[healthwork] T+4 weeks; gym
Jun. 28th, 2019 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettI started testosterone, as one pump per day of Tostran, on the first of June. So far: I'm possibly noticing some subtle changes in body shape, based on how clothes are fitting, and I'm definitely feeling less cold all the time. Decapeptyl injection the first (of this round) happened yesterday, so I'm expecting the next two weeks to be pretty rough, and then we'll see how I'm going and whether I want to up my dose. (I strongly suspect that what I actually want is to ditch the Decapeptyl and just carry on with low-dose T, but we'll see how it goes.)
Last year, at the beginning of July, post-top surgery, I got my act together to join my local gym and resume doing rehab physio per UCLH's instructions. I talked about this a bit last August, and it is actually useful for me to review Progress I Have Made, so I'm going to do that. Numbers below the cut (relating to resistance/reps/etc, no bodyweight). Back when I resumed doing this physio programme, it looked like this:
On Wednesday this week, it looked like this:
... except actually I was sneaking eleventh repetitions in on a bunch of those.
That's 34 gym sessions over 52 weeks, which I'm pretty pleased with, not least because that time period included "three months in Belfast" and "one broken foot".
Three weeks ago, instead of trying for upping the mass, I added an extra set (to convince myself I'd be able to up the mass and maintain three sets). This time last year, the total weight shifted during a gym session was 250kg; my current normal routine adds ~2850kg, and my max (during that "eh, let's do four sets" session) is 3120kg (ignoring bonus eleventh repetitions, An Extra Fifty Kilos Because I Can, etc). Less obviously (from my notes), my RPM on the stationary bike has gradually crept up from ~60 to ~85-90 without my knee giving out. It's been slow and painstaking and frequently frustrating, per my post last August, with increase in at most one of the number of reps, or the number of sets, or the mass I was shifting, but this is also an order of magnitude increase in what I can (in a highly controlled environment) safely do without fucking myself up. I'm now obviously getting cardiovascular exercise and working my large muscles in addition to strengthening my small stabilising muscles.
The goal for the next year is, I think, one of "add Pilates back in" or "work up to two sessions a week". Because I might actually be able to. Because while I started out with it taking several days for my knee to calm back down, it's now typically fine again within 12 hours and definitely within 24.
Here is a concrete and quantifiable thing I can do, now, that I couldn't, this time last year.
Last year, at the beginning of July, post-top surgery, I got my act together to join my local gym and resume doing rehab physio per UCLH's instructions. I talked about this a bit last August, and it is actually useful for me to review Progress I Have Made, so I'm going to do that. Numbers below the cut (relating to resistance/reps/etc, no bodyweight). Back when I resumed doing this physio programme, it looked like this:
- stationary bike, resistance level 1, 2 x 1m30 (warm up & cool down)
- rear delt machine fly, 10kg, 1 x 5 reps
- seated machine fly, 10g, 1 x 5 reps
- leg press, 10kg, 1 x 5 reps
- seated leg curl machine, 10kg, 1 x 5 reps
- seated calf raise machine, 10kg, 1 x 5 reps
On Wednesday this week, it looked like this:
- stationary bike, resistance level 5, 2 x 7m30
- rear delt machine fly, 18kg, 3 x 10 reps
- seated machine fly, 18kg, 3 x 10 reps
- leg press, 23kg, 3 x 10 reps (safe one-rep max, after everything else: 45kg)
- seated leg curl machine, 18kg, 3 x 10 reps
- seated calf raise machine, 18kg, 3 x 10 reps
... except actually I was sneaking eleventh repetitions in on a bunch of those.
That's 34 gym sessions over 52 weeks, which I'm pretty pleased with, not least because that time period included "three months in Belfast" and "one broken foot".
Three weeks ago, instead of trying for upping the mass, I added an extra set (to convince myself I'd be able to up the mass and maintain three sets). This time last year, the total weight shifted during a gym session was 250kg; my current normal routine adds ~2850kg, and my max (during that "eh, let's do four sets" session) is 3120kg (ignoring bonus eleventh repetitions, An Extra Fifty Kilos Because I Can, etc). Less obviously (from my notes), my RPM on the stationary bike has gradually crept up from ~60 to ~85-90 without my knee giving out. It's been slow and painstaking and frequently frustrating, per my post last August, with increase in at most one of the number of reps, or the number of sets, or the mass I was shifting, but this is also an order of magnitude increase in what I can (in a highly controlled environment) safely do without fucking myself up. I'm now obviously getting cardiovascular exercise and working my large muscles in addition to strengthening my small stabilising muscles.
The goal for the next year is, I think, one of "add Pilates back in" or "work up to two sessions a week". Because I might actually be able to. Because while I started out with it taking several days for my knee to calm back down, it's now typically fine again within 12 hours and definitely within 24.
Here is a concrete and quantifiable thing I can do, now, that I couldn't, this time last year.