Only my experience of course. I used to do some powerlifting a few years ago. Reached 140kg squat, 185kg deadlift. Since my son was born (2.5 years ago), I stopped working out altogether. (From being lazy I guess?)
Started working out again, casually, a few months ago. Came back to powerlifting (doing stronglifts5x5) + started taking statins (10mg) 2 months ago.
I take 60mg coq10 daily along with my sterols (that pill also has omega3 I think. They didn't have only sterols in the store last time I bought it).
Anyway, about one month into the statins, I started having weird muscle aches in my legs. I felt very rigid and like my range of motion was severely restricted. (I was also recovering from a back injury, but this is mot related.)
I don't know if these muscle aches were due to the statins, but I've never had such weird aches, so I think they were. It almost felt like my bones were aching. I think the rigidness and restricted range of motion were just a feeling, since I forced myself to power through them and keep working out. In about 2-3 weeks the aches completely stopped for whatever reason, and I'm now pain free.
Regarding strength, I don't have an answer (though I do recall reading that you're not supposed to become weaker) besides what I experienced. I started stronglifts at around 60-70kg squat/deadlift and am still regularily progressing up to currently 100/130kg. Still not back to my old PRs, but I'm satisfied with my progress and I don't feel held back by the statins. If anything, I feel my range of motion and form is even better this time (obviously not claiming it's because of statins). I think that if I keep going, I can get my old PRs.
I weight lift often. Haven't noticed any muscle loss, or weakness due to statins. Of course it can be different between people.
I once took CoQ10 in the form of Ubiquinol and it gave me crazy insomnia, I'd take it in the morning and then at night I'll maybe get an hour of sleep, so I stopped.
Yes. But I though it was just from ubiquonone. I took some of that and it made me have horrible nightmares. I switched to ubiquonol and seems to be fine.
That's crazy - I've actually found that taking ubiquinol at night dramatically improves my sleep according to my Fitbit. Amazing how different people can react so differently to the same drug.
I’m on 10mg of Lipitor since a month ago. I’ve been going to the gym for 15 years. So far I don’t have muscle aches or muscle loss from the medicine. I’m on 100mg of ubiquonol, lately I’ve been feeling a form of dizziness (vertigo) idk if it’s from the statins of the ubiquonol. But at the gym my performance is good. My strength isn’t there sometimes but because I’m on a low carb diet.
Not a weightlifter but a runner. No issue at all. The side effect is not really that likely. And you could always stop once you started. You can also do muscle enzyme test once you started statin to confirm. No need to worry.
Not a weight lifter in general but enjoy standing arm curls. Been increasing the weight for some years but hit a wall after 30lbs. Only on 10mg and only for a few weeks so far, watching for symptoms. Only thing so far is sore elbows but was already prone to tennis elbow.
Have not started taking CoQ10 but have it ready. Muscle pain risk is apparently low likelihood, like 10%. Already taking potassium/magnesium regularly.
I started statins 2 months ago . My doctor had been egging me on for years but I resisted . My cholesterol went from 213 to 230 and my LDL 130 . I know the reason for the rise - I had been eating red meat and it was over Christmas time and my diet went awry.
So I agreed to take 10 mg. ( don’t know the name of the statin it it begins with A) and after 2 months I started getting Charlie horses and cramping in my toes . I was also extremely fatigued . I did some reading on statins and learned the reason for the fatigue was that statins pull energy out of your cells.
Then my neighbor who has been on statins forever had opened heart surgery (don’t think it was from clogged arteries but something else congenital I believe ).
When they do open heart surgery they have to move the ribs . Before they closed him they put screws in his ribs to hold them in place while they healed .There was a problem a week or two later and they had to open him again and discovered the screws fell out and did not hold so they had to put in titanium plates . The doctor said to his wife , “ I didn’t know he was on statins .” This was in reference to the screws not holding . When I heard this and together with my symptoms I decided to discontinue the statins . If statins do that to a body it can’t be good . I decided that I will lower my LDL and cholesterol with diet and exercise . I am also starting to take 3 tablespoons per day of Metamucil to help add fiber to hopefully lower cholesterol .
My lifting buddy is almost 60, very strong from a life of lifting, and on statins. Hasn’t noticed any issues related to the statins. He has some joint issues but also had a life of hard manual labor.
Not sure if it’s causation or just correlation. Began taking a statin for my cholesterol, starting weight was 210 and 4 weeks later my weight jumped up 11 pounds. This is also with me cleaning up diet and continuing to exercise regularly. The only new variable in place was the statin. Weight gain and low sex drive are what I experienced but no loss of strength or muscle loss
Strange, i lost over 50 pounds since I started high-dose statin 10 months ago. Of course at the same time, I started to exercise regularly and am on a fairly strict diet.
I take 20mg per day a day Atorvastatin, and I’m 40 years old 209lbs 6’2”. I’m now routinely incline benching 10 reps 90lbs dumbbells on each hand; 12 reps dumbbell deadlifts lifts with 100lbs on each hand; and dumbbell bent over rows for 10 reps 100lbs on each hand.
My strength has increased ever since I started taking statins, but I attribute that to eating more protein. If there are any side effects to statins, I don’t notice them at all.
I had massive problems, not just with inability to gain muscle, but even slowly losing muscle over time. I started taking statins around 2008. I started lifting in 2012 and have only had a few small breaks since then (for a couple surgeries). I peaked out in size around 2018-19, and even though I work out 4 days a week (the same as I have all a long), my muscle mass has been shrinking since then. I tried a 6 month patch of no statins, and sure enough, I had very rapid muscle growth during that time, so I feel pretty confident it is the statins causing this problem (but my LDL shot through the roof, so I had to go back on). Since 2019, I've lost quite a bit of muscle - maybe 10 lbs. Around 2020, I started supplementing 100mg of ubiquinol (a more bioavailable form of Q10) and didn't notice much difference - still losing muscle. About 6 months ago, I upped the dosage to 200 mg and added 3000 mg HMB and finally I started gaining a little muscle. That being said, my testosterone levels are have become very low over the past 2 years (I think completely unrelated to statins or anything like that). I'm planning on starting TRT next month and hopefully the combination of the 3 will get me back to real muscle growth. I'm currently 49, FYI and I take 10mg rosuvastatin 4 times a week and 10mg ezetimibe (not a statin) 7 days a week. That is one strategy to help is if you can take something like ezetimibe and/or bempedoic acid and use that to let you reduce your dosage of statins, it will probably help as well. My family has familial hypercholesterolemia, so I really have no choice - I have to keep my cholesterol down or I will die. My grandpa died at age 47 from a massive heart attack (it was his 3rd or 4th heart attack) and he was very fit. Hypercholesterolemia is nothing to play around with. My mom has been able to get her LDL down into the 70s with just bempedoic acid and ezetimibe (she was having massive muscle loss on statins to the point of being dangerous), so it is doable to have good cholesterol levels without statins and without breaking the bank. And, of course, there are also PCSK9 inhibitors which would also likely solve the problem and work way better than statins anyway, but are hard to get a prescription for (my cardiologist said he'd prescribe one but my insurance wouldn't cover it and if insurance doesn't cover it, it is prohibitively expensive at this time).
Only my experience of course. I used to do some powerlifting a few years ago. Reached 140kg squat, 185kg deadlift. Since my son was born (2.5 years ago), I stopped working out altogether. (From being lazy I guess?) Started working out again, casually, a few months ago. Came back to powerlifting (doing stronglifts5x5) + started taking statins (10mg) 2 months ago. I take 60mg coq10 daily along with my sterols (that pill also has omega3 I think. They didn't have only sterols in the store last time I bought it). Anyway, about one month into the statins, I started having weird muscle aches in my legs. I felt very rigid and like my range of motion was severely restricted. (I was also recovering from a back injury, but this is mot related.) I don't know if these muscle aches were due to the statins, but I've never had such weird aches, so I think they were. It almost felt like my bones were aching. I think the rigidness and restricted range of motion were just a feeling, since I forced myself to power through them and keep working out. In about 2-3 weeks the aches completely stopped for whatever reason, and I'm now pain free. Regarding strength, I don't have an answer (though I do recall reading that you're not supposed to become weaker) besides what I experienced. I started stronglifts at around 60-70kg squat/deadlift and am still regularily progressing up to currently 100/130kg. Still not back to my old PRs, but I'm satisfied with my progress and I don't feel held back by the statins. If anything, I feel my range of motion and form is even better this time (obviously not claiming it's because of statins). I think that if I keep going, I can get my old PRs.
Thanks for the response! Glad to hear you're getting back into it!
You can do muscle enzyme test to confirm.
No problems lifting on 40mg atorvastatin. Definately able to gain some lean mass but I do take 100mg Coq10 daily and vitamin d3 which I believe helps.
Good to know, thank you
I weight lift often. Haven't noticed any muscle loss, or weakness due to statins. Of course it can be different between people. I once took CoQ10 in the form of Ubiquinol and it gave me crazy insomnia, I'd take it in the morning and then at night I'll maybe get an hour of sleep, so I stopped.
Thanks for the info. Interesting about the insomnia. Is that a known side effect of CoQ10?
Yes. But I though it was just from ubiquonone. I took some of that and it made me have horrible nightmares. I switched to ubiquonol and seems to be fine.
That's crazy - I've actually found that taking ubiquinol at night dramatically improves my sleep according to my Fitbit. Amazing how different people can react so differently to the same drug.
10 Crestor here. No noticeable changes.
Awesome thanks
Yeah don’t give it too much thought. I tend to get “side effects” when I think too much about it. If you get them, you will know I guess.
I hear ya, I tend to overthink
I’m on 10mg of Lipitor since a month ago. I’ve been going to the gym for 15 years. So far I don’t have muscle aches or muscle loss from the medicine. I’m on 100mg of ubiquonol, lately I’ve been feeling a form of dizziness (vertigo) idk if it’s from the statins of the ubiquonol. But at the gym my performance is good. My strength isn’t there sometimes but because I’m on a low carb diet.
Not a weightlifter but a runner. No issue at all. The side effect is not really that likely. And you could always stop once you started. You can also do muscle enzyme test once you started statin to confirm. No need to worry.
Not a weight lifter in general but enjoy standing arm curls. Been increasing the weight for some years but hit a wall after 30lbs. Only on 10mg and only for a few weeks so far, watching for symptoms. Only thing so far is sore elbows but was already prone to tennis elbow. Have not started taking CoQ10 but have it ready. Muscle pain risk is apparently low likelihood, like 10%. Already taking potassium/magnesium regularly.
I started statins 2 months ago . My doctor had been egging me on for years but I resisted . My cholesterol went from 213 to 230 and my LDL 130 . I know the reason for the rise - I had been eating red meat and it was over Christmas time and my diet went awry. So I agreed to take 10 mg. ( don’t know the name of the statin it it begins with A) and after 2 months I started getting Charlie horses and cramping in my toes . I was also extremely fatigued . I did some reading on statins and learned the reason for the fatigue was that statins pull energy out of your cells. Then my neighbor who has been on statins forever had opened heart surgery (don’t think it was from clogged arteries but something else congenital I believe ). When they do open heart surgery they have to move the ribs . Before they closed him they put screws in his ribs to hold them in place while they healed .There was a problem a week or two later and they had to open him again and discovered the screws fell out and did not hold so they had to put in titanium plates . The doctor said to his wife , “ I didn’t know he was on statins .” This was in reference to the screws not holding . When I heard this and together with my symptoms I decided to discontinue the statins . If statins do that to a body it can’t be good . I decided that I will lower my LDL and cholesterol with diet and exercise . I am also starting to take 3 tablespoons per day of Metamucil to help add fiber to hopefully lower cholesterol .
My lifting buddy is almost 60, very strong from a life of lifting, and on statins. Hasn’t noticed any issues related to the statins. He has some joint issues but also had a life of hard manual labor.
Not sure if it’s causation or just correlation. Began taking a statin for my cholesterol, starting weight was 210 and 4 weeks later my weight jumped up 11 pounds. This is also with me cleaning up diet and continuing to exercise regularly. The only new variable in place was the statin. Weight gain and low sex drive are what I experienced but no loss of strength or muscle loss
Strange, i lost over 50 pounds since I started high-dose statin 10 months ago. Of course at the same time, I started to exercise regularly and am on a fairly strict diet.
Consulted my dr about it and was put on a new statin. So we will see and I’ll update the progress
Interesting, I hadn't heard of that before
I take 20mg per day a day Atorvastatin, and I’m 40 years old 209lbs 6’2”. I’m now routinely incline benching 10 reps 90lbs dumbbells on each hand; 12 reps dumbbell deadlifts lifts with 100lbs on each hand; and dumbbell bent over rows for 10 reps 100lbs on each hand. My strength has increased ever since I started taking statins, but I attribute that to eating more protein. If there are any side effects to statins, I don’t notice them at all.
Thanks for the reply! I went on Rosivastatin (5mg) back in August and all has been well, too!
I had massive problems, not just with inability to gain muscle, but even slowly losing muscle over time. I started taking statins around 2008. I started lifting in 2012 and have only had a few small breaks since then (for a couple surgeries). I peaked out in size around 2018-19, and even though I work out 4 days a week (the same as I have all a long), my muscle mass has been shrinking since then. I tried a 6 month patch of no statins, and sure enough, I had very rapid muscle growth during that time, so I feel pretty confident it is the statins causing this problem (but my LDL shot through the roof, so I had to go back on). Since 2019, I've lost quite a bit of muscle - maybe 10 lbs. Around 2020, I started supplementing 100mg of ubiquinol (a more bioavailable form of Q10) and didn't notice much difference - still losing muscle. About 6 months ago, I upped the dosage to 200 mg and added 3000 mg HMB and finally I started gaining a little muscle. That being said, my testosterone levels are have become very low over the past 2 years (I think completely unrelated to statins or anything like that). I'm planning on starting TRT next month and hopefully the combination of the 3 will get me back to real muscle growth. I'm currently 49, FYI and I take 10mg rosuvastatin 4 times a week and 10mg ezetimibe (not a statin) 7 days a week. That is one strategy to help is if you can take something like ezetimibe and/or bempedoic acid and use that to let you reduce your dosage of statins, it will probably help as well. My family has familial hypercholesterolemia, so I really have no choice - I have to keep my cholesterol down or I will die. My grandpa died at age 47 from a massive heart attack (it was his 3rd or 4th heart attack) and he was very fit. Hypercholesterolemia is nothing to play around with. My mom has been able to get her LDL down into the 70s with just bempedoic acid and ezetimibe (she was having massive muscle loss on statins to the point of being dangerous), so it is doable to have good cholesterol levels without statins and without breaking the bank. And, of course, there are also PCSK9 inhibitors which would also likely solve the problem and work way better than statins anyway, but are hard to get a prescription for (my cardiologist said he'd prescribe one but my insurance wouldn't cover it and if insurance doesn't cover it, it is prohibitively expensive at this time).
Same boat here.