5 Aug, 2009 – Is My Arm Fixed?

I have now been through a couple weeks of visits to the chiropractor, maybe nine altogether.  We are now spacing the visits out farther apart.  To date, my left arm no longer has numbness in the fingertips.  My right arm with all the elbow pain feels almost completely normal.  The sessions of muscle massage therapy, while mildly painful and uncomfortable, are really having an effect.  I was able to do yard work last weekend that I had been unable to do before seeing the chiropractor, and it was uneventful.  Nothing got worse.  Nothing broke.  Nothing hurt.

I am sure that I got this way over a long time, building scar tissue and adhesions without ever having any indicators something was wrong until it was too late.  To further muddy the waters, after the pain started, I was treating the wrong thing.  This has taught me a valuable lesson.  I will be stretching more, before and after exercise, I will be using forearm braces to distribute the force more evenly over my muscles, and I will be icing my muscles after workouts.  I also intend to set up regular visits to a massage therapist (the same one that hurts my chiropractor, hehe) to make sure this never happens again.  I know, never say never, but forwarned is forearmed.

(What a horrible pun that was.  Stop me now, before I pun again.)

I expect to hit the gym soon.  I will probably work up to by doing home exercises first for a few weeks.  Plus, my schedule really works against an exercise regimen for the next couple months.

21 July, 2009 – More Good News…

Well, I went for my third visit to the chiropractor, and we were all surprised by the amount of progress that just a few visits have made.  I no longer get stiff arm and pain after a night of sleep, and I can now grip almost to full strength without any discomfort.  One of the chiropractors wanted to check things a little, and pushed on my forearms – he was surprised and said things felt much better, almost normal.   They also look much more relaxed and normal.

Now to note something from the last visit I forgot, so I do not forget again:

I remember the weakness I would have as well.  His explanation for sudden bouts of weakness made sense – that due to injury and incorrect healing, the muscles had been set in a semi-contracted state, so the full 100% I needed when lifting was now 100% plus however much my muscles were already tensed.  Or, another way, I no longer had 100% available, only whatever was left after factoring out my semi-contracted muscle state.  In short, I was trying to commit 100% to something when I only had,  say, 80%.  By attempting to overload my muscles, a protective mechanism (it has a name, but I do not remember it), like a circuit breaker, would kick in, pulling the plug on my muscles to prevent injury and resulting in a sudden weakness in the motion.

This visit was much less uncomfortable than the last one.  I personally think that they broke up adhesions that time, and that stretching has had a real affect because of it.  I am feeling pretty good about being able to start up again, slowly, in another month or two.

Explanation? Clarification?

Well, I suppose I should mention that I had been working out for about ten weeks before I started this blog (did I mention that already?).  We moved back to the States in late May, and I started at the gym again in July sometime.  This closed off a three month (or more) break from exercising.  So I have been at it again for about….four months now?

When we left Japan, I was much stronger and weighed about 189 lbs.

When I started up again in July, I was down to about 178 lbs, and had lost a lot of strength and energy (I do that – I have always had a hard time gaining and keeping muscle weight and strength).

So now, I am finally creeping back up  – I am at 188 lbs as of yesterday, and much of my strength has returned.  I am also regaining my bulk, which has never actually been very bulky, when I stop to think about it.  This *does* tend to make for some surprised reactions when people see me doing 900 lbs on the seated leg sled, 320 lbs on the seated calf raise, or 270 lbs on the flat iso-bench press (I guess they expected less?).  ^____^

Not there yet, but I will be one day.  Old-age: 0.  Me: 1.

Speaking of old-age, I also met this guy in the gym.  Big vein-y arms.  Fit-looking.  Strong.  Silver hair?  I asked, and he said he was 75 years old!  He has been doing this non-stop since he was 16!  Imagine – 60 years of lifting.  He said he had been at the North Pole before, and he and some buddies had convinced the metal shop to cut some round plates.  You know it – they made barbells out of pipe and steel plates.  He said they were either lifting or eating constantly.  Amazing.  He knew a long time before it became popular to say, that this is a life-style.  You don’t stop; it doesn’t end.  It is a journey, not a destination (sorry, very cliche, but it drives the point home, right?).

I hope I got half of what he has when I am that age…  Dude’s gonna live to 120 at this rate.

I Really Wanna Go Work Out…..

Man, I just can’t shut up today!  First a massive post on my other blog, now this.  After trolling fitness blogs for the past two days, I am so antsy it’s killing me.  No beer today, kids are home, wife is out shopping and GOING TO THE GYM.  Maybe it’s this shirt I am wearing – it’s an old T-shirt that I haven’t worn in years, and it fits VERY snugly.  Makes me feel all buff, like I am constantly flexing, even though neither are true.  But it is a good feeling…

I work tomorrow, so it should not suck as bad.  I’ll just grunt through today and not go to the gym.

<sigh>

2008 November 10 – Monday

Today gravity is heavy.  Again.

My shoulders are sore and sparking with little bursts of pain.  My lower back is sore.  My right elbow is still a little stiff – it was hard to work through it.  And I just don’t have a lotta energy today.

So I am taking tomorrow and Wednesday off from the gym, to rest up.

Basically, my body is telling me to get off its last nerve or else, and I am listening.  And backing away slowly.

Still, it was an ok workout.  Got 220 lbs six times on the seated lat pulldown, 2 sets (wide and short grip), followed by the same at 200 lbs.  Seated row was a lesiurely 180 lbs 12 times.  Incline bench was 140 lbs for 8 reps, then 6 reps, chased with a no-rest set of 6 at 90 lbs.

Calves went well – 230 lbs for three sets of 10, full extension.  Abs were ok, no change, but a little harder to do today.   Seated barbell military presses were done, four sets of five reps, alternating behind the neck to in front of the chest, starting at 70 lbs (minus the floating bar) for the first two sets, then 50 lbs for the last two.  Made a weak attempt at standing shoulder flys with 25 lb dumbbells, then 15 pounders out to the front a few times.

Deadlift (Romanian) was a set of 8 at 90 lbs, then a set of six at 180 lbs.  I used a belt for safety this time to see if it helped with posture, since it requires a lot of focus to get it right.  I dunno if it helped, but balance was not an issue, now that I know where to put my feet and hands.

I’ll try again Thursday and Friday.

2008 October 2 – Thursday

Twinged my right calf doing a set of 250 lbs on the seated calf.  Not too bad, but I will not be doing calves tomorrow so I get a three day break.   After that, I will probably just stick with the warm-up weight for a day or so, depending on how it feels.  Careful…

Also found a different leg press machine (not cable-powered).  It already had 490 lbs loaded up, so after I warmed up legs today on the cable machine with 360 lbs, I did a set of 8 on the plate-loaded machine at 490.  I chased it with a set of six with 580 lbs loaded.  It’s a little wonky and tends to bounce at the full extension, so I need to be careful not to hyperextend my knees.  I may stick with it, though – it definitely goes higher than the cable machine.

I warmed up triceps at 30 lbs, but my right elbow is still stiff and tight.  I was going to not do anymore, but then tried dumbbell tricep kickbacks, which worked pretty well.  No elbow stress.  I hit it with a 35 lb dumbbell on each arm for a set of 6 or so, then stepped down 5 lbs at a time till I was at 25 lbs per.  Each set was supersetted with a set of concentration bicep curls at the same weight.  Good workout, but I didn’t quite hit the burn I wanted.

It’s chili cookout day at work, and I have been dreaming about that all week.  Who can blame me for being distracted?  (Good chili too).