jeffchristian2007’s BodyBlog

WOW, this has been a long year!! Who would have ever known that trying to get back after a 15 year layoff would be so tough! I mean…I didn’t expect it to come back EASY, but this has been tough.

So now I am sitting around the 240lbs mark and still want another 20-30 lbs by next year. Anyway, since I haven’t written in so long I thought I would update those who keep emailing me. I will be taking pics soon, but I have to be to the standard I want for that.

I was really startig to lean out the last 2 weeks and had to start eating ice cream before I went to bed to slow down. I am in a bulking phase, but as you can see by my pics, I stay extremely lean anyway. I never get out of shape to much but I was really starting to get ripped and at 240lbs that is to light!

Ok, there you have it…the update.

This weekend is the 1 year anniversary of my daughter Madisyn’s death. This weekend one year ago I had the priveledge to usher her into the arms of the Lord Jesus as my wife and I held her. Two weeks ago we went to her graveside and celebrated her birthday and now this week is the toughest days I can live through…People have asked me about her and have wondered who she was so here is the story of the toughest little girl that I have ever met.

Madisyn was born Feb 3, 2005. She was born missing her left eye. When she was delivered I noticed as the nurse was cleaning her off that she shook. I asked if something was wrong and the nurse told me that her blood sugar was low. Something inside me said that wasn’t the case and I somehow knew that she was having a seizure. Then I noticed that she wasn’t opening her left eye…I knew something was wrong. Madisyn was put in the room with us for the next couple days and we noticed that she couldn’t feed real well and would have the episodes of shaking (seizures). Then the days came that the doctor said they wanted to do an mri on her head to see if she had an eye in the socket. We knew things were dreadfully wrong when a few hours later the doctor came in with a peds ICU nurse. He was crying, she was crying and he had a piece of paper in his hand that changed our life forever. He told us that she was not only missing her eye, but also parts of her brain. We were given a few minutes with her and then she was whisked off to the ICU. Over the next few days Madisyn’s seizures increased and soon after we found out she was the 29th little girl in the world with Aicardi Syndrome.

Madisyn spent the next year fighting for her life through 1000+ seizures a day…yes, 1000 or more a day sometimes…I cannot tell you how heart wrenching it is as a father to sit and hold your child, who you would give your life for, sieze all day and all night. The only thing you can do is hold her and cry. Yeah…being big, strong or anything else isn’t enough to fix it. I sat, cried, begged God and sat with my wife as we loved this little gift from the Lord.

Madisyn defied all odds and made it the first 6 months, in and out of the ICU, living at the Ronald McDonald house and then had a seizure that I couldn’t stop with any med. Then she fell asleep…she wouldn’t wake up. I knew in my heart that she had a stroke. OK, let me back up a second…

We were told that Madisyn would never recognize us, she would never eat (she had a "g" tube put into her stomach because she couldn’t swallow), never be able to raise her head or do anything. The seizures were just killing her. Just before the stroke she raised her head when I called her and smiled at me (that is the picture here on this page).

Madisyn was in a coma…we were told as we were so often that she would die and maybe in the next few days, but certainly in the next few weeks. 3 months went by and our little girl was "out". She would breath and sieze and we waited for the fateful moment when she would leave us for good, but 3 months later she woke up…just a week before Thanksgiving! That was the most phenominal holiday of my life!

Now, Madisyn was completely incapacitated and started her therapies to help her as much as we could. She got stronger, but the stroke made her start over again! We started having troubles with insurance companies…one tried to pressure us into pulling her "G" tube and starving her to death while witholding water too. How could I do that? How could I be responsible for the death of the little girl who I fought so hard to keep with me for as long as I could? Of course I knew that Madisyn would leave us, but we were determined to give her the best quality of life we could while she graced our family. How could I take her life? My faith in Jesus would not allow it nor could my conscience!

OK, OK…over the next year Madisyn fought terrible seizures…more than we could count. I would carry her through the house and sing to her and she loved it…she would smile and daddy would love all over her. I would take her into the pool and would let her float with me while I would hold her. The pool seemed to liberate her, especially since the only thing she could move voluntarily was her fingers.

Through the next year we fought for Madisyn’s health. She would get constant treatments for breathing, meds for seizures every 3 hours and countless other therapies in a day. I wish I could tell you the physical endurance this brave little one went through, but always had the time to smile at daddy or mommy through or between seizures. On good days she would have 25-75 seizures or so, but when she had a bad day you just couldn’t even count them.

Madisyn made it to her 2nd B-day and then 2 weeks later came that fateful night I was caring for her. I had my other two kids home with me and was trying to care for Madisyn too. Now, Madisyn couldn’t swallow so she had to have her mouth suctioned out every few minutes to keep her from choking on her own saliva so her care was exhausting (I would do it again in a heartbeat!) as I was suctioning her mouth out I noticed she started another seizure. This one seemed to be more violent than usual so I imediately got out her emergency seizure med and started to give it to her, but then I noticed she was making a clicking sound with her mouth and I knew she was having a stroke.

I called our doctor right away and he came over immediately (yes, he came to us…Madisyn didn’t have much immune system and couldn’t be around others). By this time her oxygen levels were down to 45% and she was turning ashen grey. My wife wasn’t home and I got in touch with her and told her to get here right away that Madisyn was dying. Dr. Kennedy put the bag on her and said: "Your wife better get here quick…she isn’t going to make it long".

I leaned down balling my head off and whispered into Madisyn’s ear: "Baby, hold on mommy’s not here"…As God is my witness Madisyn somehow pulled her oxygen sats up to 80%!

My wife got home that night and we sat with Madisyn. She was gone and only hanging on in bodily function by this time and we talked to her and told her it was ok to go home to be with the Lord Jesus and that we were there and loved her. Maidyn made it through the night and at 10am the next morning she just "stopped breathing". No pain, no struggeling…it was so peacefull.

I learned so much from her and miss her everyday…I have never met anyone that was as strong and loving as she was either. She just loved to be held, sung to and she would snuggle right into daddy’s big old arms and smile even though she was always in pain. STRENGTH…I am nothing compared to her.

I write this not for pity, as a matter of fact, I started working out again after a 13 year layoff from the gym for my own "therapy" and stress relief, I don’t even care if ayone even reads this, but I had to write it as my own therapy and to get out what this weekend means to me. Yes, it is the worse weekend of my life, but I cannot wait to get to heaven and see my little girl walking, running, laughing and I just want to hear her call me "daddy" just one time. That will be heaven for me.

Quad day wore me out yesterday….so here is the workout today. I don’t have time to sleep walk through a workout, but that is the way I felt today! Switched hamstrings to tomorrow so I can get maximum work on them. Trained back today…man, I gotta get a workout partner or two to spot me…Any volunteers in this area?

Back - stretching and warm up

Pulldowns - 160×20, 220×12, 240×12, 260×8, 260×8

Rowing - 185×10, 225×8, 225×8, 225×6

Hammer pullover - 3×12, 2×6 (heavy)

Long pulley row - 220×12x4 very slow deliberate reps…hold at the contraction.

CALVES - stretch

donkey calf raises - 4×20

hack squat machine calf raises - 3×20, 2×30, 2×8 (heavy)

Yeah, soooo…that was about all I could manage today. My quads are torched from the hack squats last night. I did find out the sled on the hack weighs 100lbs and not the 45lbs I thought. So hat puts my hacks last night into the 700lb range. Not bad for a guy that is 4 months into a comeback!

Here is the deal…I have broken up bodyparts into 5 days. I train:

mon-quads

tues-hams

wed-chest, shoulders

thurs-back

fri-arms

i have switched back to this split so as to maximize my recovery time. This gives me a full 7 day to recover per part and allows me to destroy the part each day. NOW, I go by feel so if I am low after my quad day then I may change my parts around a little to give me a better (maintenance) day the following. At 41 I need all the recovery time I can get.

Here was quad day: warm up

Squat: 315lbs x 4×12 (this is my first real venture back up the scale into the 300lb range since I blew a disk 3 months ago…squating very carefully and only in the smith machine) 

hack squat: 2 - 45plates per side x 20, 3 plates per side x 10, 5 plates per side x 10, 7 plates per side x 8 x 3 sets

last set of 675lbs (14 plates) I dropped  2 plates per side and got 5 more reps (10 plates), dropped 2 more plates per side (6 plates) 6 reps, went to 2 plates total and repped 20 reps…then felt like I was gonna die…

Leg ext - 4x 20 reps

Yeah, the workouts are going WAY up and if I am going to make the nationals next year I have got to be ready with some serious wheels.

Started using a 1000 calorie drink last week in an effort to get some more weight on. Now before you freak out and say: "Jeff, your body cannot process that many cals at one time"…let me say I know! So, what I started doing is dividing it into 4 equal parts and drinking it in between my meals. The extra cals will allow me to NOT be eating all the time and I am hoping it will help me continue to gain weight. I will say this…it does bad things to your stomach…nuff said!

Today was chest, shoulders and triceps. Light day and high reps.

chest:

bench 4×12-15 225lbs

incline 4×10 225lbs

decline 4×12 225lbs

pec deck 4×12-15 190lbs

shoulders

Bradly Presses 4×12 135lbs

dumbell work fronts, sides and rears 4×12

rear delt machine 4×12-15

Triceps

Lying french press 4×12

tricep pushdowns 4×12

weighted dips 4×12

This is a "blood work" day…get the blood moving and trying to get a maximum pump. After a leg day there is no way to go real heavy!

Leg day…and I am blown! Really, all I have to say is: "LEGS" and you should understand where I am at this moment! Tomorrow I will take a day off and get ready for the rest of the week in the gym. So here is was my reasoning for today…this was yesterday as I was planning my week by the way…

"Guess I will do Legs Monday….yeah, after taking the weekend off, getting tons of food in me, resting and getting the knees ready for another assault…yeah, it’s leg day!"

So here was leg day:

Quads

Warm up and stretch

Leg Extensions 20, 15, 15, 12

Leg Presses 400, 500, 600, 700, 820, 820 x 20, 15, 12, 12, 12  (this leg press won’t go any higher than 820lb)

hacks - 12, 12, 12, 12

Death walk x 4 times

Hams

stiff legged deads 4×20

leg curls 4×12

abductors and adductors 3×12

I have a pulled left calf so I haven’t been able to train claves lately. It happened when I wrapped my knees and the stupid wrap bunched up behind the back of my knee. This hurt like crazy, but it is getting better so I will start traiing calves again next week. There you have it…I am blown!

I never focus just on arms on a workout day, but as you guessed already…today, I did. I am right side dominant and that means my left side tends to lag a little behind so I am really working hard on my left side work and that means arms too! So, here is what today looked like:

Biceps:

Standing curls (straight bar) 135×10, 145×8, 150×6

preacher curls (hammer machine) one arm - 10, 8, 6

concentration curls (left side only) 12, 10, 10, 8

Cable tension curls 12,10,10,8

Triceps:

Lying tricep extensions 12, 10, 10, 8

Tricep extensions 12, 10, 10, 8

lying side extensions (left side only) 12, 10, 8, 6

Weighted dips 12, 12, 12, 20

Ok, so there you have it. I was so pumped I couldn’t move my arms. I felt like I needed someone to drive me home. It has been a long time since I took a full workout and just did arms…pretty cool day!

Today I decided to lump back and shoulders together. May sound like a crazy combo for some but for me it naturally fit today so I went for it. Here is the workout:

Warm up & stretching. Yes, I do before EVERY workout.

Pulldowns (varied hand grip) 20×140, 12×180, 10×220, 10×240

Close grip pulldowns 10×180, 8×180, 8×200

Hammer strength pullover machine (I LOVE this machine!) 2-45lb plates x20, 4-45lb plates x12, 6-45lb platesx10, 6-45’s & 2-25lb plates x 6,4, 2-45lb plates x 20

Superset rowing- Long pulley & bent over rows - 4×8

Pull-ups 4×10-12

SHOULDERS

Bently presses - 4×10

Strict side laterals 4×10

Front db raises 4×8

pulldowns to the face (elbows traveling back) 4×12

bent over rear delt raises (db’s) 4×10,10,8,20

There you have it. So tomorrow is arm day…believe it or not, my least favorite day of the week. I know…everyone loves arms, but I have never had a problem getting mine to grow. As a matter of fact I have always had to watch them closely so they don’t get out of proportion to my body. I guess a nice problem to have, but a pain none the less…especially with a little tendanitis in my right elbow. YES, I am OLD…I don’t need to get anymore comments telling me that! I already know because my kids tell me all the time: "Dad…you’re OLD; Dad, you’re losing your hair; Dad, Dad, Dad…"

Today was one of those weird days. I NEVER have a problem getting motivated to go and get my worout in…I mean never! Today, I got the kids to school and when I was driving ome I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open. Now, you need to understand that I am one of thos people hat wake up before the alarm and then I am out of the bed. I hate laying in bed all day and wasting my time! Well, unless there is something going on there…LOL…ok, I shouldn’t talk about that stuff right now!

So anyway, I have always said that you have to listen to your body. When it is tired, REST. So today I did…I got in all my body parts this week so I knew I had sufficiently blasted everyhing into submission, so it didn’t bother me to lay down until 11am. YEAh, that is crazy for me, but when I got up I was feeling it, but decided to take the day off and recoup. I think most guys push themselves into over training simply because they won’t take a day off to rest. So here was my workout today:

eating 3600 cals

sleeping 4 hours on a sweedish memory foam matress

veg on the couch and be lazy getting ready for my long work weekend!