Joe’s BodyBlog

For those of you who have read Body For Life you understand this title of this blog. Bill Phillips wrote this in BFL to try and encourage people who fall off the wagon of eating clean and working out to get back on the wagon right away and not to dweal on the mistakes. I find that simple 3 word statement to be important for someone like myself who, as much as I try, fall off the wagon a couple of times a week. I have no discipline with my eating, I give in to sweets way too much. In the past week I have had Cookies, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and a Candy Bar… ugh. I justify it with it is almost Christmas and I am going to eat dessert after Christmas Dinner so a little sweets here and there won’t hurt, then I look back and realize it does hurt.. So I am not going to beat myself up about it, I just have to make smarter choices, at least for lunch I had quality foods (Chicken Breast-Grilled, Steamed Brown Rice and Steamed Broccoli).

My typical days food list is like this:

7:00 AM Breakfast- Steel Cut Oats, Berries, Decaf Coffe with 2% milk and a little sugar (less sugar everyday!) I need to add protein here

10:00 AM Post Workout Snack -Protein Shake and Fruit

12:30 PM Lunch - Grilled Chicken, Tuna, Turkey, Veggies and Brown Rice -Although sometimes I eat a sandwhich with whole wheat bread and fruit (Apple).

3:00 PM Snack - 2% Cottage Cheese Cup 4 oz, 6 Oz Organic Yogurt

6:30 PM Dinner - Grilled Chicken, Tuna or Turkey, Veggies and either Rice or Sweet Potato

I should be eating a snack of some sort for a 6th meal, but I usually don’t, especially since my schedule ends up that dinner can get pushed off until 7:30 or 8 pm.

So as you can see I am trying to eat well, I just don’t have it perfect yet!

I do have good news, I am partially meeting my goal of walking up stairs before X-Mas. Today at PT I informed them that the other day with out thinking about it I walked up a flight of stairs. So they tested me out for my range of motion and strength and I did very well. They have pushed up some of my rehab since I am showing signs of improvement. Now I can walk up and down stairs! I still have to take it very slow and concentrate on the concraction of my quad, but hey at least I am medically cleared to give it a try! They have now given me step ups as part of my rehab and switched some other exercises (from wall squats to Mini free standing sqauts, also adding difficulty to the single leg stands by standing on a cushion or pillow). This makes me feel like I am heading in the right direction!

Workouts since I last blogged have been going well. I did Chest yesterday, today was just rehab day. Tommorrow I travel for the holiday, so I need to do my rehab work early in the am, then Saturday at my brother’s house (he has a home gym set up for his family), But Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I will be taking off from the gym. I will still do some work since I really need to be doing the leg rehab every day, but I can do this at home.

Feels good to make progress, this probably means I need to come up with new goals soon!

-=Joe=-

If you read yesterday’s blog you saw that I was complaining becuase I screwed up my back doing my workout, this morning I went and saw my chirporacter and got the muscle stimulation and an adjustment. I feel great. I told him what exercise I was doing when I felt the pull and he pinpointed what I did wrong and told me how to correct it. I actually have him to thank for many reasons, but he got me back into working out again. he told me it was his goal to NOT see me on a regular basis. In order to do that I had to exercise and eat right. So I am doing both, although I am a bad cheater with eating (looking to my left at the X-MAs cookies sitting next to me. But I also have so fruit, veggies and pork roast with me today so I am not being all bad).

Anyhow after I got adjusted I went to the gym and did my knee rehab, then I felt so good I decided to try and finish my workout from yesterday, carefully, just to see how my back felt. I had to do triceps to finish, and it felt pretty good. I was able to do my tricpes workout with any issues and I feel good about that. I made sure to watch my form and not lift so heavy that I screw up my back again.

Workout report:

Knee rehab (Bike, wall sqauts, single leg stands, leg raises)

Triceps

Skull crushers 3 X 8 X 50 lbs

Close Grip bench 3 X 8 X 95 lbs

Reverse Grip pull downs 3 x 8 x 30 lbs

Pushdowns 1 X failure X 50 lbs.

So for those that can handle it, here is what my knee looked like 4 days after surgery.

Last night I took the good drugs to help with the pain and relax my muscles. Generally I don’t like to do this, but I had to. Woke up feeling great, got the gym did my Leg Rehab then went on to do SHoulders, Triceps and Abs (I hadn’t done any ab work over the weekend). Started out strong, doing my shoulders everything was going great. The way my gym is set up, they have the new Nautilis resistance machines in the area where I do my leg rehab, and the free weights are in the back, so I figured I would use the machines to do my shoulders and try not to add extra stress to my back. THe ab area is also right next to the machines, so I figured I would do my ab work in between my shoulders. Good idea things went well. I was feeling great, then I went to the back of the gym to finish my shoulders with External Should rotation with a cable. I have done this exercise millions of times without any incident, but today since I am trying to go big, I screwed myself up bad. I had done my left shoulder without incident, then switched to my right and on the 4th rep I felt a nice PULL and ouch I couldn’t move. Right then I knew I screwed myself up big time. My back was done. I sat down for five minutes because I really wanted to finish my workout, but it started to hurt too much. So I had to pack it in. I basically finished my shoulders, and never got to my triceps. I am disappointed because I am really just getting back into the upper body work and then I do something stupid like this. Anyhow, my Chiropracter lifts, so when I go see him this week, I will tell him the issue and they will help me out. They use electrical muscle stimulation to help relax the muscles before they manipulate you so I am looking forward to that. It works really well, I have done it many times before and usually after something tramatic like this, I am right in a couple of days. So I might have to dial down the weights and still work the upper body, just not as big . Oh well, live and learn.

I can’t stop my leg work. Rehab has to continue, it is an everyday thing. Funny thing is my goal was to be able to walk up stairs by X-Mas and I might just make it. I say this because I was walking up the stairs yesterday and didn’t realize I wasn’t using the old stiff legged approach. I was actually using both legs and it didn’t hurt!

Let’s see what the Chiropracter says… need to make an appointment for tomorrow.

-=Joe=- 

Saturday:

So I had an uneventful weekend, my wife and I baysat my nephew for our sister and brother in law on Saturday night, which was fun. Nothing like a night with a 2 year old to wear you out! We don’t have kids yet so it was a good practice run .

For my workout on Saturday I did my rehab, back and biceps. It was a good heavy day with my back and biceps. I suprised myself a little with my back workout. I did more weight than I thought I could with out hurting myself (I have had a back back since I was a child, old injury that I have to watch, heck I think I put my Chiropracter’s kids through school just by myself!). I felt really good after my workout, a little tired, but not bad. What ended up hurting me was getting on the ground with my newphew to play "cars and trucks", I think my back was so tired after teh workout that it was not happy with me being on the ground because I think I pulled something in my middle back. I don’t remeber doing anything specific, but man it was hurting. After my newphew went to bed I iced my back and it felt a little better. I took some advil as well, not sure if it helped, but I thought I better give it a try. It helped a littel, but at 6:00 am when my nephew woke up and I got back on the floor with him, it just didn’t matter, I was doomed for back pain yesterday. Maybe I pushed it too hard, I don’t know.

Anyway here is the wrokout for Saturday:

Knee Rehab

Back:

High ISO rows 3 x 5 x 130 lbs

Low ISO rows 3 X 5 x 110 lbs

Back extensions 3 X 15 bodyweight

Biceps:

Barbell Curls 3 X 5-8 X 70 lbs

Incline Hammer Dumbbell Curls with twist 3 x 5-8 X 25 lbs (OUCH!)*

Reverse E-Z Bar curls 3 x 5-8 X 40 lbs

I do a warm up set with lower weight for each body part that I am working that day to try and prevent injuries and to help myself when prepping for this larger amount of weight.

* I read a tip from Arnold’s Encyclepedia of Modern BB in which he said, "To help get the full biceps growth and peak add a twisting movement to your dumbbell curls". Well I could see my biceps really stretching during this move and man to id work my arms! My biceps has a good peak, but not at the lower part near my forarm (no real "muscle" showing up there) so I am trying to develop this week point. I hope I am doing it correct. Maybe later I will post a picture to better explain it?

Sunday:

AS I said my newphew got me up very early on Sunday and I played "cars and trucks" with him for a while until my back couldn’t take it anymore. Lucky for me he wanted to color after that so I was able to got sit in a chair and not put some much pressure on my back. I took a few more advil and I started feeling better as I loosed up by moving around the house. We had a lot going on yesterday so I eneded up taking the day off from the gym, still did my rehab but I didn’t warm up on the bike first, I just walked around the neighborhood for a few minutes. It felt pretty good to do that since it was almost 70 degrees F here in NC on Sunday. Then after the leg rehab I decided to clean out the garage, it really needed it. My back felt fine while I was doing it but once I was done, I was on the couch with ice for the night. I was done. I actually had to take stronger pain medicine I felt so bad . I also had to take a muscle relaxer to help out. God having a bad back sucks. This told me I over did it for sure. So next back workout I need to bring the weight down a little and concetrate more on my ROM to make sure I don’t hurt myself again… this sucks.
Will post today’s workout a little later I have to head to a meeting…

-=Joe=-

Easy answer is no. At least I realize this and I am not living in denial. I am doing better than I used to. I eat probably 65%-70% clean. Too much sugar (in my coffee) and I eat things I shouldn’t from time to time. The week before I went in for surgery I weighed in at 198 lbs, but I didn’t do any bodyfat measurements. I ate lots of junk and sat on my butt in a CPM machine (continious passive motion). This machine is for the rehab of the knee while the cartilegde is regenerating and the bone is healing. Anyhow, for 4 weeks I didn’t care what I ate, I was on cructhes and couldn’t do anything. Then once I was off the crutches I started eating a little better, but I am still bad.

Good thing for me my wife is really pushing me to do better. We are doing this together and she inspires me to think twice about what I am eating. I am at least eating 5-6 small meals a day. Trying to balance my carbs/proteins and fats correctly but I am not really being strict. I should espcially since I can’t really do Cardio and I want to cut. Last time I measured my bodyfat I was at around 23%, I had gotten myself down to 18% which made me feel great.

So I will work on my diet over the weekend and try to post it for suggestions, if anyone reads my blog. I am also going to post some more pictures, some will  be graphic ones of my knee surgery post op. Post Op I had over 50cc’s of fluid on my knee that were preventing me from healing correctly. They removed the fluid at the 1 week mark and it made a huge difference. But back to the diet, my downfall are sweets and chips… Nuff said during this X-mas season.

OK, yesterday I was a mess. Today it is like a new day. I went to my PT this am and learned a valuable lesson, "Don’t ever complain that your Physical Therapist isn’t working you hard enough!" Mine kicked my butt today and told me that I am right on schedule with the post surgery protocal. Any depression / stress or doubts I had about my post surgery progress has gone away. The interesting things is all they did was make a few simple changes to my workout. They changed the order in which I was doing things. I had been doing the bike, then leg raises then quad work. They switched it out so that I am now doing bike, quad work then leg raises, this is so I can really stress the qaud appropriately before I do the leg raises and get my strength back. The other thing they did is for the single leg stands, I now have to bounce a ball against the wall to maintain my balance. That is hard, but it is supposed to help me not concentrate on my leg during the leg stands and it works. Today is the first day in over a month of rehab that I broke a sweat while I was there. I hadn’t done that since the first day! It made me feel much better, like I am going to start to make progress now!

After I was done at PT I drove to the gym and did my Chest and Ab workout. Since I Haven’t ever really had core upper body strength since my days as an athelete, I am concetrating on doing 1-2 body parts every other day or so. Kind of hard to explain the workout I am doing, but I am going for strength because I want to get stronger in my upper body. Not since High School and College (18-20 years ago) have I been able to Bench Press my Body weight and do Pull ups. Those are two of my goals, so in order to increase my over all strength to accomplish those goals I am following a workout I found on http://www.CriticalBench.com. This workout talks about how to increase your bench, but it also points out weak points in your body that can affect your strength for other body parts as well. I started it last week, and 1 week in I like it. I have modified it a little to fit my rehab into my workouts, so I guess the concept is from Crtical Bench, but it really is my workout.

The workout is as follows. Day 1 Chest/Abs and Rehab, Day 2 off (Rehab), Day 3 Back/Biceps and Rehab, Day 4 Sholders/Triceps and Rehab, Day 5 Off(Rehab), Day 6 Chest/Abs and Rehab, Day 7 off (Rehab) and then keep going with the rest of the rotation. I work my legs as part of my rehab, but I am very limited so I can’t do all that I would like so I don’t have any strict leg days. If I was 100% this workout would be different, but I am not, so oh well.

Lastly, I have made one other modification which is I am switching every other week between Low Weight High Rep workouts (10-15 reps per set) and Low Rep High Weight  workouts (5-8 reps per set). I am not sure if this is the best way to do things, but I am trying to keep my muscles guessing. Since today was only my second chest day I am not fully through a cycle of this workout yet so after the next week I will have more data as to how I feel about this modification.

Today’s workout:
Chest

Dumbbell Press 3 X (5-8), 50 lbs dumbbells

Incline Dumbbell Press 3 X (5-8), 40 lbs dumbbells

Decline Bench Press 3 X (5-8), 65 lbs (bar and plates) concentrating on slow form movements

Dumbbell Flyes 3 X (5-8), 25 lbs dumbbells

Abs

Knee / Hip Raise on Parallel Bars  2 X 15

Decline Crunch 2 X 15

Side Bents with 35lbs plate 2 X 15

Cable Twists 50lbs 2 X 15

Wow, what a good workout it was. I feel great, like I got in an awsome workout, but not so tough that I can’t go about my day!

Will blog again later,

-=Joe=-

So this is my first blog. Really just to help me keep my sanity as I recover from surgery. As I stated in my bodyspace profile, I had knee surgery on 10/12/06. The procedure was called a knee microfracture, which as it turns out is pretty serious and when it is done it takes a minimum of four months to recover. I had read statements from Pro Athletes who have had this done and some of them have taken almost a year (Chris Webber, Jason Kidd, Terrell Davis, Stephen Davis for example) to recover and these guys get paid to take care of thier bodies.

Today is a bad day to say the least, I woke up late for my PT appoinment and then it turned out there was a scheduling issue and I wasn’t supposed to be theretoday, they had meetings and no one contacted me. Man was I mad. It is a half hour away from my house and then another half hour to work after I am done and I waited an hour before I got pissed enough to blow it off. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I had brought my gym clothes with me, I could have just gone to the gym beofer I went to work, but no today is the day I forget to bring that stuff with me. So it didn’t start out well from that point on.

My therapist just called me to apologize for the mix up. That was nice . He was glad he didn’t get me this am, I was angry and that is not my personality. I explained to him my frustrion with my progress. I told him thank god I could still work my upper body otherwise I would go nuts right now. He tried to explain to me that the rehab is a very conservative approach from the surgeon and he has to follow the protocal laid out by the surgeon. Fine I can live with that, what I can’t live with is feeling like I am not making any progress. My quad is basically shut down. I have lost all definition, no strength and I have lots of pain where they drilled into the bone (Femur). Kevin (my PT) explained that this is normal and my bone still needs more time to heal, in fact it may take another month before the pain goes away. Really, the pain isn’t that bad, just when I try to walk up stairs, or step up wiht my left leg. So they don’t have me doing anything to stress my leg in that way. Kevin is going to talk with my surgeon today and see if there is something they can do to help with my frustration and check my progress. I will see what they come up with tomorrow, we have rescheduled my appointment from today for 7:30 am!

Right now, here is my PT/rehab work:

2 x 10 Heel Slides

2 X 10 Leg Raises

2 X 10 Abductor Leg Raises

2 x 10 on the stomach Leg Raises

2 x 10 Adductor Leg Raises

2 x 10 Wall Squats (holding 3-4 seconds in the 80 degree position)

2 x 30 count Single Leg Bends (Standing and holding body wieght with Knee Bent)

2 x 10 Calf Raises with Body weight.

* All leg raises are done with an Ankle weight (right now 3 lbs!)

After I do my leg workout, I move to my upper body. Every other day I do some work for my good leg (my right) so I can keep it strong. This my friends is a long road.

-=Joe=-

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