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Post by M@ on Mar 13, 2020 21:21:16 GMT
Weight: 287.2 lbsI woke up this morning with my right ankle so gout-ridden that it felt almost fused in place. I put off my workout (lower body, power) for most of the morning to see if it would limber up with some Advil and Colchicine and it did. I switched out barbell hack squats for front squats because I didn't think I could get the full range of motion for the latter. I had some trepidation about that because I felt like I was cheating myself and - to be honest - the front squats wipe me out so much that I was taking an easy way out. LOL Hack squats kicked my ass. I feel like I did them all with perfect form and I failed on the last rep of set 3 and second to last on set 4. I just sat down on the bar involuntarily. I was sweating like crazy and it felt like my kneecaps were going to shoot off of my legs from the pump in my quads right down at the joint. It was a really, really good workout overall. Work was chaotic. I was told that I'd have to cancel the in-person training session that I'd been scheduled to go for next Monday through Wednesday. When I called the account rep to cancel, she said that six other people (of the 20 registered) had called to cancel and they were scrambling to convert it to an online session. They got that squared away by the end of the day and I just got my login for their virtual environment. Everything tested out great, so despite there not being an official full-time telework directive from the office right now, I won't be going back into the office until at least March 24th. I am SO glad that I don't work in disaster assistance anymore. I mean, I've been happy about that for two years, but especially today. My best wishes to all my former coworkers who are going to be pulling huge overtime to deal with this national declaration. A coworker of mine has had to self-quarantine because her son traveled internationally and is feeling ill. Her bedridden, stroke-disabled mother lives with her and she had to call the visiting physical therapist not to come over because of the quarantine. The PT was despondent and pleaded that she could still come because she was healthy. So no work, no pay for her. There's another person whose livelihood is taking a hit from all of this. It's scary to think of the impact this is going to have on the economy. Everything is scary, actually. I'm pretty anxious.
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Post by macdiver on Mar 14, 2020 16:09:16 GMT
I don't know about every state, but in Washington, they are opening up partial unemployment benefits to people who are losing work like the PT mentioned above.
Hope the gout resolves quickly.
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Post by seltzer on Mar 14, 2020 20:50:36 GMT
With the Stafford Act being invoked there should eventually be some help for folks, but my concern for them is cash flow. If the rent is due in two weeks, you're living paycheck to paycheck, and you have a land lord who either can't or won't make accommodations, and this relief doesn't come for another six weeks (Just using that as an example) you're in trouble.
A very good friend of mine owns a local restaurant and business is down. Circumstances are such that we can't make it there anytime soon, but tomorrow I'm going to buy a gift certificate to help him with his cash flow.
Sorry to read about your gout. Both of my BIL's suffer from it and based upon what I know from their descriptions, it's very painful. And believe me they are tough dudes. Hope you feel better soon.
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Post by M@ on Mar 15, 2020 5:38:57 GMT
Hope the gout resolves quickly. I'm at 100% mobility and am only feeling pain in the extremes of the range of motion when I flex my calves. All in all, a very minor attack that was easily dealt with. Both of my BIL's suffer from it and based upon what I know from their descriptions, it's very painful. Dude...when you get a significant attack, it's agony. I'm sure there is worse pain in the world, but an acute gout flare up is the worst pain I've experienced. It's like a bad burn in that it just keeps coming. You do something that eases the pain for a little while but, as soon as it wears off, it all comes flooding back again. The weight of a bed sheet is enough to make you scream. My worst attack was in 2017 when I was still doing emergency response and was on travel in Fort Worth, TX. My left ankle, knee, and right big toe got blasted and I couldn't put on a sock, let alone a shoe. I literally crawled across the courtyard of an extended-stay hotel at 2:45 am and asked the guy at the front desk if they had a first aid kit with some NSAIDs because I couldn't drive a car to go to CVS or anything. He gave me two double fistfuls of everything they had (Advil) and pleaded with me to let him call an ambulance. I had to convince him that this was routine. So that was a ten on the pain scale for gout. Friday's flare-up was maybe a three on a scale of one to ten. The big problem is that I drink beer. Beer has to be the worst damn thing in the world for gout and inflammation in general. If I limited my drinking to wine or, better, hard liquor it'd be manageable, but I don't have interest in either of those libations and if I do drink them I wind up drinking beer afterwards. I've seriously considered flushing my palliative drugs so that I have to experience the full impact of my stupid decisions regarding beer. I probably should do that. I've thought the same thing about heartburn medication. Also: Mussels. Mussels are so packed with purines (the thing that triggers gout attacks) that I've had an attack every time I've eaten mussels since 2010. It's a shame 'cause I love mussels. Weight: 282.6 lbsI took the kids to the playground at a local elementary school this morning and got some great pictures. There were a lot of people there, avoiding cabin fever like me. I forgot to wash the kids' hands when we got home and only remembered when I saw them stuffing fistfuls of food into their mouths. Hopefully they won't get the virus. Thank god it seems to be sparing the young. I went to the range and hit a bucket, but my head's not in the game like it should be. I've been wearing my AirPods and listening to audiobooks at the range recently and I think it's sapping my focus. I want to prioritize bodybuilding over golf - because I have the rest of my life for golf but every day that goes by, hypertrophy becomes less likely without supplemental pharmacology - but ditching the audiobooks in favor of focusing on the task at hand would be an unrelated sacrifice. I think I'll do that going forward. It's important to make my range sessions, now that they're more limited, as efficient as they can be. My abs were too sore to work today so I did forearms and calves after a few aborted abdominal attempts. Tomorrow is upper-body hypertrophy and I'm eager to get it done. I'm staying up way too late and am fucking up my sleep (and have a beer next to me) but I had to post-process those photos for the grandparents tomorrow. Such a lame excuse and I know it's not true. I'm up late because it feels good to have time to myself and I'm enjoying the beer. I can feel my ankle fusing as I type. I'm an idiot.
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Post by shamie on Mar 15, 2020 16:56:59 GMT
I had a small case in the big toe and the area below it on my right foot, it was painful, but nothing like you wrote above.
It looks like you lost 5 lbs in a week. Keep it up.
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Post by M@ on Mar 17, 2020 13:05:15 GMT
It looks like you lost 5 lbs in a week. Keep it up. I'm basically treading water with weight loss due to utter lack of compliance in my nutrition. I'll eat well for two days then blow it on the third. The good news is that I'm definitely gaining muscle. My measurements in low-fat areas (forearms, chest, calves) are increasing week to week. This is the most rapid hypertrophy I've ever experienced and it's making me excited to continue. Weight: 284.2 lbsIn the midst of all the coronavirus news, I read this article yesterday. It dramatically changed my perspective on the measures that are being taken. It also scared the fuck out of me. We're going to cancel our plans to attend Sara's cousin's wedding next weekend in VA Beach. I doubt it will go forward at any rate (it's on a military base and I doubt they'll be cool with 200 civilians congregating) but I figure the more advanced notice I can give the bride and groom, the better. I'm doing online training all day today and tomorrow. There's a short break right now while they get a technical issue sorted out. Otherwise it's fully occupying my attention.
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Post by M@ on Mar 17, 2020 16:19:37 GMT
Just got a call from management to let me know that someone in my office has tested positive for the virus. That person attended an all-hands meeting last Thursday in the same room with 50+ people. Irony alert: The topic was teleworking and social distancing to mitigate the spread of the virus. I attended that meeting remotely, but may have been in contact with the person earlier in the week. We were too late taking action. Hope the consequences aren't too severe. My mom, along with my dad in their 11 floor high-rise condo full of other 55+ year olds, has gone from blase to very, very frightened. And now I need to stay away from them.
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Post by seltzer on Mar 17, 2020 17:26:49 GMT
Keeping my fingers crossed that you weren't infected.
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Post by macdiver on Mar 17, 2020 23:41:46 GMT
Scary stuff. Hopefully your interaction with him was minor and before he was contagious.
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Post by macdiver on Mar 18, 2020 1:07:34 GMT
Scary stuff. Hopefully your interaction with him was minor and before he was contagious.
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Post by Merk on Mar 18, 2020 15:54:03 GMT
Breathe deep, one foot in front of the other. We're in this together and we're going to be ok.
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Post by M@ on Mar 18, 2020 21:56:21 GMT
Keeping my fingers crossed that you weren't infected. If it wasn't them, it's likely to have been someone else. That, however, is fatalism. I'm feeling fine. Scary stuff. Hopefully your interaction with him was minor and before he was contagious. I don't actually know the gender because of HIPPA rules, and if I had any interaction with them it was just the surfaces they were around. They shut the building down completely today to disinfect our area and the larger (shopping-mall sized) remainder of the GSA-owned property after another person was a presumptive positive. Breathe deep, one foot in front of the other. We're in this together and we're going to be ok. My only concession to panic so far has been to move the keys to the gun safe to a slightly more convenient location. It wouldn't take much for me to start freaking out, though. I'm very worried about my parents, my in-laws, my grandma, and all the other high-risk folks whom I love and who are not convinced that this is a serious issue. Weight: 281.9 lbsHooray for home gyms! Sara, who was initially reticent about us spending the money needed for a basement gym (then relaxed after we passed the break-even mark from having cancelled our gym memberships) is loving weight training and is as grateful as I am that we have access to everything we need at home. I did accessory (abs, calves, and forearms) work today. It's the first time in 2020 that I've trained my obliques, so we'll see how debilitating that turns out to be. We've got flank steak, chicken breast, and ground beef that we're working to turn in to a bunch of healthy meals over the next couple of days. I'm used to working from home three days a week (M, Th, F) so it feels like Friday since I've been working three days at home so far. I'm incredibly, incredibly, incredibly fortunate to be able to telework and that Sara is a full-time mom. We've been minimally impacted. My friends have not been so lucky. A friends' job has let her know that they can keep paying salaries for two weeks before they have to lay everyone off. Meanwhile, their daycare is still demanding payment despite the kids being home and isolated along with the parents. I sympathize with the daycare provider, but they can go fuck themselves. Food, mortgage, utilities, then everything else should be the financial priority. I should draw up plans to Mad-max'ize my Honda Fit.
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Post by M@ on Mar 20, 2020 1:46:17 GMT
Weight: 281.9 lbsI'm absolutely blown away by how much my muscles are growing. I've never had these kind of results in my life, not even when I was on testosterone replacement therapy. I did my upper power workout today and was walking around the basement feeling like I was going to bust through my shirt. I felt like I isolated my lats for the first time ever and they were bulging with a pump after five sets of pulldowns with very light weight but they burned. Alex was looking at my screen as I typed yesterday and said, "Daddy, that's you. You're snuggling a pup!" I've been texting my friend Damion a lot (mentioned obliquely in the last post regarding his wife's employer) while we both adjust to being home with the wife and two kids. We're both trying to talk each other into buying a Nintendo Switch while everyone's stuck at home. I mean, if you're ever going to buy a family-friendly videogame console, now's the time, right? Sara was skeptical at first but is rapidly warming to the idea as the kids get sick of their immediate surroundings. The only problem is that nobody seems to have them in stock. I'm hoping that retailers will get a shipment from Nintendo around 3/25 since that seems to be when most places are promising the backorder, but with the current environment: Who knows?
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Post by seltzer on Mar 20, 2020 14:03:50 GMT
Nice to read that you're getting great results; it's physically beneficial as well as being a stress reducer.
With so many people working from home it's been a huge adjustment for those that are used to going into an office and those of us, like me, who normally are in the house alone. Wifey, who works from home two days a week is adjusting okay, but dear son is already going a bit crazy. Aside from less than usual interaction with coworkers he's getting frustrated because in his office he has two large monitors and at home he is relegated to one lap top screen so everything takes longer. Much of what he does is time sensitive so he's working longer hours to complete his tasks with decreased productivity. Lose-lose.
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Post by M@ on Mar 20, 2020 20:00:48 GMT
Aside from less than usual interaction with coworkers he's getting frustrated because in his office he has two large monitors and at home he is relegated to one lap top screen so everything takes longer. I couldn't handle that. I'd take leave before I'd try to work that way. In my training this week, there were four people who were working from home and were stuck with the ~13" laptop monitor furnished by their work equipment. The stuff we were doing was next to impossible with a single monitor. We had to coach them that they could connect tablets, TV's, etc. I have two 1920x1200 monitors on my home desktop plus an additional 1920x1080 satellite monitor that attaches to my 1920x1080 work-issued laptop (which also has a 1920x1080 display). Additionally, I have an iPad Pro and a Macbook Pro. All are currently running. I'm looking at six monitors as I type this, not counting the two iPhones (one work, one personal) on stands so that I can see whatever comes up on the notifications. I paid for all of the ancillary stuff myself because I can't work without it. I was pissed off when work recently switched to docking stations/port replicators with USB-C connections and I had to replace my docking station. I also bought a whiteboard for my cubicle at work and keep my workspace stocked with fresh Expo markers while the rest of the organization uses these insanely cheap dry-erase markers made by blind people (literally). I believe in spending my money where I spend my time. It makes sense to just provide this stuff for myself rather than waiting for work to buy it. Although, I admit that it was nice when I was a manager and could just write up a supplies request for anything I wanted. I don't think a month has gone by without someone asking me where I got that whiteboard in my cubicle. When I tell them I bought it for $35 on Amazon they get a sour-faced expression and drop the subject. Weight: 287.3 lbsI ate an entire box of Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese last night around 11:00 pm. I don't know what spawned the craving, but I just had to have it. My scale weight reflects having ingested something like 1200% of the RDA for sodium in one sitting. My entire upper-body is perfectly sore from yesterday's workout, so I did it right. My forearms are so burnt that my hands and fingers feel ticklish. I don't know how to describe it. Typing is making my forearms burn a little. Today was lower power work. Calf work went well but fell of hard, with my endurance wearing out quickly in later sets. Everything else went close to the number (i.e. a slight improvement over last week with excellent pump/burn) and I've officially adopted barbell hack squats into my routine. They were easier than last week, but still incredibly fucking hard. My legs felt like they were overfilled water balloons after the 2nd set and I failed on the last rep of the 4th set. My nutrition this week is complete shit. I'm 7,144 calories above target according to LoseIt, and that's factoring in a bonus of something like 3500 exercise calories, so the real number is even worse. It's stress eating. It's stress drinking. Yet, I'm motivated by my results thus far to clean my act up.
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