HOLY BALLS! Pharmacy calls me up today…“Yeah, we’ve got a bunch of meds that have been sitting here for you for awhile now.” Uhhh ok? who sent them and what for? “Uhhh Dr. Blank and your Testosterone is apparently really low” (insert screeching of car tires from slamming on brakes and a kid grasping his chest like he just had a heart attack)
Test = 267 and 3.4…
Hope that pharmacy deal gets sorted out dude. I like that your log is not just training, but more insight into everything else as well. It’s a good read, and I’m definitely subscribing to this one.
Good luck on your journey, dude.
[quote]wiggles wrote:
Hope that pharmacy deal gets sorted out dude. I like that your log is not just training, but more insight into everything else as well. It’s a good read, and I’m definitely subscribing to this one.
Good luck on your journey, dude.[/quote]
Thanks Wiggs and hopefully I’ll be able to find time to contribute to yours as well. When someone subscribes to mine, I feel a mutual exchange of support and following between me and them is only fair. Hope to see you around.
As some of you may have read I received a call with low test counts yesterday. This means seeing me in a stained T-Shirt, with absurd amounts of dirty/prickly facial hair with a “I just got cock blocked” look of depression on my face. They’ve prescribed me some “Androderm” to start. These are patches that stick like crap and you apply them every 24 hours at 10:00 p.m, in my case 9:00 p.m ish and they’re supposed to supply 25mg of testosterone. Your testes only produce about 50-75mg of test a week naturally, so this is a fair amount in my opinion. This may be laughable to most, but most assholes have optimum test levels and still shoot 1+ G’S! a week, some 4-5 G’S! not mg’s! With my test counts so low, this may make a considerable difference. It’s like taking vitamins and minerals without a deficiency, it’s probably going to be fairly useless to say the least, but with a deficiency it can really turn stuff around. Low test counts are normal post transplant, especially in the situation of a myeloablative transplant. Hers’s the thing. The pharmacy calls “Yeah, we have meds that have been waiting here for you.” Ok? from who, for what and how long? “Uhhh from Dr.Dick, low test and about a month.” Ok, great? so uhh basically things could be even worse if not out of control by now? “Yeahhhh, I don’t know. I’d probably call your doctor.” I have doctors at home and doctors in Washington. My doctors in Washington prescribed this to me and my doctors at home put in the orders. I call my doctors from Washington and they say they told my doctor to call me, tell me what was going on and have me start the Androderm. Well that ship had fucking sailed. So I’m just starting the patches now and I don’t have a problem with it, it’s just hormonal changes take time, so I might not see the effects for awhile and meanwhile I probably could have gave this a judgement by now if I had started this when it was ordered and prescribed. I mean, people need to know about this shit. Was anyone ever going to say anything? Yeah, we’re all busy, but for fuck sakes you have to do your god damn job. For anyone who’s lazy and does not want to do your job to your fullest ability or in this case the bare minimum. I will find you and if I do not kill you, I will rat you out to someone above you and fuck you over. Either quit or do what you’re supposed to. I’ve seen people so frustrated by health care that they’d rather not show up for treatment, go home, wait themselves out and die. That’s pretty fucked up to me. Everywhere I go service is at an all time low. Have you turned on the TV, looked around, read the paper. People are STARVING for jobs. If you have one, hold onto it like grim death and fucking do it. There’s 1000 people waiting in line to snatch that job out from under you who are willing to work twice as hard for probably half the money. People always ask me “Well what do you suggest we do?!” Fuck man I don’t know, last time I checked we had a bunch of suit dummies that we’re paying way too much to figure this shit out, can’t they at least do that. I mean do anything except waste absurd amounts of time and money. Why is it that I have to do everyone’s job for them. I can’t. I guess it’s just frustrating. This has effectively turned into a rant. I’ll continue now.
If anyone has any suggestions let me know. I’m going to ask them about ZMA, Tribulus etc. I know they probably won’t give me much feedback “Oh, well we have no studies” NO SHIT YOU HAVE NO STUDIES, WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU HAVE THE STUDIES. Out of all the lack of funding they’re worried about ZMA in post transplant patients? As long as there’s no adverse side effects, let me be the fucking studies.
Todays training looked something like this:
Rowing
Push - 5x10 increased weight
Pull - 5x5 Increased weight
Accessories
I’m literally studying/doing work all day today. I’m starting at 9 a.m and going till bed time. Just going to see how far ahead I can get and how much time I can clear up. I’ve realized that these weekends are the best time to take advantage of free time and really get shit done. Anyways everyone have a good weekend, cheers!
"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere. " haha school
Hey buddy,
Im sorry to hear about your latest set back. Im glad you have got your treatment on the way.
I had a buddy who had a condition and hance was suffering from low T. His treatment involved an intramuscular injection. I may be wrong, but I think he only needs one injection every 3 months. That might be easier than patches?
Your time management skills inspire me. I used to be very good with my management, but recently have became lazy. Although Im slowly getting more efficient and organised again.
Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but when you say “push” and “pull” what exercises are you talking about? You should also record the weight that you used.
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[quote]theBird wrote:
Hey buddy,
Im sorry to hear about your latest set back. Im glad you have got your treatment on the way.
I had a buddy who had a condition and hance was suffering from low T. His treatment involved an intramuscular injection. I may be wrong, but I think he only needs one injection every 3 months. That might be easier than patches?
Your time management skills inspire me. I used to be very good with my management, but recently have became lazy. Although Im slowly getting more efficient and organised again.
Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but when you say “push” and “pull” what exercises are you talking about? You should also record the weight that you used.
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Set back on top of set backs Bird. I know I said I hate when people say this, but “It could be worse” a lot worse actually. Appreciate your concerns. At least I should be able to sort this out, it’s just the time, effort and endless dragging on of this shit that pisses me off. Patches suck balls, stick like crap, high frequency, inconvenient, they just want to see if I’ll respond to the minimal first. If they don;t work then we’ll progress to other options, just no point jumping to injections with all that I have going on right off the bat, especially at age 20. Time management is something that’s incredibly important and something that I’ll always try to work on/optimize. Push = Bench, Pull = Pull Downs ( honestly wouldn’t be caught dead doing pull downs, but need to clean up my pulling on pull ups and it’s honestly not a bad exercise if you don’t butcher it)
workout 1, workout 2, workout 3, workout 4, keep progressing this way
Push - 135x5, 140x5, 145x5, 150x5
Pull - 105x10, 110x10, 115x10, 120x10
Will continue to increase weight as much as I can, then add sets, then reps…just max out the potential progression.
Gym opens a little bit later today, not till 8 a.m. It feels good to sleep in and get some rest for the up coming week. I kind of like Sundays because i just focus on how bad I’m going to kill it the next week and how hard I’m going to work. I also like to have everything done by Sunday in order to focus on everything that I need to accomplish for the next week. This doesn’t mean I won’t be studying and working hard today, but I’ll shoot the shit a little more than normal and just won’t feel the pressure that I usually do on other days. On another note, my arthritis in my elbows and wrists feels great. I;m super pumped and think I might be ready to start lowering my reps and adding some weight on exercises that stress my elbow flexors and extensors. Anyways, today’s training looked something like this:
Rowing
L-Sit work
Front Lever work
HSPU work
Was pretty standard and I’m not going to elaborate on it much, but it felt good and was pretty fun.
I cracked open a new book the other day, only crushed about 25 pages, but I can tell it’s going to be a good one. It’s Muhammad Ali’s 'The Soul of a Butterfly - Reflections on Life’s Journey"
“It is important for each of us to figure out why we were put here on earth. The importance of life is to accomplish the task we were given. Without working in this task, life is meaningless. Human beings have a basic need and desire to accomplish something before they die - to make a difference. when working toward the goal, man has hope and energy. Therefore, it is essential that each of us learn what we were meant to do as early as possible in order to have a satisfying and productive life. Your purpose may be bigger than mine or another person’s, but that doesn’t make mine any less important. God would not place a burden on a man’s shoulders knowing he could not carry it, nor would he give a person a purpose without significance.”
Although I’m only on page 25 the books a lot different that I anticipated. I’m just used to seeing Ali on some absurd rants/freestyle interviews. In the book he actually comes off as a really good writer with educated thoughts and not only that, but the way he portrays them is amazing. Not many people could express the things he does in words. Anyways, looking forward to reading more in this book and will probably talk about it more in future posts.
I also had the chance to watch a great ESPN 30 for 30 at the end of my day the other day. This episode was on Len Bias. One of the most explosive and dominating college basketball players ever. He got drafted 2nd overall to the his dream team that he wanted to go to, the Boston Celtics. Right after he was drafted, he did some cocaine had a seizure/heart attack and dies. It’s an incredibly sad story considering no one he knew had ever seen or associated him with drugs and many thought it to be his first time. They later on found that the Cocaine was 90% pure and it’s stuff that no one would ever normally have access to. At age 22, I guess he didn’t know any better. His brother was also shot and killed a couple years later. A really sad story. Larry Bird was so excited for this kid joining the team that he said he was going to go to the rookie camp to play with him. After his death his parents received their first flowers from Micheal Jordan, letters from the president, heads of state…so many people. His parents say that they didn’t understand who he really was. Anyways, a really sad story.
Time to go hit the books though, post back tomorrow. Cheers!
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. "
Good to see you’re trucking through everything. As for the doc calling you, its a huge problem in the healthcare industry currently. Those of us who are entering the field in some regard know this, and can also tell you that there is an undercurrent of change. Whether that be for the better or not, I don’t know. But there’s changes coming, and I don’t even think the fools making the laws know the implications yet.
As for the ZMA, I think the biggest issue would be what other meds you are taking currently. If you are off the chemo, etc, (I forgot, been a few days since I read through your log) I can’t see how it would be a problem unless you are cycling antibiotics. I know there’s some bonding issues with tetracyclines and magnesium (been out of biochem a while haha) but other than that I’d have to look around. If you ask the docs about it, make sure they know absolutely everything you are currently taking. Sometimes they don’t look/check the chart about stuff like that.
Keep pushing, brother.
[quote]wiggles wrote:
Good to see you’re trucking through everything. As for the doc calling you, its a huge problem in the healthcare industry currently. Those of us who are entering the field in some regard know this, and can also tell you that there is an undercurrent of change. Whether that be for the better or not, I don’t know. But there’s changes coming, and I don’t even think the fools making the laws know the implications yet.
As for the ZMA, I think the biggest issue would be what other meds you are taking currently. If you are off the chemo, etc, (I forgot, been a few days since I read through your log) I can’t see how it would be a problem unless you are cycling antibiotics. I know there’s some bonding issues with tetracyclines and magnesium (been out of biochem a while haha) but other than that I’d have to look around. If you ask the docs about it, make sure they know absolutely everything you are currently taking. Sometimes they don’t look/check the chart about stuff like that.
Keep pushing, brother.[/quote]
Thanks Wiggs appreciate the concern. Man you’re telling me. It’s incredible to think how hard I try to meet the doctors half way and they still can’t seem to get anything right. Although they may have all the knowledge in the world, when you’re seeing 100 ppl a day and have worlds laziest management and staff on top of budget cuts, on top of more budget cuts who’s really to blame? Working 16 hours a day of an insanely tough job with little to no help is not easy. Biochem? Damn I’m going to give them a call today, make some suggestions and varifications and hopefully lay out the plan on here when I get the time.
Todays training was good. Had a lot on my mind so found myself almost forgetting what I was doing in the gym. Anyways today went something like the following:
Rowing
Push 5x6 - enough weight, just added a rep
Pull 5x10 - was able to add weight, reps next time around
Accessories
Felt good, but like I said had other things on my mind. It’s monday, meaning the week’s here. I’m headed to school early today in order to crush some books and get some extra studying in. School’s already pouring it on hard. I purchased a new desk, chair and am getting a computer for my room. This mean more blogging, reading and research. Anyways I;m running late and got to get to school. I’ll be there early so I’ll post back later. Cheers!
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” - my health
Fresh computer. Went out and bought a sick Mac the other day for my room. Pretty pumped about it besides the fact that this may mean me leaving my room even less than I already do. I cannot believe how easy they’re to set up. You literally plug it in. Todays workout was good and went something like this:
Rowing
L-sit work
Front lever Work
HSPU work
Really trying to see this through. Theses moves are really tough. Progress has been made, but still nowhere near close to these complete moves. I guess the main thing is that I’m enjoying working on these.
I’m kind of torn with my Lean Gains approach. I am enjoying it and fully intend of sticking with this, but must say I find it difficult to get the protein intake that I used to considering Im ingesting about half the amount of meals. This isn’t a major concern because of the added BCAA’s, but I do have a daunting fear of catabolism. Too much old school mentality and typical BB mindset fearing catabolism. Guys think that if you don;t have absurd amounts of nutrients and calories flowing into your body every waking second of every minute of every fucking day that you’re going to enter a catabolic state. I think anyone under 200lbs who’s fairy sedentary shouldn’t be overly concerned about this.
I’m not sure how long hormonal changes will take to be noticed on labs. I think I;m going to go for labs early next week, probably on tuesday and see if these Androderm patches are doing any good. I started them last Friday? I think. So we’ll see. I’m not expecting major changes or to be able to make a full assessment on them by then, but perhaps maybe see some evidence of them working. I could be totally wrong though. Sometimes hormonal or endocrine issues can take weeks. I’m also curious to see where my cortisol, estrogen, thyroid function and vitamin and mineral levels are at. These issues can become a pretty large puzzle and like I said trying 1 thing out a time and then waiting weeks to see if that’s even the problem or the solution is something i’m not really up for. If we get these tests done we might be able to give good judgement on what’s causing it and fix it right 1st try. I don;t want to have to go see an “Anti Aging” doctor at age 20. Got T levels that are not optimal and some cash, guy will shoot the Test up your ass for you. I;m not too worried about it to be honest. Unfortunate? yes. I’m sure levels will come back or some easy/alternative solution will be effective.
Running a little late today, so I gotta run. Grade and High School are back in session so traffics a bitch. Post back tomorrow. Cheers!
Side Note - Saw some guy with a “vector” cereal gym bag today ahaha
“My experiences have taught me a lot and I’m happy with my learnings, if not with what I went through to learn.”
LOOK AT LINK!!!
Todays training was good, I was able to progress on weight yet again for these alternate rep ranges, so I was happy.
Rowing
Push - 5x10 - Increased 5lbs
Pull - 5x5 - Increased 5lbs
Accessory tri set - Increased reps
In Kin we had a discussion about the obesity trend in america. If everyone could just take a good look at the picture provided and realize how insanely out of control the situation is. This is not to mention that these are people who were surveyed! Think of how many fat people were willing to do a survey and admit that they’re obese. This is also only adult. Notice they added new categories and levels.
Anyways, I have lab and a lab test really early today so I’ve gotta run. I’ve also got to go to the cancer clinic for an extended period of time to sort out some bullshit, get meds and do labs. I’ll try and post back later if I’m inspired and not too busy. If not I’ll get er back tomorrow. That picture should give everyone more than enough to think about anyways. Cheers.
I’m also intrigued by 8x8 method. I think I might give 8x8 a shot sometime soon and use it in a full body style manner. 4 exercises, 2 supersets 8x8, every other day. Thoughts? recommendations? experiences?
"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice. "
1985-2006…Good god
I dont care if everyone else goes fat, but I dont want to be paying their medical bills. I think there should be a fat tax, although that would be hard to govern. For example if we used BMI as a guide, then I would also be probally be paying fat tax, even though I can deadlift twice my bodyweight and have less than 13% body fat.
Anyway buddy, hows the new computer going? Im thinking about buying a mac, although I have resisted the temptation to but any mac products so far. I dont like coorperations and big companys in general.
Keep lifting strong bro. Keep tweeting!
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[quote]theBird wrote:
I dont care if everyone else goes fat, but I dont want to be paying their medical bills. I think there should be a fat tax, although that would be hard to govern. For example if we used BMI as a guide, then I would also be probally be paying fat tax, even though I can deadlift twice my bodyweight and have less than 13% body fat.
Anyway buddy, hows the new computer going? Im thinking about buying a mac, although I have resisted the temptation to but any mac products so far. I dont like coorperations and big companys in general.
Keep lifting strong bro. Keep tweeting!
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Funny you should say that Bird. I’ve blogged about that before. Poliquin has a great article on how there should be a fat tax on his site. We’ll in class there were a couple people who worked for major near by hospitals and they DO have fat tax for all their employees!!! some also have tax breaks for fit employees. I think everyone’s slowly sneaking it in, it’s just a touchy subject and by the looks of things “healthy” people are no longer the majority. Fat bastards are out numbering us. New computers awesome! Macs are so simple, fast and easy to use. They have awesome software and applications and will last you forever! PC’s are junk. Yeah they’re cheaper, but they also last a couple years, are slow as hell, get viruses and run like shit. The world’s slowly converting to Mac. Anyways, I’m headed over to “The Bird Cage” have not been in awhile.
Didn’t I get gas there in the morning’s last semester? Damn…
Todays training felt really good. I’ve had some nagging lower back pain, probably from all the compensation of my weak knees on the rest of my body. I’ve started on some phetnyl patches and that’s helped tremendously. I have not used phetnyl patches in years and last time I checked they sucked balls, but perhaps since I have not used them in so long they’re once again wickedly effective. This no lower back pain helped my leverage tremendously on my gymnastics moves today and I felt the best on them I ever have.
Rowing
L-Sit Work
Front Lever Work
HSPU Work
Accessories
Went to the cancer clinic the other day and got some labs done. Should have full results across the board sometime soon on everything from hemoglobin to thyroid function. My doctors said I could go ahead and give ZMA or Tribulus a whirl if I wanted to. Saying that it has no potential to do any harm , just might not do any good. I’m curious to see what my levels are at because my last were almost a month old. Not that what I’ve started will probably have had any effect yet, but I want to know where I’m at and whether or not things are better or worse. This will also give us an accurate reflection on how the Androderm and whatever else they give me works. I was saying to my buddy I should get some Alpha Male and do pre-post blood work. See what this stuff’s all about. Not sure what it would prove, considering the situation and variables, but it’d be interesting.
If anyone missed yesterdays article, it’s definitely worth a read. I’ll probably re-read it again if I find the time. Takes a little bit of focus and understanding but the 10-15 minutes is well worth it. We’ll eating a meal the other day I realized how much flexibility Lean Gains has given me. I can eat a pretty dirty carb meal, yet it’s going to have relatively little effect of my total daily CHO intake or my total daily calorie intake. I don;t mind being stuck at school and not having to contemplate having Subway. Although bread might cause me to lose sleep knowing what it’s broken into, it’s most likely not going to be the 6 inches of whole wheat (Not implying that it’s healthy or unprocessed junk) that’s going to kill me.
"We have deadlines for a reason, but the key word is ‘dead’. In fact, you don’t have to wait for the deadline or get anywhere near it, especially if you want to speed things up.
Too often, we find ourselves using the deadline as the lever to overcome our fear. If you’re relying on drop dead dates to push yourself, the project is paying a price.
The bias is to slow down because otherwise the boss will just give you more work to do. Are you still stuck in the us/them dichotomy of factory work?
All other things being equal, faster wins."
True. Deadlines are important, but don’t fixate on them. Get as much done as much as possible all the time. If the deadlines 2 weeks from now, but you have more than enough time to get it done today…DO IT! my friend Jeff always says “If there’s one thing that will kill a man it’s that “Tomorrow” attitude” I think we all get it once and awhile, but try to think about it and get rid of it.
I’m headed off to school though, post back tomorrow. Cheers!
“No failure, only feedback” If you have good reason to try or attempt anything, DO IT! if it doesn’t work…good to know. You have to learn to try new things and except change. Not everything’s going to be a success, but when things are…it rules. At least if they’re not…you’ve learned something and that in itself can be flipped into a success. (If you’re real desperate)
Todays training was good. I kind of overshot on progression because next week I’ll be headed to 8x8. I’m doing this because like I said progression’s getting grimmy and for times sake, not to be in there for too long it’s easier to just switch it up. Todays training went like this;
Rowing
Push 5x7 - Added 2 reps
Pull 5x12 - Added 2 reps
Accessories - Added reps to failure
Next weeks 8x8 will look like this:
Rowing
Push - 8x8/Pull 8x8
Bi’s/Tri’s 8x8
I’ll have day 1 day 2 where I’ll alternate movements and I’ll be doing it every other day. Ex Mon might be 8x8 Incline, Wed might be 8x8 Flat.
I think this volume will be a good switch. It’s such a happy medium between # of reps and sets. I’m stoked on the short rest intervals too. This will keep the time within reason. I could keep the same Push/Pull I have and go 8x8 with less weight and still have the total volume measured in pounds be higher, but I think I want to switch the motor pattern or stimulus slightly. Just for the sake of boredom and progression.
I have not worked out all the kinks yet and I’m pretty limited with the selection of exercises I can do pain free and recover from. I’m thinking I might hit Decline as my push. Have not performed it forever and if you don’t butcher it, it’s a pretty legit exercise. As for my pull, I’m thinking supinated pull downs? I’m not actually a fan, but I’m coming of pronated pull downs. I mean do I want to resort to the pull up machine? Yeah it’s 5 in the morning and no one’s going to chirp, not that I’d care, but still. I know I should probably have it organized more like horizontal and vertical combos, but I cannot pull horizontally or press vertically. This is the best I can do for preventing imbalances or other problems. We’ll see.
If anyone hasn’t been to ESPN.com and has not made an account for “my scores” do it. You pick all your teams, all your sports, all your players and you receive updates, highlights, videos and stats on all of them. Pretty wicked. A lot better than sitting through an hour of highlights waiting to catch a score. Just add to your favs or bookmarks and hit it up whenever’s convenient for you.
Today’s Friday! going to head to school early, get my read on and settle in for a weekend of studying and reading. I’ll also sit down and watch some ESPN 30 for 30 this weekend and hopefully be able to continue some personal reading on Tebows book and Ali’s book. Maybe catch up on some blogs and websites too. Anyways post back tomorrow. Cheers!
"Strivers achieve what dreamers believe. "
Ill be interested to see how 8x8 goes for you. I tried german volume training for 5 weeks and it was fun.
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8x8 eh? Sounds brutal. I like where your head is at. As for the pulldowns, I’m also not a fan of the supinated ones unless I do them one arm at a time a la Thibs’ suggestion at some point not too far back. Could you do neutral grip pulldowns with that V-handle? (or D-handle, depending on who you ask) I always felt like that one really made a difference in my lat growth and in my mind muscle connection. You can’t help but feel those things pumping with those.
Good luck with the volume upgrade!
[quote]wiggles wrote:
8x8 eh? Sounds brutal. I like where your head is at. As for the pulldowns, I’m also not a fan of the supinated ones unless I do them one arm at a time a la Thibs’ suggestion at some point not too far back. Could you do neutral grip pulldowns with that V-handle? (or D-handle, depending on who you ask) I always felt like that one really made a difference in my lat growth and in my mind muscle connection. You can’t help but feel those things pumping with those.
Good luck with the volume upgrade![/quote]
V-HANDLE! YES! totally forgot! I was just laying out my 8x8 for tomorrow frowning upon supinated pulldowns. That’s a good ass call Wiggs.
Im not up to date with the current literature on pull downs. Do you guys suggest I incopreprate them into my back day, or just stick to pull ups and chins?
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