Body By Science, Fasting and BFR Training Results (with pics!)

(Windmill Tilter) #281

Lol. Seems logical enough. :yum:

Ironically, the majority of all amputations in the US are performed on T2 diabetics. We get circulation issues as the disease progresses. Over the course of a few years, I watched my wifeā€™s aunt Ellen lose her eyesight, here left foot, and then her right foot. She spent the prior 20 years on the sofa with a bag of fritos and a big olā€™ candy bowl on the side table. She ate mostly carbs/sugar right up to the day she died. The couch is the most dangerous place to be!

Fun Fact: Roughly 88,000 diabetics in the US have a limb amputated each year (230 each day). The average cost per amputation is $90,000 including post-care. Itā€™s a huge profit center. We spend $7.5B anually on amputations for diabetics. To put that number in context, the direct value of the US sugar industry is only$8.4B/year!

Itā€™s actually part of what got me to take the plunge and do keto to get my T2 under control.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #282

Darn

Mine was the tibial tendon. Donā€™t do anything to stretch it. Let it heal. Warm it up with very light exercise (stationary bike) no more than 10 mins and the rest it. Consume at least 15g of high quality collagen with small amt of vit C. At least 50 mg. I do 500 mg because that is what I have. Rest it for at least 6 hours before exerting again.

this light exercise + collagen + rest can be repeated every 6 hrs. This is therapy that professionals use. I also use the hot tub and or sauna to get more blood circulation. Most days I canā€™t rest for 6 hours and I have to go to work. And evening therapy would have been good but my schedule would not allow it. So I did the therapy on the weekend days.

(Windmill Tilter) #283

Thanks. Collagen and vitamin C doensā€™t seem too bad as remedies go. I guess Iā€™ll be defrosting some chicken backs tonight. :+1:

#284

:joy: Oops, just the three reps of 15ā€¦i got too excited writing it down :joy:
I believe they were just basic squats since the bands were too loose :frowning:

Very true, I read that the occlusion between 40% and 80% restricted causes the same effect, so it made me feel a little better about my progress. I watched a few clips with leg bands yesterday and some use just plain elastic band, wrap it around multiple times and tighten it. I believe my bands can still be tightened further and I will lift the outer-thigh band a little higher this time, so it follows my hip joint. If that wonā€™t be enough for the next few sessions, I will order some tighter bands.

Im sorry youā€™re injured and soreā€¦I do believe there is a massage day? :slight_smile:

#285

:joy: Iā€™m glad there are more of us in this world, Slovenias are crazy, I tell ya. You will not believe how many mushrooms and the ā€œpoisonous plant similar to wild garlicā€ poisonings, even deaths, we have in our country from people foraging in nature. It is like a national hobby, foragingā€¦monkey see, monkey do.

I actually watched the movie and I totally agree - the only thing you can get on the couch is a butt cramp :wink:

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #286

I found an older podcast with Dr McGuff talking about strength training and more. The great thing about STEM talk podcasts are the detailed show notes.

Dr. McGuff mentions this study: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0000465

https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalk/episode-24/

Very technical paper but in short older people that engage in strength training for 6 months have genes expressed (turned on) that are typically found only in younger people.

Our data strongly supports the concept that mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with aging in humans. The important and novel finding is that resistance exercise training reverses many aspects of the aging transcriptome signature. This implies that a functional improvement in aging muscle due to resistance exercise is associated with a global improvement in the molecular signature of aging particularly for transcripts related to mitochondrial function.

He also talks positively about BFR and EMS. I wish they had asked him about combining BBS and BFR.

#287

Thanks Eric, I will take a look tomorrowā€¦saturday morning coffee material :slight_smile:

(Central Florida Bob ) #288

Just for the record, that was a joke. I assume people have heard of those, but I thought the crazy face emoji :crazy_face: was a good clue. I also recognize that I can have an odd sense of humor at times. Like virtually all jokes, it takes reality and exaggerates it.

Iā€™m well aware that almost all amputations in the US are due to diabetes, and the seriousness of the situation. Itā€™s why Iā€™m here. My late mom had, and my older brother currently has diabetes, making me the only one in my family who doesnā€™t have it and I went keto to keep it that way.

(Windmill Tilter) #289

Sorry Bob, Iā€™m way too uptight sometimes, especially when it comes to that particular issue. I forget that Iā€™m preaching to the choir here. I promise itā€™s out of my system now. :hugs:

#290

A new day, a new BFR workout :slight_smile: Today is Saturday, so I had more time and concentration to do a better workout. I started with a boxing+upper-body-strength warmup - 3 rounds of 2 sets of exercise combo of 2 boxing+2 strength. After this, I banded my arms and did my BFR workout with 1kg dumbbells:
Bicep curl: 30/15/15/15
Overhead press: 32/15/15/15
Triceps: 20/12/10/10.

This time I did get some circumference change and my arms did feel a little uncomfortable.

#291

Another day, another BFR workoutā€¦leg day.
I had a FitnessBlender leg workout as a warmup and then proceeded to band my legs. Unfortunately, it was another unsuccessful attempt. :frowning: I lifted the bands so they would follow my hip joint, but I just canā€™t get them to do what they should. I canā€™t tighten them the proper way, because the elastic band slides in the metal loop and the the band wrinkles, the metal loop cuts into my fat-skin and I can hear stretching when I do my squats. Iā€™ll take a look at what I can get on amazon.de, maybe I need something different. :thinking:

(Windmill Tilter) #292

Thatā€™s annoying. You had one job to do BFR bandsā€¦one job!!! :angry:

I hope you find something better. My pneumatic set uses velcro and it works quite well. Maybe keep an eye out for that as a feature.

#293

They did have one job, so did winterā€¦ :wink:
But then again, a poor workman blames his tools, so I will do some more experimenting :slight_smile: Next time, I will lower the band slightly and place it in a straight line - Iā€™m hoping that the band will cover the thigh muscles uniformly and I donā€™t have so much fat and skin below my hip area.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #294

@Don_Q @Meerkatsandy

Iā€™m wondering how your BFR training is going? Are you finding gains in strength and/or muscle size? What about vascular changes?

I did arm training number 5 this morning. I skipped last week because of travel.

I upped from 8 lbs to 15 lbs. I did Bicep curls, overhead triceps and wrist curls. 30/15/15/15 and had to down grade the last set of triceps to 8 lbs. I canā€™t get my bands any tighter without bruising since I take baby aspirin. I band my arms without a shirt on.

No DOMS yet. I could feel a rush of something when I released the bands and measured my BP 10 mins later at 130/76. My heart rate was up to 65 from usually 50 to 55. Normally it is 115/60 or even lower.

I noticed my pulse this afternoon in my inner wrist once. I canā€™t seem to figure out how to hold my wrist to see it again but if I figure it out I will capture a video. I can see more small veins in my wrists where not before.
Also, my forearms were significantly larger.

I wish I had pneumatic bands. Maybe someday. I do my weekly BBS on Friday morning. It will be interesting if this BFR training diminishes my strength or not. Iā€™ve considered doing BBS every other week and on the odd week off doing BFR arms twice. Maybe do this once and see how it goes.

What say you folks?

(Windmill Tilter) #295

Not well. Iā€™m still on the benchā€¦ :frowning:

Like an idiot I tried doing a second BBS day 3 days apart (instead of my scheduled BFR). My achilles tendon has been sore in the morning ever since (9 days). I also pulled my trapezius muscle in the same workout and itā€™s still not 100%. Probably coincidence, but itā€™s the first time I can think of that I needed to take some time off due to (minor) injury after BBS and Iā€™ve been doing it since 2018. No more twice a week BBS workouts for me. I really wish I had done my BFR workout as planned that dayā€¦ :unamused:

My achilles isnā€™t particularly painful and Iā€™m sure itā€™s fine to lift with, but Iā€™m not going to tempt fate, particularly after hearing about your frustrations with your tendonitis. Iā€™m going to wait until it feels 100% to lift again.

Iā€™m getting some collagen tomorrow to help speed things along. It comes with a 90mg dose of vitamin C mixed in, which is convenient. I know absolutely nothing about collagen, so I havenā€™t a clue whether itā€™s good, bad, or terrible stuff. Iā€™m loathe to spend $25 on a supplement, but Iā€™m antsy to get back in the gym. This is what Iā€™m picking up at Walmart tomorrow. What kind do you take?

(Bunny) #296

Some more interesting stuff:

ā€¢0006 The intramuscular source is essentially comprised by two distinct lipid compartments. One source is constituted by adipocytes, present in-between muscle fibers and designated extramyocellular lipids (EMCL). Another compartment for lipid storage is represented by discrete lipid droplets in contact with muscle mitochondria, which lipid source is termed intramyocellular lipids (IMCL).

ā€¢0007 Depending on the workload, muscle energy metabolism uses different proportions of carbohydrates and lipids. In the recent past, research has shown that an unexpectedly high proportion of the lipid energy during endurance exercise was being derived from muscle triglycerides.

ā€¢0008 To this end, it has been observed that prolonged sustained exercise enlarges muscle triglyceride stores (Mor gan et al., Am. J. Physiol. 216 (1969), 82-86) as well as fatty acid uptake and oxidation (Turcotte et al., Am. J. Physiol. 262 (1992), E791-E799), which fact is deemed to be one of the reasons for sparing glycogen during submaximal periods of an exercise and eventually add to an increased physical performance.

ā€¢0009 On the other hand, the provision of high carbohydrate food material, which is known to be optimal for glycogen loading before activity, might also lead to a reduction in muscle fat stores. In addition, prolonged sustained exercise is considered to essentially lead to a depletion of IMCL (Oberholzer et al., Schweiz Z. Sportmed: 24 (1976), 71-98). It is, therefore, presently deemed that exercise conditions may exist that limit the exercise capacity simply due to a reduced availability of locally stored lipids.

ā€¢0010 Consequently, there is a need in the art for means to influence the intramyocellular lipid level in muscle cells, So as to provide an optimal balance between glycogen and IMCL as energy stores. ā€¦ā€ ā€¦More

#297

Good morning to all :slight_smile:
@daddyoh, it is like you smelled me getting off the elevator :wink: I had my BFR arm day this morning :slight_smile:
I noticed my biceps and triceps feeling firmer than before, so I am hoping that arms are improving. Legs are still a question mark since I doubt I even got the bands tight enough in the past two workouts. Tomorrow is leg day - I will change the position of the bands and see if that will improve my workout.
This is my third BFR workout - I started with a 30-minute upperbody+cardio HIIT ā€œwarm-upā€ Fitness Blender workout, consisting of 4 rounds of 10 rep A-B-60 sec cardio-A-B-60 sec cardio format, As and Bs were bicep curls, tricep extensions, overhead press, pullover, chest fly, chest press, lateral and ventral raises. I followed with a BFR round and I do have to say my arm technique is getting better and better. I tightened the bands and I could feel the pressure in my arms, a comfortable discomfort. My workout consisted of bicep curls, 1kg in 30/12/10/10 and wrists (i raised my arms ventrally and curled my wrists up and down), 1kg 15/10/10/10. I do have to say that my biceps were killing me this time, I couldnā€™t do 15 rounds (I always have Donā€™s ā€œto fatigue, not failureā€ in my head :)) and my arms were shaking in ventral raises. I am still getting used to the feeling of pressure in my arms, my body is quietly whispering ā€œabort, abort,ā€ but Iā€™m slowing familiarizing myself with how the exercise should feel and pushing through the discomfort. I wanted to do some more lateral raises, but I decided not to push it.

I jumped in the shower and I could still feel the pressure in my arms while shampooing my hair, so I am sure my workout technique is improving :joy: Hereā€™s to hoping tomorrowā€™s leg day will be a success. :slight_smile:

@Don_Q Iā€™m sorry youā€™re still injured :frowning:
As a woman, I follow Leanne Vogel from time to time and I remember her commenting that she no longer supports Vital Proteins - I canā€™t remember the reason, I can try and find it. I know they are all sponsored by different brands, so there could also be thatā€¦:woman_facepalming: I also remember a podcast, somewhere in the back of my head, where they mentioned that if your protein intake isnā€™t high enough to meet your demands, no matter how much collagen you take in, your body will not build/move the AA pool towards collagen tissue. It was important for me due to unbelievable hair loss after about 6 months of keto, when I lost the most weight. Now I make sure that I eat my protein and add bone broth so that there is enough protein for all my bodily functions/chemical reactions, including hair growth.

After going down the rabbit hole of PUFA, I decided to change my diet a little - remove olive oil, pork ribs and chicken thighs from my diet and add in some cacao butter. I have about 3 months worth of food and weight tracking, so I will definitely see what the changes will be. :slight_smile: I feel like a mad scientist sometimes, our bodies are really p****** me offā€¦

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #298

@Don_Q
Gosh I am sending you healing thoughts. On collagen, it has a slight off flavor. I mostly use it with homemade bone broth (chicken) or canned beef broth (from wegmans) and add a little salt and pepper. I have added it to coffee but Iā€™ve stopped drinking coffee. In coffee I canā€™t really taste it.

I always take collagen with vitamin c at 500 mg because that is what I have. I also always have other protein such as eggs or ground beef when I take it. The research I read about did not mention other protein for targeted connective tissue healing however.

Iā€™m not using collagen daily anymore because my tendon is close to healed and of course I donā€™t use it when fasting.

@Meerkatsandy
Seems like you are starting to get the hang of it. Itā€™s nice to hear about your progress.

#299

@daddyoh Thanks, it is nice to have you and Don here to support and/or listen to me :slight_smile:

#300

@Don_Q I guess I should start drinking MCT oil, my brain is in the gutter sometimes :joy: The only reason she stopped using Vital Proteins was due to their product being sourced from Brasil, amazon fires, etc. I completely forgot that was the reason, I must have mixed it up with something else. Forget I said anything about the brand earlier. :wink: