by SecretSlaveClass 53 Replies latest watchtower medical
GrreatTeacher:
Some questions.
Which disks were herniated in the original accident? I'm assuming the damage was to his lower lumbar area judging by the leg pain (pinching or infringement of the sciatica).
Were they partially herniated, or did they suffer tearing?
Hyper rotation of the spine is often more destructive than impact injuries, unfortunately.
And yes it is entirely possible that the long term effects from running contributed to the deterioration of both vertebrae and discs.
Heaven:
There is always time to exercise. Seriously, who can't afford thirty minutes a day? If you'd like I can give you a list of easy to do exercises to get your heart rate up and you can do them in front of the TV instead of being sedentary during your favorite show.
I would be happy to help you, just ask.
Hey SSC... thank you. Yes, pls, I'd love a list of easy exercises. While I don't watch much (really, any) TV, I'd still like them as I might be able to do these while I'm working.
My schedule is so all over the map it's not funny. My job is pretty stressful and time consuming. I find if I get my exercise routine stopped I don't get back to it. Sometimes I have stressful situations for months at a time at work. Other times I am not very busy at all. I don't have a regular schedule where 30 minutes of free time is available to me consistently to do some fun kind of exercises - you know the enjoyable things like you mentioned and of course, horseback riding which is really more like a 4 hour minimum thing.
I have not picked up my mail for over a week now. It's sitting at the end of the street in the SuperBox. I will try to run down after work today to grab it as long as something doesn't blow up at work. Last week, my recycle and compost bins did not make it out to the curb. And man, that compost is stinky now!
Most of my 'exercise' is doing necessary day to day chores. This weekend I was at my Dad's and hauled a bunch of boxes from his basement to his bedroom upstairs. I definitely sweated doing that. I shoveled snow this morning for 30 minutes. Looks like we'll be doing that for most of this week here as well.
I have 2, 5, and 10 lbs hand weights. Can they be useful in those exercises you mentioned?
What are your thoughts on Weight Watchers? Do you ever recommend it to your clients?
I was sort of against it, not because I didn't believe it would work but for two reasons, my husband kept pushing it on me and I knew he would be allowed more points than I and l felt I would start eating things I normally wouldn't eat, just because I could and possibly not lose. For example, my husband would eat waffles with syrup, i already felt i was eating a heathier breakfast and didn't want to start habits I didnt already have.
Anyway, we bought fitbits last november, started doing 10,000 steps a day and a tracked my calories in vs calories out with a 750 calorie deficit built in. Was pretty consistent in this and by January, only lost about 2 lbs. but could see some differences in the way clothing fit. But I was exhausted, my legs feeling like weights were on them when I would walk. I was taking advil and sometimes a recovery drink just to make it through to the next workout. I sort of fell off.
My huband joined WW in February and i refused to do it. I think i mainly didnt want to be disappointed if I don't see results but was sacrificing more than my husband. (I know I have issues, but we've jumped on and off of bandwagons for years. He's always the one with the suggestion and the first to quit it. So it becomes irritating when I'm the only one still ay it)
Well he lost 2 lbs the 1st week. Another 2 the 2nd week and is down at least 10 now. So I gave in and joined out of desperation to shed some lbs. I'm going into week 4 and have lost 4 lbs. I'm only getting 10,000 steps about 4 times a week but mo less than 5,000. My goal is to get back up to the 10,000 daily but i'll do it gradually so I'm not so fatigued.
I don't doubt that my original strategy would not have worked but I feel it would've taken about 3-4 months before I made a breakthrough. What worked for me 10 years ago is not working the same for me know that I'm my forties. I used to increase exercise, then start modifying my food within a couple of months or once I hit a plateau so as to maintain my energy during the beginning.
I don't get what i was doing wrong this time but I know that WW is working for now. I'm not sure if i was stressing my body out trying to burn so many calories just so I could keep eating what i wanted. Sometimes I would be way less than the 750 daily calorie deficit. I also didn't force myself to eat breakfast and lunch. I would sometimes do one or the other depending on how busy my work day was. Now, I'm doing both, just so there are no unused points at the end of my day.
The fusion is through L4, L5 and S1.
They don't think the original discs were torn, but were so herniated that there wasn't much left in terms of support.
Now the discs above and below the fusion are bulging and causing additional pain. This was predicted as any bending motion now puts additional stress on the surrounding discs.
But I was exhausted, my legs feeling like weights were on them when I would walk. I was taking advil and sometimes a recovery drink just to make it through to the next workout. I sort of fell off.
Kidding me, I think your problem with exercise is that you were trying to do too much too soon. Especially as you get older it's important to give your body time to adjust to doing more, pushing yourself to the point your legs feel like weights is too much, with the inevitable result that you get discouraged and quit or cut down too much. I am 61 and can do 10,00 steps now, but I had to work up to that over a period of six months. It wouldn't take you as long of course, but what ls important is creating life long habits, not how fast you get there.
I am always struggling with this concept, as I am sure many do. if I didn't push myself some I would still he a couch potato, but if I push too much then it's counterproductive. You really have to learn to listen to your body, to pay attention to what it is telling With my being older and having multiple health issues I had to start very slowly and work my up. You will be able to go faster but the concept is the same, each time you add time or increase reps give your body a chance to adjust.
I don't get what i was doing wrong this time but I know that WW is working for now. I'm not sure if i was stressing my body out trying to burn so many calories just so I could keep eating what i wanted. Sometimes I would be way less than the 750 daily calorie deficit. I also didn't force myself to eat breakfast and lunch. I would sometimes do one or the other depending on how busy my work day was. Now, I'm doing both, just so there are no unused points at the end of my day.
I don't think it's a good idea to do less than a 750 calorie deficit. Just like with the exercise you should be looking at this as a long term strategy, not how quickly you can lose. I have heard that creating too much of a deficit will cause your body to go into starvation mode, your metabolism will actually slow down and start burning less calories, so it's counter productive. That is why they generally tell you to not skip meals, you want to keep your metabolism at its maximum.
The other problem is that you are setting yourself up for failure. You can white knuckle your way through a very restrictive diet in the short term, but you will eventually hit a wall, get discouraged or tired of the deprivation and fall off your diet and gain the weight back. You don't just want to lose X pounds but to keep them off in the long run. It's far better to lose twenty pounds and keep them off than to lose forty and just regain it that the end of six months.
Just my 2 cents worth of info.
Firstly I will up be front and say I'm not a academically trained Physical Therapist or Nutritionist either for that matter but what I have been involved in running and weight training over the years. I'm in my mid 50's now and I still run and workout every second day. My experience is that you can get a good healthy cardio workout by walking at a good pace either on a tread mill or outside. This is good start to tone your lower half of your body with less amount of stress to your back, knees and feet.
The key here to keep a constant fast pace for a set amount of time.
Once this is a accomplished for at least a week or so , you might want try jogging lightly if you can or fast pace walking on a tread mill.
Most tread mills have incline adjustments so that when you increase the incline that puts more stress to you cardio vascular system and your heat rate will also increase proportionally.
You can stay in a target rate by walking briskly, not necessarily running which puts more stress on your knees and back. A tread mill in your home is really advantageous for you can use it when you have time and not travel to a gym somewhere, you can listen to music or even watch TV and movies etc. I have one so that's why I'm speaking from experience.
The other advantage to working out on a tread mill or elliptical trainer is you don't have to worry about the weather, its an indoor exercise so you can start and keep fit all year round.
Elliptical trainers have also advanced greatly over the years and they should also be considered for their ability to create a strong cardio work out with less stress to you joints, they can actually burn calories faster as well.
Just to keep things interesting its a good idea to do other forms of exercise like swimming a couple times a week.
As far as eating the best way to lose weight quickly is stay on a fruit and vegetable diet, with a portion of meat protein every second day. Fruit and vegetables are low calrliorie, high nutritious food groups, so for myself I eat a lot of salads and fruit smoothies topped up with some protein additives.
Live healthy folks, the effects will be beneficial for you now as well into the future .
For anyone interested in this thread I would like to ask you to consider acquiring two free apps available on both IOS and Android.
FitnessBuddy: loaded with just about every exercise imaginable with great animations brilliantly demonstrating correct exercise form, definitely the best exercise app out there for learning how to do exercises correctly. It also allows you to construct your own workout regimens. Having this would help me help you greatly.
MyFitnessPal: A fantastic comprehensive app for keeping track of caloric intake and output. It lists the calories, carbohydrates, fat and fiber of tens of thousands of foods from every imaginable fruit and vegetable to thousands of name brand foods. By simply scanning the QR or bar codes on brand foods it instantly records all the nutritional information per serving.
Heaven:
I'm putting together a few workout routines for you so you don't get bored doing the same exercises all the time while simultaneously keeping them simple and doable almost anywhere, anytime. Yes, you will be able to incorporate the use of your Dumbbells on most of the exercises should you so desire.
KiwddingMe:
Yes WW most certainly does work provided you're consistent and disciplined which is where most people fail. People in general naturally want to see their investments pay dividends and when it seems the dividends aren't worth the investment or coming fast enough, they give up.
Personally I do not prescribe WW for my clients. Instead I tailor their diets based on personal criteria. This way I have complete control and can instantly identify problem areas and correct them accordingly (of course this only works on the assumption that the client is actually doing what is asked of them or what they claim to be doing) and I can also tell if they are being dishonest or not investing the required effort.
The problem with WW is it's far too generalized and doesn't take into account the many variables which exist between individuals. An example would be somatotypes which is extremely important for prescribing both diet and exercise but particularly the former.
Here's an example. If you don't take bone structure into account the caloric projection will be inaccurate at best. Let's assume two people of the same height, weight and age are prescribed a diet. The difference is one person has a large, thick bone structure (endomorphs) while the other has a fine, thin bone structure (ectomorph). If somatotypes are ignored in the equation then the difference in skeletal weight is completely ignored so the amount of calories the endomorphs is restricted to should not be the same as the ectomorph, the ectomorph should have a much larger caloric restriction. This is one of the prime reasons we have social problems like anorexia and bulimia. One can hardly expect a 5'6 endomorph with heavier bones to weigh the same as an ectomorph of the same height. The endomorph could look emaciate duet still be overweight while the opposite would be true of the ectomorph. This is why I'm firmly opposed to any suggestion based on the old Body Mass Index (BMI) system.
If you are feeling burned out for a prolonged period you are either over doing your exercise, calorie deficient or more likely, both. In my opinion a 750 calorie deficit is way too much for someone who is doing moderate to intense exercise. You could potentially even doing harm to yourself particularly if your caloric deficit is causing your body to break down muscle (referred to as a catabolic state) to fuel part of your exercise known as gluconeogenesis. Over an extended period of time this can cause serious harm to the renal system or even complete kidney failure. It's highly unlikely that your caloric deficit or exercise intensity is drastic enough to cause this, but it's important to be aware of he potential consequences of not having enough calories in the form of carbohydrates and essential fats to fuel your workouts.
Do not skip meals! Doing this will retard your metabolism instead of optimizing it. Ideally you would eat three main meals and have an additional 2-3 sneak times spread out during the course of your day.
If you give me your height, weight, age and an estimate of your bone structure along with the type, frequency and time length of your exercises I could give you a better idea of what your caloric intake should be. I'll also break it down into caloric needs for each category, namely carbohydrates, protein and essential fats. If you would prefer to furnish me privately with this information, please feel free to PM me. Or email me at [email protected].
As a side note, never let anyone force you into a diet or exercise routine you do not want to do. All this is likely to do is cause resentment for your routines as well as the person forcing it on you.
Also remember: stay off the scale! Scales are a curse for non professionals because they fail to convey a complete understanding of what is actually taking place. Measurements are a far better indicator. If your clothes are fitting you better, if you feel more energetic then you are doing things right. Because you lost weight it doesn't mean you necessarily lost fat, you may have lost muscle and gained fat (muscle is heavier than fat) and if you gained weight but lost inches, then you gained muscle but lost fat which is the ideal situation.
LisaRose:
I was writing this while you posted, but as usual, you are spot on. Move to Westchester so you can be my ideal client - pllllllleeeeaaasseee! 😉
Finkelstein:
As far as eating the best way to lose weight quickly is stay on a fruit and vegetable diet, with a portion of meat protein every second day. Fruit and vegetables are low calrliorie, high nutritious food groups, so for myself I eat a lot of salads and fruit smoothies topped up with some protein additives.
While fruit and vegetables are super foods for healthy living, providing vitamins, fiber and superior forms of sugar, this is still not a one-diet-for-all solution. While vegetables are fine to eat alone for those with diabetes, the same is not true for fruit. I say this because not all fruit are created equal. Ideally diabetics would want to have a source of protein with their carbohydrates to slow the absorption of sugars. If fruit is to be consumed on its own there is a very good rule of thumb for this: eat what grows from a tree, not from the ground. In other words a banana would be ideal while a pineapple would not.
otherwise for non diabetic or non pre-diabetic persons, or persons not involved in high intensity exercise or trying to gain muscle, your suggestion is perfectly fine.
Thanks for your input SeacretSalveClass
Its been touched upon slightly on this thread about the valuable attributes of exercise and mental heath and yes physical exercise will not only help your physical conditioning state but also your mental health for doing so will increase your ability to deal with stress, add in some pleasantly experienced increase in endorphins activity.
Your body will eventually not only look better but also your mental state will also improve.
Practicing psychotherapists will often suggest getting involved in some form of physical exercise to releave depression and mental stress.
