Rebuilding

Held off on posting just because of how embarrassed I am over how much I've let myself go.

Something I found that hampered me when lifting weights regularity was that once I started squatting 360 and deadlifting 400 that my coordination started to go when all the little stabilizer muscles tired. I tried methods that I read that the Olympic lifters used - many many doubles or triples with 70% max weight with a short rest (0.5 - 1.5 minutes) between sets. That did wonders on how fast I recovered from any given set... but did little for the little stabilizer muscles.

At around the end of 2005 I had thought of adding some calisthenics into the mix because I've read that body weight exercise can be taken to complete muscle failure over and over with little strain on the nervous system. That was important to me because the high set routine I was doing five days a week took my CNS to the edge. I was finding that if I pushed just a little too hard, I'd be suffering from cold-like symptoms the next day.

All this came to a crashing stop when my allergies and sleep apnea caught up with me at the beginning of 2006. I found that once I started to breathe hard, it was like small balloons were inflating in my ears. After a few minutes the pressure would lead to dizziness and I had to stop.

So, to rebuild I'm going with calisthenics at first.

This was and is incredibly humbling. I found that I had to start with marching in place, bringing my knees high for twenty minutes.

Over the past few weeks I've been able to replace the marching with paused jumping-jacks (hands/legs out = one jump, hands/legs in = one jump). I started with three seconds between jumps and as of today am down to two seconds between jumps for two blocks of five minutes.

The worse blow to my pride are the push ups. At present I'm able to do two blocks of three minutes of girl push ups (i.e. knees kept down) with a five second rest between each full stroke.

Short to midterm goals -
1) Get the jumping jacks down to no pauses between jumps for the two 5 minute blocks
2) Work up to five minutes of five second pause girl push ups and then begin to shorten the pause.

Mid to longterm goals -
1) After eliminating the pause on the jumping jacks and becoming comfortable with that work load, change the blocks to full-range bodyweight squats with a five second pause at first. With the rest pause shortening when I'm able
2) Once I can do two five minute blocks of girl push ups with 0-1 second rest pauses, I'll begin to elevate my knees (put something under them) to work towards proper push ups.

As I'm not fit enough to burn a decent amount of calories I'm trying out a few supplements..

500mg Hoodia x1 a day
500mg (50mg active guggulesterones) Guggul x3 day
2g (1.4g CLA) CLA suppliment x3 day

Hoodia - I'm using "Hoodia 500" from hoodiahealth.com. It does suppress my appetite a little, but not enough to justify the cost. Also, during the day I eat only what I've packed for myself. I go somewhat nuts after hours. This I can halt by drinking more water and will do so.

Guggul - I'm using "Extra Strength Guggulsterone" from Higher Power Nutrition. The main thing that I'm looking for is 34-84mg of guggulesterones three times a day (this is what I've read to be an effective range). So, I needed to shop around to find a brand that had a decent % of guggulesterones per dose and that a monthly supply was under $20. They are out there... just not so easy to find. When I first used this product I felt warm and a little anxious. After a while I found that if I drank enough water I didn't get overheated or anxious. So, I make sure I have a lot of water around all day. As this acts by stimulating the thyroid I'm not keen on pushing my dose to the 84mg x3/day mark. Especially as it has been suggested that a person should ween themselves off of guggul instead of stopping all together. Summary: I know it is doing "something", especially if I don't drink enough water, but is it helping me drop fat quicker? I don't know yet.

CLA - I'm using "CLA-1000" from Wellments.From what I've read, 3.4 grams a day of CLA are needed to see fat loss affects. As most supplement makers aim for around 70%, look for the bigger pills (or drink a half gallon of full fat milk a day). I don't feel anything from taking these, but I don't expect to based on what I've read. This makes it kind of hard to determine if the cost is worth it. But, in my research, it looks like CLA is a pretty good thing to be taking anyhow.