rehab cycle: test, deca, albuterol, gh

[flenser]

Made it back alive. I actually lost 14 lbs in seven days, but I have no idea how. I guess I'll find out if it's muscle or fat tomorrow when I get back in a real gym.

JB, the geese were a real danger. You see, this was a working vacation for my woman. It was a psychology convention full of psychology profs and students ... young, female students, almost all of them. And being psychology students, there wasn't a rational thought among them. It would have been so easy..

 

[flenser]

It's vacation, embrace the geese.

I found swimming was great for my shoulder, I just don't get a chance to do it much now. I was going during rehab at the suggestion of my PT. She was hot so I did it to humor her. Now I can't seem to find the time. I thought it helped quite a bit.

I probably won't have time to swim much either. It was easy staying in a hotel on the beach, but it would add a couple of hours to my day doing it here.

 

[Colt44]

Wow 14lbs? Were you trying to lose weight?

 

[flenser]

Wow 14lbs? Were you trying to lose weight?

No, not really. I probably took in more total calories while I was there. I'm starting to think it's mostly from dehydration. I was in the sun a lot, and drank a lot of alcohol. It will probably bounce back in a day or two.

 

[flenser]

Restarted the GH this morning, and it occurred to me the weight I "lost" might have been some bloating from taking GH for 2 months. I never noticed it, but who knows. I was afraid to check the scale this morning. Maybe Monday ; )

Wednesday was the last test/tren injection. Saturday I'll return to 125mg test e/week until at least the end of July. I'll get bloods on the 12th and adjust dose/schedule if anything is out of whack.

Also starting with the trainer next week. I'm still having trouble benching, pretty much any pressing movement actually. Time off didn't really improve anything except it's not as sore as before. It still feels wrong when I push any weight.

 

[lightspan]

Are you using pharma gh or generic? Reconsidering the gh, my shoulder is killing me. threw two plates on this morning and nearly choked myself out, shoulder would not take it. blew up like a balloon. aggravating. i was doing 205 for reps last week with no problems. sorry for the hijack, i'll shove a tampon in and let you have your thread back.

Hang in there, take it slow.

 

[flenser]

Are you using pharma gh or generic? Reconsidering the gh, my shoulder is killing me. threw two plates on this morning and nearly choked myself out, shoulder would not take it. blew up like a balloon. aggravating. i was doing 205 for reps last week with no problems. sorry for the hijack, i'll shove a tampon in and let you have your thread back.

Hang in there, take it slow.

I'm using Astro's pharma Genotropin. I was at 6iu every morning before the vacation, but stopped to avoid carrying it on the plane and because my hands were going numb. Just started back at 4iu 2x per day, but will drop to 4iu/day in a week or so.

I can't decide if the GH helped the shoulder recovery or not. I know early on after the surgery the PTs acted astonished at my progress. Now recovery has settled down to an annoying barely perceptible rate.

Hope your shoulder recovers quickly. If the swelling doesn't end quick it might be worth getting an MRI.

 

[flenser]

The trainer ditched me this week. He has several clients in a BB show on Saturday, and we couldn't resolve a schedule both of us could keep. I'm just stretching the shoulder, and avoiding pressing work until next week.

There's been very little progress since I ended PT, even though I continue doing the same work at home. If I warm up and stretch for 20 to 30 minutes, I can bench some really low weight, like 135, for 20 reps or so without much pain. Any more than that and it feels like I'm doing something wrong. I've gotten pretty creative at working chest and delts using cables and various machines, so not pressing isn't as big a deal as I used to think.

My squat went up yesterday for no reason I can think of, especially since I stopped the tren last week. Was doing pause squats up to 405, then normal squats to 455. That really hasn't changed in a while, but yesterday I added 20lbs to both and think I could have added 20 more. Weird. It would be cool to hit 520 on my 52nd birthday..

I already miss the tren, but not the night sweats. They went away a few days after I dropped it. Maybe I really have tren a instead of e. Labmax can't tell the difference.

 

[Voltrader]

Keep working Flenser you will get there. You didn't make it to the wise old age you are by rushing anything. Well maybe a few things......

 

[flenser]

Stopped the tren e 2 weeks ago and dropped to 125mg test e per week. My only serious tren sides were night sweats and burning lungs right after pinning. The night sweats are gone, but I swear I have trensomnia now. The last three nights have been pretty sleepless, and I'm useless at work today. I'm going to to take a "sleep aid" tonight, something with alcohol preferably vodka.

I still can't get a schedule setup with the trainer. I'm starting to think it's not worth the trouble. A little rest and the shoulder has been feeling a lot better anyway. All I've been doing for the last week is stretches, no pressing at all. Well,that and mountain biking, and I don't even think about being injured when I take drops now. I'm going to try some light bench pressing in the morning just to see how it feels.

 

[flenser]

Had my first session with the trainer this morning. It was mostly evaluation. He says it's not my shoulder, but my triceps tendons with the tendonosis. There's a little inflammation where it connects at the elbow and a lot where it connects at the shoulder. Want's me to stop squatting for a few weeks to avoid putting pressure on those tendons. I guess I can survive that long without squatting.

Second session is tomorrow. He said I should expect it to get worse before it gets better, and to come in planning to work hard. We didn't talk about aas, and since I'm staying at TRT levels I don't plan to tell him anything about it. Hopefully, the HGH will speed things along some.

 

[flenser]

Second training session was this morning. It was mostly rear delts and lats, something about strengthening the lat-delt-triceps junction, whatever that is. It was all volume work to failure. Drop sets of 6x15+ reps with obsessive attention to form. The last drop set on lat pulls I couldn't get one rep at 30lbs without help. My lats and delts are toast, and there's no shoulder pain at all.

Next session is next week. He told me to "stay the fuck out of the gym" until then. Mountain biking is OK, but no lifting. If today's session hadn't gone so well, I might have blown off his instructions.

 

[flenser]

Short update.

Nothing much to report other than continued rehab-training with the trainer. I got him to agree to "let me" do leg press and light (225lbs) trap bar deads before training. I've been super setting leg press and deads, 5X10 each, then doing as many drop sets with leg press as I have time for. It's not much, but it beats doing nothing but rehab.

The trainer is still working my traps and rear delts almost exclusively, working all around the pain but not through it. The shoulder isn't any better or worse that I can tell, but it's only been a couple of weeks.

 

[strongsafety41]

Sounds like this trainer has a good plan for you. It often seems that rest is the best thing for growth/healing. The tough part is trusting the advice and actually resting. Hope it works out for you.

 

[flenser]

My shoulder is actually pretty freaking sore from all the isolation work. It's also stronger. After the workout Saturday I thought about calling it off. There was a lot of inflammation and I had to keep it iced almost all weekend. But the rehab work I do twice a day on non-training days was noticeably easier on Sunday despite the soreness. This morning I upped the reps and may up the weight soon. The increased pain makes me a little nervous, but he did warn me that would happen.

 

[strongsafety41]

I can imagine the increased pain and soreness with isolation training. I'm still trying to rehab from my partial torn pec. I'm seriously considering surgery but with more rest/time I seem to be getting stronger.
I think one of the key ingredients in rehabilitation is self trust and the ability to trust others. We know training/rehabbing an injury is going to cause some pain. But it's the willingness to trust that trainer or doctor that help us persevere and train through the pain. Keep at it bro... You're listening to your body which is key.

 

[flenser]

The trainer pointed out today the pain I'm feeling isn't in the same place it was during the initial evaluation. The original pain seems much reduced. He says I'm sore because I let other tendons atrophy while I was injured, and "his job" was to make those sore tendons grow.

He really ramped up the intensity today. Every lift is still 12+ reps, but nearly always to failure. Now I'm at work using just my right arm to type, the injured left is lying useless in my lap and I have a big back of ice under my shirt - brrr.

@strongsafety41 I do trust the guy quite a bit. I was talking to a couple of others this morning while doing leg press and deads before training, and they were pointing out all the people in the gym that had gone to him for rehab at some point. It was damned near everyone there.

 

[strongsafety41]

Flense it's awesome you have a credible trainer to assist getting you back into game shape.

 

[flenser]

Short update.. The pain I get doing everyday stuff is practically gone. It takes a little effort to find it without some weight in my hand. The increased pain from internal and external rotation exercises I was feeling at the beginning of the week has really dropped off in the last couple of days. Stuff I felt uncomfortable doing last week with 5lbs in my hands I can now do with 20lbs with only a little pain. I was thinking this shoulder thing was about fixed until this morning.

The trainer had me try push press this morning. Unfortunately, I couldn't even press the bar without excessive pain. We switched to some short pre-loaded straight bars and I did push press sets of 20-30 from 15lbs up to 50lbs with no problem. I guess I could have gone back and pressed the regular bar at that point, but I didn't try. Despite my good progress, that was sort of a bummer.

 

[lightspan]

Short update.. The pain I get doing everyday stuff is practically gone. It takes a little effort to find it without some weight in my hand. The increased pain from internal and external rotation exercises I was feeling at the beginning of the week has really dropped off in the last couple of days. Stuff I felt uncomfortable doing last week with 5lbs in my hands I can now do with 20lbs with only a little pain. I was thinking this shoulder thing was about fixed until this morning.

The trainer had me try push press this morning. Unfortunately, I couldn't even press the bar without excessive pain. We switched to some short pre-loaded straight bars and I did push press sets of 20-30 from 15lbs up to 50lbs with no problem. I guess I could have gone back and pressed the regular bar at that point, but I didn't try. Despite my good progress, that was sort of a bummer.

Great progress, Flenser. I recall this stage, OH presses were initially like being stabbed in the shoulder for me. Hang in there, you'll build back up. Sounds like your trainer knows what the hell he is doing. Considering trying to find a decent trainer to help me work on my shoulder. Your thread is a wellspring of good ideas for the gimpy-shouldered.