I’m documenting this err in judgment in the hopes that someone, in a similar situation, might not repeat it.

Last Friday I headed to the gym bright and early. This marked the second day on my return to working out and I wanted to make it count: I expected to be sore in the morning. Because it was the end of the week, and I had no intention of returning over the weekend, I decided it made sense to lift biceps and triceps since, as supporting muscles, they would be able to rest through the break and not affect any other lifting.

I guess I should backtrack a bit. Back when I was training with lighter weights, it made the transition from one weight to the next faster if I set the barbells on end — the barbell looks like the capital letter ‘I’ in that position — and snatched them up with one hand and then the other once I’d lifted it high enough to grasp it. Okay, moving on.

My primary tricep exercise is, for now, the barbell lying tricep extension. When I started doing this I was lifting about 40 lbs. and going to 50 lbs. turned me into a human fountain. I’d since progressed in the weight and on that day I had stacked barbells in 70, 80, and 90 lb. increments beside the bench. The execution of the exercise went well: lifting the barbells from their stacked position, did not.

I spent the entire weekend with a dull ache in my upper back that seemed to be worse on the upper right near my shoulder. Considering this is the side I tried to pull up 80 & 90 lbs. with one hand, this makes sense. This morning I was feeling better. The ache in my back and shoulders was a faint memory. This morning I went in to do, wait for it, shoulder exercises. That’s right. I got through a set of dumbbell shoulder presses with no problems but the first couple front lateral raises sent a shot of pain from my right shoulder, across my upper back, and back again.

The workout is over. I’m at home, sitting very still, authoring this post. The moral of the story: Just because you could do something with a lighter weight doesn’t mean it’ll work equally well with heavier weights. The moment you don’t respect the weights, they’ll hurt you.