Chemo, Radiation and a Stem Cell Transplant

Training Training Logs
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College Football is back <3 Saturdays now rule even more than they already did. I was able to sit down and watch the 4th quarter of the Gators game last night with a big fat sandwhich and a bowl of low fat chocolate frozen yogurt. Frozen Yogurts now a usual thing, but I think it’ll be my saturday thing from now on. The extra 200 calories are not really going to mean shit at the end of the week. Lean Gains diet rules…

Headed off to the gym in a little bit. Didn’t have much time to post yesterday. Had to double up on getting things done in order to go to the Lions game today. Home opener, so it should be pretty good. Gymnastics training went good. Today I’ll be firing up 8x8 and here’s my plan.

Rowing - Warm Up

A.1 Press - 8x8

A.2 Pull - 8x8

B1. Bi’s - 8x8

B2. Tri’s - 8x8

I think my exercise selection will be Incline Press/ Neutral Pull Down and Bi’s/Tri’s will most likely be something simple like Incline DB curl/Incline Skull Crushes.

I emailed my doctor asking about my potential treatment options for my test and suggested Poliquins Testosterone protocol. It’s about $350 for a month, which is far cheaper than any prescriptions for the amount of stuff you get. not to mention he’s seen people go from 110-1400 by the end of the 32 day cycle.

Here’s the protocol :
Testo Libre
Pantethine 2.0
Tribulus Supreme
Yang R-ALA
Licorice Supreme
Holy Basil Supreme

His supplements are made by “Designs by Health” which are only available to practitioners, so I figure maybe they’ll go for it. Probably tell em to throw in a Biotest shipment just for good measure we’ll I’m at it. I feel like talking training as well. Had a good thread going on “Switching the Stimulus” but now want to talk about other topics as well, so for anyone following, either let me in on threads you’ve got going or feel free to chat within here. Can be about anything, training, nutrition, whatever.

Anyways I’ve got to go get ready for the gym and then it’s some HW and off to the Lions game. Post back tomorrow, cheers.

“My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.”

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For above…

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Damnit…for above, above

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Lions game was great. Good plays, killed it and they won. Weird that the score turned out the way it did, they were sloppy as hell on defence and Kansas was running the ball like nothing, but just couldn’t get it done. Stafford and the offence were on fire. Staffords vision on the field was amazing. We sat upper bowl and it was as if he had an our arial view on the field with a bunch of time to think about what he was doing. Sometimes it’ll look that way because the opposition’s just playing so shit, but they were actually playing pretty good on all lines. Good game.

Todays training was good. My lower back was really irritates, so I opted from performing gymnastics training, I just ran another 8x8 workout with different movements. Not what I wanted to do, but whatever. I don’t think that “Doctors” realize that my knees are causing chain reactions throughout my whole body, starting with my lower back, running up my whole posterior chain. There’s so much compensation going on for my knees with my back that I could see this being a major issue. Just bending over or picking up the lightest object, I cannot push with my legs what so EVER! this is extremely taxing on my lower back and as a result, often means hurting it. Or standing up over the course of a work up and 5-10 seconds. Have to say i’m pretty fucking pissed. Shit gets worse on a daily basis. I;m fucking 20 years old. By the time I’m 25 I’m going to be officially handicap?

Extremely frustrating situation. I don’t understand hoe there’s nothing that can be done. Figure out the problem, what causes it and how it works. Then we get a bunch of dicks to put there fucking heads together and figure that shit out. Looks like I may have to take it upon myself as usual and start doing some pretty heavy and extensive research. It’s sad when a 20 year old has to attempt to take matters into his own hands on so many issues. I cannot sit back and watch my body deteriorate at an exponential rate because people are fucking lazy. “Sorry, there’s nothing we can do” Ok, you’re trying to tell me I;m the first person to have ever dealt with a fucking knee problem on this planet before? everyone who’s ever had a knee problem, that’s it for them, it’s over? I don’t think so. I don’t know, we’ll see. I’m going to start off by doing some research on understanding the disease first and then assessing what in particular is causing me issues and then ways to treat it. By the looks of it I need increased blood flow and anti inflammatory, so perhaps some heavy research in both directions. As usual I will give my doctors one last chance. This is where I sit down with them and say 'Ok, so you’re telling me there’s 100% absolutely nothing that you or anyone on this planet can do to help me in anyway?" If they respond “yes” then I’m forced to take matters into my own hands. I don’t storm out of there all pissed off. We’ll, maybe I do, but at that point I’m left with no other choice. This is fine, I just need to know. I cannot have my life be destroyed anymore than it already has been at age fucking 20.

Everyone throw Seth Godins blog in your bookmarks. Everyday I wake up and go read what he has to say. Sometimes it’s inconclusive and just something to think about, but the point is it always gets my brain going for the day and just gives me something to think about, which feels good.

Anyways I’ve got to go shower and get ready for school, 2 exams this week. Post back tomorrow, cheers.

"An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don’t. "

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Dragging my ass a little today, just feel real tired and worn out. It’s unfortunate because Tuesdays are my worst and longest day. At school until 7 tonight. Now’s not the time for that though, exam Thursday and Friday. I’ve already dumped like 95% into this, might as well finish strong and then relax on the weekend. This also leads me back to the fact that everything happens for a reason. Went to the gym 1 hour late today and apparently 3 of the worlds hottest girls train in there right after I leave everyday at 6.

Mariano Rivera got his 602nd save last night. This makes him the all time leader. Thought I’d give that a shout out, considering I’m a fan and to even pitch 602 games as pitcher, let alone win is incredible. also ESPN sent me a message about it, so I figured it was worth a mention.

I was reading Poliquins site yesterday before bed and notes some interesting quotes/points.

"As a rule of thumb, it takes seven years to make the national team. For example, in Canada if youâ??re not on the national ski team by the age of 18, then youâ??re never going to make the Olympic team. If you donâ??t know how to ski by age 11, youâ??re never going to make it. I say this because coordination is sport specific.

if youâ??re born in the wrong year as a female, youâ??ll never go to the Olympics. If youâ??re a gymnast and youâ??re going to be 10 at the next Olympics, then youâ??re going to be too young. If youâ??ll be 14, then great. If youâ??re 18, then youâ??re not going to make it because you probably have a higher bodyfat that will adversely affect performance, youâ??re too tall, and â?? at the risk of being politically incorrect â?? you probably want to have a social life.

Itâ??s important to expose kids to as many sports as possible before the age of 12. At age 12 or so, theyâ??ll be old enough to decide whatâ??s best for them. But until age 12, you should never specialize kids. My own daughter does kempo karate, but sheâ??s done figure skating, gymnastics, ballet and swimming, too. And although I may be a bit biased, as my background is in martial arts, I believe almost all martial arts are great sports for young athletes to develop coordination.

The Hungarians have done the most research on this. The most important athletic skills for kids to learn are running, jumping, throwing and swimming (but donâ??t train like a swimmer with ultra long distances) along with having some gymnastics. If you give that experience to your children by age 12, then they can choose whatever they want.

Thereâ??s no such thing as an all-around athlete. Michael Jordan couldnâ??t play baseball. About the only athletes who can transfer to other sports are pole vaulters. But to become a world-class pole vaulter, you need courage because itâ??s such a high-risk activity. Pole vaulters are a combination of sprinters, gymnasts and weightlifters. They are about the only athletes who can switch sports and be successful. In contrast, swimmers often lack in proprioception on the ground. Ask any strength coach who has ever tried to show a high-level swimmer how to do a power clean. Again, coordination is sport specific. "

Just interesting thoughts. I usually like to take the last little portion of my day. Usually whatever time I have left between 8-9 to get some non school related reading or inspiration going, This might mean reading T-Nation or watching the highlight real.

I’ve got to go get my study on though. Post back tomorrow, cheers.

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I didnt realise you had a kid. How old is she?

By the way, at the moment in “the bird cage” I am having s series of guest writers writing about their specific specialty(as I am about to plan my new preseason training schedule). Feel free to drop in and maybe you can offer a piece of “intro into gymnastic moves”.

tweet tweet

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[quote]theBird wrote:
I didnt realise you had a kid. How old is she?

By the way, at the moment in “the bird cage” I am having s series of guest writers writing about their specific specialty(as I am about to plan my new preseason training schedule). Feel free to drop in and maybe you can offer a piece of “intro into gymnastic moves”.

tweet tweet[/quote]

You read to quickly Bird, I DO NOT have a kid. I’ll swing over there this weekend for sure.

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Morning meds…For all those concerned about absorption and “receptor battle” even between Protein and Creatine (2 items) I wouldn’t stress it too much. I’ve taken a fair amount of things at once and through labs and observations, things have turned out fine. Maybe not OPTIMAL, but stll very effective. I remember taking 102 pills a day on top of IV meds we’ll being deathly Ill. Waking up early in the morning, laying out your 2L of fluid and 102 pills. Probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. From the moment you wake up till the moment you go to bed you have your fluid in hand and some pills that you oh so do not want to take. One minute it’s 7 a.m, the next it’s 9 p.m and you’ve got 20 left thinking “Fuck me” I’m gonna close my eyes for what feels like 2 mins, wake up and have to do it all over again.

Took the day off today. I have an exam tomorrow and was not feeling all that great. I decided I needed to maybe do a little less today so that I can do more tomorrow. It sucks and is never something that I want to do, but sometimes it’s necessary.

We talked about something that I never really thought about in Kin yesterday. We talked about how we’re well aware as a society about how important physical activity and it’s promotion is. We know that more needs to be done. We know how and what we need to do. We know MORE all around than we ever have. Yet the situation keeps getting worse and less and less keeps being done. We talked about how physical education is the first thing to get cut from schools and how we can’t compete with things like Math. Not being able to solve an algebraic equations never killed anyone, but coronary disease definitely does. Lack of physical activity is the # 1 cause of death. It’s completely preventable. We know how to prevent it, but yet we don’t? I’m confused. Washington issued a report stating that lack of physical activity was the single biggest cause of death and that report was re-evaluated and changed within 24 hours. I understand that we cannot afford to dump money into things like gym class when we can’t even afford English and Math, but we definitely need to do something. I guess it’s just something to think about.

Like I said I’ve been busy this week studying for exams. Hopefully i’ll be able to get some stuff in this weekend. Read the articles on here, my espn magazine, mens health, watch some 30 for 30 and some college football. Anyways I’ve got to go study and catch some Z’s. Post back tomorrow.

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

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[quote]EF5127 wrote:

[quote]theBird wrote:
I didnt realise you had a kid. How old is she?

By the way, at the moment in “the bird cage” I am having s series of guest writers writing about their specific specialty(as I am about to plan my new preseason training schedule). Feel free to drop in and maybe you can offer a piece of “intro into gymnastic moves”.

tweet tweet[/quote]

You read to quickly Bird, I DO NOT have a kid. I’ll swing over there this weekend for sure.[/quote]

Lolz. Sorry about that. I was reading your log on Tuesday night, after doing 20 hours of work in 2 days, so hence I often have difficulties comprehending. I should just go to sleep on nights like that.

Anyway, good luck for your exams. Remember this is YOUR opportunity to show the examiners how much YOU know.

And Im looking foward to your guest article in “the bird cage”.

tweet

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[quote]theBird wrote:

[quote]EF5127 wrote:

[quote]theBird wrote:
I didnt realise you had a kid. How old is she?

By the way, at the moment in “the bird cage” I am having s series of guest writers writing about their specific specialty(as I am about to plan my new preseason training schedule). Feel free to drop in and maybe you can offer a piece of “intro into gymnastic moves”.

tweet tweet[/quote]

You read to quickly Bird, I DO NOT have a kid. I’ll swing over there this weekend for sure.[/quote]

Lolz. Sorry about that. I was reading your log on Tuesday night, after doing 20 hours of work in 2 days, so hence I often have difficulties comprehending. I should just go to sleep on nights like that.

Anyway, good luck for your exams. Remember this is YOUR opportunity to show the examiners how much YOU know.

And Im looking foward to your guest article in “the bird cage”.

tweet[/quote]

No worries Bird, when you try and get as much done in a day as us you’ll often find yourself mind fucked and mixing shit up. I’m going to set aside sometime Saturday, maybe even Friday night to read through the cage and throw down a spill.

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Tigers have been killing it…

Todays training was good. Just a fairly quick 8x8. I’m throwing in a set of Reverse Hypers before and after training to strengthen my lower back and core (same thing in anatomical terms) I feel I need to strengthen the muscles that insert into my pelvic girdle in order to compensate for my knees. This will hopefully lead to better posture and a less sore back. I’m hoping this will make movement more comfortable as well. It’s hard because I’m past the point of rehab. It’s a very unique situation when you need strengthening, but can’t perform the movements necessary to strengthen it.

I have an assignment in kinesiology where I need to write an essay on “Problems and Solutions in Kinesiology” I just need to pick one and offer some solutions. It can be related to any aspect of kinesiology. Strength and Conditioning, Physical Activity, Sports, Therapeutic etc. I’ve started brainstorming a couple ideas so far and have came up with 3 options that I think are well worth writing about.

  1. “Pre-hab, the alternative to Re-Hab” - Talks about initial injury prevention and how important anatomical adaptation phase of training can be for untrained individuals and athletes post season.
  2. “Get in shape to run, don’t run to get in shape” - Talks about the stress load of running and how you can’t take a 40 year old, 250 pound untrained woman and have her go attempt to slog.
  3. “Injuries, the destruction of motor skills in youth” - Talks about un-educated coaches training youth in un-educated ways. Ex - Having a 6 year old throw weighted implements.

If anyone else has any other idea, feel free to post. I just figure these are quick, fairly easy topics to write about. Not to mention the fact that they allow me to be one of those assholes that talks complex about a fairly basic concept. Not that i’m a fan of that, but they love it for school.

As I go through life I find the less I occupy myself with, the more I benefit. The less I spend time on facebook, watching TV, shooting the shit, doing fuck all and the more I spend time doing a select few things like reading, writing and studying, the more I accomplish and get done. I think if everyone took a step back and reverted to simplicity and the basics we’d all be a lot better off. Maybe just give it a shot for a week, or a weekend, hell even a day. Just try and do nothing but occupy yourself from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed. It’s extremely challenging, strenuous, but yet rewarding. Always ask yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing. I think attempting to not be sedentary and in a state of utter uselessness is an extremely hard thing to do day in and day out. 99% of people can’t and never will do it. I tell people that Cancer’s made me realize so many things and maybe if I can help people realize things that cancer’s made me realize, without them having to go through and experience it then I’ve done some good. I also tell people that cancer’s definitely changes me and although perhaps I wish it was something I never had to go through, I know 100% that I would not be who I am today if I had not. I can understand my friends not seeing eye to eye with me on things or looking at things the same way, but maybe if I can help people see or even attempt to see things differently, then perhaps it was well worth it.

Like I said I have an exam to go crush so I’ll post back tomorrow. Cheers.

“To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization.”

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Posted last night and early this morning, so get up on both posts.

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Training was good today. Having fun at the gym. It looked something like this:

Rowing

Push/Pull 8x8 added weight

Bi’s/Tri’s 8x8 added weight

Have been super busy this weekend trying to get as much done for school we’ll I have the time. My lower back and knees are really bothering me. I think I’ve decided to give going against my doctors expert opinions and start trying to strengthen my lower back, core and very, very lightly do activity with my knees. They told me to avoid all use of my arms and wrists, cutting out flexion and extension. I did the complete opposite, by starting off with EXTREMELY light weight flexion and extension and I no longer have any pain in my elbows that I once could not dare move. I’m throwing in one set of hyperextensions at the start of all my workouts and one at the end. I’m going to start working with bands on leg flexion and extension bf bed for my knees as well.

Exams were a little dissapointing to say the least. If anyone’s to do good it’s going to be me. No one studies harder or smarter than me and I can put money on that. When the teacher doesn’t speak english and words things brutally, shit’s hard. To think that I could write books on this stuff and know it so well that it’s stupid., meanwhile to not be able to answer these questions with confidence just kills me.

Had a little time to get some reading done last night and took down some notable but interesting facts and tips on a variety of topics:

“If you drink more than 2 diet sodas a day for a decade, your increase on waist size may be up to 5x greater than that of a diet soda avoider”

“Pay your groceries with cash instead of debit or credit = less likely to buy junk food”

“Fewer the ingredients, healthier the food”

“Dunkin Donuts 600 Cal pumpkin muffin = more sugar than 3 ice cream sandwiches”

“Avg piece of chicken = 270% as much fat as it did in 1970 and it’s protein content has dropped by 1/3.”

“IHOP’s Monster Bacon 'N Beef Cheeseburger and Onion Rings = 1.870 Calories”

“Tour De France riders live on avg 8 years longer”

“University of Southern Maine study found that a single set of weight training exercises torches as many calories as running at a 6 minute mile pace for the same amount of time. So for every second you spend lifting weights, your body is expending really high amounts of energy.”

Random, informative and interesting.

I’m on my way out though. Have to go get a lot of reading done and eat some food and watch a 30 for 30. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Cheers!

“Good enough never is.”

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Training was good today, I’m going to ease up for tomorrow, my lower back is still irritated. I’m really curious to see my test levels next week. I feel like if most people dieted half as hard as me they’d be shredded, so I’m assuming something’s still up. I am leaning out and making constant and consistent progress, but still not what one would expect.

Training is going good though and I am enjoying it. The gym always makes me feel great and gives me something to focus on. Regardless of whether I’m making killer gains or not, to walk out of there everyday and feel like a million bucks is all I need. I think I might switch my training up soon. I like the 8x8 but when movements become to heavy, I can’t assume the risk. It’s just not worth it, in my current health situation.

Yesterday I made sometime to finish ESPN 30 for 30 Allan Iverson. I had no idea about his story. Guy grew up in a racially divided town in Virginia. He got into a small brawl that he may or may not have been a part of at a bowling alley in high school. He was a star high school athlete at the time and a phenom across the country.

They tried to sentence him 15 years in PRISON! meanwhile all it was, was a scuffle. Surely this wouldn’t have been the case for any other person. Eventually after about 10 months in prison he was released but it was still INSANELY EXTREME to say the least and considering everyone knows who the guy is but probably has no idea about this story…CRAZY!

I’ve been covering a lot of material in my Nutrition text book and it’s some pretty interesting stuff. Considering all you her about is mostly meathead nutrition and simplistic stuff like “eat this much protein” “carbs are evil” you come to a lot of interesting realizations when you learn deeper. They have a lot of great case studies and data that makes some interesting points. It’s hard to believe that as our knowledge continually increases it simultaneously decreases as well. Very contradictory. It’s incredible considering we’re always striving to achieve the exact opposite.

“Self motivation is and always will be the most important form of motivation. Driving with your eyes on the rear view mirror is exhausting. It’s easier than ever to measure your performance against others, but if it’s not helping you with your mission, stop.”

Great quote from Seth Godin’ blog…

Also, good weekend. Lions came from behind to win and are now 3-0 for the first time in 30 years. Mich won, Fla killed it and the Tigers are on fire. Time to go to school, post back tmr. Cheers.

"Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. "

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Funny how the deeper you get into Nutrition etc the more you realize there is just so much idiotic stuff out there, huh?

What’s the reason behind the docs telling you not to strengthen those areas? Are they near where the cancer originated? (Sorry, I forgot what the original diagnosis was) Just interested.

Glad your elbows are feeling solid though, that has to be awesome.

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[quote]wiggles wrote:
Funny how the deeper you get into Nutrition etc the more you realize there is just so much idiotic stuff out there, huh?

What’s the reason behind the docs telling you not to strengthen those areas? Are they near where the cancer originated? (Sorry, I forgot what the original diagnosis was) Just interested.

Glad your elbows are feeling solid though, that has to be awesome.

[/quote]

On the matter of nutrition…agreed. I mean where people formulate the ideas they stand behind or how is beyond me? and the fact that they actually believe it to be true and have it published for people to view…it’s actually unbelievable. Acute Leukemia, so no. The areas are dead. Major portions of all 3 bones of the knees are daed. Patella, Femur and Fibula. They’re just getting weaker and more feeble. I can’t stand by any longer. As long as they’re just getting worse I need to at least attempt something. Obviously I’m not gonna go hammer some squats, not that I could. But I need motion 100%. As far as Elbows…yes :slight_smile:

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The possible real reason I subscribed to Men’s Health…

I came to a very sad realization today. I woke up on a lot of pain. I said to myself “Fuck this” I realized that I’m never going to be what I consider “strong” There’s no point in chasing something that’s hopeless. I’m not getting down on myself and I’ve excepted it. I don’t want to hear motherfuckers saying “oh well that’s not a good way to look at it” or none of that bullshit.

Obviously you don’t understand the state of my body. It’s fucked beyond belief at 20 yrs old. There’s no point beating the absolute shit out of my body to lift half ass weights at best at age 20+. i just trained straight hypertrophy today with higher reps, using insane mind muscle contraction and it felt great. At the very least maybe I can at least look great, which at the end of the day is all I’m in it for now. I might not be the next Kosan…fuck it I’ll never be the next Kosan, if anyone. I will do my best to stay healthy, feel great, look great and help other people who have the opportunity to reach their goals though. I’m ok with this.

Todays training looked like this:

Rowing Warm Up

A1. Chest Press - 60x8x4 - 35x28x1 Weight, reps, sets…last set = absolute failure
A2. Wide Pull Up Machine - 100x8x4 - 120x34x1

B1. Cable Pulley Press - 30x15x3 - 15x48x1
B2. Cable Face Pulls - 20x15x3 - 15x47x1

C1. Preacher DB Curl - 15x10x4 - 10x63x1
C2. V Pushdowns - 75x10x4 - 50x70x1

Felt fucking awesome. The best option? Fuck no. When you can’t train or eat properly and you’re hormonally fucked, you have to level with me. Fuck Studies, rules and all that bullshit for me. I’ll try to comply with them the best I can. For the most part all I can do is try and train with balance, progressive overload and pain free.

Got my exam marks back 90, 93%. When I said I was going to get 100% people laughed and said that’s a good way to look at it. Meanwhile they had no idea I was dead serious and expected that. I’ll crush these scores next time around.

Headed to D.C next week for a battery of tests. Will be seeing endocrine people, pain team, surgeon’s, get a bone marrow biopsy, pulmonary functions test, get all my organs looked at, get my mouth re-evaluated. The whole 9 yards.

Anyways have got to run to school early today to meet with my professor. Post back tomorrow, cheers!

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Part of last post…

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Congrats on the exam results, but next time Im expecting 95%+.

Im not going to pretend I fully understand, or know the solution to your dilemma. Although I do think its going to take some time for you to find what works for you, and what doesnt. Just by talking to people, I have learnt that gymnastic moves can be hard on the body and the level of strength required takes years and years of practice. I would say start training for hypertrophy as you are, and then very slowly add in other components if your body allows. You may need to rest more than average aswell, maybe every second day have a rest day? Have you done much research on an ant-inflammatory diet?

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In the hospital…post back when I get out. Nothing serious, just feel terrible. Everything looks good on paper though.