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Seeing strength and muscle improvements

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Posted 11/28/2020 7:53 AM (GMT -5)
My progress has been standing still for a long time, and I mostly just train short and easy sessions at home. But I have been going a bit more to the outdoor gym lately and recently set a new personal best with holding the human flag for 3-4 sec. Also seeing some improvements in the mirror. After a very rough last two months, it's so nice to see some progress.

Today I realized that I can use the armrest on the couch as a bench so that I can do more exercises with my dumbells and Im going to test tucked front lever pull-ups on rings next outdoor gym training session. And I'm going to start using a massage gun next week, that hopefully will help with recovery 😊 I think MCAS treatment will help also.
Posted 11/28/2020 9:15 AM (GMT -5)
I've been gradually getting back into strength training myself.. seems like I can avoid prolonged PEM if I avoid back to back days. Recovering from the muscle soreness still takes about 4 days though, and whole body achiness is pretty much constant.

I do yoga sometimes too but I need to be extra careful with it.. seems to bring on the PEM more than weights do. I guess it has to do with blood/lymph circulation..

Incorporating short runs a couple times a week.. avoiding heavy cardio for now.

Nice to hear you've been able to make gains! Is recovering getting any easier? I'm sure the massage gun will be nice...

Are you still doing the cold showers?
Posted 11/28/2020 9:48 AM (GMT -5)
I recover pretty well and always fininsh my showers on the coldest. 20-80 sec per shower. My biggest problem is that I often feel bad after a harder workout. But as I think its a MCAS trigger I hope that it goes down from quercetin. I have noticed that I have been feeling a lot better after drinking alcohol also, so I think its connected.

Post Edited (Deep_sleep) : 11/28/2020 7:51:07 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 11/28/2020 10:44 AM (GMT -5)
good to hear of both of you making progress.

i am also - started more religiously doing strength exercises every 3rd day at the moment and am starting to see increases in how many press-ups and squats i can do.
my walking times are getting faster for my usual 3-4mile walk also.

so overall my achiness and odd pains are a bit worse - but my strength and stamina are definitely improving.

I am determined to keep going and move to strength exercises every other day when i feel able - as I am convinced the muscles are an immunoregulatory organ and in any case, i have to invest time and effort into stopping the physical slide that will inevitably occur if i do not exercise.

more power to you! ( quite literally! lol)
Posted 11/29/2020 11:01 AM (GMT -5)
Nice Garzie. Work on recovery and dont push too hard.

For recovery I use our ir-sauna, end showers on the coldest, yoga, low level laser therapy, nail mat, foam rollers and different preassure balls.
It will be interesting to see if Im able to train more and harder 2 months from now with mcas treatment and the massage gun.
Sleep and diet is also very important.

I rather take improvments for my brain then this, but I hope that comes soon.

Post Edited (Deep_sleep) : 11/29/2020 9:06:14 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 11/29/2020 11:57 AM (GMT -5)
Talk about impressive results wow.

Deep; were you a gymnast at one time?

There’s a guy at my gym that obviously was or still is a gymnast the stuff he can do on a straight horizontal bar is amazing and he doesn’t even look strong.

Garzi: That’s a lot of running it’s absolutely incredible you can do that while you still have lyme. Do you still have some lyme symptoms?

The vast majority of the non lyme public cannot do what you guys are doing now!

I certainly can’t do that stuff, I don’t try either but I also don’t hit my head with a hammer ha ha

Still grateful that I can now do casual outdoor trail and water stuff , If I couldn’t do that I would go insane I was not born to sit on the couch and watch TV.

I also had a lot of soft tissue injuries which will haunt me for the rest of my life I guess. I just hope that real arthritis does not settle into my injured areas, Since I’ve had auto immune More in the past that now, that is also why I eat my lab food tested diet.

Keep on posting your approval it’s lotta other people here I need to see the stuff.
Posted 11/29/2020 1:09 PM (GMT -5)
Thanks. No gymnast, but I did train a lot with personal trainers before I got sick, and was in my peak shape back when I got sick. I'm going to test using a more planned schedule instead of just training when its fits in my normal schedule.
4 days a week. 1-2 of those at the outdoor gym.
Posted 11/30/2020 5:47 AM (GMT -5)
@ astroman - sadly - my running at the moment is limited to about 110yards about once per week - more than this and I can feel it knocks me back for a day or so.

i can walk further and faster than at any time since getting this illness - and those gains are continuing to come - so working on that and the press-ups, squats etc for now - ts v slow but steady progress
Posted 12/5/2020 4:08 AM (GMT -5)
I have been watching a new guy on youtube lately, and it's interesting how much I can improve a lot of the exercises with dumbbells by focusing more on technique and mind-muscle connection so that they become harder. That’s great when I have so light dumbells. I have changed how I do dumbbell side Lateral Raise, chest dumbbell presses and dumbbell rows and they feel a lot better.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/uc68tlk0maezuyhx5x5k-s1q

The tucked front lever pull-ups works very well also, and are very hard, so it's nice to have some exercises where I can't do that many reps.
The massage gun feels great also, going to use it for the 4th day in a row today, after today's exercise.

I believe that having a hobby is very important for your health, and it feels great that training is more fun again 😊

Post Edited (Deep_sleep) : 12/5/2020 2:16:22 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/5/2020 4:58 AM (GMT -5)
Hi @Deep_sleep: do you tolerate an ir-sauna at ease? How looks your session? Minutes? Temperature?
Im trying to do ir-sauna for detox (Im on DSF for 3 months now), but it triggers me PEM and little bit exhaustion for next day. Nothing crazy, but I can't handle it as expected.
Posted 12/5/2020 5:05 AM (GMT -5)
I do 25 min per session. My girfriend uses it for 1 hour sometimes, but I couldnt use it for that long. She started with 5 min and low temp, and waited a few days between sessions. Are you using binders after the sauna? Electrolytes? Start slow if you are reacting to it.

I would do more if I had more time. Recently looked at recorded lessons at school in the sauna to get in some more time for it.

Post Edited (Deep_sleep) : 12/5/2020 3:16:40 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/11/2020 1:27 PM (GMT -5)
I love how using the couch as a bench has improved my home training + the help I got from the youtube guy I linked. I think 2021 is the year I get in a new peak shape. I can't compare the weights I lift as I don’t have a gym, but I think I will look better then I did 7 years ago 😊
The massage gun is amazing post-training to get my body to feel better.

I'm going to buy 4 x 5 kg weights for my dumbells in the spring when I'm able to air them out better. I got a pull up station about 2 years ago, but I had to remove it as it smelled so much chemicals from the paint, so I got headaches.
Posted 12/11/2020 3:23 PM (GMT -5)
I've been seeing huge improvements since starting keto. Although this before and after isnt strictly due to keto, since I had lost a lot of weight BEFORE starting keto, I had lost it in a bad way. Was losing muscle and getting frail and sickly looking. Since going keto my weight has stabilized and I've started to gain muscle, especially in my core, in addition to suddenly looking healthy, "glowing" my gf says. I've also been doing body weight and core exercises, my posture is improving finally. That anterior pelvic tilt has improved. So has my acne and sleep.

2019 vs today:

https://ibb.co/wy9vyv1

Also, happy 1000th post to me smile

Post Edited (dcd2103) : 12/11/2020 1:26:53 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/11/2020 3:58 PM (GMT -5)
Nice, you have a very low bodyfat %. I eat to much junk to get that low. Better sleep should help you to pack on more muscles.

Are you doing anything on bars or rings?

My favorite bodyweight exercises at home are dips with a weight belt on 2 chairs, pushups on 3 chairs with a weight belt (I do these on our balcony), pistol squats holding the door frame and archer push-ups. I get a headache from doing handstand pushups, If I haven't it would be another great exercise.

What do you do for core? I mostly do toes to bar, windshield vipers and human flag at the outdoor gym, but I recently tried knee raises on the chairs at home, as it starting to get a bit cold for the outdoor gym.

Post Edited (Deep_sleep) : 12/11/2020 2:15:44 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/11/2020 4:20 PM (GMT -5)
I've been targeting my back, glutes and core. I feel like the arms fall in line once the core and posture is fixed.

Been doing a lot of back exercises, supermans and Is, T's and Ys, and resistance band reverse flies. Some diamond pushups and spiderman push-ups.

But the exercises that helped me the most are aimed at my glutes. My glutes have never worked. I go to do a squat or a kettle bell swing and my lower back hurts and my quads burn, because my glutes do NOTHING. I literally dont know how to engage them.

Went to a great massage therapiest who showed me two moves how to engage them, now they're finally startin to fire which is helping to fix my back and posture, and everything else falls in line with that.

Episode 8 and 10 (dont click on #8 and 10, they're off by 1. go to episode 8 and episode 10):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=ply0k4qdwexmrlc3xi5j7xeu77fvpsyhzh

I think diet is like 80% of it. Believe it or not, in the pic on the left, I was training w/ an ex pro boxing coach 2x/week who would kill me for an hour. Hardest workouts ive ever done. Didnt do that much to improve me physically cuz i was still eating like cr@p
Posted 12/11/2020 4:35 PM (GMT -5)
Good for you that your body works better. I agree that diet is important, but I struggle a lot with that. White chocolate, potato chips, beer and wine today…. I'm mostly working on increasing training, massage and and sleep for the moment.
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