Bayou Renaissance Man

 

As most readers are aware, back in 2004 I was seriously injured in a work-related accident.  After two surgeries, culminating in a spinal fusion, I ended up with a damaged left sciatic nerve, and in pain 24/7/365.  I can keep the latter under control if I work at it, and use pain-killers when needed, but it's no fun.  It's restricted my mobility, so that I can't walk too far without needing a stick, and not much further before I have to sit down and let the pain subside before going on.  Running is out of the question, and my sense of balance is also affected, so that cycling (on roads, anyway) can be tricky.

Another result of the injury was that my neurosurgeon told me I'm restricted to carrying not more than 25 pounds for the rest of my life.  I'm afraid I've honored that more in the breach than in the observance on occasion (try moving house carrying only 25 pounds at a time!), but generally the pain issue has helped forced me to observe it more-or-less faithfully.  I'd hoped to do more strength training to compensate for the enforced lack of aerobic exercise (see preceding paragraph), but found that I simply couldn't tolerate very much weight on a barbell before my back went on strike and started hurting me badly.  To add to my difficulties, over time I've developed arthritis in my spine, which I'm told is a normal side-effect after a spinal fusion.  It adds to the pain burden and further restricts flexibility.

I've been struggling to find a "middle way", some form of exercise that can help keep me a little fitter than a jellyfish, but won't trigger my pain reflex or mobility issues.  I've been working out with dumbbells rather than barbells, because a dumbbell doesn't rest on my shoulders or neck or spine, making it less stressful.  I can add weight to a pair of dumbbells, as heavy as my restrictions will allow, and use them in movement exercises to keep my muscles in trim.  (There are lots of exercises that use them.)  I haven't tried kettlebells to any great extent yet, but may do so soon.  (On the other hand, is it worth using kettlebells when one's already using dumbbells?  Will readers with experience of both comment, please?)

I'm trying to combine dumbbells with step training.  The latter has been used for decades as a conditioning exercise for new workers on South African mines, and I'm familiar with the way they do (or did) it.  I can't do it for long periods or at high intensity, but I can manage a few steps up and down while using a dumbbell in various exercises, then take a break before doing it again.  (I seem to use a lot more weight on my dumbbells than is seen in most videos of step exercises.  Those things are tiny!)  I hope the added workout will help my cardiovascular health to at least some extent.

Are there any other alternatives for someone in my position?  I'd appreciate suggestions from readers, please.  I don't want to die because I've become an unfit slob, but compared to most people my age, that's what I am, because I can't exercise anything like as hard or as fast as they do.  If you can offer suggestions, please do so in Comments.

Thanks.

Peter

From Miguel at Gun Free Zone:

Amazed to find out that exercise equipment is designed for people that are already fit.

“If I had the weight limit you recommend, I would not need your ****ing expensive machine to begin with.”

You can say that again!

It's depressing to shop for fitness equipment, only to find that its maximum weight capacity is a long way below one's present weight.  What's more, even if one is within the weight capacity of the machine, it'll creak, groan and complain during use, as if to say, "Only just!"

Of course, with so much exercise equipment now being made in China, where people are naturally smaller, that explains a lot of it.  That's also why early Japanese cars were so tiny inside - they sized them for Japanese drivers and passengers.  They had to figure out that selling them in America and Europe required designing them for larger people.

Hmmm . . . now that so much military hardware (tanks, self-propelled artillery, etc.) is being made in countries like China and South Korea, and is being actively exported:  are they sizing it for export customers' populations, or expecting them to recruit only small soldiers?




Peter

The BBC reports on a strange placebo effect in the world of sports that even the scientist investigating it can't explain.

The Pico Simón Bolívar is one of the highest mountains in Colombia. Near the top, there is only half as much oxygen as at sea level, a dizzying 5,500m (18,000 feet) below. The air up there makes it hard to walk and causes fatigue and headaches, so the body tries to adapt: breathing rate increases, the heart beats faster and blood vessels expand to get more oxygen to tissues.

As you might expect, giving someone an oxygen tank to breathe from will reverse these changes. They’ll quickly feel less tired and their head will stop pounding as their heart rate and breathing return to normal. What you wouldn’t expect is that you can achieve exactly the same thing if the oxygen tank is a fake – it’s empty.

Fabrizio Benedetti is the scientist behind these experiments. Based in Italy at the University of Turin, he has given people placebo oxygen on mountains in Colombia, Alaska and his laboratory in the Alps and observed the same thing –fake oxygen tanks can mimic the effects of the real thing.

The effect only works if an actual oxygen tank is given to the subject a few times first, before it’s switched for a sham one without them knowing. That way, their bodies are expecting to receive an oxygen hit. Remarkably, although the tank is now empty, it can still boost physical performance on a lab-based high altitude walking exercise. The question is – how?

“This is the one-billion [dollar] question,” says Benedetti. “There is no oxygen in the blood, there is no oxygen in the body, but you can get the very same effect as real oxygen. The real answer is we don’t know.”

There's much more at the link, including speculation as to the cause of this phenomenon - but that's all it is.  At present, there's no solid evidence or proof of what's going on.

I find this fascinating.  Could this sort of "placebo effect" be triggered during a sporting event, to provide a boost equal to a performance-enhancing drug, but without the illegality?  Could it be used in the context of military operations, to give troops in combat a boost to their performance that lasts just long enough to triumph over the enemy?  The possibilities are endless.

Peter

I found this over at Chief Nose Wetter's place yesterday:




I resemble that most recent "evolved" man a little too closely for comfort!  (Looks down ruefully at expansive belly . . . )

How about you?

Peter

Found on MeWe, in a group post I can't link directly:







Peter

Today sees the annual Hotter 'n Hell 100 bicycle race in and around Wichita Falls, Texas.  It's so named because the temperatures usually hover at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at this time of year, and the full-length race covers 100 miles (with shorter distances for less ambitious competitors).

As I write these words, the competitors are pouring out of the city and onto regional roads, heading out on the opening leg of the race.  It's relatively cool this year, thanks to some unseasonal rain showers, which are very welcome to those of us who live here, but resented by many riders ("Hey, what happened to the hundred degrees we were promised?").  A mammoth support effort is being mounted by volunteers, and local police and fire departments along the route.  The county Sheriff's Department is fully committed to traffic control, and other organizations are helping in any way they can.

I must admit, I'm amazed by the level of enthusiasm shown by riders who stream into the area from all over the country.  It's too soon for this year's start to have been uploaded to YouTube, but here's last year's start, to give you some idea of the numbers.




For the rest of us, this is a morning to avoid downtown at all costs, and sit back and relax in the comfort of our own homes.  That'll be more than hot enough for us!

Peter

I empathize.  (Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the comic's Web site.)




After walking and squats at the gym this morning, I'm tempted to try Pig's recipe!




Peter

Courtesy of a link at Reddit, here's "Scared S***less Fitness", an entirely new form of exercise.  Language alert:  the S-word flows freely.




Yeah, I reckon that'll get the old bloodstream moving!




Peter

Miss D. and I have been absent from the gym for several weeks, due to minor health issues that are rapidly being resolved.  Yesterday was our first day back . . . and today, we're so stiff it hurts!  That made yesterday's Pearls Before Swine cartoon particularly appropriate.  (Click the image to see a larger version at its Web page.)




What can I say but "Heh (Ow!)"?




Peter

I know a lot of homes have this sort of treadmill.  Mine may even have been among them, in years past!  (Click the image to be taken to a larger version at Pearls Before Swine's Web site.)







Peter

As many readers will know, I suffered a work-related back injury in 2004.  After two surgeries, I was left with a fused spine and permanent damage to my sciatic nerve.  I've been in constant pain, 24/7/365, since the date of injury, with just one glorious, all-too-brief break in 2005, when I was given an epidural injection of steroids to see if it would reduce inflammation in my spine.  (It didn't.)  A spinal anesthetic was part of the treatment, which numbed everything below my waist, including the damaged nerve.  That was the last time I remember being pain-free.  It's been my constant companion since then.

I've tried many things to control the pain, and live my life despite it.  They've ranged from cocktails of various prescription narcotics, through physiotherapy, to actually seriously considering cutting the damaged nerve and (if necessary) amputating the affected limb.  (That didn't go anywhere.)  The medical advice I was given was, in so many words, to "suck it up" and accept it.  Unfortunately, that led to other complications, including a severe drug interaction between some of the medications I was prescribed, leading to massive weight gain and major metabolic problems.  It hasn't been fun.

Eventually, I got fed up with doing what the doctors were telling me.  It was killing me slowly.  I had to find a better way.  For the past nine months I've basically thrown my doctors' recommendations out of the window and followed my own path.  It's led to increased pain, but also increased mastery of my own body, and for the first time in a long time I'm feeling relatively human again.

The core of my new approach has been strength training at Mark Rippetoe's gymnasium, following the Starting Strength program.  It hasn't been easy, and my progress has been much slower than "normal" beginners, but from the perspective of one who's been half-crippled for a long time, it's been nothing short of remarkable.  I owe Mark and his coaches, particularly Carmen, a huge debt of gratitude for taking me on, with all my challenges and difficulties, and helping me to overcome them.




Despite my early progress, I began to find, a couple of months ago, that I was hitting a wall.  My damaged sciatic nerve and its associated problems were causing me more and more pain as I pushed them further and further.  I couldn't see a way past this, until I asked for the help of a chiropractor who also attends Mark's gym.  He understands the mechanics of our exercises from personal experience, and can therefore use his training and education to analyze, diagnose and help solve the issues that have been holding me back.

What's emerged is that pain such as mine - centered around damaged nerves and skeletal structure - has far more wide-reaching effects than I'd ever considered.  The sciatic nerve, when irritated and inflamed, affects muscles all around it, up and down the leg.  (See, for example, piriformis syndrome, one of my difficulties.)  Those muscles, in turn, when irritated, exert an unhealthy influence on other muscles to which they're attached.  I'd never considered that my diaphragm might be overstressed by a thigh muscle, but that's apparently one of the problems I've been having;  and because the diaphragm was overstressed, it was pulling ribs out of alignment, which was affecting my spine above the fusion site, which was . . . you get the idea.

I've got a long way to go yet, but I'm already seeing light at the end of the tunnel.  If the strained, overstressed muscles affected by my nerve damage can be relaxed, they'll stop pulling other muscles and skeletal components out of alignment, and I'll hopefully be able to break through the "plateau" I seem to have hit in strengthening my body, and move on to the next level.  This isn't reducing my nerve pain - in fact, it's greatly increasing it during treatment! - but it's helping me to understand just how various elements in my body interact (or fail to do so) under the impact of nerve pain.  I'll still have to rely on painkillers, but better posture, greater ease of movement, and a more smoothly functioning body should help me stay mobile and healthy for much longer than would otherwise have been the case.

If I hadn't embarked on this journey, I think I'd have been in a wheelchair before long, and perhaps bedbound a year or two after that . . . and it's very hard to come back once one accepts those restrictions.  I'd much rather live with greater pain, and push myself, and remain as healthy as possible.  I'd therefore like to encourage any of my readers who are also in constant pain, to consider pushing their limits as far as they're able to go.  It may be difficult physically, but it may also help you bear your burdens and regain some of your humanity.  IMHO, that's worth the cost.  I also think it's a heck of a lot healthier to do that than to simply increase one's medication level, and let the medical system consign you to early oblivion!  That's the easy way out, but you end up a physical and mental vegetable.  I can't - I won't - accept that.

This is also helping me to write more, and hopefully better as well.  I'm almost finished a military science fiction trilogy that I began on the spur of the moment last December, and I'm looking forward to bringing it out soon.  If my increased productivity continues, I'll be able to produce more work, and earn a better living for myself and Miss D. (who brings her own part as well, of course).  I hate the "soggy brain syndrome" that excessive pain produces in me.  If I can become healthier in body, then perhaps, in spite of the ongoing pain, I can have a healthier and more creative mind as well, as Juvenal put it.

Food for thought.  I hope it helps some of you who may suffer from similar issues.  In particular, if you're struggling with health issues that the medical profession doesn't seem able to solve, consider the Starting Strength program.  There are gyms offering training in many states, and online coaching is available if there's no gym in your area.  Miss D. and I can testify from our own experience that the program really is worth all the time, effort and money it will cost you.

Peter

One of the exercises I'm doing as part of strength training is the overhead press (sometimes called the "military press", or simply "the press").  Here's how it works.  (No, I'm not lifting nearly as much weight as shown in the video!  I'm just a beginner!)




I'm following that instruction, and doing the overhead press at least once weekly as part of my workout routine.  However, my spine is fused right at its base, where it joins the hips (the L5-S1 vertebrae, to be precise).  That means I can't do the "hip thrust" Mark Rippetoe mentions without that fused joint acting up.  Also, even if I leave out the hip thrust, my lower back protests vigorously as I add more weight to the barbell, feeling very unsteady and unstable and "wobbly".  I'm making good progress in other types of lift, but I just can't seem to get that part of my back to "go with the flow" of the overhead press.

That's where I'm turning to you, dear readers.  I know (from past comments and correspondence) that some of you have also had spinal fusions (sometimes multiple ones), and are also involved with weightlifting.  Can you offer any advice, from your experience, on how best to overcome this hurdle?  How can one strengthen the muscles around a fusion site like that, perhaps the most critical "hinge joint" in the body, so that one can make progress with the overhead press?  Ideas and suggestions are welcome.  I'll run them past my instructor, and we'll see what might be able to work for me.

In the interim, as soon as my new bench gets here, I'm going to concentrate on modified (and lighter weight) overhead presses at home, using dumbbells.  Here's how that works.  No, I don't look nearly as "buffed" as the man doing the demonstration!  Sorry about that . . .




That should provide enough support that my fused lower spine won't give me the same problems.  One can do the same exercise using an EZ curl bar (video at the link).  I have a curl bar, so I'll probably try to incorporate that in due course, too.  If I find everything goes well, I'll probably start doing seated overhead presses with heavier weights at the gym, too.

(I deliberately limit myself to lighter weights at home, because of the risk of injury if something goes wrong.  At the gym, I can have a "spotter" if I need one, and can work out inside a rack [the iron framework shown in the first video clip above], where I can position crossbars to catch a barbell if I fall, preventing it landing on me and injuring me.  I don't have any of those precautions at home.)

Thanks in advance for your input.

Peter

. . . is no longer the weights, bars and accessories that I bought (I wrote about them a few weeks ago).  It's now the bench I'll use to support several of my exercises at home.

As most of you know, I suffered a semi-crippling injury back in 2004, which (after two surgeries) left me with a fused spine and a damaged sciatic nerve on my left side.  I'm permanently partially disabled, and I'm in some degree of pain 24/7/365.  It's not fun, but I've learned to cope with most of it.  Unfortunately, my metabolism was damaged by a serious prescription drug interaction problem some years later, following a heart attack.  Putting all those things together, I was getting nowhere fast, and needed to find a way to restore as much of my health as possible.  After much investigation and research, Miss D. and I began strength training almost four months ago, and we're already seeing very beneficial results.  We expect to be doing it for years to come.

The idea of having a set of "consumer-grade" weights at home is to allow me to exercise more lightly on days when we don't go to the gym, and also to intersperse my sessions at the keyboard with physical activity.  I try to break every half-hour or so, to get up, stretch my legs, make a cup of tea or drink some water, and generally refresh myself before starting to write again.  With weights at home, during that time I can pick up my dumbbells, do a couple each of bicep curls, dumbbell shrugs, dumbbell squats and overhead presses, and then get on with my work.  If I repeat that every half-hour for five or six hours, that adds up to a respectable amount of work during the day.

That's all very well, but there are several useful dumbbell exercises (such as those illustrated here - there are many more) and EZ curl bar exercises (such as the lying triceps extension) that require the support of a training bench.  Furthermore, my balance isn't as good as it used to be, and it's made worse by the damaged sciatic nerve in my left leg, which can fold up under me without much warning at all.  To have that happen while lifting weights would be anything but good!  At the gym, I protect myself by lifting such weights inside the protection of a rack (similar to this one, for example).  It'll catch the barbell on crossbars if I slip and fall, preventing it from landing on me.  At home, I'm not working with such heavy weights, or with full-size barbells, so I don't need a rack:  but I need a bench strong enough to support my body in case of problems, and stable enough to let me exercise without worrying that it's about to collapse under me.

I bought a highly rated "consumer grade" weight bench, only to find out, very quickly, that it just wouldn't do.  This bench was nominally rated to take my weight plus the dumbbells I'd be lifting, but it creaked, groaned and rocked in a very unstable manner.  I felt anything but steady and safe on it.  I talked to the instructors at the gym, and asked their advice.  Unanimously, they told me that a good bench isn't just for exercise - it's a matter of safety, too.  Given my health issues, I needed to "bite the bullet" and spend money on a commercial-grade, heavy-duty bench.

I winced when I looked up prices online.  Most of the highly rated commercial-grade weight benches are in the mid-hundreds of dollars, with some approaching four figures.  I wanted one that could be used for both flat and incline exercises, and that was going to cost money, no matter what I got.  The one I've just ordered cost almost three times as much (including shipping - very expensive, because it weighs well over 120 pounds - and tax) as my entire weight and bar setup!  That's painful, but it's such a critical item of equipment for me that I didn't have much choice.  (I loved some of the reviews by others who'd bought it . . . "This bench is capable of surviving a nuclear blast or small children.")  I'll pay it off over a few months, with the help of readers who buy my books.  (Let's hear it for royalties!)

Here's what it looks like.




Having now worked out fairly intensively with both commercial-grade and consumer-grade benches, I can say with confidence that it's a worthwhile investment in your health and safety to get the best supporting gear you can.  One can buy cheap weight plates - they're just hunks of metal, after all - but the structures that support them - and you! - while you exercise with them, can hurt you very badly if they let you down.  I feel a lot happier knowing I've got a good bench coming.

Peter