Kicking LEs butt!! Exercise & Self Care Log
Comments
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Nibbana, the important part of your experience is that you've not had any trouble, and you're checking for that, and you're not moving up very frequently, even if by more than a pound. Not many gyms have dumbbells or weight machines that allow us to move up by exactly one pound with each weight increase. My gym does not have a four-pound dumbbell, for example.
We do the best we can with what is available. And we stay vigilent, backing off the weight if we have any sign of a flare, or when we miss a week. 'Slowly progressive' does not mean one pound at a time forever. I think when you're at heavier weights, it means moving up in reasonable increments, not necessarily one pound.
Also, we can do 'slowly progressive' in other ways. My trainer sometimes has me increase repetitions if I'm ready to move up to say, 13 pounds, but the next available weight is a 15. Instead of moving from 12 to 15, which might be asking for trouble, he has me do a couple of sessions where my sets include 16 or 18 repetitions at 12 lbs instead of the standard 12 reps. He tells me that this method gets the arm strong enough to then safely move up to the 15 lb dumbbell--just as safely as if I had a 13- or 14-lb weight. The weight machines move up in fixed intervals of 5 or ten lbs, and some have half-weight plates, but not all. So adding repetitions before moving up to the next weight helps protect the arm from a sudden overload.
Purple, what an amazing brother! I hope you get to a place where you can try a formal exercise and weight lifting program, when your LE stabilizes and if other health issues permit.
Today I did not move much, ooops. Work grabbed me and held onto me and I am bummed as a result. Tomorrow I have a gym commitment, though, so I'll be back on the wagon for sure.
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GREAT info, Carol. Thank you!
I tried up to move last week and my arm is hurting today so I when I met with my trainer trainer, I dropped back to 2lbs. I'm not hurting tonight so that is good.
That's really smart, Carol, to increase to 15 reps before moving up. I've been doing 12 reps for several weeks and then moving up ... in this instance it didn't work but there are other variables at play such as not drinking enough yesterday, weather change and a lot of stress. We took it (with my trainer) fairly easy today.
Was totally encouraged that Becky is up to 10 lbs. I didn't think that was possible. It gives me hope.
Thank you ladies for spurring me on.
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THE REST OF YOU... GIVE ME 5 OF ANYTHING! except cookies.
Sorry hugz ...you've lost your credibility. You can't ask for 5 of anything today! LOL
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Purple, what an amazing brother! I hope you get to a place where you can try a formal exercise and weight lifting program, when your LE stabilizes and if other health issues permit.
Thanks, Carol.
As far as I am concerned it will depend soley on the LE. I'm not stupid so I will wait and see if I feel it has gotten better/ stable before I try anything.
The way I look at it, I had all the other conditions prior to LE and they never stopped me before. This therapists remarks are not at all inspirational , and I find them to be reckless in fact. Very limiting at best.
A coach once told my son: " Basketball is just not your thing . Go find something else " WTF! He is 27 and still playing - and is damn good at it, if I say so myself. I know sometimes my posts seem negative, but there is nothing wrong with a little old fashioned ( justified) anger if it is fueled in a positive way!
This is my brother: He's 58 yrs old.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wescott.htm
He was LITERALLY a 97 lb weakling. People made fun of him. That got him mad!
This is his website http://timwescott.proboards.com/index.cgi
I plan to come back from this ... with the help and hope of you ladies.
Thanks for being the inspiration I need - I guess I just wont find it in the medical field.
That's okay ...been there and done that. I'm a little underwhelmed with them anyway.
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Purple, So you have sent me to the dog house huh. Well I am trying to get out so I started of with tai chi breather and will have my smoothie and then Lebed opening. THERE!, I feel better already.
The world is coming together for me today. Gonna shake those cookies off today!Ok, So I found out pretty quick if I don't write down everything I eat then I fall hard. So I got my trusty paper in hand and will write down every morsel. I just signed up with a naturopath last week for a mostly vegan diet so I guess the cookies were my last farewell to junk! Just got to start with a good measure of self control. Also I just got to get off the sugar/wheat carb thing. It's truly an addiction.
Just looking at Purples brothers pics inspires me. Wow talk about dedication. Purple must be bursting at the seams proudly
Ok...thanks to Purple's bro I am back on track!!!!!
Purple we are here to encourage and guide you cause we know what it is like!
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Purple, So you have sent me to the dog house huh. Well I am trying to get out so I started of with tai chi breather and will have my smoothie and then Lebed opening.
OK, you are out, hugz - Good start !
Thnks for being there .0 -
Purple Yeah! I'm out!
Had celery/carrots and toast with coconut oil for breakfast, NO COOKIES! Did my lebed and breather, got 4 breathers to go today and going to walk and stretch out this stupid back/hip as soon as I finish all my doc appointments. Hope life doesn't trip my exercise plans up! 0 -
You are waaay out , hugz and back in the game. YAY!
I did MLD this morning, then a few tai chi breathers at lunch, 30 mins walkiing and stretching at suppertime and plan to do a bit more walking later, followed by some MLD.
Hey , are we going to start posting our food ?! Ok, you're on....Chobani greek yogurt and berries for bkfst with decaf coffee and lite almond milk.
Yoplait LITE, green beans and apple for lunch. Ca and D...no milk :<( waters.
2 LITE ww wraps with lettuce, peppers, tomato, 5 blk olives, speck of parmesan and taco sauce for supper, with clementine. water, more decaf.
OK, I'm on WW - lost 13 lbs so far!Anyway, I am not liking the way my right (good) fingers feel. We'll see.
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Today I got 5.6 miles in, including a 3-mile Sansone fast walk, and a good bit of walking in town for errands, parking purposefully distant from the post office to be sure I got more steps in. Worked out in the gym, with 20 minutes of walking at 3.5 mph on a steep incline, which always gets my heart pumping. Then 60 minutes of weight training with the trainer, ending with some great stretches and ab work. No Lebed yet, so I'll try to work that in.
I chatted with the trainer about more strategies if we're lifting weights and cannot move up in small enough increments, because the weights jump too much from one dumbbell to the next, or from one machine weight plate to the next. He has had me add in reps to help bridge that gap, as I explained in an earlier post. Today he added that another strategy is to slow down the pace of each lift, so that when you are comfortable with, say 6 lbs and the next dumbbell is 8 pounds, stay at your usual number of repts, but concentrate on lifting the 6 lb weight very, very slowly for another week or two before moving up to the 8 pound weight. Going slowly builds added strength by exposing the muscles to the weight for longer, and also by removing momentum from the lift--your muscles really must do all of the work. He said to remember to keep it slow on both the lifting motion, and the return motion, i.e. the complete repetition.
I don't know if I have the energy to report my food here. I do it on my food tracker program to help keep my weight in check, but not every day. I will say that today I had a couple of squares of Ghiradelli 100% cacao, i.e. totally unsweetened. Delish! And I assume that all those antioxidants are making me younger every minute!
Carol
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ooo, chocolate makes you younger? I need to run out to the store again.....
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Proud, emphasize the 'run' part and maybe you will get younger!! (I actually call all this exercise my 'youth recapture strategy.')
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I don't know if I have the energy to report my food here.
LOL!
Carol, I was just teasing hugz on that one. Anyhow, you did list the most important thing. :>)
Is this a PAL trainer you <still> have , btw ?
So right on the weights ... the S L O W is a much more challenging (and strengthening ) load.0 -
Purple, my trainer is an amazing person. He's a powerlifter --world record, even--and his heart is even bigger than his well developed muscles. When I discovered I had LE, it was before I had a green light to return to aggressive cardio or any core or resistance training, per my plastic surgeon after my diep reconstruction. So we had time to figure out what LE would mean to my workouts, once I would get the OK to re-start them.
Todd's first response to my announcement that I had LE was to say, you have lim-fa-what-a? But then he agreed to host a one-day workshop for trainers and LE therapists, and we brought in an expert --Cathy Bryan, the lead personal trainer in the PAL trial--to teach them what they need to train people with LE who want to include weight training in their workouts. It was an amazing day, extremely well received, and everyone left with full documentation about a PAL compliant program for women with breast cancer-related LE. The workshop included all they needed to know about modifying form to meet our needs; the PAL precautions, obviously; and a good sense of what kinds of limitations to be aware of that come not only from our LE, but also from all the BC treatments, and the various recon methods.
He totally 'gets' the PAL precautions and since re-starting the weight training last March, I have had no swelling flares at all, although sometimes I get more than the usual ache in the arm, which informs our decision on what amount of weight to use in the next session (back it down).
Todd has offered to put on a free, twelve-week group PAL session for up to eight women (no more than he can supervise in a group setting), but we have not found other women who want to take the class. Our town's hospital helped foot the bill for the workshop, but for reasons I'll never understand, they and their LE therapist (my CLT) just don't seem interested in asking the oncs and breast surgeons in the area to get the word out that this is available. I'm still working on that, and it's a cryin' shame, because I'm not the only one who should benefit from Todd's help and expertise. Unfortunately, the oncs and surgeons are not responding when I try to reach them. It's more testimony that LE doesn't pass the 'who cares' test..until a surgeon or an onc gets it!
My ideal gift to everyone with LE would be to find them a trainer with as much interest in LE concerns as this guy. Oh, I might mention that he has a son with Down syndrome...so he's really tuned into what it means to have limitations and to want to find ways to work with and around them.
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Todd's first response to my announcement that I had LE was to say, you have lim-fa-what-a? But
He sounds amazing, Carol! ESP since he had no prior knowledge. What a shame ppl. dont care until it is too late. Can you offer the free program through the LIVESTRONG unit at your local Y ?I'd love to go to his class !
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Purple, there are Ys in two nearby cities. One Y sent their program director, who is a certified personal trainer, to our workshop. That Y does not offer Livestrong for funding reasons, so they had devised their own program for cancer survivors. The program director told me after the workshop that she realized she needed to modify their program and would do so based on what she learned. So that was a real win for BC survivors in that city who use the Y.
The Y in the other city is another story. They did not want to hear anything about LE. Their program director told me that. A commitee considered sending someone to the workshop, but decided that LE was not in their strategic plan, which includes only heart disease and diabetes for health outreach efforts for 2012 and 2013. There was no convincing them that BC survivors work out in their Y (which does not offer Livestrong) and are mostly not even aware of their LE risk, so need help on awareness and precautions for weight lifting. Arrrgghh!0 -
Purple. I like your menu and your weight loss. I'm commin over for a lesson.
Carol. You never cease to amaze me. Where do you find the time to do all that movement? I actually told myself maybe I DO need to rise at 5am to fit it in, ooh but I am not an early riser.
After doing all my LE care/walking and back/hip stretches, I am trying to figure out where I would carve out PAL time. Please I need a 30 hour day!I did all exercising around as I promised myself except for stretching and it is 12 am now and finally after all the appointments today and catching up with book keeping there is no way in earth I am stretching. Maybe stretching right into bed!
exhausted!NOW IF I COULD ONLY SLEEP!
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You did good, hugz .. you busted out of that doghouse ! No lessons from me- just Weight Watchers. I'm not all that overweight, but I used to be really skinny so I feel it. I have to say, this is the slowest I have ever lost, but I am going in the right direction.
Good day, ladies !
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Hugz, for all the movement, I have several things going for me. One, I'm self-employed, so nobody tells me when I have to do my work, and I can slice and dice my day as I need to. Second, I work from home, so I don't lose any time to a commute. And when I do need to leave the house for work, like my incessant travel to teach seminars, I almost always have so much airport time, with connections and delays, that there's plenty of time for some speedy airport walking. If I had to work a true 9-5 job and be accountable to a boss/company for how I arrange my working hours, I would not be as successful working the exercise in. So my hat is tipped big time to everyone here whose schedule is much more challenging.
Oh, and my kids are grown--I'm a grandma--so that relieves me of lots of demands on my time that lots of others have to work around if they want to exercise.
So you see...I have zero excuses not to exercise!
Carol
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hmm, got new issue, just as I was starting to work with my lovely new "cancer trained" trainer, I woke up last monday with what appears to be vertigo.....
so skipped a week of training with him, did go for a bit of cardio...hung on to the sides of the treadmill and sat on bike for a time. Bit of stretching also
did some sort of stupid balance test yesterday to figure out the problem and taking a new pill. Since folks I talk to say it comes and it goes.....and lasts by my talks anywhere from a day to a year! a year? Want me to have a breakdown?
I do not chose that so meeting with trainer this weekend to have a newly revised...vertigo friendly session....what next?
vertigo plus LE should test his creative skills....
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Oh my proudtospin... Something going on with your neck??? When I kink my neck or turn it too fast, I almost fall over, but I also take neurontin... so that is my issue
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Just thinkin' here...but did anyone ever think about starting a real live LE exercise group in their area? Since there are so many clueless docs, le "therapists", YMCAs with no PAL informed trainier, ect.
I'm thinking a group that meets up just to do exercise with a social element, like cycling, walking, hiking, ect.
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Gma, my thing is my balance, me head spins and I feel like I am hung over but have not had anything to drink!
so far found bundles of folks with it and all seem to say it appears with no warning and goes ....when it feels like it~
not fun, they test the inner ear so hoping it is something that will go away soon
Nibbana, I used to cycle with some cycling clubs in my area, they would meet up on weekends and ride together. Great fun and often there were 50 to 100 folks to ride with. Course they said their moto was "we ride to eat" which I thought was a great moto.....rest stops were at little bagel joints!
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proudtospin
I swear I have had most conditions known to man :>)
If this persists, you may want to go to a very good ENT Dr and get a test where they put water in each ear and test for the cause as you are on a table. I am sorry I forgot the name of it.If it somes to that, PM me and I will try to get you more details if needed.
Hope this passes quickly. Has anyone suggeested antivert ?
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purple --when I told my PCD she sent me to a neurologist who just had me get 2 tests yesterday, results in a couple of days but one was a brain MRI, yikes! and the other was a thing I can not remember now but it is something like ENT but not....according to the internet it is the first test they do to diagnos the problem and to see if it is caused by inner ear. He blew air in my ears among other things so waiting to see what results say. Yeap, got antivert and it is a major help, like I can tell when it is wearing off
so for now waiting on results, thanks for the offer
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Cindi...thanks for the link, will definitly check it out
I already asked my PT to work out a new plan for our session on Sun, sort of half LE and the other part vertigo! He thought it was doable so will see!
How long ago did you have vertigo and how long (if not too nosey) did it last for you? I have heard anywhere from hours to a year! since mine is now a week and a half....sort of hoping near the end but definitely up for excercises
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Been there, done that , proudtospin. I did have the brain MRI many,many yrs ago. All they found was a cyst on the pineal gland, which they *claim* is a normal variant. ( My trust in the medical professionals is waning)
In any case, I hope your issues are short-lived. Maybe the exercises will help you.Good Luck .
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I've always had a touch of vertigo. Goes hand in hand with hearing loss. Which I've had since before I started school. It really got roaring though when I had my 1st cateract surgery in 2008. They fixed my right eye so I had great vision in that eye, but the left was still very bad. I think having eyesight that was so out of whack messed with my equilibrium. I was hopeful that getting the left eye fixed would clear things up, but not yet. (Surgery was in Feb., and in a strange way led to my cancer dx)
I still have days where I'm pretty dizzy, but not so many any more.
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You might have Meniere’s disease I have a friend with that, quite troublesome, but she has it under control now, and is doing well. Hopefully it's short lived, and something very minor - do you see a neuro-otologist, they take care of innner ear issues, my husband had a growth in his ear that had to be removed, these specialists are amazing.
Today I saw my LE-T, had massage & wrapping, went shopping with daughter - so walked a couple of miles. Kept the wrappings on for about 8 hours. LE-T also kinesio taped me, that seems to really bring my swelling down, and helps with pain. Now I'm up and can't sleep at 3:30 in the stupid morning - what the heck!
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Get some rest, Linda!
Did my MLD and finished it in the shower this morning. Do any of you ladies do it that way ? Comments on effectiveness or lack therof ?0
