a_welch503 WORKOUT JOURNAL

[Firehawk]

Dont hold the plate over your chest, hold it behind your head. The farther back behind your head, the less leverage your abs have so it will be harder. Trust me

You are pissing me off with those BB curls...lol

[.V.]

Originally Posted by SurfinAmy

I can't imagine you in a wheelchair, that's for sure. I don't give a **** what the doctor says......

-Amy

One year ago, I was headed that way - now I don't think so. I made the right choice about fitness and I plan to stick with it. It has made an unbelievable difference in my life. I went from the fattest, weakest person at work - in a job where strength is vital, to the healthiest, strongest, most fit person there. This disease is so damn unpredictable, The CNS may just decide one day, "you're legs don't work anymore". But so far, it has only said, "you will be fatigued", or "you will be weak". I have built enough strength now that the weakness, although noticable to me - no one else can see it.

[.V.]

Originally Posted by Firehawk

Dont hold the plate over your chest, hold it behind your head. The farther back behind your head, the less leverage your abs have so it will be harder. Trust me

You are pissing me off with those BB curls...lol

Yeah, that would probably make it WAY harder, but - I've tried that with less weight and I don't feel it in the abs - to really feel it in the abs, I have to hold the weight very high on the chest - the little bar on the dumbells is actually centered across my neck. I have a problem with holding it behind my head, I cannot hold enough weight there to feel it in my abs. If I use a weight I can hold, it does the abs no good. - I guess I still have a ways to go on my grip work - that is why I don't use straps.

The curls - I don't know why or begin to understand it - but I'll take it while it lasts. I have never had a body part progress in strength like this - I suspect it will stall after a while, but I want to build strenght wherever I can while this sad, old body will allow it - wherever it will allow it. I think what is helping the most is a thing I read in M&F years ago about not cheating on BB curls - they said to back up to a wall or a post to keep yourself from leaning back and swinging the weight up. It made it WAY harder when I started doing this and my BB curl weight really sucked for a long time, then it started working and they got stronger. Another thing I do is take the bar ALL they way down to my thighs between reps and concentrate on getting the negative - really slow (the positive is really slow too but I don't have to try for this I try to bring it up fast, but it just won't go any faster than I'm able to move it - remember my arms are less than 15 inches). Look at my other lifts, I can only squat and deadlift 185, I can only bench 130 - just can't seem to get past these weights - I know it will eventually happen - I'm just glad something is improving right now.

[Firehawk]

There's another thing you can do...have you ever tried one of those ab rollers? I don't know what you are capable of doing with your MS condition, but it's basically one wheel, about the size of a lawn mower wheel, with two handles one on each side. YOu get on your knees, hold onto the handles and roll out as far as you can and come back.

If you have never done this before, be careful, because the next 3 or 4 days you are gonan be in a ton of pain with your abs. It works amazingly.

[.V.]

Originally Posted by Firehawk

There's another thing you can do...have you ever tried one of those ab rollers? I don't know what you are capable of doing with your MS condition, but it's basically one wheel, about the size of a lawn mower wheel, with two handles one on each side. YOu get on your knees, hold onto the handles and roll out as far as you can and come back.

If you have never done this before, be careful, because the next 3 or 4 days you are gonan be in a ton of pain with your abs. It works amazingly.

I love my abroller - when I started, I could not do even one crunch. The abroller was my first ab workout that I could actually do - I started with barely able to do 3. Then when I worked myself - very slowly - up to 4 sets of 25, Lady C suggested that I try weighted crunches - I had to start the crunches with only 1 set of 6 reps and work my way up with that too. If it was not for the abroller, I would have never gotten started on an effective ab workout. I highly reccomend them for people that can't do crunches, but then they get easy after a while. They do put nice "peaks and ridges" in the abdominal muscles that crunches don't seem to put there. Sometimes I use it still, but I have to get my 122 pound daughter to sit on my shoulders when I use it to feel it in the abs. Now I just have to get the rest of this abdominal fat off of them and I will be a happy man - until I find another body part to be unhappy about.

[.V.]

Here it is 15:30 hours - I have not worked out yet. Long night at work last night - some very bad patients - left me worn out this morning. Two days ago after arm day we had to go out that evening for one of the kid's activities and I bent over to pick up a shirt that I had dropped on the floor and got an SI spasm. I took motrin 1600 mg that night total and 3200 mg yesterday to get through work. It feels ok today - just barely a little tight. Since today is Legs/Back day - I think I will just skip today. I may make it up tomorrow if the back feels like it. I may just do tomorrow's scheduled chest/shoulder workout. I don't know what I will do yet - it depends on how I feel. I am not going to push it and end up missing a month of workouts like I about did in June.

I was waiting until this afternoon or evening to hit it, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be ready.

[Firehawk]

The good thing is man, if you do deadlifts and squats, they build your abs as well. Quite alot of experienced lifters get their ab workout in that way and don't ever do direct ab work.

FYI

By the way, i know you do squats and deadlifts.

[SurfinAmy]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

One year ago, I was headed that way - now I don't think so. I made the right choice about fitness and I plan to stick with it. It has made an unbelievable difference in my life. I went from the fattest, weakest person at work - in a job where strength is vital, to the healthiest, strongest, most fit person there. This disease is so damn unpredictable, The CNS may just decide one day, "you're legs don't work anymore". But so far, it has only said, "you will be fatigued", or "you will be weak". I have built enough strength now that the weakness, although noticable to me - no one else can see it.

Ya, your state of mine has a lot to do with it. In this book I'm reading it even says that one guy did not know he had leukemia and he was doing just fine. Then he saw the word "leukemia" written in his medical chart and he just sort of caved in to a great depression and died shortly thereafter.

Other people improved greatly because they had a positive outlook and because they expected to improve. They could even change their body temperatures and the electrical pattern of their brain activity with biofeedback training. It even says that image visualization can change the production of hormones.

You probably already know all this anyway, but I thought it was really cool. I'm just now learning about it.

-Amy

[SurfinAmy]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

I can only bench 130 - just can't seem to get past these weights

I just went over to my brother's yesterday and he was saying how he thinks he's going to focus on other stuff besides his chest / bench press.

Well, anyway, it's like he said, "When, in everyday situations, are you going to have to get underneath something and press it up from below using your chest muscles?"

Not often, that's for sure. But the back is huge, and your shoulders, arms you use way more often for actual day to day stuff.

-Amy

[.V.]

10-07-2004

Legs / Back

Pull ups..........35x1x6, 30x2x6, 1x5
Squats........................185x4x8
Deadlifts.....................185x4x8
Calf Raises...................185x4x8
Bent Over Row.................140x4x6

After my week off, it has been 8 days since working my legs and back. I didn't really have any goals today I thought I would just get out there with the same weights I used last time and see what happened. The low back did fine - no new injury. The week off was the right choice to let it heal. The pull ups - I'm still working on finding the right weight to do them with. I think next time I will drop down to 25 and see what happens. I did actually increase my weight on the bent over row, I think I will use the same weight next time - before going up in reps or weight again.

[SurfinAmy]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

10-07-2004
After my week off, it has been 8 days since working my legs and back

That is what I am doing right now & it sucks. But I haven't lifted since Saturday....
Bet it felt sooo good to get back into it after a week off, huh...

-Amy

[.V.]

Originally Posted by SurfinAmy

Bet it felt sooo good to get back into it after a week off, huh...

-Amy

Yeah it DID - until this morning...I had almost forgotton about the next day part of it.

[.V.]

10-08-2004

Good news - the soreness from yesterday's workout is hardly noticeable now. It has been replaced by new soreness. It is actually a relief to hurt in a new place - until I wake up tomorrow morning anyway. Well this should only last for a workout or two.

Chest / Shoulders

Military press.............90x4x6
Upright Row...............105x4x6
Bench Press...............130x4x8
B. Flyes...................90x4x8
Shrugs Front..............185x4x8
Shrugs Back...............185x4x8

No real goals this time..just like yesterday - just put on the weight and see what happens. Maintained the same on the military press - all reps were clean. I will repeat one more time before increasing the reps.

Increased upright row by 1 rep. Next time - repeat.
Increased reps on bench press. Next time - Increase weight.
Repeated the same on butterflyes - will increase weight next time.
Increased reps on shrugs. Next time - Increase weight.

The shrugs are really getting heavy to me - I don't know how much longer my grip will be able to hang on on 8 rep day. The first 6 are still easy enough to hang on to, but those last two are getting harder. I guess this is good grip work though.

[Klinger]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

The shrugs are really getting heavy to me - I don't know how much longer my grip will be able to hang on on 8 rep day. The first 6 are still easy enough to hang on to, but those last two are getting harder. I guess this is good grip work though.

Hey a_welch503 - everything looks really good.

I'd recommend staying with the weight you can grip until your hand and forearm strength improves, even if you feel like your traps are ahead of the game.

There are tools out there to work grip. Or you could just hold a loaded bar for timed intervals, say 15-30 seconds as a rep, to build up your strength.

[.V.]

Thanks Klinger - When it gets so that I can't grip it I'll have no choice but to stay at the same weight. I know a lot of people use straps, but for me, my ability to grip has to stay the same as my strength. This is because of my job - there is not a lift that I do that does not in some way relate to real life - especially at work.
The static grips sounds like a good idea - how much weight do you think I should use - the same as I shrug?