What to do when your body betrays you?

[Eager Muscle]

Lots of us have been sidelined from working out due to work, injury or illness. I figure some group sharing might be healing, inspirational and motivational for many on this forum in similar situations. I could certainly use the inspiration and motivation!

Consider this a shout out to all my hunky Evolution Forum iron brethren who've had to deal with dialing it back or pushing forward even harder to overcome adversity which curtails their workouts. Share your stories! Here's mine:

When I was just 7 months into natural bodybuilding and making great progress and feeling good about myself (see my pics on www.bigmuscle.com, user #31703, user name "Eager Muscle) I was "smote" with a rare and incurable form of lymphoma. After my initial treatment recovery I would relapse shortly after regaining momentum at the gym. After several increasingly invasive treatments I've been in remission for 3 years and returned to the gym in January '09.

The good news is that I've since stayed cancer free and to all outward appearances look very youthful and healthy. The bad news is that not only am I older and having trouble doing what I used to, but there's some residual damage from the cancer treatments which have made me more prone to injury. Basically, in January I made great strides but after approximately seven weeks of lifting I tore muscles in my bicep and shoulder and sustained a foot fracture, so all lifting, swimming and cardio have been halted to this point.

The good news? I plan on returning to the gym soon. The bad news? Now I'm in a funk. My podiatrist has advised me that given a fracture of the cuboid bone I need to quit the treadmill and even less load bearing cardio machines like ellipticals if I want full function of my foot when I'm older. My orthopedist says unless I undergo somewhat needless elective surgery I need to avoid heavy overhead lifts.

So outside of getting second opinions I'm at a crossroads. Where to go from here? Looking forward to your collective feedback.

[Eager Muscle]

Reposted this in the General forum. But optimistically maybe this is the correct forum...

[hyooge]

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear that. Glad that the disease is in remission though. I could come at you with tales of leaving the gym due to stress, mild depression, etc - but nothing compares to what you've gone through.

I'm not a doctor, but I've found that (for me at least) muscle growth has been triggered through (1) good stress on the muscle and (2) great diet.

When I was younger, I was all about numbers. I wanted to bench 300. I wanted to squat 500. I put a lot of needless strain on my joints and injured my wrists and ankles repeatedly. My diet was lousy, so I never put on any quality mass.

A few years into it, I finally started eating well with lots of eggs, chicken, and protein shakes. I reduced the weight on all my lifts and concentrated on proper form and slower movements. Suddenly, I was gaining lean mass like crazy and looking better than ever before.

You've got to protect your joints, so you might look into a super-slow method of training. Reduce your weights dramatically, but also slow down the movement to hit the muscle harder. Kill all of the isolation movements, and concentrate on compound ones that minimize the risk of injury - like lat pulldowns (in front of your chest), and the dumbell bench press. Instead of squatting - which places stress on your feet - do a ton of deadlifts. Eat eggs, chicken, and muscle milk like there's no tomorrow. I'm also not getting any younger, and I'm nervous about injury, so this is the routine that I follow.

Good luck!

[Eager Muscle]

Thanks hyooge, very good advice there. Forgot about super slow training, which is funny considering I'm such a stickler for form!

[Eager Muscle]

Figured I'd give you guys a quick update; I'm progressing well, getting bigger, thicker, stronger and more muscular. Movie star handsome to boot but even though I'm finally looking the part I still can't get any mutual muscle action going (que sera sera). Also still can't figure out how to post photos here. However, you can see updated photos as of 11/03/10 at www.bigmuscle.com, user #31703, user name "Eager Muscle."