Fiddleman

I use(d) my share of NSAIDs pretty consistently since month 6 for a degenerative arthritic condition (will be getting it officially diagnosed by rheumatology in January 2014). Started on the store strength stuff like aleve, naproxen, and ibuprofen after getting blessing from VSG doctor. None of it worked. I then moved to prescription strength stuff like 800 mg ibuprofen and 20 mg piroxicam (blessing of PCP dr). The diflenac (pill or cream) does not work for me. Flector patch does not work. The only stuff that even remotely gives my poor neck and back relief is the piroxicam, sometimes it takes 2 for a few hours of no pain. I've been dealing with this residual pain of inflammation, that no pain is completely foreign to me. I am pretty young at 38. I am going to tell my doctor this next week this information about the piroxicam and see if we can find something gentler, but still have the impact. I use home acupressure and exercises I have learned from 2x a week PT a lot too every day, but that is only temp relief. This whole arthritic thing I just recently found out a few weeks ago because I just so happened to get an X-ray for something else. So even though taking prescription strength NSAID seems fairly risky, it is completely worth it to be free of the pain. I also want to say eating low inflammation diet and eating food that fights inflammation helps. I take 4-8 g of fish oil a day from stronger, healthier faster. That helps also to fight inflammation caused by working out as often as I do. The whole pain caused by inflammation thing started years ago, before I got into working out after losing weight from VSG.

Tomorrow, being Xmas eve, is a good time for people to try a "12 days of Xmas" workout. There are infinite variations on it, depending on choice of exercises and position in list of exercise. Here is one such variation: 1 Handstand Push-up (12) 2 Pistols (Alternating Legs)s (24) 3 Push-ups (30) 4 Knees To Elbows (36) 5 Burpees (40) 6 Box Jumps (42) 7 Wall Balls (42) 8 Kettlebell Swings (40) 9 Deadlifts, 115/75 lbs (36) 10 Front Squats, 115/75 lbs (30) 11 Cleans, 115/75 lbs (22) 12 Turkish Get Ups (12) This is done like the Christmas song "12 Days of Christmas"... 1 HSPU, 2 Pistols, 1 HSPU, 3 Pushups, 2 Pistols, 1 HSPU, 4 K2E, 3 Pushups, 2 Pistols, 1 HSPU... I have added up and placed the totals of each exercise in parens. It will help with mental preparation as not to burn out too early, depending g on where your strengths lie. I will be doing this WOD tomorrow and am looking forward to it as a definite challenge. Ok, downright hard! I have never done this WOD before, but think it is about 25-30 m in length which makes it a fairly long for metabolic conditioning where you attempt to finish as fast as possible with good technique. You will burn off all your Xmas party food and then some! Try it out if you are up for a challenge and report back how it went. If you do not have equipment for certain exercises, you can swap exercises out for pure body weight exercises.

Just got back from this workout and had a blast. We only had a single class today so there were quite a few people there. It was so exciting to have 12-15 people together doing this workout, encouraging each other, in a single room. We had to watch out for rogue kettle bell swings and also jump over other barbells to move between station for toes 2 elbow and our own station. A little crazy, but worth it! The hardest part for me were the Turkish get ups on the step 12 after being thoroughly toasted and winded. I spend too much time looking at my legs, trying to coordinate them, and not enough time staring at the base of the kettle bell. Another one for me to work on. My finishing time was 29:59, which was 2nd. How was your workout today on Xmas eve?

It is all good. The coaches will ease you into it. Number one rule is not to compare yourself to others as there will always be stronger, faster or weaker, slower folks. It is about your progression and goals. However, I do admit I look up to a lot of athletes at my box, super impressed by what they can do. I make it a point to learn from others where I can and always remember that today is a day to improve in some way. Not every day will be a good day and some days you have to force rest onto yourself to avoid overtraining or rest because you feel broken. You listen to your body and do the best you can.

Yes, it is the people! I have made a lot of friends at cross fit because you see these people day after day and you are all in it together, sweating, screaming, gnashing teeth, even bleeding in some cases. Yes, I have gotten my fair amount of scrapes from power cleans, snatches, ripping your hands from a massive amount of pull ups or t2b or even falling after a failed box jump. Fortunately, you have your team cheering you on to get back up. It also helps to have endorphins flowing to mask any pain.

Cross fit is different from pdx90 and insanity because they (the pdx90 and insanity) are more about conditioning where your body gets really conditioned to a set of workouts and exercises. This is what I have been told at one point by a cross fit coach when asking the same question several months ago. Cross fit is different in that it is designed to prepare the athlete for the unknown and unknowable. I know it sounds a bit mysterious, but basically cross fit prepares the athlete in a general manner for a dozen or so set of core competencies described in my post above. It takes a long time (years) for the average athlete to get "good" at cross fit where they can compete and do well. I am still learning skills daily and trying to improve skill where I have a chance of competing, even at the regional level. Maybe it will happen this summer (2014), but probably next summer (2015). There is always room to get better at it as the months and years roll by. It is a long term commitment. However, if you are after a ripped or toned body, one should get a desired physique after a few months of doing the daily workouts ( and taking at least 2 days rest a week). It is hard. I am just starting to Rx the workouts as prescribed with good times. My box has a competitor program that is to prepare athletes for competition. It is a 2-3 hour daily commitment and much more advanced. As for standard cross fit workouts, you have to be mentally prepared to keep going when your stamina and endurance runs out. Every part of your body is screaming "stop", but it is at this point where you elevate a core competency. It is also where you make tremendous physical returns. You want to put close to 100% effort into each workout. For these reasons, I think cross fit will produce better results than insanity and pdx90 long term, but that is just an opinion. It is a lively debate if you Google the comparisons people give.

As some are aware, I am quite active in my daily fitness. With daily fitness comes pain. Instead of popping Tylenol or ibuprofen (may interfere with the Protein synthesis process), I want to offer the following book list. Frankly I am tired of pain medicine and want to address the structural issues directly that lead to inflammation. I own them all and they are quite practical. If you have books or general suggestions you would like to add to this thread, please feel free to post. 1. " 8 steps to a Pain Free back" - The latest addition to my library I have just started reading. Highly recommended for people who struggled with daily back and neck pain (me). The basic premise is that as a western culture we have lost or forgotten basic healthy posturing for sitting, walking, standing, lifting and sleeping still upheld by other cultures. I just got this book and am looking forward to the basic wisdom that so many have benefitted from. 2. "Supple leopard" - This book is targeted at athletes (specifically lifts and movements of cross fit), but can benefit any athletic sport. The basic premise is that we can heal our own bodies by stretching, posturing, using bands, lacrosse balls, etc instead of going to the doctor, chiropractor, massage therapist, physical therapist etc. It really puts the mechanics of our body in our control and saves time and money. Sometimes specialists are still needed, but a lot of the injuries, aches and pains can be prevented or addressed by following the practical knowledge in the sports therapy "bible." Each muscular/skeletal system of the body is given ample treatment in terms of functional capabilities and treatment. There are also detailed step by step instructions for proper movements on Olympic lifts. I find this book extremely practical on a day to day basis. 3. "Genius of Flexibility"- excellent knowledge and wisdom with regards to true stretching, stretching that results in permanent results. I try and go through the stretching set daily before working out. This is the most thorough, advanced and practical set of stretches I have seen. The basic premise is that resistance must be applied during a stretch to create permanent results. By resistance, I mean resistance created by pushing or pulling with only body as a stretch is held.

70 per month? That is not too bad considering average cost is considerably higher. My dues, for example, are 150 a month. You get essentially a PT when working out.

I hope it stops soon too.

Yup, premier shakes are very good, especially when chilled in the fridge. My wife and I have one every morning. Woe is the day when one of us forgets to restock the fridge with the shakes. And there was much gnashing of teeth. Lol. I have just switched to a new post workout shake today called Hydrobuilder from Optimum Nutrition. It has 30 g of protein plus a ton of other good ingredients for protein synthesis (aka building lean muscle) such as 13.5 g bcaa complex, 5 g beta alanine, 5 g creatine and 2.5 g betaine. The reason I switched to this one is I read a ton of good reviews on it from people who were taking Syntha 6 (that was my previous goto post workout powder). One of the main reasons I switched is also because of a big reduction in sugar carbs. Syntha 6 was a good powder and served me well for about a year.

Clicking on a BP post link from another post will open that as a web page request to the BP web app instead of the BP mobile app. This is kind of weird (and annoying?) for the post reader. It would be better if the mobile app could be a little smarter about keeping the user within the mobile app context when clicking on a link to another BP post, even if that link is initially directed at the web app. Maybe this is something the mobile app can "fix" during a post composition or post editing flow by analyzing the link as the post is being read and accepted by the system. If it is determined to point to another BP post, then translate to an internal linking uri that the mobile app will understand. Maybe it is implemented as a special WIKI tag, depending on what underlying authoring language BP uses when persisting a user post. Useful?

I have often wondered about this. Is there a way for users to change titles on threads they have started?

I think you mean grams and not mg. 30 g of protein is about the maximum a woman of average height and frame performing an average amount of activity can absorb in a 2-3 hour period. For men, this number is 40 g. My suggestion is to shoot for the optimal amount if you can. Clearly, someone who is a week out from surgery will still be thinking about drinking 2-3 ounces at a time, but someone who is 5-6 months out can start to think about optimizing their protein supplementation for best results. You can really start playing with higher protein numbers the more active you are, especially if you are looking to put on lean muscle growth.

Good tips. I think I had a serious patience issue when dealing with yoga, especially the slow classes like vinyasa flow. I am probably more flexible now then when I tried yoga out at the beginning of 2013. I do some variations on yoga every day for my mobility section of cross fit 20-30 min). Movements like pigeon, Samson and couch. I like the pigeon because it gets the crankiness and creakiness out of my hip abductors. Hold those for like 30 seconds with my leg bent under my chest, forehead on the ground, hands stretched out in front and hips flat against the floor. It helps when I have some large number of squat lifts for the day or box jumps. I just have memories about not being so flexible a year ago and having to endure an hour of yoga was tough for me. Perhaps I should give it a try again, now a year later, if it will indeed help and I don't get frustrated with it.

excellent. I am glad to have you in the challenge.

Still feeling ugly this morning. I have vowed to myself to eat clean this week and detox my system. Stay away from sugar!!

Still cannot get basic formatting like new lines to work when composing a post. Then when I update a post, all new lines are lost. Can this get fixed? It is pretty low hanging fruit as far as bugs go. I checked for an update on Bariatric Pal in the store and did not find one. I am on latest. It doesn't work on my razor 2 phone either. I wish WYSIWYG support exists and minimally text formatting would be preserved. Help?

I am pretty content that the formatting is working fairly well on composition of new threads or new posts within a thread. Thanks! A minor issue I found is that when formatted content is copied into the new post it looks right, but there appears to be extra new lines when the thread is refreshed in the rendering of the content. This is not a big deal to me and would have a low severity. I would much rather get the right number of new lines or extra new lines then no new lines (as was happening when I started this thread). Here is an example. I copied the following text into this post: Metabolic Conditioning - builds capacity in each of three metabolic pathways, beginning with aerobic, then lactic acid, and then phosphocreatine pathways. Gymnastics - establishes functional capacity for body control and range of motion. Weightlifting and throwing - develop ability to control external objects and produce power. Sport - applies fitness in competitive atmosphere with more randomized movements and skill mastery. There are no blank new lines visible in the content when the text is in the edit area of a post. However, in the rendered view, there are new lines. I am also looking forward to when the edit post "collapse new lines" bug will get fixed with a new version of the app in the iOS store.

Cross fit definitely has cardio, but they call it metabolic conditioning. It is a bit like HIIT in that it really trains and pushes your cardio response in terms of stamina and endurance. The metabolic conditioning (or met cons) workouts tend to be short. Most workouts are between 10-20 minutes, but some are even shorter (a good Fran workout time may be 4 minutes or a Tabata style workout might be 8 minutes) and some are longer ( average filthy 50 time would be about 30 minutes, I do it in about 23 minutes). The length of a met con workout, if the workout is for time, depends on how fast you are which translates into how fit you are while paying close attention to good form and movement for a set of core competences. Each workout tests the following list of core competences: Metabolic Conditioning - builds capacity in each of three metabolic pathways, beginning with aerobic, then lactic acid, and then phosphocreatine pathways. Gymnastics - establishes functional capacity for body control and range of motion. Weightlifting and throwing - develop ability to control external objects and produce power. Sport - applies fitness in competitive atmosphere with more randomized movements and skill mastery. There is always room to improve any one of these areas no matter where you are at in your fitness journey.

Somatics looks rather interesting. I am going to research that some more and see how it differs from yoga.

Here is a video from Reebok that defines Cross fit in a very practical manner: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NoFlNa6B9fo It still motivates me today after being an active cross fit guy for almost a year now. I enjoy Cross fit not only as an incredible rewarding workout experience, but also as a community of friends to grow with. You will get to know your Cross fit buddies quite well as you grow together. It is quite different from the typical gym experience and is more like working out with your squad (military, fire fighting, police, etc) or with your sport team (football, soccer, baseball, etc). You will feel a real sense of belonging after a while with the people you work out with. Everyone will come from different backgrounds and have different levels of athleticism and experience, but they are are there doing the same workout together. Those that finish earlier will cheer on and motivate those that are still finishing. Any workout can be scaled to whatever your current stare of fitness is at.

I am going to take back my statement above about sugar not affecting me. My wife and I hosted a huge cookie decorating party today for extended family. There was a ton of sugary food (and non sugary food) from frosted cookies to home made marsh mellows to homemade almond roca to home made candied pecans to gourmet chocolates to... Trying one thing led to another. I sampled it all. Oh I was so naughty ! anyways, I was not feeling good afterwards and went to lay down. I was sweating, very warm, heart was racing and I was overly lethargic. I promptly passed out and napped for a couple hours. When I woke up my whole body ached. I mean really ached deep in the muscles. I started drinking water because I thought that might help due to a dehydration effect from the sugar (or some other anatomical process). It did. After about 45 minutes the aches are diminished. My body must not have liked that sugar rush at all (insulin response through the roof?) after eating fairly strict paleo for almost a year and not having any real sugar amounts from food since pre surgery (1.5 year ago). I don't think I will be doing that again nor will I eat much sugar again if I can help it. That did not feel pleasant at all. Definitely an overdose of sugar. Almost like the effects of drinking alcohol to excess and passing out. I have never done that, but I imagine the process would be about the same as sugar is a drug as alcohol is a drug to the body. Not meaning to derail others from enjoying their xmas parties. I just wanted to share what happened for me in case it helps someone.

I've always been a wimp about trying an actual ice bath. The closest I have gotten to it is the coldest I can set my shower to. It starts giving me a headache after more then 5 seconds on my neck, upper back and shoulders. It does seem to help temporarily. Pragmatically, how does one have enough ice to take a daily ice bath? Well, perhaps not daily but often.

There are several ways. You can use calibers, a scale, a body pod, or being measured in water. The first is the most practical if you know how to measure it or someone who can do it. Some home scales measure body fat, but they may be off +-5%. I use WW scale and it does have body fat as a measurement, but I do not put much stock in it for accuracy. Your surgical center might have an industrial strength scale that can read body fat. Mine does. It is better than a home scale, but may not be as accurate still as the other measurement tools. Body pod and water measurements are very accurate, but tend to be very pricy as a means to measure body fat except if you are wealthy to do it often or have a special occasion (perhaps reaching goal).

I like that the Treat your own XXXX books are cheap. Thanks for the suggestion. I tried yoga for a while several months ago, but my body did not enjoy being twisted into pretzels or being held in uncomfortable positions for extended periods of time. Tried to give it a chance. Maybe things will change in the future.