Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness
My regular gym was renovated at the start of the year and they removed the heavy bag. I'd normally do some drills on it before class just to keep my form, but since it's no longer up I do other warm-ups instead.

Last Friday there was no class, so I decided to go to another branch that had heavy bags and do a full drill routine. The session went well enough, but man have I been sore after - still feeling it. Use it or lose it I suppose, I must make an effort to fit in bag work regularly again.
 
Been a while since I posted here. Training has been interesting. Been trying to improve my weighted pull-ups. Long term, I’d like to get to at least 1 plate. I think I could perhaps make it by the middle of next year. Perhaps.
 
Today was a real good session. Hit 6,5,5 on pull-ups. PR on chest supported rows and Hammer Press. But fatigue slammed me big time. Had to drop weight to finish the remaining sets. Been a very long training block and I think I’m getting pretty close to having to take a deload. But the progression is clearly working.
 
I just saw a woman I used to train with back in the day. She was training with a taller, younger woman - then I did a double take…

It was her daughter fully grown up! Last I saw her she was a little girl sitting in the corner with a tablet and headphones waiting for her Mom!

Time flies man, it’s crazy.
 
Some young leg day skipping broseph at the gym asked me to kick him as hard as I could in the leg today.

Of course I declined, but it’s amazing how hearing a bag in the gym gets some people’s testosterone going.

Weird experience, not a fan.
 
Been stuck on 12.5kgs weighted pull-ups for three weeks now. I know that it gets harder and harder to progress the heavier you go. But it’s kinda disheartening that I’m stuck on the same rep number. I sometimes feel that I should be at least going up one rep here and there, but it’s just not going up. 5,5,5. The only thing increasing is the AMRAP amount after the weighted ones are done!
 
Random side note for anyone struggling to lose weight.
I went to the doctor around 2 years ago and found out I have Hemochromatosis.
This results in symptoms including, but not limited to, Type 2 Diabetes.
Which would explain why, at the time, I was training my butt off 6 days a week and wasn't losing any weight.

So they placed me on a special diet, and I had to go for monthly phlebotomies to lower my ferritin levels.
I also got medication for Type 2 Diabetes alongside the shopping list of other issues that also came with it.
After that got sorted, I lost 20KG in 6 months.

However, Hemochromatosis is apparently quite common, actually, for South Africans, and the doctor told me that around 1 in 3 South Africans apparently have it.
Which is why I wanted to share this here.

The interesting part is that this is a genetic mutation that originated from the Vikings. Since they went on conquests around Europe, this was passed on throughout Europe.
So, due to our European roots, many of us have this genetic mutation, which is great if you live in a location with iron-rich food shortages and long cold winters ... but not so much in modern-day society.
At least you can brag about being part Viking.

So, if you notice you're struggling to lose weight, have chronic headaches, and frequently get up at night to drain the main vein, then it might be a good idea to get tested.

Just wanted to share this because I honestly never even knew about this, and I practically wasted an entire year of intense training because of it.
(Heck, even though I'm a qualified PT, I even hired a PT for myself because I was starting to really doubt myself and figured I was just doing something wrong, but even that didn't help)
Anyway, I hope this at least helps someone out there reading this and will help prevent you going through the same frustration I did.
 
Ai, the day I have long feared has arrived - my age catching up to me! I tore my MCL a few years ago and my left knee has never felt right since. I got my results from the surgeon on Monday, the damage to the knee is permanent and can't be operated on without removing cartilage, which he doesn't recommend. Worse yet, he says it's only going to get progressively worse.

On the plus side, he says I still have decades of good use and the training I do currently is the best thing for it. He says to keep pain between 2-4 and rest when it reaches 5, a bit nebulous, but I think I get the gist. Hopefully by the time I require a knee replacement technology will have moved on significantly from where we're at currently.
 
I’ve been researching my diagnosis (post-traumatic osteoarthritis) and I've decided to ignore the surgeon's prognosis. For one I'm skeptical of the diagnosis in the first place and second, recent research suggests even if his diagnosis is correct, decline is not inevitable:

The common view that once OA becomes symptomatic it follows an inexorably progressive and downhill course is inaccurate. Physicians might help their patients by letting them know that the disease does not worsen in all patients, that it stabilizes in many, and that in some, especially those with knee OA, regression of joint pain and even of radiographic changes may occur.

Of course that doesn't mean business as usual, I'm going to drop drilling kicks from my routine altogether along with no more elbows and knees. Otherwise business as usual, regular gym training is not nearly as problematic as slamming limbs into relatively immobile objects while pivoting on a knee.
 
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It’s been helpful finally knowing what the problem is. I was giving my knee rest when it hurt, but now I know that’s been the wrong thing to do. Knee feeling much better with consistency:

IMG_3390.png

Feeling confident it’ll return to full health. Did a 3km run, an hour Hyrox class followed by an hour strength training today, no problems!
 
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