Philzone.org Discussion Board: Archive 2004: Hep C Archive: Lifting weights / TX

Well, I bought a temporary membership at a health club here. Idea is to get in some kind of shape for starting TX again in two months (January). So I went today, first time in a gym in over 2 years, almost 3. Used to be a gym rat, loved lifting iron. But the Hep took that away, the mild fatigue and just lost interest in it and didn't know why at first. Then the TX was like forget exercise, except walking a bit.

So I went in today and surprised myself, pressed the 60 pound dumbells, thought I'd struggle with 30's.... Used to do the 100's, so yeah I felt puney, but I was happy..... Man it felt good also. So I will lift until January, and then I will try an experiment through TX, I will try to lift one day a week, very controlled and minimal, but at the best poundage I can lift without overdoing it, whatever that is, and I expect it will vary week to week. I expect Thursday (day before shot) will be optimum day to try to lift, as that is peak recovery day from Interferon....

I figure if I attack treatment the strongest I can be, I will have the best odds of A) surviving TX, and also B) kicking the dragons ass.

Anyone want to try this approach also? C'mon....

I will post best poundage pre TX in early January as a reference, and post ability through TX to lift. I expect a decrease in sets, reps, and poundages, but that isn't the point.... the point is the ability to do it, and the comparison to my TX before, where I wasted down to 160 lbs and a total physical wreck. Am 180 now, not the 195 I used to be, but I feel OK at this weight.... keep you posted, my goal is 85 lb dumbell presses @ 8 reps pre TX for a starting benchmark.... (no pun intended)

Bird, the human experiment.....

Aloha Tony,
I worked out 3 times a week with a personal trainer all through treatment and I truly believe it is what kept me together and sane. Good for you! Keep it up - you won't regret it. Now if I could just get back into it at the level I was then!!!

Week 2 of weights. Poundages went up a bit from last week. Benched 65 lb dumbells for reps. Felt pretty good. Will be interesting to see level in January just before meds start again. 80's or die. Will be interesting to see during TX. Plan on one workout a week then (doing two now). Expect drops in weight and reps, but this may be interesting.....

Thought for the day: I feel good about this, although way down from my prior days in strength, I am still stronger than some non diseased folks at the gym.

Tony,

I was never too big on pumping iron, but played handball all through treatment. I think that it really helped. At the beginning, my endurance dropped about 90%, but came back. I would not be shocked if you had to reduce poundage and reps during the first few weeks, but don't let it throw you, you'll come back. Any exersize will help to control the rage and make the meds do what you hope they will.

In response to your thought for the day, I osed to love it when they would give me s*** for taking a time out to catch my breath, and then I came back and beat'em.

Good luck, bro,

Jim

St. George, and all the saints, intercede for us.

Pumping iron really helps me too. Cardio does as well..My choice is the elliptical machine cross trainer. I do free weights, nautilus circuit, cybex circuit..and it all really helps..Id say its harder for me to go..but I still do..down to once or twice a week rather than three or four times a week....also truly exhausts me afterward, rather than the old energy endorphin release I used to get pre-treatment. The muscle bulding effects really seem to help with some of the muscle tone weakening that occurs with this treatment......and the cardio makes me so so happy..like Im flying..floating...bounding..the combo of both cardio and weight training TOGETHER is for me..what working out really is all about. I miss my 3x a week trainer, but it will be back in my post treatment life..im sure....Keep up with the weights as much as your energy allows..its a GOOD thing!

Excellent plan there Tony.....most excellent.
I'm going to start gearing my mind toward starting some sort of weight training regiment come January......just so I can join in and encourage you and do something good for myself.....how does that sound?
Like yourself.....I used to be a gym rat, working out a minimum 3 times a week, but basically do some form of excercize practically 7 days a week. I believe some muscle groups like the abs you can do daily. I know at one point I was doing 250 sit-ups every day......and was encouraged to by the folks at the nautilus I was goinng to.
AS a matter of fact, I was practically a trainer, but not getting paid for it (LOL)!
Maybe I should do it PT and get some extra cash, hehe!

Anyway, I miss it terribly, but have become complacent and lazy....so I know I'm going to have to push myself....HARD!! I kinda wish I had a partner, cause back in the day ( late 80's) I used to go with a friend, and we pushed each other extremely hard wich was so good for each other. It's funny, cause he snuck into the gym.....started coming and working out with me and signing in daily like he had joined.
They loved him like me, cause we would always voluntarily go around encouraging and pushing people to give it that extra little uummpphhh, and get a few more reps in! ( o.k., I
admit it, mostly the girls.... )!
But still, after finally catching him as not being a member about a month later.....they worked out a deal with him so he could stay there....hahaha!!

O.K.,...... well, my props go out to Tony for starting this thread, and right now I'm going to say that I think everyone should consider joining up with this routine, even if it's on a limited basis of some kind. I know Margot told me she wants to start getting in shape before the spring, and I'm sure all you ladies out there want to look good in those swimsuits this summer......so let's all think about our January resolutions......and REALLY do it this year.
Call it what you will......"Tony's Tough Treatment Plan" or what, but I need to get in shape that's all I know. I'm 6'3' and 195 lbs......just where I want to be......now to turn it into something useful.

well, an update, been almost 6 weeks now, have went to the gym 2X a week except last week, had a bug and felt tired so didn't. It actually is shocking to me the progress I've made in 6 weeks. In spite of being diseased, which I let myself think did not coincide with working out... So I have substantially increased strength and endurance on the weights in 6 weeks. I am up to 70 lb dumbells from 60 on presses, I leg pressed 700 pounds last week (knees to chest, 3 reps) just to see if I still could.... Even advanced to real squats tonight, although light (230)....

So, I'll post updates every month or so, I start TX officially again Feb first week. So I have another month and a half of training. I definitely will lift once a week on TX still, however puney I am.

i hope I motivate somebody to say screw it also, and get in fighting shape for the dragon war.

I love the elliptical machines, Matt. I try to get to the gym 4-5 times a week. Don't always make it but always feel better when I do. I lift a couple times a week. I was a lot more gung ho about that a few years ago, but now I'm just trying to keep some tone in my upper body. Do a lot of ab work (not that you can tell) and a lot of cardio.

Treatment did in my workout regime. About the time I was diagnosed I was starting to get some real muscles from lifting. Best thing I've done for my health lately is losing 30 pounds in hte last year. I've packed seven or eight back on and need to get serious again. I'm sitll about 15 pounds fron where I'd like to be, but it's mamzing how many of my little health problems cleaared up once I dropped the weight. My AST and ALT levels plummeted as well.

Yeah..its my only fun left. Exercise. I have a new trainer......focusing on really big increases in bulk and strength, and I always concentrate on cardio via those wondrous elliptical machines. As I speak with my therapist, I describe the bounding flying feeling I have when doing the elliptical, and the self hypnotic state and sense of well being I get from it, plus the musical connection I make which is also almost meditative in nature when I exercise. I go to the therapist 2 hours after the trainer..so Im always jazzed to the max, and then crash the next day. As my other drama-king post of earlier in the week indicated, and so many of you responded too....I must try and relax, delegate some respomsibility to others..but its almost impossible.

I had quite a workout this week. Our best friends up here ( a couple) where the husband has been quite ill for 4 years or so finally passed after much suffering and misery, and my gal pal, the wife, is the least pragmatic girl on the planet, so I had to take care of all the funeral arrangements yesterday for her, or I swear, her husband woulda been in the refrigerator next to the cat food cans had I not intervened. Plus, this morning, I heard a terrible thud from upstairs, ran like a mutha to see, knowing probably what had happened, and found my 80 year old roomate, bloodied, passed out on the floor, after a bad fall...Other roomate rushed him to the emergency room where he is now, probable concussion, probable broken bones, lots of cuts and lacerations..possible cardiac issues....I deadlifted him (220 he weighs)..off the floor...he has a replaced knee and cant bend easily...and I now await more info on whats going on. BTW..proibably wrenched my own shoulder in doing so, but this too shall pass...

And as long as Im a good tear...I had my first gastro sickness of tx yesterday...was in bathroom all day yesterday.......also...blood sugars which have been perfect for years have started to go crazy.......exercising more..eating healthier than ever, but I guess the stress of all the things I whine about to you guys is really taking its toll on me. I think im hitting the 6 month wall, and everything seems to be falling apart. Im not hysterical, Im in daddy rescue mode for all, except myself....but the end of my rope seems closer than ever...BTW, also had the last installments of my hep a and hep b preventitive innoculations today, (in the middle of all this)...and want to reiterate to all of you how important those innoculations are for us with hep c or undergoing hep c tx.

Walt, Kim, Mark, Bird, DAVE, Bluetrain. Carol, Fran, Daniel, JR, Mack, Jim, Rob and all of you......send some good karma my way for me and my roomates...we need it.

Not that you all havent done so already I know...and Im sending what little positivity I got in me this morning from hell back AT ALL OF YOU. Exercise rules and rocks......its my last hedonistic pleasure...because man, the feeling makes me soar......and vain creature that I am, it keeps me feeling halfway confident in my appearance and sense of well being....I recommend it HIGHLY!

Matt, all my good thoughts, well wishes to you and your friends.

and as far as exercise and lifting weights. More power to y'all. The Quart of water is about the heavest thing I lift and the trips to the potty is the exercise.

Matt,

There's a novena heading up for you, a large box of strength, and as much patience as I can sneak past my wife (she says I need to keep all that I have, and try and find some more...) heading in your direction. I wish that I were there to lend a hand.

Believe me, I often end up in that big rescue daddy mode myself and having to remind myself that the wheel will bring a rescue around to me when I need one. I hope that your roomie comes out allright.

Hold fast, my friend, and you will come through this.

Jim

St. George, and all the saints, intercede for Matt, and for all of us.

I will keep you in prayers. My tx starts in January I am hoping I can do some regular excercise. But my gym gave me a look back in September..now they can give me my money!
I wish you the best. I do not try to understand anything that any of the great people are going thru..Time will be here soon enough. Keep your spirits up that alone is weight lifting esp at this time of year!

Exercise always helps. Well for some of us it's not exactly anything in the weightlifting category, but all of you who can do that have my admiration!! I remember reading, early on, in some of my hep C literature, that exercise we can tolerate without overdoing it, actually helps us fight fatigue. (Just like exercise does for people not on treatment, we all need adequate rest but too much rest weakens us.) Exercise builds up your lungs and your breathing capacity, which ribavirin tries to take away. Matt, take heart! It seems, even over the internet, that you are a person with alot of heart. Better days are coming. And that's what you are working for, through all the trials of treatment. Peace

Matt, Keep it up buddy........

Dan