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Sparkss journey to recovery

BEAST73 said:
Recovery and Bounce Back Brother!
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Thanks. We received some bad health news earlier this week that will potentially supersede my exercising for the next couple of weeks or longer. The follow up from that was also part of the "life issues" that kept me from exercising the last 2 days. We are now working to schedule a surgical procedure for my wife that has a 4 to 8 week recovery period. Between dealing with the insurance and surgeons now, and taking care of the family post, I am not sure how much time I will have left. So I guess I will get plenty of time to recover.

That being said I did have some time today and got in a short workout.
 
Sparkss said:
Thanks. We received some bad health news earlier this week that will potentially supersede my exercising for the next couple of weeks or longer. The follow up from that was also part of the "life issues" that kept me from exercising the last 2 days. We are now working to schedule a surgical procedure for my wife that has a 4 to 8 week recovery period. Between dealing with the insurance and surgeons now, and taking care of the family post, I am not sure how much time I will have left. So I guess I will get plenty of time to recover.

That being said I did have some time today and got in a short workout.
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Hope everything with the wife is going to be ok?
When my dad got sick I missed a lot of gym time for a year. I was so busy I focused on my diet and lost 15 pounds. Of coarse 5-8lb was probably muscle. I wanted to still do something health foe me during this time.
 
Studhorse said:
Hope everything with the wife is going to be ok?
When my dad got sick I missed a lot of gym time for a year. I was so busy I focused on my diet and lost 15 pounds. Of coarse 5-8lb was probably muscle. I wanted to still do something health foe me during this time.
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It should not be that long of a duration, more like 4 ~ 8 weeks. The doctor says avg 4 week recovery, but my wife is a slow healer, always has been, so she (as am I) is anticipating 6 ~ 8 weeks for recovery. School is getting ready to start up here (in 3.5 weeks) and depending on scheduling will be right after the surgery, when she will be the most debilitated. So I will get to drop off/pick up our daughter from school, which essentially blows my workouts out for those weeks as that is the time of day I typically get to exercise, before my meetings get too crazy. But again, should not be a huge deal, and it is what it is, just means a bit of a break from exercising for me is all. If I recall it takes around 2 weeks of not exercising for your body to start losing muscle, so I may be OK, losing only a little. Plus yard work on the weekends is a 2 hour full body workout, so maybe I will make it w/ little to no muscle loss :). Time will tell.
 
Sparkss said:
It should not be that long of a duration, more like 4 ~ 8 weeks. The doctor says avg 4 week recovery, but my wife is a slow healer, always has been, so she (as am I) is anticipating 6 ~ 8 weeks for recovery. School is getting ready to start up here (in 3.5 weeks) and depending on scheduling will be right after the surgery, when she will be the most debilitated. So I will get to drop off/pick up our daughter from school, which essentially blows my workouts out for those weeks as that is the time of day I typically get to exercise, before my meetings get too crazy. But again, should not be a huge deal, and it is what it is, just means a bit of a break from exercising for me is all. If I recall it takes around 2 weeks of not exercising for your body to start losing muscle, so I may be OK, losing only a little. Plus yard work on the weekends is a 2 hour full body workout, so maybe I will make it w/ little to no muscle loss :). Time will tell.
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Just grab those sweet a ss d-bells you have and Lunge all the way to drop off your daughter! and pressing motions on the way back, problem solved. lol
 
Studhorse said:
Just grab those sweet a ss d-bells you have and Lunge all the way to drop off your daughter! and pressing motions on the way back, problem solved. lol
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LOL, I would definitely end up with "glutes of steel", and I am sure more than a few funny looks from the other parents :)
 
Sparkss said:
It should not be that long of a duration, more like 4 ~ 8 weeks. The doctor says avg 4 week recovery, but my wife is a slow healer, always has been, so she (as am I) is anticipating 6 ~ 8 weeks for recovery. School is getting ready to start up here (in 3.5 weeks) and depending on scheduling will be right after the surgery, when she will be the most debilitated. So I will get to drop off/pick up our daughter from school, which essentially blows my workouts out for those weeks as that is the time of day I typically get to exercise, before my meetings get too crazy. But again, should not be a huge deal, and it is what it is, just means a bit of a break from exercising for me is all. If I recall it takes around 2 weeks of not exercising for your body to start losing muscle, so I may be OK, losing only a little. Plus yard work on the weekends is a 2 hour full body workout, so maybe I will make it w/ little to no muscle loss :). Time will tell.
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You could do what I do when on vacation. When you see a playground, hop out of the car with your daughters, do some pull ups, BW triceps extensions, inverted rows and push ups.
 
so, been busy as heck dealing with all of the medical "professionals" (and I use that term loosely). I get maybe 2 workouts a week in lately. I have not been eating well lately, mostly clean, but not much of it. I dropped a fair bit of weight, but am now back up to 183. Next week our daughter starts school, the week after is the surgery. And next week is ate up with pre-op tasks and appointments, that I also need to attend. So needless to say I will be happy to get even 2 workouts in those weeks (or even 1).

On the up side my wife noted that she can see my abs lately. I tried to capture it in a picture, but could not (they are there, and visible, but not the monstrous "3d" abs that some members here have.

Here are some pictures from this morning.

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I had been feeling fatigued the last week or so, so I got another blood test, thinking that my pellets were running out (and I was ready to switch over to injections). But my test was at 609, actually 7 points higher than when I tested it 5 weeks prior (which is odd while on pellets....). All of my other markers were in range (liver, kidney, lipids, etc.) so I started a low dose run of ostarine yesterday (3mg). I really just want to get rid of that last bit of visceral fat around my midsection and possibly thin out the subq fat around my abs. I am 2 weeks into a low dose run on Sup3r-11 (TD 11-KT). And one week since I dropped my MK dosage to 10mg per night. It seems that I need to drop the dosage every couple of months for about a week, to avoid bloat. Then again it could also be coincidental timing.

I will also add that due to all of the stress in my life right now I have taken to a beer (or 3) at night, after work, to unwind. I am giving Michelob Ultra a try (only 3g carbs per can). I am sure it is not helping my progress any, but so far it doesn't seem to be making any huge negative impacts. And it didn't show up as a significant impact to my liver in my blood work.
 
Sparkss said:
so, been busy as heck dealing with all of the medical "professionals" (and I use that term loosely). I get maybe 2 workouts a week in lately. I have not been eating well lately, mostly clean, but not much of it. I dropped a fair bit of weight, but am now back up to 183. Next week our daughter starts school, the week after is the surgery. And next week is ate up with pre-op tasks and appointments, that I also need to attend. So needless to say I will be happy to get even 2 workouts in those weeks (or even 1).

On the up side my wife noted that she can see my abs lately. I tried to capture it in a picture, but could not (they are there, and visible, but not the monstrous "3d" abs that some members here have.

Here are some pictures from this morning.

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I Think you are looking better. lost very little size and a lot leaner.
 
Sparkss said:
Thanks, I have high bars to reach between you and Studhorse and HGP
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You look much more sturdy compared to old pics!
The LGD treated you well.
By now you have noted that anabolics are not magical. They sure help -but in the end its all about training, rest and diet.
 
Studhorse said:
I Think you are looking better. lost very little size and a lot leaner.
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Thanks, I did lose a bit, but I figured I can gain it back easier than it took to gain it the first time (at least that is what I have heard :)). The next "bulk" will be a much leaner one. I learned the hard way that a dirty bulk is a bear to "clean up". And the pictures don't do me justice. In person you can see the outline of my abs (the full 6-pack, but still only an outline), you can barely see the outline of the 1-pack in the pictures. Ok, whining done now :).

All in all I still feel like I look good for a 50 yr old :) (yea, not going to try to compare myself to you, LOL). I did have someone mistake me for being in my early 40's a couple of weeks ago. Damn that felt good when it happened :D.
 
hairygrandpa said:
You look much more sturdy compared to old pics!
The LGD treated you well.
By now you have noted that anabolics are not magical. They sure help -but in the end its all about training, rest and diet.
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Thanks, and yea, I do feel more "solid" than before. And yes, anabolics are not a magic pill (or shot), but they do help. I have more LGD, not sure when I will run it again, but it will be at a higher dosage, and with stricter control over my diet than the last time.

Here is what I have sitting in my supps cache: Sup3r-1 Elite (2 bottles), Sup3r-2 (6 bottles, got it on BOGO at the closeout), Sup3r-11 (3 bottles, also BOGO on closeout), LGD, Ostarine, RAD and GW. And I have one bottle of Epidrone from BPS that is just sitting in a corner. Not sure where/when to use that at this time, I need to do more reading/planning around it, especially since there is only 1 bottle. Maybe I will put it up FS.

I tried the GW once, PWO, and loved the results (best workout I have had in a long time), but too chicken to take it again based on what I read in the studies (and not the online "interpretations" of the studies, but what I gleaned from the studies themselves). That is a young mans compound, IMO.

I am currently on low dose Ost and Sup3r-11 plus my nightly staple MK (which I just bumped back up to 20mg last night). I will get labs again in a couple of weeks to see if I keep going, stop, or up the dosage (of the Ost). I also should be switched over to TRT injections by that time, so no worries about any compounds interfering with the blood tests I have to do for that. Nothing I am taking now has shown any impact (positive or negative) on free test markers. Also why I am not touching RAD until after I get that switch done, as that can affect the #s, IIRC.

Depending on how my health markers look I may start another bulk in September (after the surgery is behind us, and when cooler weather will remove the frequency of being outside w/o a shirt on, just in case the bulk goes awry :)).
 
Sparkss said:
Thanks, I did lose a bit, but I figured I can gain it back easier than it took to gain it the first time (at least that is what I have heard :)). The next "bulk" will be a much leaner one. I learned the hard way that a dirty bulk is a bear to "clean up". And the pictures don't do me justice. In person you can see the outline of my abs (the full 6-pack, but still only an outline), you can barely see the outline of the 1-pack in the pictures. Ok, whining done now :).

All in all I still feel like I look good for a 50 yr old :) (yea, not going to try to compare myself to you, LOL). I did have someone mistake me for being in my early 40's a couple of weeks ago. Damn that felt good when it happened :D.
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putting it back on is much quicker than getting there. trust me. I bounce up and down all the time. Being Natty I can only get so big.

You look dam good for 50!
I got carded at the liquor store last weekend. I just told her bless your heart and handed her the licence. (I have kids older than she was)
 
Studhorse said:
putting it back on is much quicker than getting there. trust me. I bounce up and down all the time. Being Natty I can only get so big.

You look dam good for 50!
I got carded at the liquor store last weekend. I just told her bless your heart and handed her the licence. (I have kids older than she was)
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Thanks! and you look damn fierce (and good) for 54 bro!!!
 
Short update. The wife's recovery is progressing, but slowly. I am not longer a full time single parent, but do still pick up 50% of the household chores (of those I did not use to be responsible for, in addition to the chores I always took care of). I have been getting about 2 workouts a week in still, so not too bad, considering.

While at the hospital I "accidentally" started Intermittent Fasting. Since then I have been using it every couple of days, not breaking my fast (from the previous night) until between 3 and 5 PM. Yesterday was not one of those days, but I still weighed in at 180.2 this morning, the leanest being around 178.5, that after two IF days in a row + daily dandelion root, so I was pretty much "empty", but also feeling a little on the weak side.

I am still taking MK at 20 mg per night. And as of today I am 4 weeks in for Ostarine at 3 mg (study dosage) and 6 weeks of Sup3r-11 (11-KT TD) at 1.5 ML (I was more interested in the weight loss than the other benefits, hence the lower dosage). I go for blood work tomorrow morning, so we will see what affect those are having on me. I know that I had a draw at 2 weeks in on the 11-KT and saw no spikes in any markers. So it is more so about what the Ost is doing (some in the study had elevated ALT) and decide if i bump the dosage, stay the course or drop it all together.

One thing I do note is that my joints are screaming, so I am guessing I tanked cortisol, although I still have a bit of a "spare tire", so it seems that cortisol is not the cause there, not that I honestly thought it was (based on previous tests).

Part of the purpose of the blood draw is also to evaluate if the pellets are "used up" enough to start my transition to self-administered injections (for TRT). Once I make that transition I plan to start a bulk cycle, not sure of what compound. But that also depends on the blood test results. I have a spreadsheet that tracks the impacts of the compounds I have already tried, and what marker(s) each one impacts in me. So I will marry that with the current lab results to make that decision.
 
after 6 weeks of Sup3r-11 and 4 weeks of Ostarine (at the 3 mg study dosage) my labs came back about as I expected. Lipids were down across the board (including HDL) Although percentage wise the drop in total, triglycerides and LDL were greater than the percentage drop in HDL, so I will take it :). Liver function didn't move at all, in fact ALT got a little better. Alk-Phos and Bili total were still well in range too. all kidney markers looked good still. I feel a little "on", with some improved protein synthesis/partitioning (I don't get bloated after a "bad" meal). And since I stopped Sup3r-11 2 days ago my joints are starting to feel better (not great yet, but better).

I am debating what to run for a real cycle next (the Ost was more of a trial/experiment to see if I had the same liver reaction some of the study participants had.. and I did not). So my next step will be to up the dose and try again. But I think that I will save that for another time. For now I know that I can run the low dose, get some mild benefits and also recover my lipid numbers.

My testosterone #s came back low, but that was also expected as the pellets have just about run their course. I have an appointment with my doctor next Friday, at which time I should be walking out with a script for test-cyp to start self-injecting (if not then I will have a new doctor come the following Monday). After I get that (TRT) under control then I will decide what to run next for a bulk cycle.

Also, I still am sitting right around 180 ~ 181 each morning.
 
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