PT

[Cunuckgaucho]

12 hours ago, Magwa said:

I will find some thing to that equates to the shape I am in now after all how hard is it to hold a fishing pole?

I guess it depends on what's on the other end of the fishing pole...

[Magwa]

12 hours ago, Cunuckgaucho said:

I guess it depends on what's on the other end of the fishing pole...

Well that is a good point....lol

[unforgiven]

Well I decided to do something different this year and joined a gym. I didn't realize my insurance would pop for it. It's been 8 visits about 2 hrs.. Using the machines makes it easier for a beginner to get started. 3 day's a week and I feel good. Shoulders, triceps being the weakest parts. Going to a Anytime Gym, should make that hill in the desert easier to climb 😀 

[blue109]

My job started offering a $1500 bonus to pass a PT test. I was going to totally ignore it, but I looked at the requirements and figured I could spend 30min doing the minimums for the cash. 1.5 mile run in 12:40 which wasn't terrible for my 45 year old ass without any training, but the 46 situps seriously almost killed me. I was hurt bad. Had to sit in the car for a bit before I could even drive lol. That was a little wake up call to get off the couch and get back in the game. 

[unforgiven]

8 visits and I can do 10 pull ups on pull up/ dip assisted machine. Tricep cable pull and shoulder press are kicking my ass. I'm putting in the work. 

[NightStalker]

I bought a profit elliptical last year and been using it off and on. I get going in a training routine then get sidetracked when something need attention etc, but trying to stay on a schedule. I need to lose 30 pounds at least. 

[unforgiven]

We have a Concept 2 rower, great aerobic workout. Looking to get stronger overall. This gym has all the latest toys and training should one want. 5' 11" #250 looking to get to #200. I'll also become 68 hopefully this year.🤔

An exercise is good.  

Edited January 31, 2023 by unforgiven

[Sisco]

Never thought this thread would last this long. We joined a golf course Gym down here, so I am once again starting the workout regimen after Covid fukked it up. My broken bone in my foot is going to slow things down for a while but I can still bench press, curl, triceps and lats. Along with some core work with the kettle weights. On my third trip tomorrow. 

[BrianK]

Well, age and medical conditions caught up to me. I never thought I'd get to be this old. I doubted I'd live to be 20 and back then I was superman. But I have, and this is now, it's real, and all of a sudden I have this old worn out body with heart disease and peripheral artery disease (drastic lack of circulation in the extremities).

My hunting and days of walking very far are behind me due to those medical conditions I briefly mentioned above. Before I started with therapy I couldn't walk very far at all w/o pain showing up not long into the walk. The alternative is having my femoral arteries sliced open, scraped out, then 2 months of bedrest. I would be able to get out of bed for no more than 15 minutes at a whack and only for taking a dump. But the therapy is working and I'm doing better to the point where I surprise myself at times with what I can do. Therapy doesn't have a rowing machine so I quit last week to take out a membership at Planet Fitness where I'll continue my therapy and use other cardiac machines to include a rowing machine. 

My last day of therapy at the hospital was Jan 31st and when I said goodbye to the nurse on duty to tell her my plans she suggested to me that I was moving into Phase 4 therapy from their Phase 3. 

Not only do I get the use of more exercise equipment but I can go as often as I want. Previously I was limited to 2x a week on the hospitals schedule. If weather dictated that it was closed on one of those 2 days, tough luck. Now I can work around the weather and still get in my therapy and exercise. 

Sure, I'm doing it for health but I also like to stay sharp for Steel Challenge and USPSA Action pistol, and they help me stay sharp for self and HD.

Shortly after therapy began I decided to lose weight. I did a bunch of research into heart disease, fats/carbs, and such and decided to put myself into ketosis. Some may not know what that is. It's a drastic reduction in carbs consumed and that forces the body to begin to burn fat. The liver turns fat that is either consumed or stored into ketone which the cells can burn. If you've been following along you caught the "consumed fat" part and may be thinking, "But he has heart disease!". Yup. The common knowledge about heart disease is probably wrong. Fat, good fat, does NOT cause heart disease, carbs do. At least that's what my research turned up and what I acted on. Going into ketosis  and flipping the bird to common knowledge was the hardest thing I ever did (Am I going to kill myself??). After all I'm betting my life. But my PCP Dr has told me that he agrees with what I'm doing. One positive spin off from radically restricting carb intake is... I was pre diabetic. Now I'm so not pre diabetic that my Dr has removed it from my medical record as a concern. 

I've lost 50# and and happy with my weight today. I could lose another 20# and still be happy, but those around me have told me that if I lose any more I'll look emaciated. Yet that would still be over my warrior weight 50+ years ago. 

For those inclined to choose keto... My GI (not the VA ) Dr told me that it's so difficult that she couldn't do it. I agree, when I first started into it it was very difficult. But now after having learned a great deal it's not terribly difficult to eat and stay in ketosis without a boring diet. But at first it was "What the hell can I eat!!???". I've been in ketosis for 3 1/2+ years and I still crave pasta, bread, pizza, fruit, pie, cake, yada, yada. Carbs are a difficult addiction to break. 

[BrianK]

I forgot! There's more.

Despite therapy and exercise I'm losing muscle mass. Another thing I've done is to sell many of my long long guns and buy bullpups and SBRs. Without the barrel mass wayyyy out there they handle so much better.

[unforgiven]

Congratulations brother the hardest part is getting started. Best wishes for continuing success 🍻🍻 I have 10 gym days done and I feel good. I challenge myself every visit. 

[unforgiven]

I joined Anytime Gym.

[unforgiven]

4th week 13 visits I likey, even assisted I can do 2sets of 10 for my feeble ass. New gym toy 

 

[BrianK]

👍 Good for you!

The feces has hit the fan with lots of stuff going on "at home" so I haven't gone as often as I like. But as soon as I get caught up (very soon, Monday hopefully) I'll not make up for it, but I'll go at least 2x a week. 

Last time I went I went I spent a bunch of time on the rowing machine after doing my rehab on the treadmill, and did something I haven't done in quite some time at Cardiac rehab at the hospital, I started to work up a sweat. Not doing anything outlandish for a workout just rowing at a decent pace (19spm) and resting for 1 1/2 minutes every 3. At cardiac they didn't like us to exercise too hard. 😆 I assume they didn't want to have to get out the paddles or worse yet, do the paperwork if we croaked. They just wanted us to exercise the heart muscle and no more.

But I went easy on the rowing expecting to be a hurtin' unit the next day, but nothing was sore. I'll work my way up slowly with both resistance and time monitoring my vitals as I go. Heck, I haven't rowed anything for over 1/2 a century and I was VERY surprised that I wasn't hurting. I also expected my calves that don't get normal blood flow to be hurting as I was rowing, but I guess it's slow enough so as not to be an issue. That's not the case with the treadmill and that's exactly why I do it. For me just going to the supermarket is also rehab for the calves. I walk at my military pace, it's just so hard to slow down, and when the calves start to hurt I stop and let the blood catch up. My point is that normal everyday movement is also rehab for me.

[unforgiven]

One foot in front of the other, I been out 6 my process has been 5 years and a bro a few years older than me and turned into a gym rat. Bro can bench press #250 he's #175. My challenges were on the job,now it's a personal challenge. Hardest part is getting started.🍻🍻 

[unforgiven]

And pushing that sled in the neutral position and run over my foot twice.

[Sisco]

Wednesday the boot comes off, and my hope is to add some more cardio and lower body work to what I am doing now.

[BrianK]

How'd it go Sisco?

Still going slow here but doing more each time. Now I rest for 2 every 5 minutes, and I row for 10 minutes. I'm liking the rowing machine and working all of my body. At the hospital all of the exercises worked either the legs or arms and that's it. Still working on the walking; 1.8mph @ 15% grade. It's slow going to get the circulation rerouted but I know how far I've come so I continue. It took me over 3 years to get to where I am so it's not an overnight sort of thing.

Went to the gym 2x this week and maybe again tomorrow weather permitting. 

[Sisco]

2 hours ago, BrianK said:

How'd it go Sisco?

Still going slow here but doing more each time. Now I rest for 2 every 5 minutes, and I row for 10 minutes. I'm liking the rowing machine and working all of my body. At the hospital all of the exercises worked either the legs or arms and that's it. Still working on the walking; 1.8mph @ 15% grade. It's slow going to get the circulation rerouted but I know how far I've come so I continue. It took me over 3 years to get to where I am so it's not an overnight sort of thing.

Went to the gym 2x this week and maybe again tomorrow weather permitting. 

Boot came off last week. A couple of days before that my left ankle and left big toe and my right ankle started hurting. So when I saw the doc I asked him to look at it. He did and asked me one question: “Are you on hydrochlorothiazide?” I told him yes I was. Turns out he suspects it triggered an attack of gout. Fortunately he prescribed some stuff that got it under control in two days. So now I am hitting the gym, but I need to step up how regular I hit it and start working the legs now that they are recovering. I have been working raking sea weed off the condo beach every day, which actually is a pretty strenuous workout with how much water and wet sand it contains. Now that I have a function next November as a goal to get in shape for, I need to get serious.

[unforgiven]

4 hours ago, BrianK said:

How'd it go Sisco?

Still going slow here but doing more each time. Now I rest for 2 every 5 minutes, and I row for 10 minutes. I'm liking the rowing machine and working all of my body. At the hospital all of the exercises worked either the legs or arms and that's it. Still working on the walking; 1.8mph @ 15% grade. It's slow going to get the circulation rerouted but I know how far I've come so I continue. It took me over 3 years to get to where I am so it's not an overnight sort of thing.

Went to the gym 2x this week and maybe again tomorrow weather permitting. 

Hardest part of rowing is getting the form correct 

Took me awhile to get it right 

[BrianK]

I have no doubt that you'll get squared away. 

FWIW, I absolutely HATE raking. Yes, it's lots of labor. Every year we have a leaf drop, same as you do in Wisconsin. I let the mower handle any "raking". I maneuver the discharge to blow it into my forest.

Edit: Yes, that looks like my stroke unforgiven. I rowed a great deal as a child and brushed up on it 2 weeks ago to make sure I was doing it correctly today, 50 years later. My biggest problem is throttling back my mind. I want to speed up too much and that's not what it's about. So I keep track of the spm and keep it between 16-18. Nice and leisurely but effective. I never started to sweat in cardiac rehab, but I do a little when rowing. I'll get better.

Edited February 22, 2023 by BrianK

[BrianK]

Ha, 50 years later! Don't I wish! 

[unforgiven]

Glad both of you are getting well 🍻🍻

[BrianK]

Thanks.

The biggest difference between rowing when I was a child and now is the moving seat as found in racing hulls. As a child it was just a rowboat and the seat was stationary. Now I can add leg muscles to the stroke. Thanks for the thought to help me get it right. 

This is not a complaint, I like having no one competing for time on the rowing machines, but I wonder why more folks don't use them? "My" gym has 6 of them and I've only ever seen one other person using one. Again, not a complaint, just curious. 

The other part of my rehab is the treadmill that is Rxed for me (1.8mph @ 15% grade at this time) and there are times when I wonder if I can find one to use and they must have at least 20+. They're very popular when right outside is a place where the scenery sorta changes. After I max out my Rxed treadmill rehab I plan to walk out there when it's not hot or icy cause the real world is more difficult than the treadmill for some reason I can't fathom. Maybe the moving belt vs non moving pavement? IDK

[98Z5V]

8 hours ago, Sisco said:

Now that I have a function next November as a goal to get in shape for, I need to get serious.

Don't blow yourself out, brother - most of what we do is static, right from camp, no crazy shiit involved at all.  We've made quite the range, right from camp, that does pretty much everything.  There are movement drills incorporated into some of it, but that's not the bulk of the activities.

Don't sweat being Hulk-ish, in order to come out and have a damn great time. 

If we run High-Angle...   THAT is a fucking HIKE.  UPHILL. The climb up there straight sucks - but the downhill, and coming back down sucks worse.  I'd rather climb something than come down something. 

That's entirely optional, and doesn't need to be done.  All the information will be presented, easy to understand, and hands-on helps it sink into your brain - but it's not necessary to climb that bigass rock and do it.  You'll still gain the understanding and function behind the class on it, and be able to apply it later.