How Deadlifts Saved My Writing Career: Strength Training for Chronic Pain | Ep 61
"I didn't start lifting to get strong. I started lifting to write."
What I learned about chronic pain after 1.5 years bedridden. A solo episode on the pain industry racket, why women need to lift heavy, and how I started stupidly small:
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00:00 Introduction to the Journey
Sophia Chang (00:00)
Welcome to the Sophia Chang Show.
We are back for another episode of The Sophia Chang Show. I am Sophia Chang, your host, the extroverted writer. I love dogs and I hate navigating the healthcare system as a chronically ill spoonie. I am here today to tell you about the time I had to write a massive novel revision for my agent as well as do my entire Reese's Book Club LitUp fellowship while bedridden. I was typing flat on my back like some Victorian heroine wasting away — except instead of syphilis, I had sciatica.
So as much as the whole weightlifting bro thing matches my frat boy brand, this actually didn't start until three years ago. It happened because I spent about a year and a half completely bedridden. I was in so much chronic pain. I couldn't sit. I couldn't even sit for a full meal. I had to eat and then, like, quickly stand up, move around and lay down again. It was a nightmare because it wasn't like I could take off from work.
I actually — during this time is when I actually got my LitUp fellowship from Reese's Book Club. So I had to do this amazing life-changing mentorship and rewrite my novel in three months, query agents. I had to do this massive, massive revision for my agent. And during this whole thing, I had undiagnosed sleep apnea. So I was exhausted 24/7. On top of that, I had to type lying down.
I didn't even have my split keyboard then. I had this — I can't remember the name of it. It's one of those weird ones that look like two cups. I had to put that on top of my body. I had to have the mouse on my bed. I had this bed table, this hospital bed table I bought that, like, angled downwards. I had to buy this new laptop because I — literally, I wrote my book on an 11-inch MacBook Air. How?
I don't know, considering that I was fresh off from being blind and could barely read anything. To this day, if you saw the size of my font, you would be like, how do you go through life? And I would respond very poorly. So here I am, I'm exhausted from the sleep apnea. I'm not getting a good night's sleep ever. This has been going on for five years. Now I have to type laying down. I would basically lay down,
go to type, and like my eyes would close and not wanna open. It was so awful. After about six months of this, I was like, I cannot live like this. I've got a fellowship to do.
03:10 The Pain Industry Racket
So I ended up doing a year of really expensive, largely useless cortisone shots from the pain clinic at my hospital. I can't tell if that actually helped or if it was placebo effect, which works. My body was completely broken.
While my career was in overdrive go mode, I was trying anything and everything. Equally expensive acupuncture out of pocket that just made things worse — and then I find out, like, I read much later on that acupuncture can actually make things even more painful if you're already inflamed. So, you know, thanks for letting me know that, guys. I was basically — I had this kind of, this cream that had ketamine in it that was
also extremely expensive. The pain industry in this country is such a racket. It's like they prey on the people who they know are so desperate for one second of relief that we will pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a compounding agency to put cattle tranquilizers on us. So after going through physical therapy that didn't work, the cortisone shots,
the ketamine compounding cream, all sorts of stuff. My neurologist upped my dosage of my monthly infusion. We were trying anything and everything. And I finally remembered, 20 years ago, I had a very similar pain that killed my backup dancer dreams. It almost killed my dance dreams for good. You know, obviously I was able to go semi-pro after that, but
04:34 Rediscovering Strength Training for Pain Relief
the reason why that even happened was because the only thing that worked was strength training. So 20 years ago, I wanted to be a backup dancer. I wanted to be, like, Xtina Aguilera's backup dancer. And I started going back to class, hardcore ballet, jazz, Pilates. And I instantly got piriformis syndrome, this horrible sciatica from driving in LA, and nothing would change it. And I was just like, oh my God.
My career is over before it's even begun. It wasn't until I moved back to New York and I hired this personal trainer who had worked in a physical therapy office, and she had me do strength training. She had me get on the machines. She had me pick up weights for the first time and I got really addicted — and it also strengthened everything. I didn't realize that I basically had no butt muscles. And so I remembered this, right? 20 years later. So I'm like, I'm just gonna try it.
I'm just gonna try it. So I got this five pound weight. I don't even know if I was able to do five pounds at the time. I might've been holding one pound water bottles in my hands. And I did my first deadlift. I felt my hamstrings come online and instantaneously the pain reduced.
Like it was miraculous, but not really — it's just science. And so I started off doing these two, just holding these water bottles that are a pound each, you know, those Arrowhead bottles — on the East Coast, it'll be Poland Spring. These 16.9-ounce or 500-milliliter bottles, these are one pound each. I started off holding those. And then I moved up to two pounds, these pink two pound weights. Then I bought these adjustable five pounds.
They could go from two pounds to five pounds, and as soon as I could get to five pounds, then I — okay, I can start using this Bowflex, these old Bowflex that the male of my house had bought secondhand off of his friend. I'm looking at them right now. I keep them in my office, which is also my gym. And they go from five pounds to 7.5 pounds to 10 pounds. So they go up in 2.5 pound increments.
So once I could hit five pounds, I knew I could start using those. This is not a fairy tale. This is maintenance. If I miss more than two days, the pain comes back. And it wasn't overnight. It wasn't like, I'm better now. I could start with sitting for 15 minutes. I could start with having a full meal,
and then I was able to sit for 15 minutes at my desk, and then it built from there. I didn't start lifting to get strong. I started lifting to write, but then it became an addiction. I research everything like a mofo because I am a writer. I've been this way since I was trained well at school with my 150-page thesis. And so I can't do anything without deep diving.
You know, I was looking up — it would take me an hour and a half to get through a workout because I don't like to research beforehand. I like to kind of research as I'm doing it. Okay, I'm going to do a deadlift. Let me watch a video on the best form. Okay, now my weights are getting a little bit too heavy for me, for my wrist. So let me research: what are the best wrist guards? You know, what is progressive overload? What are the best splits to do? For what it's worth, I do push pull legs. We'll get into my workout on another episode.
08:01 The Importance of Lifting for Women
Now I am a total lifting apologist. Like, the more I learned about it, the more I learned how necessary it is for women especially. I go around telling women there are two things you need to do in life. I mean, other than getting rid of the males in your life: you need to be investing your money as soon as possible, as early as possible, and you need to be lifting weights and lifting heavy. So right now,
my life revolves around maintaining my body for writing. Again, I didn't lift to start to get strong. I started to lift so that I could write. And so everything that I do right now physically in my life is to keep this machine writing. It is a writing machine and I have to feed it. It's a pain in the butt because I get hungry all the time. I've always been this way.
I've always been a bit hypoglycemic. I come from diabetics on both sides of my family. So I have to eat every two to three hours. Do I? I don't. I sometimes get really, really hungry and then I'm super hangry, but I'm just in a flow and I don't want to stop, you know, the writing, the revising. So sometimes I do push that, but I should be eating every two to three hours. I have to lift two to three times a week. Three is great, two minimum. Otherwise the pain comes back.
What I've learned is that your body isn't separate from your creative work. Physical energy is creative energy — and this isn't wellness culture bullshit, this is science. Women especially need to lift heavy, and as you get older, this will protect you not just from things like falls and keeping your acumen. That bone density is what's going to save you. Both in your aging well, in your function, being able to — what they call get up and go, just...
being able to get out of your chair and start walking. You won't believe how hard that gets the older you get. You know, and my knees are very noisy right now because of a lifetime of dance. I've always had noisy knees and they're even worse, but it's like, I am going to just keep pushing this body for as long as I can because it has literally saved my writing career. I would not be able to write if I didn't lift. The two go hand in hand.
10:50 Starting Small
That's just what my life is now. And it also feels so good. And yes, my arms look amazing. Like, it's kind of ridiculous. I could go on and on about what I actually do. I'm gonna have a separate episode where I'm gonna go through my actual workout. All I can say is the lifting and the writing go hand in hand for me. And I really do believe that any kind of exercise, but especially lifting, can help you too as a writer. And you know, it's so easy to start stupidly small.
You can start with just the water bottles like I did. Start stupidly small, just start. Your brain and your writing will thank you for it. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Sophia Chang Show. If you got something out of what you heard, please share it with your friends. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music. Apparently I'm on YouTube Music now. Wherever you listen, I'll be there. I'd love a five-star rating and I'll chat with you next time.
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Sophia Chang is a Reese's Book Club LitUp fellow, disabled dancer, and extroverted writer. She hosts The Sophia Chang Show podcast where her honest traditional publishing stories will make you scream in your sleep. Subscribe to find out why deadlifts will save your writing life.
