***Members' Interview with Jedi***

This week member Jedi is happy to answer your questions.  Jedi has been a member for a few years and has a great, long running journal which you can read here The Return of the Jedi

The usual things apply: please use this topic to ask him any questions about  lifestyle, training, diet and progress, or anything else. 
Please, nothing too personal or invasive. Please bear with him and give him time to reply. 

Jedi, thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview. A few questions from me to start with:

1) Can you give us a brief rundown of how you got into working out and how long you've been training?

2) What is your current occupation?
 
3) How long ago were you diagnosed as having coeliac syndrome and what impact has this had on your training?

4) Besides training and finding funny pictures to post up, what other hobbies do you have?

 
Thanks!!

do you get any funny looks when searching for pics to put in peoples journals?!

Hmmm, interesting interview this will be. Choice of user good this is.

How much do you hate the character JarJar Binks?

If you could go back and redo the training you have done to date what would you do differently?

How come you look so much bigger than your weight suggests?? 

You train at Loughborough Lesuire center, which I know is crap....when are you going to move to a man's gym?

Is you birthday May 4th?

(May the forth be with you!)

Mods - please ban the author of post #6.

That was shocking!

1) Can you give us a brief rundown of how you got into working out and how long you've been training?
I'd guess it probably started with my athletics errr a long time ago.
Although I was a sprinter, I was very slightly built and any resistance training was always geared toward increasing power to weight ratio rather than bulking. My idols at the time were Pietro Mennea and Calvin Smith who were both very much of the 'floating' type of sprinter although to good effect; Mennea had run a 19.72 200m and Smith a 9.98 100m. I was convinced this was the way to go.
Then BANG!!!!! Ben Johnson in Seoul happened
I think this planted the seed that gaining some mass might be a good idea. I was still only really tinkering with weights as a means to an end in various other sports I've dabbled in though. About 4 or 5 years ago I was getting a bit bored with my swimming and on a bit of a whim joined a hardcore type gym in Loughborough. I've had a couple of false starts in that time through illness but at the minute have managed to put about two and a half years solid work in.

2) What is your current occupation?
I am currently what might be described as 'a failing enterprise'
I am an artist ...at time of massive recession and cuts in corporate spending.
I am clinging on by my fingernails at the minute but it isn't looking as good as it was 18months ago.

3) How long ago were you diagnosed as having coeliac syndrome and what impact has this had on your training?
I was diagnosed about June last year after having a bout of dermatitis herpetiformis on my elbows and feet. This tied together a couple of rough years of failing health. I still haven't had the anti-body test on the grounds that it is not 100% reliable but will mean I have to do 6-8 weeks back on gluten and this is just not something I'm prepared to do now that I am feeling a bit better.
The impact on the training has been mixed. From a dietary point of view, going gluten free certainly makes it easier to get lean but maybe not so easy to bulk. The likelihood is that I may have been suffering coeliac symtpoms for as much as ten years and this means there have been some complications. Firstly is a lactose intolerance which meant I'd more or less ruled out using a whey protein having had some terrible reactions to one or two products. However I've now found that using lacto-reduced skimmed milk and MP impact whey I'm getting along okay. There are other complications though in that my damaged gut is also inefficient, so it is sometimes hard to guage what kind of uptake I get in a nutritional sense from any input. The gut damage has also lead to some auto-immune and neuropathic problems which I believe are caused by proteins passing into the bloodstream undigested.
It can be a pain at times (literally and metaphorically)
...but it could be worse.

4) Besides training and finding funny pictures to post up, what other hobbies do you have?
Not sure I have a massive amount of time left for hobbies
...unless you count confounding the female populace
verb: to confound
some of those are particularly apt

Incredible Bulk

do you get any funny looks when searching for pics to put in peoples journals?!

Not since I've been using the Spock-o-ScopeTM the ultimate in surfing discretion

...he is actually Googling "Uhura +naked -Kirk" and she has literally NO idea.

How much do you hate the character JarJar Binks?
Well, even before we get into the ruining of a great movie franchise, I've still not forgiven him for that flukey freekick over Seaman's head at the World Cup.

"Who-sa? Me-sah?"
Yes you, you flukey cnut.
In answer to your original question I don't hate Jar-Jar nearly as much as I hate George Lucas
...not nearly as much.

If you could go back and redo the training you have done to date what would you do differently?
That's a good question.
First thing that springs to mind is that I would've started training calves properly with as much attention and time as any other bodypart. Secondly it would have been much better to have started squatting/deadlifting properly sooner too.

You have an impressive physique.

What would your ideal physique be? You could post up a pic if you want! How close do you think you are to it?

RACK

How come you look so much bigger than your weight suggests?? 

Maybe down to the coeliac causing some lighter than air gases?


Plus you have to factor in the enormous invisible carpets I carry 24/7.

jedi


3) How long ago were you diagnosed as having coeliac syndrome and what impact has this had on your training?
I was diagnosed about June last year after having a bout of dermatitis herpetiformis on my elbows and feet. This tied together a couple of rough years of failing health. I still haven't had the anti-body test on the grounds that it is not 100% reliable but will mean I have to do 6-8 weeks back on gluten and this is just not something I'm prepared to do now that I am feeling a bit better.
The impact on the training has been mixed. From a dietary point of view, going gluten free certainly makes it easier to get lean but maybe not so easy to bulk. The likelihood is that I may have been suffering coeliac symtpoms for as much as ten years and this means there have been some complications. Firstly is a lactose intolerance which meant I'd more or less ruled out using a whey protein having had some terrible reactions to one or two products. However I've now found that using lacto-reduced skimmed milk and MP impact whey I'm getting along okay. There are other complications though in that my damaged gut is also inefficient, so it is sometimes hard to guage what kind of uptake I get in a nutritional sense from any input. The gut damage has also lead to some auto-immune and neuropathic problems which I believe are caused by proteins passing into the bloodstream undigested.
It can be a pain at times (literally and metaphorically)
...but it could be worse.

I didn't realise that you had coeliac disease.  There's a few who post here who do.  It seems to be both more prevalent as a disease and more diagnosed.

The anti-gliadin antibody test is not relaiable at all.  But the rectal biopsy is.  Have you had this?

When you are completely asymptomatic from the gluten enteropathy, you may find that you can tolerate small amounts of lactose again.  If you exlcude gluten in its entirity after a few months, you should have full recovery.  Of all the GI diseases, this one is 100% treatable in 99% cases.

Interesting that you were first diagnosed through dermititis herpetiformis - that is far less common.  At least with these two conditions you can be 100% sure of your diagnosis, so you're right there's no need for the antibody test.

AWG

You train at Loughborough Lesuire center, which I know is crap....when are you going to move to a man's gym?

Not sure why everyone is so down on the Leisure Centre?
I'm squatting, benching, deadlifting more whilst training here than I have anywhere else.
Admittedly, the dumbbell selection is a bit sub-optimal
...not least because they are generally strewn across the floor in mis-matched pairs

Struggling to think of anything I'm really missing out on and I certainly prefer the errr scenery.

James


Is you birthday May 4th?

(May the forth be with you!)

What are your short and long term goals for BB-ing? Have you an ideal weight/condition in mind?

Are you ever going to compete in a PL comp?

CitizenKane


You have an impressive physique.

What would your ideal physique be? You could post up a pic if you want! How close do you think you are to it?

Cheers mate I keep plugging away but I'm nothing special.

As for the ideal physique. I like the Ivan Stoitsov sort of look;

but that is unrealistic without chemical supplementation.
I'm coming round to the idea that I would like a bash at powerlifting either late this year as a guest or a bit more seriously early next year. I'd think I would be most suited to the 82.5kg class which means I could probably gain a few more pounds yet as I am currently 12-7 but with a couple of pounds of fat I could stand to lose. If I was 12-9 but leaner than I am now I think it might look fairly decent.

Possibly this kind of ballpark?

I'm not convinced I can get that ripped though as I find it fairly easy to maintain at say 12% BF or a tad lower but very, very difficult to get below that without feeling ill due to the digestive issues above probably.

How do you feel about Sith Lords?

James

The anti-gliadin antibody test is not relaiable at all.  But the rectal biopsy is.  Have you had this?

What? No? What?
Ouch.
No, I've not had that and unless aliens with advanced sedation techniques and tractor beams and a mother ship and an irresistible female form operating some kind of honey trap type situation arises, I think it fairly safe to assume I wont be.
Seriously though, I hadn't heard of that, the only biopsy that was mentioned was going to be entering from the other end in the form of an endoscope. Having had a couple of those already I can't say the prospect is any more appealing than the aliens and their an@l probe

James

When you are completely asymptomatic from the gluten enteropathy, you may find that you can tolerate small amounts of lactose again.  If you exlcude gluten in its entirity after a few months, you should have full recovery.  Of all the GI diseases, this one is 100% treatable in 99% cases.

I do feel generally better but not quite as good as I'd hoped I would be by this stage (8 months gluten free). Strangely I can already tolerate some dairy produce but am still getting problems with lots of the other issues such as the herpetiformis threatening to flare up and neuropathies and immune problems. Have been advised patience is the key and it's a consequence of going untreated for so long. Apparently, it could be up to two years really and even then some of the neuropathic damage might be for keeps.
Bit of a b@llache (sometimes literally) but, again, it could be worse, as you say there are other GI problems which could be a lot worse.
Your Crohns for instance.

No.13

Are you ever going to compete in a PL comp?

Never say never and all that.
It seems a bit more complicated than I'd assumed though to be honest.
There's about nineteen federations running equipped and un-equipped, it can all seem a bit baffling for someone expecting to turn up with a pair of white 'plimmys' wrapped in a towel, like
Alf Tupper

Plus I can't deadlift.

I think I do secretly want to stand up there in a lycra singlet though.
Not lift anything just stand there in my lycra singlet.