Jettisoned Ponderings

Been out of the gym about a week now because of the headaches from things being messed up. In the morning I have my 4th chiro session and I have to say they have started to make a very significant difference. Tonight with Court I worked in just some light leg extensions and still felt a little bit of the pressure increase and didn’t push things. I may have to take the workouts lighter than usual for some time while things get put back in their appropriate places. So far my thoracic vertebrae have still refused to release. Only the lumbar/pelvic and cervical regions have started to cooperate and with some laser therapy the spasmed out muscles are beginning to release.

Diet has been rough and off track this weekend with going out of town Saturday to cheer up a friend that needed some company and today working at my old job to help out for a special event. Tomorrow, though, it all will start coming back together. My weight hasn’t changed much, so I know that things aren’t getting out of control. I just don’t have in my factored expended calories from exercise. They diet may need to be adapted to this a bit more depending on what I’m told tomorrow after the adjustment. I still cannot stress how thankful I am to have a practitioner who’s intensely into bodybuilding and truly understands the lifestyle.

I’ve been avoiding doing resistance training the past few days because I’m looking at having to get a chiro session 3x a week for a while to get things back on track and my muscles are already putting significantly excessive pull on a number of vertebrae. Any training that would make them tighten up more is just going to make things more difficult. I really miss training since I’d just gotten things back on track again. In the meantime I’m just trying to focus on keeping the diet where it needs to be and still seeing some gradual results from that. I know it won’t progress as quickly without the training. I may focus only on some light cardio in the meantime until I get through this weekend. Fortunately with my chiro being a bodybuilder herself she knows what goes into training. I’ll talk more with her in the morning about what she thinks I should do to ease back into training and what intensity to take things to for the time being.

As for the leaning out, things are going well. I’ve been consistently weighing in at 188.0 the last few days. My abs are coming out more and my stomach is noticeably flatter and becoming more defined. Most notably this week was the starting of more leg separation. Always a perk since my thighs are fairly stubborn. I have some ideas how to manipulate the diet a bit more and its nice to be able to run with the changes for a week and see what comes about of it. Overall I can’t complain much except for the occasional hunger bout, but those are to be expected and usually are right around the times that I should be eating again anyhow.

So after tomorrow morning I should have a better plan in place for how to tackle next week and get things moving more steadily back in the right direction.

Well, I’m now looking at about 20 more chiro sessions. Initial spine scan wasn’t exactly surprising for where the nerves are going crazy and some muscles putting significantly excessive pull on the discs. X-rays also showd that I’ve got almost no curve in my neck right now, plus have what’s called Ponticulus Posticus, which explains the headaches during exercise. The definition of that is:

"a small bridge of bone resulting from complete ossification of the atlanto-occipital membrane reaching the posterior notch of C1. This is generally felt to be a normal finding but more recent studies have suggested there may be an increased risk of posterior circulation cerebral ischaemia, since the vertebral artery passes through the notch."

So, all I can say is that I’m glad I’m having this done now and am very eager to start getting my body back where it needs to be. I really wish I had more cash lying around to get some extra myofascial work done along with it.

Yep, a female bodybuilder! Small world, actually. I’ve been having some problems with my suboccipitals for a while and after working traps on Friday last week they really got set off. I’ve been having very intense pain anytime I’m doing a set and it lingers. Icing and contrast treatments along with some soft tissue work has only done so much. So this morning I called Kaiser to try and get an appointment, which of course there wasn’t one. I had to call and get another list of providers in the network. The closest one to me had a totally unprofessional staff only answering, "Hello?" and not even stating the name of the practice. Couldn’t find any info on the practitioner either. So I tried the next one after looking over her website and finding her resume and specialties more to my liking. Talking with her it caught my attention when I mentioned "I train for bodybuilding" and her immediate response was "When did you last compete?" and after replying, "Not till I hit 230" she said, "I usually compete about 155, but I’ll be bigger this year". Hmm, there’s something more here… As we’re talking and I’m having my spine scanned I mention, "Do you know Rita Rae?" and she pauses, "Rita and I train arms together every Friday!" Go figure I find she’s the training partner of my wife’s coach and she’s prepping for the USAs this year! Finally, a GOOD practitioner who understands the lifestyle and understands that telling me to lighten up my workouts just isn’t an option. I pulled up her site and found some of her contest shots. Pretty impressive! So if you’re out in Colorado and need a good chiropractor, it would be well worth it. Here’s one of her photos (not as recent, but still…). Very impressive work!

I took a look back at one of my old shots and was pretty surprised by the changes I saw just within a month! The irony is that I’ve actually lost weight from leaning out. The overall size isn’t significantly different, maybe a slight bit more pumped in tonight’s shot than I was in the previous one, but none the less there’s a very noticeable improvement. Just goes to show that conditioning has a lot to do with how big you can be perceived to be!

People always look better when they’re more conditioned. I stopped by my old work to pickup my checks and I’ve actually gone down almost 8lbs since and one of the first comments was, "How are things? You’re looking bigger." Always makes my day to hear that unprompted from someone.

Starting another 5 days in a row tonight with back and triceps. Curious to see how my weights will be different this week and next still being on the lower carbs and slightly lower on calories this week.

I had my parents over last night to make them dinner. My dad is 71 and my mom 59. Both have had and still have some pretty serious health issues in their lives. My dad had been borderline Type II diabetic for most of my memorable life, had gout, and eventually had to have a triple bypass a few years ago. My mom’s always been on the hefty side (runs in the family for all the women), but its been manageable for the most part. Beginning of this year she got to probably her heaviest that I’ve ever known her to be. She’s been on Jenny Craig and come down from 189 to 165 as of yesterday! My dad has consistently been somewhere between 200-230 the last decade I would guess.

Last night I was showing them the program I use to track my clients diets and measurements. I asked if they wanted to see where they were at. My dad seems to be in the same mindset that I was when I first got into fitness, only looking at the bottom line of weight and not composition. He’s 33% bodyfat and when you see his measurements he has almost a 1:1:1 ratio of Chest:Waist:Hips making it obvious where he carries all the weight. My mom is 35%, however two years ago she was 175 at 39.5%. Given she started dieting back down at 189, she’s lost at least 17lbs of fat through all that! She’s not done yet, but making great progress along the way. My dad is a different story. Aside from the occasional bit of yard work, he’s generally sedentary except for going up and down one flight of stairs at the house. Thankfully its a split level, so he has no choice but to take them at some point during the day. I told him that he needs to get at least 30lbs of fat off of him and that right now all he’s doing is making his already weakened heart work a lot harder than it should have to. It seemed to hit him a little bit like I hoped it would. I put together a diet for him to try for a week so I can get an idea of the right calories for him to shoot for. I know it makes my mom so sad to see him not taking better care of himself and knowing that it is doing nothing but stealing alway the number of days she will have left with him around. I really hope this time, having seen last night how I make all my food for the week and how easy it is, that he’ll take more initiative to improve his health. The best part was that I pulled up Hulu for the Biggest Loser replay since they had both missed Jerry at the beginning (I called twice and sent an email, but of course Dancing With The Stars was more important to them…) and prove a point that even at 63 years old there is absolutely no excuse to not change your life.

I’m trying to remain optimistic that this time I got through just enough to make an impact. Its one thing to say it and hear it, but another to be put under the tape measure and have the numbers stare back at you saying, "So, what are you gonna do about it?"

I finally got around to checking out the New York Pro photos. I was ecstatic that Markus Ruhl was coming out of retirement for this show! For those who didn’t know, he retired before due to a torn pec muscle that was going to require surgery and leave him unable to train at the intensity he would otherwise. Just knowing he was coming back for a show made me happy. We’re all in this lifestyle by choice, and its unfortunate to see someone taken from it unwillingly. When I saw the photos I was shocked! Personally, I think this is the best looking that Markus has ever been since back six or seven years ago. He came in incredibly dry and I’d never noticed vascularity in his arms like that before. Looking at the top 3 finishes, I really do not think that Evan was the best package on the stage that night. Markus, to me, has some of the best wheels in the business, highest peaking biceps, and finally has gotten the mass he struggles for in his triceps just because everything else is so huge! I mean, how many bodybuilders do you know that are still weighing an already dieted 300lbs/136kg 7 weeks out from a show? I know things are shifting away from the Mass Freak era again, but to me Markus will always be my favorite bodybuilder. He’s what got me interested in the sport, has a great personality, and a great heart for the sport.

Markus, you’re my hero. Stay big, buddy!

Here’s Markus 7 weeks out and a great shot that really shows how well conditioned he was:

This week was a great first run on the diet. I still had plenty of energy for my workouts (though strength is down just like the carbs) but I can still get good pumps, have enough endurance, and the muscles are left feeling worked for a couple days post. My recovery doesn’t seem to have been slown down any, either. With that, to expedite things I’m dropping the calories down a little more via protein reduction. Previously I was consuming roughly 310-330g/day mostly to make up for the calories not there from the reduced carbs. Now that I’m more acclimated to the new lower calorie intake, I’m taking the protein down to where it should be, which is around 260g/day. Calories will now be right around 2125. I don’t plan to go any lower than this except for on non-training days without the carb/workout supplements, or unless my body starts to heavily resist dropping weight and I throw in a day of only protein and fats to rattle things up and get them going again. I’m done training for this week, so the weekend is all for recovery. Bodyfat and updated weight/stats will be taken in the morning.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!

I really don’t understand some people… One of the guys who came in to start his nutrition work with me today at the end says, "Oh, and it’ll all have to be on the go like drive through stuff."

Immediately I think…

So I’ve had to do homework and delve back into the world of fast food menus. Here’s someone who is already shoving down 4020 calories a day, about 60% of which is crap food, and wants to drop 20-25lbs in 4 weeks. So that totally threw a wrench in my game plan. Its not that he says he doesn’t have time to prep meals or anything, just says outright that he won’t do it. Lovely. I wonder why some people bother at times. I hope this guy likes friggin’ drive through chicken salads…