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I got a call from the rheumatology clinic this afternoon. After three months of faffing around, they’ve scheduled me for an appointment at 0700 on February 2, 2024.
I don’t know if the entire medical industry in my area works like this, or if it’s just the places covered by my shitty insurance.
Is changing your insurance an option?
Thunder's Place: increasing penis size one dick at a time.
Theoretically yes, but no matter what their web sites say, you don’t really have any way to tell if one is any better than another, unless you’re looking at one of the high-end plans that cost more than we actually make.
OK, so you’re in the Obamacare pool. Yeah, I guess if you can’t get a premium plan you’re screwed.
Thunder's Place: increasing penis size one dick at a time.
Unfortunately. We had a good, modesly-priced healthcare plan until the Obamacare jackboot came down. Now we’re limited to what we can afford, and inflation has hit our retirement income pretty hard.
I moved a lot of money into bitcoin prior to the inflation. It’s not the perfect hedge but it helps. It fell recently due to a massive Elon sale but I’m up over 25% on the current price.
If you can put your money into anything that isn’t money, that’ll probably help.
Thunder's Place: increasing penis size one dick at a time.
I’ve been alternating weight days and the cable machine days. Today was weight day.
Overhead press: I think my form is pretty good there. No more strange back, shoulder, or elbow pains, but I seem to have plateaued at 50#.
Dead lifts: 5x5 115#, still notching up 5# a week.
Rack pulls: 5x5 125#, still going up.
Shrugs: (low) 5x5 165#, still going up.
Bench press: 5x5 80#. I ran out of gas after the 23rd rep, so I didn’t complete the 5x5 there.
Curls: 5x5 52#, still going up.
Squats: 35#. I think I have the form correct now, so I’ll add some weight next time. I’m also making progress with the "holding on to the bar" thing; I’m now able to hook three fingers inside the weight step, instead of way out near the ends.
I’m looking forward to "clean and press", which, given the low amount of weight I can get overhead, will actually be "overhead press, except coming off the floor instead of the rack." Well, at least I can work on form.
I think I’d be overworking my back if I was moving more weight, but my back is not the limiting factor in anything yet.
Still getting some occasional popping from the right elbow and shoulder, but less each time. The only thing that bothers my back now is the bench press, down at the pelvic girdle. I probably need to tilt my pelvic girdle a bit more.
I’m a bit disappointed that strength improvements have been slow, but I’ve made major progress in "joint pain" and "range of motion". There are also some people who claim carnivore isn’t the best diet for building muscle. The low strength is from the years of debilitation beforehand. I’ll keep working on pain and motion for now.
He observed that my weight had gone up six pounds from last time, according to his chart. I pointed out that I’ve lost another couple of inches from my thighs, butt, and waist, so I wasn’t too worried about it.
I have been slacking a bit on the diet; 50 to 80 carbs a few times a week. I don’t appear to lose any weight when my carb count goes over 20, so I need to crank down on that. I asked the doc what kind of doc works on hernias; he said it would be a "General Surgeon." If I can drop another 30 or 40 pounds by next spring, I’m going to try to get the hernias fixed.
Interestingly, though I sometimes get a twinge from one of the inguineal hernas while lifting, it’s extremely minor. I’m not having any problem with the umbilical hernia, but I always wear a 6" Ace bandage with a shop towel folded up over the spot, and I wrap an abdominal belt over that when lifting. It bothered me when I first started, but it’s not an issue any more.
The received wisdom seems to be to never lift with a hernia; hard to tell if it’s experience or CYA, but again, the low weights I can manage don’t seem to be a problem there.
It was a quick ten minute in-and-out with the doc; I didn’t bring him the usual poster-size charts, just a file card with what I needed to ask him. I whipped out the card; "three 2x4x8, can of spray foam, #9x2" wood screws… oops, wrong side."
Three 1/2" MDF discs, 17-7/8" diameter, glued together, with a piece of 2" PVC pipe in the center, weigh 12.5 pounds. So the pair is 25#; convenient.
Though I have a good collection of weights, none of them were "Olympic" size, so I made the wooden ones. Now I can lift off the floor without dinking around with lifting blocks.
My original plan was to paint them with truck bed liner, but it turns out that nobody sells the spray can stuff in my area any more; just $60 brush-on kits. I can mail order a can for $15-$20, but I might just say "screw it" and use epoxy spray paint.
current barbell statistics:
overhead press: 2x5x45# warmup, then failed at the 7th lift on a 5x5 with 55#. I pulled 5# off the bar - I had four 2.5# plates on it - and made the rest of the lifts, though the last one was very near a fail. I’ll try 55# again tomorrow. Meanwhile, I ordered a set of fractional plates.
dead lifts: 2x5x95# warmup; 5x5 115#; will bump another 5# tomorrow.
squats: 10x bodyweight and then 5x35# warmup; 5x5 45#; will bump 5#
I’m only getting to "just below horizontal" about half the time; my form seems okay except for that. Considering less than two months ago I couldn’t even squat my own bodyweight, I’m not too upset over it. I get a little better each session.
curls: 10x with 10# dumbbells as warmup; then 5x5 57#. I’m about at the end of what I can lift; I have to use some body English to get the bar up after the first set, which is cheating.
bench press: 2x10x45# warmup, 5x5 85#. I almost didn’t make the 25th lift; I’m running out of cowbell on the bench, too.
I do better with my feet up on the bench since I can’t touch the when laying back, but the narrow foot spacing doesn’t help maintain a stable lift. I’m about six inches away from being able to touch the floor, and I’m tired of the random assortment of crap I’ve been using to prop my feet on, so I’m building an adjustable-height platform for my feet. Some of it is kyphosis in my back, but some of it is because the bench is tall and my legs are short. Lifting with my feet up also lets my spine go completely flat, which causes some back pain the rest of the day.
Romanian dead lifts: I’m alternating RDL and dead lift days. 115# there too.
low shrugs: 10x45# warmup, 125#. Another 5# next time
rack pulls: 10x90# warmup, then 5x5 with 175#. It’s getting heavy, but I’ll add another 5#.
The rack pulls work most of the same muscles as an RDL or dead lift, but they don’t seem to be bothering my back any when done on the same day.
barbell rows: 10x45#, then 5x5 with 70#. Time to notch up another 5# there, too.
front squats, high pulls, clean and presses: not on the schedule yet.
I’ve been alternating barbell days and cable days, with an occasional day missed due to yard work. Which I count as an exercise day; it’s a big yard and there’s a ton of work to be done, and I’m knackered afterward. But what used to take me three days now only takes one.
Mark Rippetoe wrote that guys my age might be better served by lifting every third day instead of every second day, but I don’t have any overtraining symptoms that I recognize, so I’m going to stay mainly on the two-day lifting interval.
The knee and elbow braces helped a lot. I’m not moving enough weight for shoes to be an issue yet, nor a belt.
current cable statistics:
[I start both all exercise days by pounding on the heavy bag with my fists and elbows for a while, then beating it with the escrima stick. It doesn’t take long to get warmed up]
I modified a generic exercise machine to let me do more "cable machine" functions, and I mostly use it for that now. I stopped using it for a while after I was able to lift the barbell, but when I went back to it I found out I had to back off one or two plates from the settings I had used before. Yes, the compound movements with the barbell work a lot of muscles, but it’s not the kind of "complete exercise" people make it out to be.
Besides the modification to the high cable area, I have an assortment of bars, ropes, yokes, carabiners, and extra chains, to let me get a better grip on things than the simple handgrip and bar that it came with.
On the yoke:
6x10 "bench press", 1 plate (17#)
6x10 butterfly, 1 plate
- these are just a continuation of the exercises I was doing to work the crunchies out of my right elbow and shoulder. They’re very much better, but I’m hoping to iron them completely out over time.
On the high cable: (3x10 all sets)
facing away from the machine (handgrip): push forward, three plates (46#)
facing the machine (handgrip): pull back, three plates
90 degrees left (handgrip): push down diagonally, three plates
90 degrees left (handgrip): pull down diagonally, three plates
sitting, stiff-arm pushdown (V-bar): three plates
sitting, tricep pushdown (V-bar): three plates
sitting, lateral pulldown (rope): eight plates (118#)
face pulls (yoke): four plates (59#)
On the low cable: (3x10 all sets)
(seated on a stool in front of the machine)
curl/shoulder row (yoke): 3 plates
lower back/pelvic row (yoke): 4 plates
(standing)
side bends (handgrip): (94#)
The "selectorized" weights on the machine mean there are large jumps between plates - 15# on the high cable, 25# on the low, 11# on the yoke, due to the way the cables are routed. Sometimes some motions get easy, but the step to the next plate is more than I can handle. When I finish modifying the power rack to do cable functions it will use ordinary weight plates, which will allow arbitrarily fine steps in weight.
I restarted vacuum hanging a few days ago. No problem with three to four hour sets at 3 pounds.
Today I tried bumping the weight up to 4 pounds and felt some stinging at the end at the vacuum port. I backed off to 3 pounds for the rest of the session. I had a piece of paper towel stuck up in there, which usually keeps the flesh from getting pulled into the port, but apparently that wasn’t enough; I didn’t just get a blister, I got a bright red blood blister. Doesn’t hurt any, but Mrs. Andy freaked out a bit.
I explained what caused it, and she rummaged around and came up with bits of different thicknesses of gauze and cloth to try instead of the paper towel.
I don’t remember anyone else having any problem with the vacuum port, but it has been a big hassle for me.
Jeez, man. You’re a beast with those weights. I do about 1/10th of that.
Director, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI), Thundersplace | Land Acknowledgment
I’m not ashamed of the numbers, considering a few decades of arthritis so bad I finally had to quit working, then four years of getting sores on my ass from sitting in the chair all day between cane or crutch trips to the bathroom. You can’t get a whole lot more out of shape than that.
I’m starting to feel like the old coot in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
"I’m feeling much better now. I think I’ll go for a walk."
PE:
BPEL 7.5", MSEG 6.1"
- I’m still agog at the 7.5" figure.
left testicle 2.1 x 1.1", right 1.95 x 1", both firm
- that’s average-normal size, but I have to pump regularly to keep them there, given age and TRT.
skipped two days of barbell work (did cable and other stuff those days)
Barbell Day: "Learning Experiences"
START: (warmup)
- heavy bag drill
- escrima chops and swings
OVERHEAD PRESS: 5x5x23#, 5x1x45#, 5x1X50# warmup, then 5x5x55#, OK (+5#)
- Only got 7 55#s last time - no elbow or shoulder pain today.
DEAD LIFT: 2x5 90# warmup, then 5x5x120# OK (+5#)
- I forgot my knee braces, but it seemed OK today without them. No elbow or shoulder pain.
I noticed I’m twisting the bar slightly clockwise as I lift. My left leg is a bit shorter than the right due to orthopedic surgery years ago, so I tried putting a 10mm shim under my left foot. That didn’t do anything that I could tell.
Hitting the web, it seems it’s not that unusual a thing; the standard recommendation is to keep the bar in close contact with your body as you lift, particularly above the knees. My left knee doesn’t like the bar traveling across it - a result of knee surgery - so I was giving it some clearance. It’s not a problem when I have the knee brace on. So I’ll make sure I remember the braces next time and see what happens.
SQUAT: 10x body warmup, 5x 35# bar, then 5x5x50# OK (+5#)
- Without the knee braces my knees complained a bit. I adjusted my stance a bit wider, which didn’t help, so I hit the web. I’d started with bodyweight squats, where you clasp hands and shove your elbows out to spread your knees, so the ankle and knee joints are in the same plane. I simply assumed that’s how you squatted with a bar.
It turns out that a shoulder-width stance with more forward-pointing feet is recommended when you’re lifting "high bar", with the bar on the back of your beck, as opposed to "low bar", with it down on the shoulder blades. The spread stance is for the favored low bar position. My rotator cuffs and elbows won’t let me do the low bar.
I don’t see why the stance should make a difference; there’s only a few inches of difference in the position of the bar. I did the last two sets with a narrower stance, but it didn’t help my knees any. Of course they were already sore to start with. I’ll do some more reading.
RACK PULL: 10x120# warmup, 5x5 165# OK (+5#)
- No problems.
BENCH PRESS: 2x10x45# warmup, 5x5 90# OK (+5#)
- Still using wooden boxes, a bit too tall, since I haven’t finished the foot platform yet.
Got a bit wobbly on the last few lifts, but completed them all.
CURL: 10x10# db, 10x15# db warmup, 57# on bar: failed to lift bar
- That’s the same load I was having to cheat to lift last time. This time it wasn’t moving at all.
I pulled five pounds off, and was able to lift it with reasonably good form. I wouldn’t have expected five pounds would make so much difference. Fortunately, I ordered a fractional plate set a few days ago, and it may be here for the next barbell day.
RIFLE LIFT: 3x10, left, right 8.25# OK (+2.75#)
- I have a cheapie 1" barbell and weights; I use that for warm-up sets, and for "rifle lifts", raising it to my shoulder like a rifle, since I was so weak I was having trouble holding a rifle on target at the range. With just the 5.5# barbell (it’s thin tubing) it was no problem; with a 2-3/4# weight a foot from the far end it was easy to lift and hold up, but my right elbow didn’t like it at all. Oddly enough, it complained no matter which shoulder I was lifting to. I have some chipboard scraps and a 1" spade drill; I think I’ll make some lighter weights and see if I can work up, since the bare bar was no problem last week.
Great thread, though I’ve been jumping around. Looks like you’ve dropped ~ 100 pounds, that’s awesome man! How much of your length increase do you think was a result of PE vs reduced pubic fat? Or was the weight loss unrelated? Impressive either way.
Check out Mark Wildman on YouTube. Lot of great info for lifting. Mark Wildman - YouTube