bb1968’s BodyBlog

It has now been 24 hours since my back surgery and I am very pleased to say that I feel really great!  Everything went very well and I would like to thank all my friends on here for their prayers and support.  Most of all I would like to thank God for His guidance through it all.  I am looking forward to a speedy recovery and hopefully back to some light workouts in a couple of weeks.  I am anticipating the 2 week window because that was when I started doing some light workouts after my neck sugery.  Once again I will be paying close attention to my body and not overdoing it.  It was suggested by the doctor that I begin walking as soon as possible to help in the healing process.  I plan on going to the gym tomorrow and getting on the treadmill. 

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog and I will keep the updates coming as I progress on the road to recovery!  God bless you all.

I am about 8 hours from the scheduled surgery on my lower back to remove a piece of herniated disc that is pinching a nerve and causing pain down my right leg.  I am so ready for the recovery to begin.  After the success I had with my neck surgery (thanks to the Good Man upstairs) I have no reservations about this surgery. 

I would like to thank all of my friends on here for their support, well wishes and prayers.  Bodyspace has really helped me to keep my focus on the long run.  Afterall, bodybuilding is a "Super-duper Marathon" not a hundred yard dash.  It takes time to build the body of your dreams.  It doesn’t happen over night as those of you who have been in this for a while can attest to.  Sometimes setbacks come as is with this surgery I am having.  But when you fall down you get back up, dust yourself off and continue on the race.  Quitters never win and winners never quit.  A true champion couldn’t be a champion without character and character can only be developed by facing and overcoming adversity.  I keep telling myself that things happen for a reason.  The reason I believe this "trial" has happened to me was because I was so ready to start lifting some heavy duty weight to put on some mass and my neck was not healed enough to be able to handle the load.  I haven’t even attempted any deadlifts since my neck surgery and I blew this disc out with 135 lbs on the bar doing my warmups for squats a week before my last competition.  When you’re not ready for something, the Good Man upstairs has a way of giving you a sign to let you know.  Unfortunately my sign requires another surgery.

Gotta go and try to get a little sleep before I get cut open.  I will post an update once I am feeling better, hopefully by Saturday.  Keep me in your prayers.  God bless you all for stopping by to read my rambling.  Good night!

The doc’s office got me in a little earlier than anticipated for my initial consultation regarding the MRI results on my low back.  Surgery has been scheduled for next Friday, Oct. 26.  I am having a microdiscectomy to remove a piece of the disc that herniated and caused the pinched nerve.  It sounds like a much more simple procedure than the neck surgery I had in April.  It is only suppose to take a couple of hours and is performed on an outpatient basis.  I should only be off work for 2 weeks.  However, I won’t be able to do any squats or deadlifts for 8 weeks.  My goal is to get the vasectomy done during the 2 weeks off work as well.  That way all the surgeries will be done and I can start to recover and hope and pray that nothing else goes wrong. 

So as it looks, January will be the start of a serious mass program.  I feel that my legs are really getting small due to the inability to stimulate the muscles.  The upper body seems to be getting a lot stronger especially on the left side which had the nerve damage.  My chest and tricep workouts have seen some significant gains in poundages so I am very happy to see that progress.  It all just goes in line with the rest of my life and Murphy’s law….if something could go wrong, it will happen to me!  It always seems to be something.  Better luck in 2008 hopefully!  I will post another update after the surgery.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read my rambling.  Keep me in your prayers and God bless each of you.  

It was a beautiful day in Wild Wonderful West Virginia today!  I got to go on a bike ride finally (first time back on the bike since the onset of the low back injury 4 weeks ago today).  The weather was absolutely gorgeous for riding.  I actually thought that the fall colors were going to be better than they were.  I took a ride on the C&O Canal (actually just across the Potomac river from WV in Maryland) and I went on a section closer to Hagerstown, MD.  I usually go west from Hancock, MD because it is just a little more scenic and secluded.  The fall colors around my house are pretty much into full effect but where I was today (maybe 30 miles east) looked like the heart of springtime…green as could be!  So next weekend I plan on heading west to take in some real scenery. 

I was very pleased to see that the leg and back didn’t bother me much at all.  I wouldn’t have wanted to be riding any hills though.  I could still feel a severe weakness in my right leg.  While I was home this evening, laying on the couch watching a movie, I noticed that the front of my shin on my right leg was cold to the touch and it was numb as well.  After seeing the info I googled up on the L3-4 hernitated disc, these symptoms go right in line with the reports I read.  TOTALLY WEIRD feeling!  The calf area was warm and the shin was cold.  Probably nerve damage, I am guessing.

Life is good no matter what kind of difficulties you face each day.  Adversity builds character and sometimes will bring out what kind of character you have built.  Somewhere, somebody has it worse off than yourself.  Sometimes you just have to look back into your past at a horrible situation you came through and be thankful that your not in that predicament anymore.  And sometimes you just have to ask God, "Please help me through this Lord!"  LIFE IS GOOD TODAY!

I got a letter today from my primary care physician informing of the MRI report which states, "There appears to be a large disc herniation at L3-4 extending superiorly from the disc space on the right with likely impingement upon the descending right L3 and lower nerve roots." 

After googling the above info., the symptoms go right in line with what I have been experiencing.  Looks like I will be having surgery to fix it. 

The initial vasectomy consultation is Friday.  If I could get all these surgeries out of the way this year, maybe I will have a good shot at making some progress with my training come next year.  Three surgeries (2 major) in one year and in all the other 38 years of my life I managed just one.  And that was my stupid fault for being careless with a skill saw!  It sometimes has me thinking that the old Devil is trying to discourage me and get me back to drinking.  I refuse to quit!  Come hell or highwater nothing is going to stop me from having success this time around.  I fought with the devil for too long with my drinking and I have been sober for almost 3 years now.  All I can say is, "Bring it on!"  I could lose my legs and I will just enter the wheelchair bodybuilding comps! 

Arnold said it best, "I’ll be back!"

I hit the back for the first time since the onset of the injury.  My back really feels good and the pain shooting down my leg has actually subsided to the point where I don’t need the Percoset for pain (Thank God for that- I don’t like taking meds especially narcotics).  I only did 3 sets of the following: Bent-over barbell rows, Seated cable rows, Wide-grip pulldowns behind the neck, and Barbell shrugs.  Didn’t go too heavy except for shrugs (it was the heaviest I have been since my neck surgery anyway).  Just wanted to get a feel for how my back was going to hold up.  I was very happy to say the least.  I am still going on the 22nd to the specialist to see what is actually causing these flare-ups.  I have had them for most of my adult life.  They are always a minor setback and in a week or two I am usually back to normal.  I still haven’t tried any kind of leg workout nor have I got out to ride the bike yet.  I am shooting for a bike ride next weekend.  I love to be out on the bike this time of the year and see all the fall foliage.

It is back to chest today.  Going to try this workout scheme (3 days on 1 off and repeat) for a while.  That way I am hitting each body part (except legs for now) three times in two weeks.  I gotta get my chest and tricep strength back in my left arm.  When I can go back to doing legs, I plan on hitting them twice a week and I will have to adjust everything else accordingly.

So that is it for blogging on my workouts for now.  Time to go to work…training that is!

Had another great workout today.  Got an awesome pump on the guns.  I did supersets hitting biceps first followed by triceps.  Round one was incline alternating dbell curls superset w/ dbell skullcrushers.  Round two was reverse EZ bar curls w/ pulley pushdowns using the rope handle.  Finished it off with one-arm dbell preacher curls superset w/ close grip bench. 

I am still finding the weakness in my left arm from the nerve damage resulting from the ruptured disc I had the surgery on (6 months ago today as a matter of fact).  However, the strength is slowly coming back thank God!  Any pressing movement I do (i.e. bench press, military press, any tricep extension, etc) I always go to failure on my left arm way before my right arm is even close to failure.  I can lift twice the weight w/ my right arm as my left.  Time will heal it as the doc said.

I will take tomorrow off as a rest day.  Going to hit Back on Sunday.  That will be the day of reckoning to see how my low back holds up.  I did some pull-ups earlier this week on Monday and it didn’t bother me.  I am curious to see if I can do bent-over rows.  If not, I will do what I can.  I will post an update after my workout on Sunday. 

I got another good workout in today despite the pain in the leg.  It is hard to concentrate but I can’t stay away from the iron.  Nothing bothered me while lifting it is just the dull aching b.s. that I have to put up with for now.  I hit seated bent-over laterals, standing side laterals, seated barbell military presses, upright rows and seated dbell shrugs.  All for 3 sets each and got a really good pump once again.  I am staying in the 8-10 rep range and trying to get at least 8 good reps without going to failure.

I plan on hitting biceps and triceps tomorrow.  We shall see where this will take me for now.  It is definitely better than sitting around and doing nothing.  Thankfully I can at least do what I am for now.  Until tomorrow, peace to all and God bless.  Train hard, eat smart and get plenty of rest!

I actually got a pretty good chest workout in today.  I didn’t go too heavy but at least I got a good pump from it.  I only did 12 sets consisting of 3 ea. on incline barbell, flat bench dbell flyes, decline barbell, and flat bench dbell presses.  Just felt really good to get the pump going after taking it easy for the last couple of weeks.  I plan on doing some shoulders and traps tomorrow.

I tried some light leg extensions and I could really feel the pain get worse so I stopped.  NO LEGS for a while.  That is what I was planning on really concentrating on bringing up over the next few months too.  Oh well, as the saying goes, stuff happens.  Everything happens for a purpose and I will keep the faith that God is trying to tell me something for now.  After all it has only been 6 months since I had the neck surgery.  If I would have tried to start going heavy on squats and deadlifts I could have reinjured that part and been back on the operating table going through that all over again.  I still haven’t tried riding the bike yet.  I am afraid it is going to be painful and that is really going to piss me off if I can’t ride my bike.  That is my source of cardio and serenity!  I love to go for rides in the fall when all the leaves are changing.  It just brings a peace of mind beyond words for me.  I guess maybe this weekend I will try it and see what happens.  That’s about it for now.  Peace to all and God bless you.

Well I am back from Vegas and was very happy to see Jay pull off another win.  He didn’t look the best and even admitted it in the post show interview that he had miscalculated some things in his prep.  Victor was spot on and should have won it based on Fri and Sat nights conditioning.  Dennis Wolf should have came in a much higher placing.  If you didn’t watch the show on bb.com you missed some good competition.

I had the MRI done this morning and my appt. with the specialist is Oct. 22.  I won’t know anything until then.  The pain is manageable with the pain meds.  I haven’t missed any work or had to cancel anything yet so that is a good thing.  Just really itching to hit the weights.  Pushups for now is about it.  Gotta get to work.  God bless and take care to all.