Archive for the ‘BodyBuilding’ Category

Currently I have been weight lifting and keeping fit for 25 years. I have never, ever used steroids and gave up alcohol and smoking 25 years ago.

When I made the commitment to lift weights it was a permanent one.

The gym became my place of hope and solace. My health and fitness keep me happy and positive when everything else can be going wrong sometimes. If you are well – thats what matters.

So why do most people who undertake fitness give up after 6 months ?

Why do millions of people who know how much better fitness makes their lives still just give up ?

I cant say why straight out of my head – I don’t know.

Is it because they are dumb, lazy, disorganized ? Well not keeping in shape is all of those things but of course plenty of clever & hard working people die an early death because they are not in shape.

The answer must be psychological in nature, it must be related to motivation. We are talking a lifetime commitment here – a major life change.

I believe the answer is the in initial psychological imprint this change has upon your mind. For me the change to a healthy lifestyle and body building was phenomenal.

I was a skinny picked on drug addict and street kid. I weighed like 6 stone and was a dope smoker and drunkard truant. I was a very bad kid, the guys I hung out with were 10 yrs older than me. We are talking a convicted rapist, drug dealers, violent people.

The terrible thing is I became as bad as them myself. I was nearly murdered as a kid and my family busted up so I really didn’t have any role models that made me feel safe or welcome except for a bunch of small town thugs.

Those were tough times – at 6 stone I was nearly at deaths door.

Body building turned it around for me. Just like if a person saved your life you would owe them right.
Well body building saved my life. I doubled my weight, kicked the drugs & booze and lost the bad company.

I studied psychology and motivation and went back to school (from which I had been expelled for drugs). So after that there was no turning back.

I think that the reason some people train for life and others do not is quite simple. Those that never give up have a genuine appreciation for the benefits of fitness and the seriousness of those benefits.

Those that give up do so out of ignorance.

Man I just discovered something that kind of sucks.

Check out this site : http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

Its very cool and I have been using it to plan my runs. Basically I dont want you to make the mistake I made.

Heres the track I have been running:

As you can see the distance is 2.4 kms or 1.5 miles. So I thought I was doing great on my times on this track – OH OH – not true.

By chance I turned on satellite view :

This gives me a much clearer image showing the tree lines and the actual track I run – as you can see its considerably different (shorter) than what I thought I was running.

An honest mistake that unfortunately means my run times are total shit – 11.30 for a 2.4 km run.
This is after I have blown my ass and told everybody how fast I was running the 1.5 mile.

Heres my real track again:

I’m not pissed that I made this mistake – such is life.

I never used to be a big runner – still am not. I know its great for losing fat and developing cardio, but its bad for your knee’s and hips.

Anyway some years back I was in the army reserve my time on 1.5 miles was around 10:30 or 11 minutes – which isn’t fantastic.

In the years since I have done some running but more long slow distance of several kilometers. I have however done much time on the rowing machine – 3 or 4 times per week for many years.

So my cardio has been good as a consequence of this. Now I have decided to take a crack at the army again and and have taken up the training to pass their running test. I first tried the test and failed miserably at 12:47.

After weeks and months of fin swimming, running etc I now have the time down to around 9 minutes and expect to soon have it below that.

But you know what – stick me on the rowing machine and I have not improved at all.

So whats going on ? Has the improvement in running time corresponded with improved VO2 max and cardiac output or is it just a result of better leg endurance.

Well I can tell you that after some of my training sessions in the evening when resting my pulse rate has been remarkably lower that it was formerly so that is clear evidence of improved cardiovascular output.

But most of my cardio training still is not running – its fin swimming.

I just do the runs to test myself – Its the fin swimming that is doing the bulk of the conditioning.

Fin swimming is great because it taxes and conditions the lower legs, thighs, hamstrings and is great for heart and lungs. Plus its zero impact.

Doctors can be so frustrating for us athletes. I’m still waiting to get my blood taken to correct my high Ferritin. Hopefully it will be sorted in a few days.

Anyway 1 in 15 sedentary, normal adults has high ferritin. High ferritin over time leads to cancer, stroke, heart disease etc.

One teaspoon of iron powder will kill any human adult – Iron is that toxic even though its an essential mineral and common in everyday life. Its actually also a deadly poison. Most lethal poisonings in young children are the result of iron ingestion.

With our high calorie diets and high protein – hence meat diets, bodybuilders are at a greater risk of acumulating too much iron.

Your actual iron count may be normal, what you need to check is the ferritin which indicates iron stores. Iron can also indicate inflamation and my stupid GP has wasted months of my time trying to pin my high ferritin to inflamation – for which there is no indication.

So now I am trying to get the blood donation doctor here to approve me.

Once thats taken care of I will simply donate blood regularly – this way I don’t need to change my bodybuilding diet.

Yippee I just did a 9 minute run with little difficulty after a 3 week layoff from running because of a hemorrhoid.

I think swimming with fins kept building my fitness and also my calf indurance. I will aim for 9 minutes on my next 3 tests then start aiming for 8:30. I will hit the wall somewhere after that.

I flunked the advanced math test for army systems engineer, so I changed my application to officer corp. Its good motivation.

I want to smack my GP’s face in.

This bastard will not listen.

How often do you get that with a GP – a good one is harder to find than a hot hooker in Auckland on a saturday night.

Actually there are no hot hookers in Auckland coz they all moved to ozzie but thats another story.

I’m a weightlifter OK. Have been for 25 years. Bodybuilders & weightlifters tend to study their fair share of physiology, medicine and some on roids study pharmacology.

So I don’t get sick often and usually only go to the doctor for a check up.

Weightlifters sometimes get elevated liver enzymes ALT/AST from the breakdown of muscle tissue – it is not in this case pathological.

Unfortunately this is also a common indicator of pathological inflammation or infection.

Now I explained clearly 5 MONTHS AGO that I lift weights – that that was probably the cause for my enzyme elevation.

The doc acknowledged this but decided to run an iron study to check for any symptoms there.

Keep in mind I am very fit and have no symptoms of any infection, inflammation or illness apart from having minor hemorrhoids for about a month in the last year & slightly elevated cholesterol.

So now this PARROT has seen that my iron is elevated.

Thats it man he seems to feel vindicated and now will not budge.

I am certainly greatful the dude ran the iron test but the ****wit will not listen to fricken reason.

Meanwhile my cholesterol and liver results are all now fairly normal with minor dietary change. I simply added decaf green tea and omega 3 to my diet.

The AST/ALT can easily be elevated again if they take a test after a workout.

So :

iron 23 umol/l (10-30) normal
iron binding capacity 31 umol/l (45-75) low The ratio of sTfR/sFt,
iron saturation 0.74 (0.15-0.50) high (%TS)
ferritin 363 ug/l (25-250) high

haemochromatosis gene – negative

OK now read this government medical report…

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Detection of Iron Loading

Screening of large populations for iron loading can be accomplished with inexpensive, noninvasive methods. A useful indicator of iron loading is marked elevation of serum ferritin (sFt). However, sole reliance on this measurement can be misleading because sFt increases moderately during inflammatory episodes. Accordingly, concurrent determination of the percentage of iron saturation of serum transferrin (%TS) provides useful information (29)

In iron loaded persons, hyperferritinemia generally is accompanied by an elevation in %TS. In contrast, in patients with an inflammatory process, hyperferritinemia generally is accompanied by a reduction in %TS.

Iron loading is associated also with moderate depression of a third variable, serum transferrin receptor (sTfR). The ratio of sTfR/sFt, apparently independent of inflammation, is significantly reduced in persons with high levels of iron

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no3/weinberg.htm

Tuomainen T-P, Punnonen K, Nyyssonen K, Salonen JT. Association between body iron stores and the risk of acute myocardial infarction in men. Circulation 1998;97:1461-6.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~

Even a moderately retarded person can thus see that my blood profile fits that of iron loading not inflammation.

This is obviously the ****ing case DOC – I am a weightlifter who eats like a gorilla and am in good health.

Why would a doctor make a pompous ass of himself in this way ?

Maybe the drug companies that sell anti-inflammatories are offering trips to hawaii this year.

He is wrong in making the assumption of inflammation.

Anyway I dont hate the guy – and like I said in my town a good GP is a rare thing indeed so there’s no point in going elsewhere – he has under my persuasion refered me to a phlebotomy specialist doctor who will know much more about this than a GP.

Hopefully then I can get the correct treatment – which is simply giving blood, increased endurance training and less iron rich food for a little while.

High Iron Blood Work

In my younger years I wouldnt have given a shit if my blood iron was high – but now I care at 41.

I know ast/alt can be elevated without it being pathological – often just caused by weight training.

This does not seem to be the case with ferritin, iron saturation & iron binding capacity.

Red blood cell count and myoglobulin can be elevated by exercise so do not necesarily mean anything pathological.

But the iron numbers do seem to indicate pathology with no exercise cause.

So I got the gene test and it was negative, maybe I ate too much big juicy steak, maybe it was the welding I did 10 yrs ago.

I dont know. But I will give blood and do some chelation to improve my iron levels.

Presently:

Iron Binding Capacity: 34 umol/l (45-75)

Iron Saturation: 0.79 (.15-.50)

Ferritin: 412 ug/l (20-250)

Iron: 27 umol/l (10-30)

Kind of pisses me off I didn’t catch it sooner – anyway I have no symptoms.

Its over seven months since I first experienced the piles problem – that bout lasted two weeks. Now I have it again but only minor with no bleeding. Its been ten days now and its definitely improved.

I have only had this problem twice now and minor both times. The main problem is that you “CAN NOT” lift weight with these things. If you do they will balloon and you will never get rid of them.

If you have never had it – neither had I for 40 years.

OK so how can you maintain fitness with this ailment which is more like an injury that an illness symptomatically.

1. Swimming – ask your sports physician but swimming seems to be fine with mild to moderate Haemorrhoids

2. Yoga and stretching also seem to be OK if done without strain

3. The only way to prevent muscle atrophy with this condition will be EMS electro muscle stimulation

So thats all you can do – definitely no weights or running until the disease has run its course which is usually two weeks.

If you got here through the main site homepage you will notice I have ditched all the ebay stuff on there.

I have also put a link to the free online version of my anatomy manual. Over the next few days I will set up a dedicated download area and a better store area that is inside the site.

I will also set up a video section – maybe some more too.

I could make an area for people to have a free fitness blog and online workout diary etc but I dont want to be dealing with spammers who are a big enough pain commenting on my various blogs.

Over the coming few weeks I would like to publish some of my material on amazon for sale. You guys will get an email via the mailing list when that happens.

As for training I had to take a layoff this week due to my hemroids coming back after 7 months without. Should be able to train again by monday I hope.

My average time on the 1.5 mile run is now 9 minutes 30 seconds. That’s pretty darn good. No sign of the calf problems I was having either.

So how at 40 yrs and 100 kg did I take my time to 9.5 from 12.45 ? Well I recommend HIIT and hypoxic training. I like to do my HIIT on the rowing machine. 15 – 20 minutes max and use that as my pre-workout warmup. Basically the more you put into it the more you get out of it. I also do it instinctively or intuitively rather than timing everything exactly.

As for Hypoxic training it definitely is a very effective method for increasing VO2max and lung capacity but it has to be done in the correct way. For example research studies have shown high altitude training to be ineffective at improving sea level performance.

But I did not say I recommend “High Altitude” training.

What I recommend is short duration hypoxic training at low altitude. So the hypoxia only lasts 20-60 seconds. Its done in intervals and not even necessarily under exercise conditions. You can train your lungs and circulatory system in this way even by simply breathing into a plastic bag for short infrequent intervals. Just be careful not to overdo it and induce dizziness or faintness.

You want to stop just before it quite gets to that. This method is also known as carotid masking as it increases the diameter of the carotid artery to the brain.

This kind of training is familiar to free divers and such, you will find its good to relax your muscles while doing the carotid masking.

Hypoxic sprints can also be performed while swimming both surface and under water.

This brings me to my final recommendation which is the Navy Seals training program by stew smith – this is an incredibly tough training program. I will be following it for the next couple of months and have done it in the past too. After that I intent to try stew’s maximum fitness program which I have not done before – that’s a 52 week cross training program.

Heres’s the link to stew’s site: http://www.stewsmith.com/catalog.htm