AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

I have sympathy for Ed Gruberman…

I have split my pumping from 30 minute sessions down to 15 minute sessions, those being the presets on my pump timer.

The NIR wrap I’m using gives my shaft "sunburn" at 30 minutes. 15 is OK, as long as I don’t use it more than a couple of times a day. So the pump turns off at 15 minutes, I turn off the NIR wrap, and then I hit the button for another 15 minutes.

I had pumped at 3"Hg for a couple of years. Over the last year I’ve gone from 3 to 4 to 5"Hg. The limit on vacuum was discomfort due to tugging on internal damage from an infection years ago. As the scars have stretched out they become less uncomfortable, and I can increase the vacuum.

For the last month I’ve been pumping at 6". I occasionally get slight edema, but it goes away quickly. It helps if I wait ten or fifteen minutes between the 15-minute pump sessions.

Using my watch and stopping at 10 minutes, I don’t get edema. I’m looking for a controller that will shut off at 10 minutes. I’m sure there are plenty out there; it’s just a matter of finding one.

6" has been going so well I’ve considered going up to 7", but I need to get the timer situation sorted out first.

I started going 30 min. 5 min intervals. I pump to my level for 4 min, then up to next level for 1 min then release the pressure to 0 and do it again.

Virtually no edema. Fwiw

Stepped pumping works for a lot of guys. If I ever find enough round tuits to build a programmable controller, I’ll give it a shot. But I’m too lazy to do it with a clock.

This afternoon I noticed a tiny blister in the usual spot to the left of the meatus.

Well, frack. No hanging in the last few weeks, so it’s from pumping. The first time I’ve gotten a blister from pumping, as far as I know.

I guess when it heals I’ll dial it back to 5"Hg.

Squeezing and examining the ‘blister’ more closely, it’s not a blister. It’s a small hard spot that formed below the surface, and it was gone within a day. It never had any of the external appearance of a blister. I resumed pumping and it didn’t come back.

That spot is where I had a large scar from one of the boils from the staph infection. I’ve had recurrent blisters there, and sometimes the surface will lift when hanging for more than an hour, but not leave a blister.

At this point I’m going to call it "subdermal damage" and write it off as a relatively innocuous reaction to the kind of heavy pumping I’ve been doing recently.

I’ll give it a few more days at 5", then bump it back up to 6" and keep an eye on it.

08/28 PE (light day)
night wood: 3
morning wood: 3
["3" on my private EQ scale is "partly erect, but not firm enough for intercourse."]

pump: 4x15min - 2" tube, 5"Hg, USB heater (wimpy, non-thermostatic)

AM blood sugar: 83
temp: 97.0F

Exercise: 0800-1030 (home) WORKOUT B (partial)

bench press: 3x5, 80# (Swiss bar)

Romanian deadlifts: 4x5, 130# (barbell)

EZ bar curls 5x5, 48# (EZ bar)

supra/infraspinatus 5x20 (bands)

Arnold presses 5x5, 15#

butterflies 5x20, 20# (machine, light for shoulder rehab)

head harness 3x5, 80# (machine) working on spinal kyphosis. Was doing 5x10 sets with 1 plate (40#), recently went to 2 plates (80#), working back up

lateral pulldowns: 3x5,130# (machine, narrow bar) [that maxes the machine out; I need to mount the pulley on the power rack now]

standing shrugs: 3x10, 160# (barbell)

It was a light day for exercise, too. I skipped squats because I needed to mow the tall grass in back, and the push mower is a hell of a workout on my quads and hamstrings.

Nice

I like the idea of an A and B workout. I don’t have the stamina to be in the weight room for 2 hours but I would like to get more movements in and I think this would be a good way.

I’m actually doing an A, B, and C workout, three days a week. There’s a main set of things I do each time - squats, deadlifts, curls, mainly - and then the A, B, or C sets, which only slightly overlap. Cable work, dumbbells, overhead and bench presses, etc.

If I interleave sets I could finish in an hour or so, but I’ve been taking 5 to 10 minutes between sets. Now that I’m getting better at the weight thing I could tighten that up, but time isn’t really a problem.

I’m doing a lot of different stuff, which would probably look like a chaotic waste of time to guys focused on the "Big 5" lifts, but I’m concentrating on mobility and all-around fitness. Every action has a specific purpose. Yeah, most of my numbers are nothing to brag about even at my age, but I’m getting around way better than I was before, and I’m happy with my results.

I started off trying following Mark Rippetoe’s "Starting Strength" program, though I’ve diverged considerably from it, mostly due to age and some physical issues.

Squats:
As I mentioned before, bone spurs in my right shoulder complicated things. I was unable to bend my shoulder to do a low bar back squat. High bar squats were possible with considerable pain, and the bar sat on my neck, basically. Due to moderate spinal kyphosis (old man stoop) that wasn’t really practical. And between the shoulder problem and some anthropometry issues, I couldn’t even come close to racking the bar in front; it stopped up at my chin, instead of on my chest.

Goblet squats felt very awkward. Landmine squats would probably have worked just fine, but I didn’t know that at the time. I bought a "safety squat bar" with handles on it. It works quite well. Weight increases have been slow, but as my knees have improved I’ve been adding small amounts every now and then.

Deadlifts:
Mongo *likes* deadlifts. My knees complain some, but not enough to be a problem. I’ve been alternating regular deadlifts with Romanian deadlifts. Recently I picked up a trap bar. I use a different bar each day since the muscles used differ a bit between types. Since I just built the wooden floor I’m lifting from, I’m lowering the bar and setting it down gently each time instead of throwing it at the floor like the barbell bros.

Overhead Presses:
After months of shoulder rehab, I’m back to doing those. Not a whole lot of weight yet, but I’m improving. Its amazing how much easier it is to lift something overhead when it doesn’t feel like someone is hammering a spike through your shoulder joint.

Bench Presses:
I had a lot of elbow problems there, and they only got worse, even with the bare bar. I tried different arm angles and other tricks without helping. I finally threw money at it and bought a Swiss bar; one of the ones that looks like a ladder. The change in hand angle was enough for the Swiss bar not to irritate my elbows. I’m doing okay on benches now.

Chins:
Still can’t do those. I bought a climber’s safety harness, another pulley, and some nylon rope; when I get some round tuits I’ll hook it up so I can use a weight stack to counterbalance my weight a bit. Meanwhile, I’ve been continuing the shoulder rehab work and doing lateral pulldowns on the cable machine. Also, I’m still fat, which doesn’t help.

Power Cleans:
Rippetoe says not everyone can do power cleans. I can’t, for the same reason I can’t do front squats - I can’t rack the freaking bar. He suggested power snatches instead.

It appears that form for a "power snatch" is mostly a matter of opinion; various instructions are wildly different. Rippetoe’s method is complex and awkward, at least for me. As of this morning, I was able to successfully perform two sets of the Crossfit version. My form is probably not good, but I can work on that now that I can do the basic motions.

I built a big gym floor with a couple of layers: a base of OSB and then the top layer mostly covered in 3/4" horse stall mat from Tractor Supply, and with a ‘T’ of 3/4" plywood under my squat rack is that extends in front of the rack to a deadlift platform. The plywood in from of the rack is just inside the width of the barbell plates so the plates are on the rubber mats while my feet are on the wood.

The horse stall mat is great for having to be less gentle when putting down a heavy deadlift bar. It’s also nice everywhere else where I do most of my training-good grip, softer than wood and more forgiving of sweat as it doesn’t make the floor slippery. I can drop dumbbells or plates a few inches without worrying about it.

Plus I have some mats scattered around under other machines away from the larger gym floor on the bare concrete of my unfinished basement.

Anybody with a home gym is probably aware of the horse stall mat and you probably are, too, but when you said you had to be gentle putting down your deadlift bar I figured I’d mention it just in case. Nice to have bumper plates for deads and cleans, too, but the mat is good for gym flooring for all kinds of reasons.

When I want to end a back training session with burnout pull-ups, or I want to go higher reps (or tighter form, frankly) than I can do bodyweight I throw an exercise band over the crossbar/pullup bar of my power rack and step a foot into it. It gives a boost through the range of motion that is a bit more at the bottom when the band is fully stretched, but depending on how much is needed you can add any degree of assistance with thicker bands or a combination of them. Pretty low tech and easy to set up and knock down.

Probably a lot easier than a weight stack climbers harness set up. But also less awesome.

The space I’m lifting in is temporary. The plan is to build a shed in the back yard later. I can do a more appropriate floor in that.