The Laughing Wolf

Exercise and Physical Therapy

This is strictly for those interested, so if you are click on the more link below.

I would not normally post something like this, but am hoping that it will help keep my feet to the fire, as it were, and ensure that I keep with things. To say that I am unhappy with me right now is an understatement.

My right shoulder has been giving me some rather interesting problems for more than a year now, courtesy of two injuries in Aikido and being forgetful during travel and putting carry straps to heavy items over said right shoulder. My right knee went south while coming down a mountain in Japan last year. It seems the physical therapy done on it while I was in college has done some things that mean I am not quite having to start over, but am having to rebuild a half or more of that joint. All of said work to be done in such a way that I don’t do damage to other joints through overcompensation.

My general physical condition has not been good either. I am out of shape, not nearly as flexible as I would like, and my strength, stamina, and such are lousy. There was a day I could pick up a 75 or so pound pack and go 20 miles in a day at better than 10,000 feet in altitude. Those days are long gone.

My old job had one really good benefit, which was a wellness center. Not a bad place and I was working out there on a regular basis when not on travel. Given the amount of travel I had to do, this was not as regular as I would have preferred. Even though I was still a member out there with dues paid, the loss of job meant I could not get onto the compound to go to the wellness center. Catch-22 anyone?

For several months now I have not done anything because of time and other commitments. I reached a point recently when I said “Enough!” and got serious about working on things again. A (former) co-worker pointed me at a local hospital’s wellness center, so I checked it out and joined.

There were some serious concerns about so doing. The fact is, I may move from this area in the next few weeks, but that is looking like it will be some 8 or more weeks away. I could have just paid a per-visit fee, but even if I only went three times a week, that would be almost $100 a month, and I want to go more than three times a week. By joining, I could get unlimited visits a month for less than $50 a month. There was a fee to join, but it covers a mini-physical, and time with a specialist to set up a program, get familiarized with the equipment, and other such stuff.

I have now been through that initial stage, and all I have to say is that for anyone reading this who is over 30, we are in bad shape. As out of shape as I am, of the six major tests I did excellent on handgrip; above average curlup/crunch and SitFlex; and extreme high average (almost above average) on pushups. The latter was despite having to quit just a short ways into the test because of the shoulder injury. I did not do well on percentage body fat and on aerobic/cardiovascular capacity. These were not unexpected results for having been out of any regular exercise program for six months or so.

If I, who is overfat and out of shape can do that well, and score that far above average on so many of the tests, it does not say much for my generation. I can’t speak for my generation, but for me that is going to change. I have set the following goals for myself, to be reached by 25 December 2003:

1. Be back down to a 32 inch waist
2. Have a resting pulse of as close to 40 bpm as possible
3. Complete physical therapy on shoulder and knee
4. Firm and tone all major muscle groups
5. Obtain definition in all major muscle groups
6. Have the endurance to go 5 miles at 4 mph on a treadmill at 5 degrees of incline, while carrying a 75 pound backpack
7. Develop and improve upper body strength
8. Maintain and improve flexibility

Unspoken goals include being able to go back into Aikido after Christmas with a good knee and shoulder, being able to go backpacking and camping again, and being able to do all the other things I would like to do. No, weight is not on there. Weight is often a chimera. What is important is body fat and loss of same. As fat gets burned off, it is often converted into muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat, so you can actually gain weight even as you loose inches and fat.

So, how am I going to do this? Well, I have been working out for a week now, and after yesterdays assessment of that program it will be modified and expanded. What I had been doing were leg presses, leg curls, leg/knee extensions, ab crunches, back extensions, inner thigh, rotary torso, and treadmill. The latter was the only one I was truly happy with because in less than a week I was back to doing 4 mph (about my normal stride) for three miles at 2 degrees of incline, without hitting my true heartrate target. Doing ok, mind you, but the pulse was down significantly in just a week.

Jim, who has done my assessment and taken the time to both talk and listen, has modified things a bit. The leg press work, both with both legs and doing just the right leg, will be increased in terms of weight, going for multiple sets at the higher rate. He has added in an additional leg extension machine which will help things even as it stretches out the hamstrings and calf, and I may add in an additional lower leg event that will help as well. We have very cautiously begun adding in some additional arm and shoulder work, with shoulder presses, lat pulldowns, rowing, arm curls, tricep extensions, and tricep press. This was done with the consent of my, alas, former physical therapist who has advised me on this. There may also be some light freeweight work with that as well.

He also changed a couple of the settings on things, and I am now getting a much more effective and efficient workout on the back extension and the ab crunch. On the former, he changed my settings so that I get a much stronger/longer extension, and increased the weight significantly. Net result, however, is that it feels really good and not that much harder, and I don’t have the feeling that I am going to go backwards off the machine. The ab crunch changes involve mostly changes to the leg position. While I can go to town with my legs back, he did a front setting that hit me like a ton of bricks. Net result is that I am going to get a much better workout of upper and lower abdominals. He also did a change at the rotary torso and that is going to improve my work with it as well.

The only thing he did not change was the inner thigh. He sort of winced at the start setting I have, but agreed that it was a good way to stretch those muscles. We are keeping the weight where it is for now, but will be increasing that on a regular basis as well.

He also made some good suggestions for the treadmill. Once I have my aerobic base back, I will begin modifying that several times a week as well. The aerobic base will be built by doing what I am doing now: I increase distance until I reach three miles, then I increase the incline, drop back to 2 or 2.5 miles, and work back up to three miles. Once I get to a point where what I am doing is more a base rather than a workout, I will turn it back into a true aerobic workout by randomly increasing the elevation, then dropping it to rest, to simulate true hiking and such. Speed may also be increased and decreased as a part of this, just to make it fun. Think that between us we can come up with something to make Torquemada proud. I also plan to start adding in a backpack and weights within the next 4-6 weeks, shoulder permitting.

Jim has warned me, however, that some of this may impact one of the goals. As I get rid of the gut, I am likely to add muscle, and that may keep me from the 32 inch waist. I can live with that…

In addition, I am also doing some work at home as well. There is the broomstick thing for the shoulder, which helps by extending the shoulder. Instead of a broomstick, however, I have made it out of PVC pipe, so that there are two sections with a joiner, and T-joints on the ends as handles. The advantage to this is that the sections will fit into a suitcase so I can take it with me when I travel. I am also touching my tows, doing pelvic thrusts, and other yoga/Aikido warm-ups and stretches. Plan to expand this, and the wellness center has both yoga and stretching classes that I can take as well. Meantime, Jim (who teaches some of the classes) is going to work with me to help with some stretches and flexibility issues.

Since there is an indoor pool in this center, I will likely add some swimming as time goes on. Meantime, I am shamelessly luxuriating in a real steam room, the first I have found in this area, and a good dry sauna.

So, there it is. Far more than you ever wanted to know, but you were strange enough to read it anyway. If you are going to do an exercise program, let me recommend the following things to you.

First, go to your doctor and get a physical, a complete physical. Then, find a place that will give you a good assessment and has a knowledgeable staff. This is a crucial step as you need to know where you are, what and how to improve, and a staff that can get you there uninjured. The assessment should include basic blood work and a quick heart strip, a flexibility test, some basic strength tests for different parts of the body, and an aerobic/cardiac conditioning test.

Staff cannot be stressed enough. I remember vividly one place where I paid extra for some help, and should have saved my money. The person did not listen, told me not to do some things that were needed as they were “girl” exercises, and then had me do something guaranteed to hurt me. Dropped is the polite term for what happened.

They also need to have good equipment. The center I just joined has Cybex and free weights, along with StairMaster, Quinton, and similar treadmill, stair, ski, and bikes. The equipment needs to be clean and in good shape, as in well maintained. If it is not all of these, walk away. The staff needs to, as part of your joining, show you how to use every bit of it and determine the proper settings for seats, start, stop, back, and other adjustments. Again, if they do not offer this you need to walk away before you get hurt.

Courtesy Note: Wipe the equipment down after you use it. Wipe the seat, wipe the grips, wipe anything you have touched. It is just common courtesy, and you should not be so self-center and arrogant as not to do this. How do you like to grab or sit in wet that someone else has left behind???

Treadmills are important to me, and they need to be good even if basic. I have design quibbles with many of them, but my preferences are for fairly simple designs and not for the super fancy with all the bells and whistles. I like a machine in which I can set the speed, incline, distance, etc. and not have it try to force my settings into some frelling automatic program. I also want to be able to change same in the middle of the session without it having the computer equivalent of a conniption fit. Few, if any, have a decent cooldown cycle, so I want manual control of that. I also like it if they are Polar compatible, so I can see my pulse on the display along with distance, incline, speed, and such.

Polar is a system for monitoring pulse as you exercise. It consists of a sensor band around your chest, under the breasts, that sends a low-power radio signal to a receiver that is generally in a watch. Good treadmills, bikes, and such can also get this signal and display it for you so you don’t have to keep looking at your watch. One of the things I do each day is log my peak pulse rate, my sustained pulse rate (the rate maintained for at least 10 minutes but usually 20 minutes), and my blood pressure. The latter is done by an automatic machine at the center, which while not as accurate as a “real” reading does provide a baseline.

Keeping up with this is important, as it tells you how you are doing in the truly critical areas. If you see a major change in this, you need to talk to the staff and/or your doctor immediately. You are responsible for you, so do it right. Good Luck!

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