo" on /r/crossfit and see what I mean.

My Story:

I work in IT and sit at a desk all day. I used to work construction about 10 years ago but have not done any physical labor since except for the occasional moving. During the summer life got busy and I fell out of my lifting routine. During this time, we purchased a new house and decided to put in a stone walkway from the sidewalk to our walkout basement. My bro and I did all the work ourselves and it was a bitch. Long story short: We spent the whole day of lots of digging, lots of tampering the ground, carrying heavy blocks, and dealing with 95 degree weather. My bro had enough for one day and left the next (don't blame him), it was about 65% complete.

After he left, I finished the walkway and had piles on piles of dirt in our yard that I shoveled up and loaded the back of the pickup. Also in the pickup was a half bed full of silt rock. From there I drove to a dump site and unloaded all the shit by myself with a scoop shovel. Total time of shoveling that shit: four hours.

A few days after I was severely sore and it was the worst soreness I've ever felt in my life (I used to play college football). I figured this was just a delayed muscle soreness after heavy shoveling the few days and ignored the symptoms. Day, after day, the muscle soreness increased and then weakness started to sit in. At one point, I couldn't even pickup my one year old child; that's how weak I became. After that, I to two Urgent Care facilities.

The first UC was almost a joke. They did do a flu and strep test, both tests came back negative. Told me it was probably from "flu like symptoms" and take ibuprofen to help the soreness. I asked him if it was common for that to happen in August and didn't really give an answer. Anyways, waited the next day and the soreness was even worse.

Went to the second UC, the MD at the Urgent Care was fantastic and requested a blood test right away. He indicated that the soreness was probably not from some common symptoms with soreness such as flu, strep, or any other sickness. He was banking on the blood test to see what the hell was going on. The blood test came back and everything was normal except I had an elevated CK (Creatine Kinase) level, nothing terrible just double what the normal levels are (normal <250 ck). If your CK level gets into the 5000s that when you have to be concerned. He called me back and dumped an IV bag of fluid through me and told me to come back the next day and re-draw my blood to see if the CK goes down. Did that and played the waiting game for the next results. Hours went by and didn't here anything from the UC facility, they also had a different doc on staff. Finally, I called them and the doc on staff told me I needed to go to the hospital. My CK level skyrocketed to 3000 and I needed to be on fluids right away.

At the hospital and my blood was drawn again. Before it peaked out my CK level reached 4800, anywhere in the 5000s is where kidney damage starts to occur so I lucked out. They hooked my up to IV fluids all night and the next morning I was given the OK to go home. The observation doc told me this was probably due to not drinking enough water during all the physical labor I did the weekend before. He also mentioned more than likely Rhabdo will not happen again unless I'm an idiot and do not drink enough water. True, I did only 1/2 gallon of water per day before the Rhabdo episode, but DID NOT drink enough during the physical labor the past weekend; doc said during that time I probably needed two gallons per day. There was no help from all the beer that was consumed during that weekend as a hydration mechanism.

After the Rhabdo episode I delayed getting into the gym and doing any physical work for about three months, gained 30 pounds and was to freaked out to do anything physical. Finally, I said "Fuck it" and if I get Rhabdo, I get Rhabdo, there is nothing I can do about it, except go back to the hosiptal. Fast forward to now; I'm down 20 pounds and I work out five times a week. Been doing it about six months and no Rhabdo episode. There has been one false positive I went to Urgent Care about, but it was not related to Rhabdo, just some weird calf soreness.

Takeaways:

Be smart.  Know your body and when you are pushing past your limit.  I KNEW I was past my limit shoveling all the shit back in and out of the truck bed.  I was exhausted, but kept pushing on.  I knew my was past it's limit, but said "Fuck it" I'll be fine.    HYDRATE, MOTHER FUCKER.  Don't think you're drinking enough water during the day?  Change that shit now; I try to drink around 1.5 to 2 gallons per day.  You don't have to do that, but I'd recommend one gallon AT THE MINIMUM.     Again: I DID NOT GET RHABDO FROM LIFTING.  It was from working in 95 degree weather + not drinking enough water + pushing past my already exhausted limit + doing work I normally don't do and dehydration.  It probably could of been prevented if I drank two gallons of water per day during that time and not focus on drinking beer as my primary hydration technique.      If injuries do happen, listen to your fucking Doctor.  He knows more than you and Google nor a random stranger on the internet will help.    Take time off, but don't be afraid to get back in the swing.  I paid dearly (gained 30 pounds) for ignoring the gym.  I was such a fucking pussy and scared I would get Rhabdo again.  I made every excuse in the book not to go lift.  Doc told me to take a month off, I took three cause I was a little bitch.  If an injury does happen, do small random tests with your body.  Do a workout with moderate weight with just a couple of sets and see how you feel in the next day or so.  This helped me to know when I was ready to hit it hard again.    Stay safe.  I know when to quit now.  If I feel overly exhausted half way into my workout, I'll quit and will hit it again next week.  There is nothing wrong with quiting if you know the right time.  But don't use that as an excuse to bitch out on your workouts, cause you'll pay dearly.  Don't be scared homie (thanks Nate Diaz).     Lifting is important to strategy.  The better you look, the more confidence you have and the better strategy you can apply.  Who in the hell needs drugs when you look like a Greek God and have the confidence of a dark triad.

Be smart. Lift Heavy. Eat Clean. Stay Sexy. Fuck Bitches

Edited for formatting.