Over the last 43 (as of today) days, I've battled through two cases of pneumonia, two visits to the ER (one on NYE), and an entire arsenal of medicines, including enough antibiotics laced with codine to create in me a general lethargic feeling, an average of 11 hours of sleep per night, and a general feeling of misery as I watched my body inch slowly into an unfit state.

So, as I begin to emerge from the land of pills and rest, I'm SLOWLY getting back into the process of getting fit- My lungs still feel like jello, so I'm taking ti one step at a time. Because I enjoy the F&E boards so much, I figured I'd share the rebuilding process with y'all.

I'm hoping to be back into shape (210lbs, less than 10% bodyfat) within 60-80 days. The process will be slow, since I'm not sure how my lungs will respond to hard work.

First, a few points:

1) Until I got sick, I was what most would consider to be a "gym rat". Five days or more a week, two hours plus per day.

2) I normally concentrate on health and fitness over straight "Get Big" muscle building. Although I pump my share of iron, I favor core work, stretching, cardio and plyometrics/ballistics over mass building.

3)I'm tall (6'-3") and lanky, with an ultra-fast metabolism, which makes me a hardgainer.

5) I'm not a personal trainer, but I consider fitness to be a passion, and studied fitness in depth, including the Can-Fit Pro (Canada's Personal Trainer Certification Program) manuals and such.

5) My diet is relatively clean- mostly whole grains, vegetables, and meats (Xtra Lean Beef, Chicken and Turkey). I avoid most fried and processed (i.e. fast) foods, junk foods (although I have a weakness for Salt & Vinegar chips) and anything else that is high in the crap content.

6) I say my diet is relatively clean, because during my fight with the pneumonia(s), I ate whatever was put in front of me to avoid losing a ton of weight, so my diet has taken a turn for the worse.

I'll post a starting pick hopefully next week, but I figured I'd post this now to start things in motion.

This should be interesting.

Jay

Jay, I'm so sorry to hear of your awful beginning to this year. Man! It's probably a good thing you faced all of that trauma with a healthy start...or who knows, huh?

Good luck, and even though this will be a long couple months, I hope you're able to have some fun getting your old self back!

Thanks for sharing - I think a Master Cleanse is in order!

Jay has been talking about this for a lil while now (ever since the pneumonia wasn't completely killing him) and I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about the process taking off. However, I'm behind him every step of the way, and hopefully also behind the camera when said pictures are taken during the process.

I also wish to get into shape but this process won't be nearly as important to me as Jay's process is to him, and mine won't be starting until other priorities are being taken care of (school and moving).

So, here's you to Jay, it'll be a slow process, but fun it will be as well, I promise you that.

~Kathy~

Quick update:

2 weeks in, and I'm back to the gym roughly 3 days a week. Most of my regimine is still devoted to cardio, core and abs work, and full-body strength training.

My lungs still feel like Jello after anything more than light-moderate cardio (which is currently some plyometrics- think Step-aerobics, but more jumps instead of steps) although my medic assures me that rebuilding my lungs will take time.

Next week, I intend to return to isolating individual body parts each day, and building the snot out of each one.

As it stands, my tentative schedule will look like this:

Daily:

- Stretch
- Cardio
- Abs
- Strength Training + Legs
- Core
- Cooldown

Schedule:

- Monday: Chest
- Tuesday: Shoulders
- Wednesday: Back & Traps
- Thursday: Biceps
- Friday: Triceps & Forearms
- Saturday: SPECIAL (something different to change it up)
- Sunday: REST/make-up day

You'll notice that I train legs constantly, rather than cramming it into a day. My reasoning for this is two-fold;

1) While it stunts leg growth, it will make my legs stronger and more durable in the long-run.

2) My job requires that I walk long distances (over 1 mile/day) on polished concrete floors, and trying to do that while recovering from a normal weekly leg day (roughly a 3 day process) REALLY REALLY sucks.

Anyway, I'm currently at 203lbs, and my energy levels, while low, are higher than they were when I started this here thingy a few weeks ago.

Pictures are coming, but my vacation with Kathy was cut short due to bad weather (deep freeze and blizzards), so I didn't get starting shots.

Regards,

Jay

I tried it when I first started- for six months, in fact- and got absolutely no response from my muscles. I began with a 4 day program superseting opposing muscle groups (Chest/Back, OFF, Arms, OFF, Shoulders/Traps, OFF Abs/Core/ Hard Cardio) and had bad progress.

It wasn't until I started with a more comprehemsive program that I got results- In my case, I hit my growth peaks going 6 days per week, doubling up on chest (with 4 days no chest in between) and maintaining roughly 250 grams of protein per day.

For getting in shape, growth isn't that important to me- I've lifted for size before, and being able to bench 265lbs again is not a goal for me at this point. My biggest concern is regaining the muscle tone and low bodyfat I had before 43 days of illness removed my muscle tone, flabbed me out, and made me remember just what Hostess Salt & Vinegar chips tasted like.

I'm currently at 160lbs max bench for a 12-10-8-8 rep schedule with a base lift of 110lbs, which is nothing compared to where I was. In fact, with the exception of arms, I've yet to cross 70% of Max 1RM. Before my illness, my max Bench was roughly 220lbs, give or take.

Point being, my workout is mostly high reps, low weight for the time being, since my lungs can't cope with the effort of chugging heavy weight as of yet. I come out tired, but if I had my wind and was in pre-pneumonia shape, I wouldn't even be sweating at this point, so over-training is not really a concern.

If I hit a plateau in a few months, I'll cut back, but right now, the intensity of my workouts isn't enough to overtrain anything.

My supplements are basic: Animal Pak vitamins and Creatine, which I won't start for another few weeks. The Creatine I use because it boosts energy during workouts, which I require because I also work 8 hours a day doing manual labour.

Oh, and I forgot- No juice here- I'm a health nut, so juice for me is like a hardcore conservative Christian having unmarried sex while taking the Lord's name in vain during church, all the while coveting their neighbour's wife, or goat, or something sinful;

In other words, its a No.

I'm assuming the juice of which you, Jay, and you, T-Rex, are talking about is a form of dieting? Possibly protein shakes? Not quite sure.

Not really educated enough in this area of life to know.

~Kathy~

I'm 6'-3", and I believe the term is ectomorph, although I often confuse the two. Traditionally, I'm lanky, long arms/legs, low body fat, and I can basically eat anything and not gain a ton of weight. However, the trade off is that I need to consume a TON of protein in an almost perfect diet in order to gain muscle mass, and I eat like a horse: 4 solid meals a day, and I snack pretty constantly throughout.

As for Coleman- Well, I think the term "Freak of Nature" best describes the guy; He's got the perfect bodybuilding bodytype, and when you add the finely tuned cocktail of vitamins and supplements the guy's on, and combine it with a professionally tailored workout, well...you get 8 straight Olympias.

I don't think a guy like that- or any of the current top-tier IFBB pros- use steroids; With all of the legal supplements they induce, there's really no need.

I am glad Cutler finally beat Coleman- It was getting kind of boring year after year.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathy & Jay:
I believe the term is ectomorph, although I often confuse the two.

Ectomorph: having a thin body build , roughly characterized by the relative prominence of structures developed from the embryonic ectoderm

Endomorph: having a heavy body build roughly characterized by the relative prominence of structures developed from the embryonic endoderm

Mesomorphic: having a robust muscular body-build characterized by predominance of structures (bone and muscle and connective tissue)

(from Dictionary.com)

Hope that helps
~Kathy~

quote:

Originally posted by T-Rex:
I have to respectfully disagree as to the steroid use. I have been up close and personal with the likes of Cormier, Wheeler, Corney and Creavalle. Its more than genetics and supplements.

Just my humble opinion.

I agree- I'm not saying that roids don't exist in bodybuilding- just that the standard anabolic injection stuff that everyone is familiar with is not around much anymore.

I think it depends on what you consider "steroids"; Your old school injected anabolic stuff, HGH, the Barry Bond's "Cream" and "Clear" line of designer drugs, and aything else that labs have created to enhance performance that I've never heard of.

If you're talking WADA standards, then yeah, I'd imagine most would fail a drug test- The thing is, there's just so much synthetic garbage you can dump into your system nowadays, that I've lost where the line between "supplement" and "performance enhancing drug" is.

To give you an example: I'm basically a "natural" bodybuilder- My supplements are limited, and I rely on a healthy diet for any gains/development I get.

I take Animal Pak, Creatine, and Protein, and I've been told that Animal Pak is considered an illegal product by some Canadian Agencies, including the fine people at GNC, who told me Canadian companies can't sell it because some of its contents are banned in this country.

Funny thing though; My local independant supplement shop- and the fellas I order stuff from in Ottawa- have no trouble carrying it.

Go figure

Hey, whatever makes you look beafy and has all the girls go gaga and me go yeah baby is fine by me .

~Kathy~

Also, true betold, 'roids don't have a great reputation generally speaking either.

in all fairness he knew the risks before he took them so its his fault

quote:

Originally posted by T-Rex:

Kathy and Jay,

This giant bodybuilder at my gym mentioned that since he had started using steroids his testicles had shriveled to the size of raisins. We are getting tired of his complaints that his cock ring keeps falling off. Plus the clang in the shower is a dead give away that it has happened again!

LOL- I'm not touching this one. I'll let Kathy make a comment

Jay

I don't know about anyone else, incl. Jay, but I definitely got a visual image from that, which wasn't pretty . Also, that is why they invented rings made of all sorts of material, So that it wouldn't make such a ruckus!

Here's hoping its fictional talk.

~Kathy~