That’s excellent.
Something Jim pushes his student athletes on especially, and espouses in general, is the need to be able to move your bodyweight well as a prerequisite for more loading.
When I got to meet Broderick Chavez last year in Vegas while our wives competed, he let me pick his brain about training under Fred Hatfield. He told me that if Fred could leave me any parting piece of advice as a powerlifter, it was to always think of yourself as an athlete first - he believed in being a strength athlete. If you get so heavy or tight that you cannot move well or do the necessary work, you are going in the wrong direction.
Yeah, I agree, I wish I had been a little more concerned with maintaining movement / athleticism during the 2 years I was training for my contest. I think I did myself a real disservice by trying to avoid anything like that in an effort to avoid injury. I went from a hyper mobile athlete to feeling bound up, and I would be afraid to sprint at this point and would only do it if I had to for my safety or someone else's. I do also have to keep in mind I am 53 and I have used and abused my body over my 41 years of lifting... So some of it is also just expected wear and tear. However, I really noticed a massive drop off over those couple of years. Lateral ankle strength affecting balance being one of the massive things I noticed.
Catching up in here:
I hear you Kleen on the dieting down part being hard for us meatheads when it comes to potential muscle loss. But I think by actually doing it, I overcame that fear part for me at least. Do I mentally still like the weight on the scale being as low as it is for me? No, but that's ego / insecurity. Reminder that 85-95% of the population still doesn't do what we do intensity wise, so we're always comparing ourselves to top bodybuilding/physique guys - and even the 1% on here who are legitimately self-selected outliers.
Just keep on focusing on little progressions given your injuries, bodyweight work is always great. There's also more and more folks moving into that hybrid athlete / functional athlete model, which as we get older is not a bad thing.
Absolutely on all accounts, and honestly if I were a lean 190 I would be pretty happy with how I look but getting my heart to feel what my head knows is a different thing entirely. Honestly around 190 would probably open up a lot of wardrobe options just from having somewhat more normal dimensions.
@GreenMachineX - I redid my measurements this morning because the measurements I gave yesterday were from after a couple meals. Some awesome news, my body weight is no longer 220 like it was a week or so ago. I have been cleaning things up some but didn't notice things were actually moving. So I am 210.8 which is much better and measurement around the belly button was 38.75, and 49.5 around the chest. My lats are still pretty silly, they don't really go anywhere when everything else shrinks...
Oh yeah, I have officially lost 2 inches off of my thighs since the peak size during my contest building phase, they are down to 24.5 measured relaxed, and in the middle of the thigh, so not the largest part, or the smallest. Honestly for pretty much being untrained, I am not upset with that. They are still pretty defined. I am not too worried about getting them bigger, I do want them stronger and more fit which I think bigger will probably come along with that. However realistically I think my body is going to be pretty proportionate once I have lost the weight.
Yesterday I did 35 minutes on the recumbent bike at 130BPM, and some core work. Therapy went well, I got my full 15 minutes in traction again, and they stepped it back up a notch. The neck flare up is pretty much over, I can still force the issue contracting things, kind of hunting for symptoms, but in general movement nothing but some occasional tightness.
Training the rest of this week will be focused on using my body for resistance, and I am going to look around for some calisthenics programs. I already have one and may use it, it seems very thorough. However, it also looks intimidating, so I might start with something a little more beginner focused but this one seems to really have everything nailed down, and focuses a lot on building stability.
Something else I have been considering lately is to sell my Irontec Lever Gym, with my current focus, and desires I feel like having a lot more room in my garage gym would be more beneficial. Especially focusing on calisthenics. The only thing from it I truly think I would miss is the leg press, and chest / shoulder press from it. If I got rid of it, that would open one whole side of my garage gym for other things. I would still have my power rack, and would also have my hex bar for deads / dead-squats (more quad focused). Then I would have more room for floor work, or circuits, plus I could order another Titan Wall Tower pully system and set them up about 48 inches apart and basically have a functional trainer. If focusing more on fitness, and calisthenics I think this would pretty much have me covered for basic BB style lifting while opening up a lot more room and versatility in my garage.