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Building on difficult foundations...


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Hello,

 

Just joined and finally started determined training after years of avoiding my problems. i thought my back story would be worth posting and I would of course appreciate tips & encouragement along the way.

 

I spent most my life either being excluded or myself shunning sports/physical activity because of personal physical diffulties. I was always keen & joined in with football & athletics in school but when you ALWAYS come last despite always trying the hardest, it kind of kills the fun.

 

So since school all I did was skateboarding, bumming about BMXing where it was chilled out no pressure fun. But still my lack of physical agility hugely restrained my ability.

 

Im 24 now (male & 5'8"), for the past couple years my main physical activity has been road cycling (very amateur!) and outdoorsy stuff, walking etc.

 

Ive only very recently got to grips with the details of most of my problems, and am now facing them trying to make the most of my "physical prowess" at this prime age! - Ive decided vanity is also a good a reason as physical fitness.

 

Heres some of the relavent stuff (I have more!)

 

1. Dyspraxia: co-ordination issues, learnt how to catch a ball when I was sixteen!

 

2. 70% lung capacity + lung damage in fire + asthma (only just accepted problem and got inhaler to assist in training) Still can barely run 50metres.

 

3. Very loose joints, especially shoulder & spine. Means I can get back ache & can dislocate shoulder by simply throwing a ball too fast. All my joints (except knees) make loud clicks under complicated stressed movements.

 

4. Weird body somatype, extremely difficult to develop upper body muscle/strength but can put on fat very easily. This aggrevates number 3. Also my hips are much wider than my very unmuscular ribcage, which doesnt look great.

 

5. Genetically pre-disposed to have a huge distended gut/belly. (My father & most men where he comes from have it too) I went from 185lb to 140lb but my legs/arms look exactly the same, all my fat collects only at my stomach. Which is still big even though I am thin and only 10% bodyfat now.

 

My Aims & Goals:

 

I would love to be able to sprint. Even though sprinting is technically an anaerobic excercise, despite my best efforts I can barely sprint 50metres.

 

I would like to develop huge athletic legs with explosive (twitch?) muscle action, so I can try cycle track racing and also be able to jump higher on my skateboard & BMX.

 

To have rock solid core muscles to hold my spine together, suck in my gut and help with bike racing. Also give me better posture I can maintain for life.

 

To have much greater upper body strength, especially shoulders! So I am more robust, can take crashes and to assist in sports such as climbing and fighting (im a total pacafist btw)

 

To be a competent swimmer, enough to be confident at sea (surfing etc)

 

Have a much better, stronger shaped body for vanity reasons! Ive always been the awkward geek, would be a revalation to be looked at in 'that way'

 

All that & more!

 

Anyhow, I aim to stick about & show progress when I have some.

Ive been training for just over 3 weeks now, planning to get a lot more intense now ive researched what I am doing somewhat.

 

Week1: 2 x weights sessions, heavy & few reps. 1x spinning class.

 

Week2: 2 x weights sessions, moderate weight, many reps. 1x spinning class.

 

Week3: Begin with instense circuit training session with instructor, and another weights session.

 

Gym closes for christmas.

 

Since then (about week and a half) been working with pushups, crunches and core bodyweight excercises, especially useful as I am hugely defficent in that area, which makes weight lifting difficult & the circuit training painfully gruelling.

 

To give you an idea of how weak my upper body strength is.. I can just about bench press and empty bar, but it wobbles all over the place.

 

I started only managing 7 very wobbly push-ups, where my whole midsection would rattle the room!

 

But my weeks training has paid dividends, and I can now do repeated sets of 10 smooth push-ups and a max of 15.

 

I have also just started doing 'stomach vacums' in hope of pulling in my gut, awkward but I hope it works!

 

Also been killing it on hand grippers, merely because they are there. Hopefully give me enough forearm strength to grip a chinning/ pull-up bar. (what happens after that I dont know!)

 

I tried to go on a couple runs, but its just not agreeing with me. I need a lot of mental strength to get over how immensely difficult it is. Especially as the cold disagrees with my lungs.

 

Ok, Ill conclude there for now. Bored you long enough I think, shall post pics of my lously physique if anyone wishes to see it.

 

Thanks.

 

(ps. I wasnt sure where to post this, will be a mix of Body / strength building queries, other sports, training journal & before-after pics! -hopefully)

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