carry’s BodyBlog

Yesterday I trained my back, back day is my most dreaded day in the GYM, that’s because I have a disk herniation, or some people call it disk slide, a condition which causes lower back pain, and a kind of weakness in the back because simply if you move the simplest wrong move it can render you in bed with an unbearable back pain for a week,  so I have to take extra caution on the back day, I got this condition around 9 month ago when I was lifting a heavy dumbbell in the GYM and I instantly felt something in my back snap, I stayed in bed for around 10 days when this happened, since then bending to get something off the ground is on some days when I have the pain a big achievement.

So since the injury, I try to do all my back workout on machines, and stay away from free weight cause jerking a heave weight is not a good I idea, also I do other exercises from the seated position instead of standing, like the biceps and triceps exercises.

I gained a lot of weight when the injury happened cause I could exercise, and just standing with my back upright was a challenge, now thank god I’m feeling better, and I’m determined to take off the extra weight and be healthy again.

It worked, and the stairs are great, I had on of the most rewarding cardio sessions right here at home on our building’s stairs, I went down and up the whole 12 floors for 6 times in 25 min., and it was great, I felt my lower part my hips and glutes are getting a great workout, and the best thing, it’s right here at home, so from now on whenever I’m stuck and can’t get to the GYM on time, I’m gonna head for the stairs and do my cardio there……..of course the doorman thought I was crazy going up and down the stairs frantically, he asked me is there something wrong with the elevator, and I told him no and just went on, I couldn’t elaborate anymore cause he wouldn’t understand, cause exercise is not so popular here in Egypt, anyway, the experiment  worked, and I would recommend  to anyone who lives in a high rise building  to try the stairs, they’re great.

Today I got a new Idea to do my cardio on days when there is no time to do it at the GYM, the "Stair Master" and since I don’t own one currently, I decided to use real stairs, and since I live on the 12th storey of the building, I have plenty of stairs to climb, I’m initiating a test drive for our stairs today, and I’ll let you know how things went, if this worked out fine, there would be no excuse anymore to miss out on cardio sessions, cause the cardio machine is just downstairs…..

I wanted to share with you a thought I had while working out at the GYM today, while I was just warming up on the treadmill, in came a man with such a short stature, a dwarf with a kind of a deformity in his spinal cord, which lead to a hunched back.

The first thought that came to my head is “THANK GOD”, I thanked god so much for making me the way I am, even though there come some times when I don’t feel good about the way I look, and feel sorry for myself that I had to live the prime days of my life ashamed of the way I looked, this guy made me proud of how I look, It’s so weird that out of such tragedy someone can derive so much joy, of course I felt sorry for him, but on the other hand it made me think of the blessings I have and don’t appreciate, and what would it be like if I was in this guy’s shoes, I would off course look at someone with a body that looks like mine and imagine what it would be like to be that tall and that big.

I would like to extend on this page my deepest thanks to the lord for being so kind to me, and tell him thank you father for today I got the message, and I thank you for every thing I got, because what I’ve got is a big dream for so many not so fortunate people like me.

Today, I trained my Back and Triceps, I usually train biceps and triceps on the same day, but yesterday I got to the GYM late I had time only to train one muscle group and do cardio as well, so I left triceps for today.

Today is my day off so I had no work to run to after GYM, so I kind of took a little longer and  lingered in the GYM during training, I took it slow, and took the time to talk to people in the GYM, which I never do by the way cause I’m always in a hurry, I guess people at the GYM actually hate me cause I come in a hurry, stick the MP3 in my ears train as fast as I can and then leave quickly to get to work, so I never socialize with anyone, they either think that I’m an arrogant snob, or mentally retarded, but I can live with it, anyway I have no time to talk to anyone even if I wanted to.

Today, I did legs and Triceps, I always like to put legs in the middle of training cycle to give my upper body a break for a day, but I had to squeeze in triceps also cause I arrives late yesterday to the GYM and I had to sip tri and do Biceps and cardio to get to work on time,

They added these new life fitness brand treadmills at my GYM, and they are very nice, I enjoy jogging on them and they have this shock absorbing deck which makes your workout quitter and the whole treadmill is more steady, not shaking and vibrating.

Yesterday I was faced with an Exercise dilemma, I lost track of time while I was blogging here and browsing BB.com, so I ended up arriving at the GYM late, and with one hour left for me to finish my Biceps / Triceps workout, and a 30 min. cardio, I had to choose, either Cardio or weight training, I love both, so I didn’t have any preferences, and what was going through my mind since I’m trying to lose as much fat as this phase as possible is what should I choose that will burn more calorie, is it cardio or weight.

I ended up with the weights and I left the cardio for for today, I read many times here on BB.com that while cardio burns calories during the 30 min. or so session, weights continue to burn calories for the rest of the day, as the damage you’ve made to the muscle continue to repair all through day and night consuming calories, which creates a negative difference between calories In and Out and make you loose weight, now don’t get me wrong, this is not a decision to abandon cardio as a mean to loose fat, it’s just a thought about  if I had just one thing to do on a certain day, and my goal is to loose weight I would choose weight training any day.

Egypt is known for it’s fair and sunny weather all year long, but this week it seem our European friends are blowing much cold air in our direction which brought the recorded lows to a freezing 4 C.   ok, this is not the weather report, but since we’re not accustomed here in Egypt to this extremely cold weather, it’s getting even harder to get my butt into the GYM, but that doesn’t mean that I let weather defeat me, but it’s just harder to take the decision to go, once I reach the GYM all the cold dissipate and I’m glad I took the decision to come and didn’t give in to the cold, which even deepens my belief in the Nike company saying "Just do it", and when you do it you wont regret it.

Hello Again

Since I’m new to the blogging thing, I’m not doing it regular yet, but I admit it is fun, letting others know how you feel, and knowing how others feel, it is so concealing to see some big and buff guy saying on his blog how hard was it for him to take the decision to go to the GYM this morning , cause you know you’re not the only one who is struggling to do this…when you go to the GYM and find muscular and buff guys you actually think that they come here so easily and that you’re the only one who has to struggle with the alarm clock to get up and be there, but it turned out that this is not the truth, and the saying "no pain no gain" turned out to be right.

Today I got up early at 5 AM, and started preparing my meals for today, and pack them to take them out to work, I’m going to the GYM before work to train my back today, back day is the day I fear the most, as I got a herniated Disk, a back condition that causes sever pain sometimes, and is magnified by the fact that I’m 145 KG heavy, which poses a lot of stress on my back, I’ve made a lot of promises to myself that I will start dieting and get in shape, but this time I’m determined to follow through, there is no turning back this time, talk to you after the GYM, bye.