Fiddleman

Yes, we were told to stop NSAIDS a week before surgery.

This is a fairly decent article, but tended to be over simplified in presentation. However, I did learn that males can only expect to generate 1-2 lbs of pure lean muscle mass a month. This is a disappointment. It would take 3 months in best case scenario to gain 6 lb of lean muscle and 6 months or longer in worse case. I just finished a 12 week challenge and found that I was able to gain 5 lb lean muscle during this time through a lot of strength training. For my next 12 weeks, it sounds like setting an expectation of 3-6 lb lean muscle gain would be valid. Does anyone care to refute the claim in the article with regards to a male building max 1-2 lbs lean muscle in a month?

BTB - I have a college degree in mathematics and computer science. Education has shaped a lot of the hobbies and career choices I have made, but mostly indirectly. One of my joys is finding clever ways to apply my analytical and mathematical mind to problems in software engineering, even though most folks would not do this and just satisfy "the requirements." It is strangely euphoric for me to do this and brings great satisfaction to keep my mind abstract; it keeps an otherwise mundane world of creating financial software interesting. I find it "fun" to day dream about solutions to the great mathematical problems, especially application of applied mathematics to solve a highly theoretical problem like riemann hypothesis. Maybe someday I will find a solution based on wave mechanics and the way vibrations coincide at the molecular level with the zeros of the zeta function. Nobody here knows what I am talking about, but I find it a very interesting thing to Daydream about abstractly, both visually and musically. I thank my degree for the intellectual tools to do this. I am considering going back to school for two reasons at age 40. 1. To get an MBA and 2. To get a degree in video game design and development. I love video games from a user experience and design perspective and would love to start my own business creating a new genre of games that are instantly addicting, yet elegantly complex in design once you get past the simplicity of user experience. Think angry birds and mind craft. I want to direct a bright and motivated set of software engineers, artists and writers to design, develop and release a game that will change the video game industry by making huge ripples in a vastly saturated market. Again, think angry birds and mind craft. And then I am going to throw it all away once I retire and go to violin making school. It has always been a dream of mine to build master violins that are designed so well they are indistinguishable in sound quality and dynamics from the great strads. I would start now, but it will not pay the bills and I need a lot of training and practice to both start and master the craft. I do have an advantage of both playing the violin for about 25 years and am quite good at it. I also have a thorough understanding of how great sound acoustics is produced from a standpoint of wave mechanics and dynamic systems. Creating sound and music artificially through computer programming is another one of my hobbies I started in college. It was my thesis in one of the programs I completed. Pretty complex set of goals right? Why would I consider more education, especially at the mid point of my life? Well because I love to learn and have a passion about it. Every day is a new day to learn. It keeps life interesting and we are only limited by the self Imposed boundaries we place on our minds. I am definitely naturally obsessive about a lot of things. fitness is my latest obsession. Anyways, those are my dreams and they require more education. Some of this just cannot be learned from the Internet or from books you can buy from amazon. Even if it were possible to educate in this manner, no one will take you seriously in a field without a piece of paper from a college. That is just the way the cookie crumbles. You will do great in college, especially with your phd wife to motivate you. It will be hard work, but worth it. There will be times when you want to say hell with it and give up. However, I know you have an Iron will to get through the toughest challenges. After all, you lost your weight, can run 1/2 marathons and finish top in your age bracket after coming from a pre-WLS state of health. If that doesn't scream perseverance and drive, I do not know what does.

Oh my gosh. It was such a bad physical reaction. Never again!

Excellent!! I think you will enjoy these workouts. They are short, yet very effective. You do not need the book to understand the DVD workouts. Mark Lauren explains every exercise very nicely on the DVD in plain English in very simple terms. I have the book as discovered it before the DVD. It is a good resource to build new workouts with many more body weight exercises not in the DVD workouts. I enjoy the DVD workout also because of the high production values and the fact the Mark even struggles a little on the advanced workouts. His form is also very precise and impeccable. It was a delight to do the workouts and I am going to return to them in the future after doing some other programs. Since you have been working out awhile, you may find the novice workouts too easy and will want to go through them pretty quickly. I spent an average of 4 weeks on each level of workouts. My favorite exercises are in the advanced workout and include star jumpers, jumping lunges and bouncy push ups. Good luck and do do let me know if you ever have questions about these exercises. Happy to help!!

I found some Safeway brand coconut Water that had 350 mg potassium and 5 calories per serving. It was sugar free and is a Water Enhancer for about 20 oz. I added it, drank about 12 oz and suddenly had dizziness, nauseousness and stomach ache. Felt overall terrible and definitely felt like i was going to toss the Cookies right there. It was definitely a WTH moment. So I asked my wife to look at the ingredients and there was aspartame and a lot of other chemicals. I was like, gee Safeway, get with the times. We already know Aspartame is seriously bad for you. Why not Splenda or Stevia? Dunno. Probably aspartame is a much cheaper ingredient to use. Too bad I need to toss 2 boxes of it Safeway brand coconut flavor packets now. I had high hopes that this was a super alternative to 100 calorie coconut water given 350 mg potassium (eg zico). I do not think I have had any Aspartame since way before surgery. Do any of you have aspartame issues as a post op? Any good coconut flavor options that are sweetened more humanely and low calorie?

Thanks for this article. The 6 day sounds best to me for 30 min a workout. No way I could spare 3 hours a day. I do not see anything particularly special about these workouts except there is more focus on mma training with the bag. Overall, the rest of the exercises definitely look doable. I am going to bookmark this as a future set of workouts. I liked the inclusion of running, 4 miles at 20-25 minutes as a warmup or off day exercise. I like 3 miles in about 20 minutes, not much faster. It would be hard to knock out 4 miles in 20 minutes as a casual run. And what is this about Bruce Lee shuffling during one of these runs?

I will have to try these. See them on the shelf all the time.

Interesting. I find that Protein bars do not fill me, but sometimes trigger me to want another. If I ignore that urge for about 10 m, it will go away. This is with all protein bars in the list above. Maybe it has something to do with the 20 m rule, which I suck at. I eat these in about 1 m. I am typically good about not giving into the urge for another because ire mind myself I just ate one and that is enough.

Not only have we learned in the distant past that chicken mcnuggets are made from parts of chicken unfit for human consumption and made human consumable by washing in ammonium hydroxide, http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp but now we learn today that they contain strange fibers (hair?) : http://www.naturalnews.com/041646_Chicken_McNuggets_forensic_food_analysis_strange_fibers.html The unveiling of obscene practices in the fast food and the food industry in the name of profit just keeps getting better and better as the world turns and the clock ticks. There are so many good books and documentaries, starting with food, inc and super size me, that expose a million reasons to keep a healthy distances from processed and fast foods. Choose to be educated about this and take off the rose colored glasses that big marketing has put on us.

Oh my 1st yoga stretching hatha class did this to me also ( pain in middle of spine).

I have simple demands out of a Protein bar: 1. It be high protein 2. It be low sugar (and low net carb) 3. It taste good 4. It have calories between 180 and 220. Lower is better of course, but most are around 180 With that said, here is my list: 1. Quest bars (170 calories, 20g protein, 5 g sugar, awesome taste). Too addicting so only eat rarely. 2. Pure protein revolution (180 calories, 20 G protein, 1 g sugar, great taste) 3. Pure protein (180 calories, 180 calories, 20 G protein, 1 g sugar, good taste) 4. Nu go slim (180 calories, 17 G protein 2 g sugar, great taste) 5. Think thin (270 calories, 17 G protein, no sugar, ok taste). Too many calories for me, but thought I would include it in the list for completion. Do you have a list of favorite Protein Bars? Or even 1 favorite Protein Bar that you feel others would benefit from hearing about?

Thanks for the very good read. I shared it with my wife (pheonix79, a newer post op) and we found our heads nodding like a couple bobble heads. Definitely a sign of a good article.

Taradawn- Your symptoms sound a lot like high levels of inflammation inside the body. One natural way go take care of inflammation is to take high doses of Omega 3 fish oil. I take 3 g a day (about 1 TSP) to combat information from workouts every day. So far it has worked really well and I have never been side lined with inflammation due to cross fit work outs or any work puts I do at home. If you wish a more traditional inflammation medicine, then go with ibuprofen or something like that. Everyone in my cross box takes omega 3 to prevent inflammation that leads to pain. You would be surprised at the rib cage and back pain going away in a few days if you treat the inflammation. At one point (6 months ago), I had daily rib and back pain also. For the central back pain, do be aware of good posture and alignments during bending exercise whether they are weight related or not. It is very important to be aware of form to prevent this spinal pain in the middle of the back (been there done that).

Double post. Delete.

A spike in blood pressure could actually be a spike in the insulin response that is triggered by certain foods or just by eating This might suggest some kind of pancreatic system issue. Notice I use the words could and might because it is just a suggestion to talk to your doctor about. I read about this correlation between blood pressure and insulin levels a little while back.

YouTube has a lot of good videos. A quick search turned up some good intro material : http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/25_04_kettlebell_swing.pdf Start out with the American swing. It is easier and will not put your head, people, walls or windows behind you in at risk. Be very careful about posture as not to fault or tweak the lower back or neck. A pulled lower back muscle will side line you if not careful. Start light (10-15 lb) until you are comfortable with the basic swing movements and can handle more weight without losing posture. Keep your chest up, back straight, shoulders relaxed and imagine a wall in front of you. Do not let your body go past this wall. The power of a kettle bell comes from the snap of the hips forward, not from the arms. Practice just thrusting your hips forward from a squat position as you straighten out. Listen to your body. If any pain or tweak feeling, stop and recheck your form. Once you get a hang of kettle bells, they are a lot of fun and very powerful. They will take your workout game up a level. Good luck!