Archive for the ‘BodyBuilding’ Category

Yes this was a few months back at the start of New Zealand’s summer. Alternate day fasting is exactly that. One day you eat normally, the next day you dont eat at all.

I didn’t eat for 3 or 4 days of the week for 4 weeks.

Did I shrivel up into a skinny runt?

No but I did lose 3 kg. I expected to lose at least 5-6 kg so was glad as I kept all of my muscle mass.

Did I become a weakling ?

Yes my muscle glycogen by the end of the month was severely depleted and I felt weak as a kitten in the gym. My weight training was poor but my cardio was barely affected at all.

Did I lose fat ?

Yes and lots of it which means I must have improved my body composition. My guts lost all bloat and a few inches.

Would I do it again ?

Yes but not for 4 consecutive weeks. The problem was the glycogen crash which was worst in the final week. I would have lost muscle fast if I had kept going after that.

I think a weight lifter could do this 1 week of the month. Remember this is alternate day not occasional day.

You could try 2 consecutive weeks but again the glycogen will get hit. At the max 2 alternate weeks in a month.

You will save money on groceries $$

You will lose fat

You will give your insides a break

You will extend your lifespan

I have been a meditator since I was very young, at least 16 for formal meditation, but even as a kid, I used to be able to do it, but didn’t realize I was meditating.

As a young child, I could visualize very clearly, especially while lying in bed at night and in the morning. Also, I could control my circulation in my hands and make them go red and hot or cool them down just by willing it.

Now I know these things are formalized in the system of Autogenic Training.

The basic stage will take you into very deep relaxation and autonomic control.

Getting to the stage beyond this is where myself and many others get stuck. At the advanced stage of Autogenic Training, you begin to meditate, and for many people, the visualization of colors and imagery comes spontaneously, as it did for me as a child.

Stress and trauma in life can put a spanner in the works, as the body subconsciously gets stuck in fight or flight mode, and the imagination gets squelched. It can stay literally switched off by the brain. The spontaneous visualization and opening of the mind’s eye, in this case, just stubbornly won’t happen.

There is a simple solution: Image Streaming. In Autogenics, you can do it yourself or with a therapist. The subject (you) will simply describe out loud in detail what they see in their mind’s eye. This connects the subconscious right brain with the conscious verbal left brain. Over time, the imagination becomes conscious. The brain is designed to be interhemispheric, and the state of most people’s brains is dysfunctional.

So image streaming is the next technique to master after the basic Autogenic exercises. If you are lucky, the visualizations will come spontaneously. If they don’t, it’s no problem, as they will certainly happen with the assistance of image streaming.

You simply describe in great detail everything you sense in your mind’s eye. You can add all senses. You literally let the images flow from your subconscious right brain. This is a natural reflex, so they will come abundantly and eventually more and more vividly.

You will, with a little training, experience more vivid mental imagery. It will become 3D and very detailed.

Now, all this training is done in a state of deep, restorative Autogenic Relaxation. It’s a restorative process of brain repair and growth.

There are of course other things going on neurologically apart from interhemispheric communication and the development of the corpus collosum. There is also a neural polarity switch when imagery comes from the imagination rather the sensory organs.

But you dont have to take this into account for the training to work.

There are plenty of very detailed books on Autogenic Training and Image Streaming.

• Image Streaming by Charles Roman
• The Genius Code
• The Einstein Factor
• Autogenic Training by Luthe
• 5 volume set of text books on Autogenic Therapy by Shultz & Luthe
• Autogenic Training by Sadigh
• Advanced Autogenic Training And Primal Awareness by Endredy

I strongly suggest you use both methods as part of the same training system.

You may also want to take a look at the book The Right Brain And The Unconscious Discovering The Stranger Within. In addition Luthe wrote a book called the Creativity Mobilization Technique which is a kind of art therapy.

Now with strong skills in Autogenic Meditation and Image Streaming you will have very formidable cognitive capability and resilience.  To go beyond this you may delve into advanced self hypnosis.

So what can you do when the x-ray or MRI comes back & that back pain has been caused by disk degeneration all along?

This is what it may look like in there…

Thats kind of how mine looks except its two disks and the bone spur sticks out real sharp.

Well basically you have five different options which I will list here.

1. Ignore it & suck up the pain. Yep I did this unwittingly as after multiple visits to physio’s, doctors etc none of them did an x-ray or anything to help. A doctor may offer you anti inflammatory drugs but many of these can cause clotting & heart attacks over time.  Others cause gut problems. Over time the injury will get worse and many people have barely any disk left with the vertebrae eventually fusing together.
2. Physical therapy. Now if you decide to take action you will have to stop any activity that is putting serious pressure on your disks. You need to minimize loading on the spine & stretch that sucker. That means no more dead lifts, squats, over head press. No more physical laboring work, No renovating, digging, lifting etc. You can however still do pullups, and many other weight lifting exercises. Some actually stretch the spine and will help with the problem. Also running is out but stairmaster is in. I also recommend Yin Yoga & the program at ultimatehumanperformance.com.
3. Laser ablation surgery. Say you try the physical therapy & it does work (because it will) but still you cant do your job or workout like you want to. Or maybe for you the pain is still too great. The next step is a laser treatment that has 95% success. The surgeon will burn off the disk henia with a laser.  Here is the top US specialist for this relatively new therapy https://deukspine.com/. This should be your first choice for surgery as its barely even a surgery at all.
4. Artificial disk replacement. This one is a bit more serious. They will actually replace the disk with an artificial one & there is a 90% success rate. That means there will be a 1:10 chance you will be screwed. But you are already anyway without surgery at this stage. If it succeeds its problem solved as people are back to normal in a few weeks. Most people can walk immediately with minimal pain. After recovery you will be able to carry a backpack again and resume work. The only suck? They may go in through your guts.
5. Vertebrae fusion. This one sucks but its the only surgery they used to do. If your disk is really stuffed its still what they will do. The disk is removed and the bones of the vertebrae are screwed together. You lose all mobility from the joint and more strain is placed on the joints on either side. In 5 years or so you will need more joints fused as a consequence. This is your last resort if the pain is too bad. 80-90% success rate.

So those are your options in order of risk. If you are young & never had any disk problems it all sounds like an utter nightmare. As you get older this shit becomes normal no matter how fit, healthy & strong you are.

Yes I am going hard to keep going.

I took up the Hippensteel stretching regimen & have also looked into Gold Medal Bodies, Hyperbolic stretching, Foundation training, Yin Yoga, Convict Conditioning etc.

In other words I am working on general athleticism, flexibility & mobility in addition to the good old weights.

I stopped running & replaced it with Stairmaster
I stopped deadlift & replaced it with Pullup & Dips
I also started the ATG program and have my keen eye on Pacific Rim athletics

So thats it dont give up – try harder.

Yeah all of my wordpress blogs got infected with malware. Months ago & I hired a guy to fix it but he did a half pie job so for now this blog is working again.

Much has happened since last year. I moved away from Nelson as it was pretty boring & I was only there to escape COVID lockdowns. Meanwhile Auckland city has gone to the pack so I am with family up north for a while.

I was convinced my back issues were soft tissue caused by lipomas. Sadly this was wishful thinking. I got an MRI and have spinal degeneration in my lumbar. Basically 2 compressed disks and a vertebrae with bone spurs.

Seeing this on the MRI kind of made me sick to my stomach but there you go a 55 year old is likely to have it.

Immediately I stopped deadlifting and leg press. I also started the Hippensteel stretching program in earnest.

Now I can do a full quad stretch & get on to my back on the floor. Also good progress in other moves. In fact I am doing ROM I have not done since I was 19 in some moves.

This has essentially stopped all back pain during the day. Also I do dead hangs daily. At night it started to hurt a little but nothing like it was when I was still deadlifting.

Now I sleep on my side with a pillow between my knees or flat on my back. Works for me.

My spine is fucked and will never repair by itself.

3 weeks into keto now & I have lost 4kg, my mind is more alert, I can stretch deeper and relax. Most importantly my terrible back aches are hugely less. I believe that is from a reduction in inflammation as I have not lost that much weight.

I used psyllium husk & Musahi electrolytes to stop keto flu.

The food is good & probably less expensive than what I was eating before.

1. Power Cleans off the floor
2. Heavy Rack Shrugs
3. Heavy Lat Pulldown Isometric
4. Rowing Machine Sprints
5. Recumbent Bike
6. Stretches

I’m gunna do it one day a week

After 8 years of gradually worsening lower back pain I was 100% convinced I needed surgery.

I was sure I needed my lipomas cut out from above my hip. At times the pain has been excruciating. The lumps are right there where the pain is. What else could it possibly be?

I saw doctors, physios, chiropractors – no solution.

I tried all kinds of exercises, stretches and treatments – no solution.

Finally a couple of weeks back purely by chance I started doing some stomach vacuums just messing around.

My back pain immediately decreased dramatically. Now I do it frequently during the day – my back pain is greatly reduced.

How can this be?

Well its related to having a pot gut. Walking around all day with a bloated full stomach. Having a bit too much belly fat.

This in turn weakens the core, abdominal & lower back muscles. One of which is the Transverse Abdominus. This is like your natural corset all around your waist. Its the weakening of this muscle that causes the back pain.

The lower back muscle & fascia can rupture and result in lipomas.

So stomach vacuums seem to be the best exercise for this problem. They are not the only one – there are many exercises such as planks or the ab wheel. The pullover exercise for rib cage expansion also hits this muscle.

In yoga this exercise is called Uddiyana Bandha. A more advanced stage is called Nauli Kriya.

Here is how to do Uddiyana Bandha:

Exhale completely. Notice that you do this pressing in with both your chest and abdomen. You can pretend to be blowing up a balloon as much as possible with one breath.

The best time for practice is early in the morning, with empty stomach and bowels. The contraindications for uddiyana bandha are high blood pressure, hiatal hernia, ulcers, pregnancy, and menstruation.

You may not think these are good instructions as you are not able to do a vacuum by relaxing. Initially you have to tense & actively suck the abs in using force. Really you must contract the transverse abdominal to suck in the gut. Also you dont want to do a valsalva. You can keep breathing while holding the contraction

Despite this I recall as a kid I could suck in my gut more in the way they describe. Using a vacuum rather than a muscular contraction. This is a finer part of the exercise after the initial contraction. Lets not over analyze. Maybe after doing it via contraction you can lose some fat and gain more nerve control then explore the yogic methods. Certainly to begin with its unlikely you will be capable of Nauli Kriya.

Dont be afraid to strengthen & thicken the Transverse Abdominal using contraction.

By the way I can do 1000 consecutive stomach crunches quite easily – this is a different muscle so just having strong abs or spinal erectors is not enough.