The Return of the jedi-This is not Sparta. This. Is. Madness.(now incl. Race to 100kg OHP)

Tuesday saw me in the gym for the first time since January.

For those that remember from my previous journal I was having some mysterious health problems which were affecting my training and then curtailed it altogether. I wasn't receiving much help from the Doctor other than advice to basically cross my fingers and hope to get better. Which, needless to say did not work too well. Whether as a cause of the underlying problem, or an unfortunate side-effect of it, I developed appendicitis. My Doctor's advice this time was to "Wait and see if it gets any worse". It is lucky for me that my upper lip only remained stiff enough to shrug off the pain for another day before I finally gave in and sought some emergency help, otherwise I probably wouldn't be sitting here typing this. However, the extra inflammation made the operation a bit tricky and meant my incision looks as though they had to go in up to the elbows. Recovery has been harder than I expected and I am still a long way from 100%. I have an appointment to see a specialist in mid May and am hoping this will either identify any underlying condition or confirm the appendix as the root cause. Meantime I am sick and tired of sitting on my (skinny) backside so am attempting some work in the gym.

I thought it might be interesting to write the journal as an example of what to expect in terms of recovery from a long lay off. I am starting back at a skeletal 12stone as compared to 14'2lb at my heaviest and about 13'7lb at about 12%BF.
I am confident that my changed diet will mean my BF should stay between a range of 10-12% as opposed to 12-15% previously and I am aiming at a lean 13stone.

Previously I was often advising people to ignore their inhibitions and post up pics to gauge their progress and I was certainly never shy about it ...until now. It is not just the loss of size but the fact that (to my eyes) the scar is pretty disfiguring that makes me a bit reticent this time so you might have to do without pix unless I change my mind.

I am going to do a few full body workouts on light weights until the start of next month just to ease myself back.

TUESDAY
Sit-ups:
Incline x 40

Lat Pulldowns:
70 x 10 (3)

Leg press:
150kg x 10 (3)

Bench Press:
40kg x 10
50kg x 10
60kg x 10
50kg x 10

Triceps (Rope pulldowns):
pin5 x 10 (3)

Biceps (Cable curls):
pin5 x 10 (3)



I probably overdid it a tad on the bench and the legs as I have tightened up a bit. It was quite difficult psychologically to face pressing the bar with less than 20kg each side which is a bit daft I know. As for the leg press it always seems to get left with 3 x 25kg plates each side and i couldn't resist. Was planning to do something similar tonight but will probably wait until tomorrow. Best thing was I quite enjoyed it and it was nice to feel like I was on the way back.
On the plus side, at least I don't have to do much to feel like I had a workout

Its no fun coming back after surgery etc - good luck!

ORIGINAL: skinny_al

Its no fun coming back after surgery etc - good luck!

Thanks mate.
It's just a relief to even be at the stage of going to the gym again as there were times when it all just seemed an impossibly large step forward.




jedi

good to see your back

ORIGINAL: d@n

good to see your back

Thanx mate
...but surely that's your back you can see




jedi

I didn't feel quite so tight by the late evening so thought I'd risk another session and then have 4 full days to recover before the next.

Today's workout:

Sit-ups:
Incline(on blocks so steeper) x 40

Close Grip Lat Pulldowns:
70 x 10 (3)

Leg press:
150kg x 10 (3)

Incline Bench Press:
50kg x 10 (3)


Triceps (Cabble pressdowns):
pin8 x 10 (3)

Biceps (Cable curls):
pin7 x 10 (3)


Although very similar to Tuesday I was trying to boost things along a tiny bit on the smaller muscles and they felt good, triceps in particular felt strong and I reckon I could have pressed the stack
....and I can continue to think that thanks to the fact that I didn't try.
All in all not a bad workout and can feel a bit of co-ordination and strength returning.

Weigh in this morning:


12'2lb
12.8%BF



No wonder my troozers keep fallin down
Have to watch the bodyfat as don't want it creeping any higher than that.
The only thing I can think of as the culprit is yoghurt overdose.




jedi

good luck on the road to recovery, at least you wont have to cut for a while!

ORIGINAL: kendod666

good luck on the road to recovery, at least you wont have to cut for a while!

No.
I have enough cuts to be going on with thanks.
Good to see your star is still in the ascendant.




jedi

Managed a couple of short bike rides over the weekend which weren't too bad but felt as weak as a kitten whenever hills were encountered.

Crappy day today.
Felt extremely tired but combined with a desire to eat the world.
My plan to start doing some jogging went out of the window and instead found myself eating chocolate.
Have to stress I do not even like chocolate.
Very strange ...file it away in the dark place and pretend it never happened.




jedi

Good to see you back mate...

Good luck BTW

appendix, surgery, pain?
my ar$e!
you just disappeared for a few months so you could give your journal that name.

ORIGINAL: daKensta

appendix, surgery, pain?
my ar$e!
you just disappeared for a few months so you could give your journal that name.

You can imagine how hard it was to come up with the title


Am now thinking I really ought to take some 'before' pics even if I don't post them. I seem to remember claiming in the old journal that it took me just two months after last year's lay off to get back into decent shape. I can't see that happenin this time but suppose it would be worthwhile making a comparison over that timeframe.

BF is back to 12% so minor panic is over.
Set myself the target of jogging 1mile at some point this week.
There said it to the world, so have to do it now.



jedi

The chocolate incident made em chuckle... I wish I could 'find' myself eating chocolate lol!

Glad you're back on it, and with a BF of 12%, you must be looking pretty good as it is... Well done!

Very nice to see you back training mate, and of course hope it all starts to fall back into place for you.

Do take those photo's even if you don't post them. Forget about scars etc (they add character in my opinion anyhow) and look towards your physique and the progress/changes you wish to make.

ORIGINAL: flick161

The chocolate incident made em chuckle... I wish I could 'find' myself eating chocolate lol!

Glad you're back on it, and with a BF of 12%, you must be looking pretty good as it is... Well done!

Be careful what you wish for.
It only takes some foolish person with no license for handling toxic materials to leave a bar of Galaxy lying within easy reach of your TV seat and then the stage is set for a disaster. Without adequate ventilation the noxious fumes, sometimes called 'the aroma', will build up to dangerous levels creating a confused mental state. The hand can then start to operate independenly of conscious thought and toxic material may be transferred toward the oral cavity. There is now a danger that some of the substance will become ingested.
This is not good.
The symptoms will now tend to multiply almost beyond control and the victim can become locked into a cycle of ingestion which is usually only ended when a second party turns up shouting something along the lines of.
"Oi that was my f*ckin birthday present."
In which case the cycle may be broken.

Be careful out there people there is NO need for accidents like this to happen.




jedi

ORIGINAL: lradford

Very nice to see you back training mate, and of course hope it all starts to fall back into place for you.

Do take those photo's even if you don't post them. Forget about scars etc (they add character in my opinion anyhow) and look towards your physique and the progress/changes you wish to make.

Thanx for that Ms Radford.

I have decided I will take some pix this weekend and may post them in contrast to the shape I finished at to see what damage has been done or hang onto them for later. Trust me, I am not usually shy about scars and injuries as I have plenty of both but this one is the result of a particularly exuberant flourish of the surgeon's scalpel.
It was probably some old duffer getting carried away to a bit of Wagner on his iPod.

I will be absolutely astounded if I can get into any sort of decent shape by the end of June but you never know.




jedi

Was very tempted to start the new month by going back on a split routine but I think sanity prevailed and I am sticking with the full body workout for at least a few more sessions.

Tuesday

Steep Incline sit-ups
40

Bench Press:
60kg x 10
60kg x 10
60kg x 10 (had to work a bit harder than I'd like on the last set but showing promise)

Lat Pulldowns: (because I chickened out of giving chins a go)
80 x 10
80 x 10
80 x 10

Leg extensions:
pin4 x 10
pin4 x 10
pin4 x 10

Shoulders:
8kg x 10 Lateral raises
8kg x 10 Front raises
20kg x 10 Rear raises

Dips: (so brave!)
BW x 8

Tricep Pulldowns supersetted with Pushdowns:
pin8 x 7 each
pin8 x 8 each
pin8 x 8 each

Dumbbell Curls:
10kg x 10
10kg x 10
10kg x 16 (tryin for 20)

Deadlifts: (I have no idea why)
60kg x 14 (was trying for 20 and they were light enough but started to feel a bit odd so stopped)

Really enjoyed it and think I'll do the deads every workout until I can get 20 just for a bit of muscular endurance.
Schadenfreude moment was spotting some guys on 100kg bench and they were struggling to get 4reps ...exactly as they were before I had to stop training. Hope people understand why that cheered me up a bit without sounding like a n*b.



jedi

Some stats:


Chest: 42"
Waist: 32"
Bicep: 15.5"
Thigh: 24"
Calf: 15"

I dunno what I was expecting but it still hurts a bit to see it written down.
At least the waist is good, I'd like to keep it at that. Will be interesting to see if everything goes up in proportion or some parts move quicker than others. Two month goals are.

Chest: 44"
Waist: 32"
Bicep: 16.5"
Thigh: 25"
Calf: 16"

Some of those might be a bit ambitious but aim high etc.
I would be most confident of making the chest measurement least confident about the bicep.





jedi

lol at you bottling the chins!

I do like the full body workouts and think it's a great plan to get back into it. I can see the temptation to go with a split as I went back to that recently for a few weeks and really enjoyed it. But I think your current plans are a great idea for now.