25 points of life fad..

Ok, so it has been driving me nuts seeing all these 25 points of life people have been writing about. The problem is, that they are correct. What humans need to do, is simplify their lives a bit, and have a set of basic rules they abide by. So here is mine!

Super Mutant's 25 bits of mutanty wisdom.
1: Enjoy the fact that you woke up breathing! If it is one thing being a mutated gimp can show you, breathing is important, and often overlooked!
2: If you woke up breathing, eat something good in celebration. I don't mean good as in 3 50p sized servings of something, but a good solid breakfast is a great start to the day. I prefer shakes, or beans eggs tomato and toast!
3: Think of something that you want to do. People say write lists, put it on your blackberry or iPhone. Whatever floats your boat. My view on this, is keep it simple, say "Today I am going to read this article, and get my bag packed for the day." These are two things that are easy to accomplish and therefore, you will start the day with a completed goal.
4: Do something that is a challenge. If you are a late person out of bed, get up 15 mins before you usually do. Again, I know, it is a small goal, but that 15 minutes could be turned into banked time. You might need it later in the day!
5: Stick to your guns. Be they the ones below your shoulders, or your beliefs, stick to them. Neglecting the most important limb in your body can be bad. I know legs are important, but if you have no arms and no legs, life is hard. As for your beliefs, don't neglect them either. It is important to have a set of priorities in life.
6: Identify your guns, being the belief ones. These dictate how you interact with the world. More importantly, question them once in a while. Do you still think that not letting someone else share the remote with you is important, or do you still have share-a-phobia?
7: Worship something! I know, this is a gutsy statement, especially from an atheistic Buddhist, but hear me out. I worship the time I spend in developing myself. When humans worship things, they put more effort into it. If we all worshiped our bodies as much as we worship the pieces of paper in our wallet, we would do a lot better in life. Worship those you love, the things you do, and the fact that you woke up breathing. If you didn't wake up breathing and are still reading this, well you might have others worshiping you!
8: Tell stories! Yeah, not the kind that make you seem cooler than what you are, but the ones that inspire others. Stories are what first made civilization awesome! Plato, Socrates, H.P Lovecraft etc, stories are about our existence, how we think and what our direction is. If you ever want some good ones, go listen to an elder of whatever persuasion. Old timers tell awesome stories.
9: Do something decadent every now and then. Seriously, get that stick out of your spine, and chill. We are humans, and well we deserve to celebrate that! Baccus would be horrified at how we don't chill out anymore. My decadent treat, chocolate brownies. I just work a little bit harder the next day.
10: Decide what it is you want to do with life! Now this one never always occurs at the end of high school! I felt cheated when I left high school at the fact that we were told that we would all make our mark on the world. So, what do you want to do? Don't do what others think you should do, do what you feel is right for you and those around you!
11: This is a biggy! Do something you were told NOT to, but test it safely. Ok, I was told that I shouldn't dead-lift! Well, I really really wanted to, because I knew it would be awesomely beneficial. So I tried many thought experiments and then found one that worked in practice. Now I dead-lift and love it! This also means that I have to find something else now :-)
12: Take what you want in life. No, this doesn't mean that you loot the stores, burn down the cities, pillage the townsfolk and steal the spoils, or whichever order that runs in. What it does mean, is that you determine a goal, and take it through hard work, effort and add awesome sauce, always add the awesome sauce.
13: Help others! Now, this will also help you with points 12,6,4 and 3, and probably more. Even though you have a busy life, 20 cats that demand your attention, 400 clients wanting your attention, there is always going to be somebody that NEEDS your attention. The person who needs your attention may be the old lady down the street who has lost her husband and needs help in the yard, or that group of kids people are saying vandalize things because they are brats. But really, what is not our lives but to help those less fortunate than ourselves, and bring them to the happiness that we have? Think over that one.
14: Help Yourself! Yay dualistic thought. What good is helping others, if you are not willing to help yourself? Not feeling that your job is right for you? Sick of people telling you that you should just give up your dreams and conform? Well if you are listening to them, you are not helping yourself. You are helping them by giving them power. Words and actions produce power, and if you are not willing to do what you think is right, then maybe you should rethink your existence.
15: Don't let anyone have your Power! Samson learned it the hard way when he had a hair cut. Japanese Samurai didn't appreciate their hair being cut either. Why? Because it was a symbol of power. What is power? Power is tied intrinsically into what you believe in, where you draw your inner strength from, it is in the words you say and the actions you do. Don't give it up.
16: Let off Steam! Oh for the love of Cthulhu, get mad once in a while. Don't take it out on others, or those you love. Walk to your nearest gym, basement or facility, and hit a punching bag. The release of mental and physical tension is beneficial in all regards of medical areas. Mental Health, Physical Health and Internal Health all suffer from stress. Internal stress makes your food processing suffer, Physical stress plays out in your muscles being tense and sore, and well Mentally, stress sucks and leads to a whole bunch of other problems.
17: Laugh! A good laugh is fantastic, not at someone else's expense mind you, but laugh. Lets out a great bunch of chemicals that make you feel all giddy and awesome on the inside. The more often you can do it, the less you will need to refer to point 16.
18: Cry! I know, totally non-manly and all. But, understanding mental health well through practical experience, it helps. Do it on your own time, or with someone you trust, just let it out once in a while. Nothing wrong with showing your soft side, well unless you are a lobster, then you're pooched. But, crying is a natural mechanism we all have done since we were kids. It gets attention for when we need help, it is a primal function, and all mammals have the capacity for it.
19: Workout! I finally got to it, but there are enough lists that put this as the first thing. Now, we all have reasons to workout, and whatever they are, doing it is great. It has the same effects as 16, and if it your workouts involve point 16, then you are getting a double whammy worth of awesome sauce!
20: Give Yoga a try! This is an awesome point, why? Because I am writing this list, and I say so. Well that, and the fact it has great benefits. Stretching, relaxation, breathing techniques and other fit people. Sure a lot of them don't lift weights, but I bet a lot of muscle guys can't hold their own against a yoga girl in the studio.
21: Don't shoot the messenger! Stalin did this, as did Hitler and well yeah, other than a pile of dead messengers, they usually didn't read the message. If someone is going to tell you that something needs improving, or that your car just got towed, or that you can't refund your router you purchased 2 1/2 years ago even if you do have the receipt, don't rip into them. It makes you look like a total arse, and also validates the point that you need to improve something. Look at why the message arrived in the first place and deal with it.
22: If you did shoot the messenger! Firstly, clean up the mess. No-one likes cleaning up another's mess. Secondly, suck up the macho/bitchiness and say sorry! This will show you are not a total arse, and will generally give the other person a bit of respect towards you. They may also have realized that they did something that they could improve on, which is then a win-win for all involved.
23: Get more than one opinion! We expect it with science reviews, we often ask for it in medical cases, so why not expect it in our day to day lives. Do you think that you should put that knife in the power socket? Maybe ask someone else for an answer. Do you think that someone telling you to eat such and such a protein powder is right, yet you feel uneasy about it because that person doesn't know you too well, get another opinion. Sure, it takes up a bit more time, but it is better than ending up in hospital if you can't eat whey powder.
24: Debate! Look, dualism strikes again! Human's have never progressed without debate. I pin the fitness industry, hell, I even pin society's woes on lack of debate. Socrates, Plato, Cato The Edler and Winston Churchill all come to mind as awesome at this. When you debate, and I don't mean the stuff you see on TV Political debates these days, but a good constructive and non-abusive debate will allow you not only to express your views, but learn how and why others think that theirs is correct.
And finally!
25: Say thank you! Simple, but often over-looked, is saying thanks. If someone offers you something, and you don't have something to give in return, say thanks. Say thanks to your parents, mentors, friends and even yourself. Can never get tired of someone showing acknowledgement in this way. So thank you for reading this blog!

Exams are done!

Woohoo Mutants and Normals!! My exams are done!

It has been a very long three months. The course only was 15 days in length, but with it being a course for people with spinal injuries and related issues, it was spread out a bit.

The exams went well I think. Didn't have too much issues, but I totally aced the practical training aspect of it. Was advised that I have excellent teaching skills, and such. Now just to await the test results.

I am going to be taking a bit of a break, so maybe you will get posts about this frequent at the moment. I am going to be job hunting, learning more, and if I get the time to blog, I blog.

Oh, found my 1rep max on Deadlift today... 80ks. Not bad for a bad back in my opinion.

Stay tuned!

Where have you been Super Mutant?

That is a great question imaginary person on the internet!

Well, what I have been doing, is getting the last bits of studying crammed in as much as possible. It came to the point Saturday where study has become, well headache inducing. So I am content with just practicing on my practical section, which thankfully doing a fitness course is easy, it means hit the gym Super Mutant!

First thing I would like to say, deadlifts. I am sure many of you have heard of them, and have even tried them on occasion. Well, I am in love with them to be honest. You can do a great workout, but until you get a set or two of deadlifts in, your workout just seems trivial. For example, did a fantastic core/shoulder/arms workout. Did quite the few reps, 1000, and yet it felt like something was not there, like, when you lose your favourite pair of shoes, or forget to have your favourite meal. Then suddenly, it hit me, I need to deadlift, I need to lift something, and get some steel movement happening. Sure enough, 40 reps later, bam, workout feels complete.

Second thing I want to touch on, and by no means am I endorsing this as I am nowhere even near qualified to discuss it, this is just a personal observation, so on quoting me on it. Sunday I did a 36hr liquids only fast. It was the first one I have done in ages. I have been not eating as good as I normally do, due to not having access to a fridge etc, and well depression making the candy habit come back. So I got to the point where I needed to do something. It was great, because I found that one of the drinks I have other than water, banana flavoured soy milk has been adversely affecting my intestines. Must be something in the chemical reaction between the flavour which is liquified bananas according to the box, and my stomach. The other nice result, is that it has also got the candy habit nixed again. I am still not giving up my chocolate brownie though.

Well folks.. I have 4 classes to go, and should the old brain still be functioning correctly, I will have completed my level 2 gym instructor course. Then hopefully work as soon as possible!!

Endurance training is great fun...

Morning mutants, norms and other species visiting this page. I hope that you are all having a great existence in whatever timezone or dimension you are all visiting from.

Now recently, I have started going back to doing 5 days a week workouts. It has been a while, but I think I am getting enough of a result that I will be keeping this up for a little bit longer. I have to say, I think the greatest benefit I have experienced from it, will definitely have to be the increased energy from getting a fantastic nights sleep. The muscular increase, bone regeneration, the strength increases and other wonders it can do for the human body are great, but, without a good sleep, your body won't absorb the benefits that it should.

The other thing I really enjoy is the numbers game. Seeing how many reps I can increase upon my previous workout. Around 3 weeks ago, I started at about 450-500 for an upper body workout. These are done in either sets of 10,20,30 depending on the exercises that I am performing. Yesterday, I maxed out at 820, which was quite a struggle towards the end. One of the major benefits I have seen from this, is that on the days where I am not in the gym, I am finding that I am able to do whatever it is I am doing for a longer amount of time. Be it walking around the museum without taking a sit down break in a 5 hour period, or keeping a better maintained focus on my course work.

Another thing I have noticed, is that my body has responded better to this type of workout than it did with strength workout (low reps higher weights). I have seen a better increase in muscle growth, better strength gains, and just as importantly, a bit better of a cardio increase. Different people respond differently to exercise, mainly due to a genetic disposition to certain muscle types. Some people can do the strength workouts, and look like a shaved bear sitting in the gym, whereas others respond to endurance. Now, due to people not having a good understanding of their bodies, they will generally do what the big guys are doing and get no result in the gym whatsoever.

So next time you are down in the gym, give each type of exercise a try for a few weeks, and see which one you get the better result from, and use that as your predominant workout. Still, doing the other workout will provide benefit to you, but if your body is not responding, change it up a bit. Now remember, you won't create NEW muscle in the gym, you will just be enhancing the muscle you already have. This was one of the more interesting facts that I have learned in the course, just on the basis of how many people think that these supplements on the market can help them "create" new muscle.

All the best my fitness and non fitness buffs, Jim, the Supermutant.

Mutant Inspiration And Laughs...

Ok, again, it has been busy and therefore my fellow mutants, I have to apologize for not having a blog up yet. There is a reason. I am doing my course mutants!! Booyah!. It has been a bit of struggle to get here, but with the help of a generous and caring friend, I can concentrate a bit harder on my studies and getting benefits arranged.

It has been amazing this course and I am only in day 2. Yes my dear muscle bound fitness folk, day 2. It is great to see how the group dynamics come up when you have varying ranges of different disabilities. Also, you can never quit to be amazed at the differences in function between one wheelchair user and another, then also how amazing the human body is! Especially when you hear how exercise has helped paraplegics regain some form of limited motion or sensation in otherwise non-functioning areas.

I have to say one of the most inspiring things is Mutant Thumb himself. We had a great laugh yesterday during a warm up phase where we were all moving, the regular wheelchair users were doing fast sprints and direction changes, then Mutant Thumb was doing it too, we all laughed. Then when we saw him do some bicep curls, shoulder presses and chest presses, even with extremely limited range of motion, it was brilliant to see him work through it.

Now, I bet a lot of mutants know by now, that mental illnesses can be just as debilitating as physical illnesses. We have a few people in the class with varying mental illness, and watching them work through what is obviously is not an easy course is awesome also. I have to say my friends, that mutants like ourselves need to learn to stick together, not in a negative way where all we do is complain to a paper if things don't go our way, but more in a positive way where we can help change by showing that even through the cards we have been dealt, there is an inner physical and mental strength of personality, courage and determination. It is not showing that we don't need our benefits, but showing that while we are on them, there are reasons for us being on them and that we are not all like these people who play golf when they are claiming for severe disability in the back or whatever.

Finally, the laughs. So there was Mutant Thumb, Road Racer M and myself. Mutant Thumb was giving us a demo of his Stephen Hawking machine and we were all interested, and then Road Racer M pops up with... "Can you put porn in that?". Well, after a lot of laughing, Mutant Thumb comes up with a "I haven't tried" response, and then I suggest we can always get porno literature for him. More laughter ensues.

Thanks for the read folks. I think this old Mutant here has finally found a happy place as it comes to work and stuff. Whilst there is still some minor stresses and stuff, I think when I get that degree in my hand in a few years time, and am working with people like those in my group, or hopefully combat veterans and disabled athletes on top, I will look back and say it has all been worth it.

First.. an apology!

Okay mutants, whelps and flatbacks, I know you have all missed me, but there has been some stuff going on in the real world that needed to get taken care of, but it also means that there has been some progress!

Firstly, my beloved call centre job has been taken over by another department, which if anyone who is reading this knows, I am not in anyway shape or form upset about this. I honestly do feel sad about it in a way, and that is because a lot of people brought into the story that there would be enough jobs from other campaigns to employ all the staff available. Rule number one whelps, when someone says they will give you a job within the company, ESPECIALLY a call centre environment, that is the best indicator to start looking elswhere. Other than my friends who have not started to look or already have received something, I am not going to miss that place one bit.

Secondly, and this is the best bit, I have achieved the goal of getting my personal training career started. I have been accepted on a level 2 personal training course, which nicely enough, I don't have to pay for. The only downside, is I need to get the ball rolling for benefits, which is my goal tomorrow night. Or find a wealthy patron or put myself up for hire for something or another.

Finally, fitnessy stuff. Yup, the tofu in the vegan friendly sandwich of this blog. I have been having a chat with one of the flatback trainers at the gym, and was reminded of a bunch of variations that I could be doing for workouts. Now due to that thing called "a dicky rotator cuff" and heavy weights being a bit off limits, I have changed a goal post or two. What I have done, is set myself workout challenges. For Legs, my challenge is around 300 - 360 rep workouts, because they can still get a bit of weight and it feels like a workout. What I am doing with this, is using different exercises, in 10 rep blocks and on either 2-3 sets per exercise. Upper body/core on the other hand, was originally a 380 - 460 rep workout, but in my last two upper body sessions, I have pushed it to 500 and 501 (today, just because I wanted to :P) reps. If you are looking for a session, that makes you feel the burn of the flatback's mass weight workout, without the shoulders flailing around like an almost severed noodle, then hi rep workout with as much variation as you can muster, is definitely a good way to start.

Well my dearest reader(s), enjoy your workouts, live long, and eat healthy, which kinda leads to the live long bit..

Part fitness, part confession...

For my mutants, normals and steroidal amoeba followers out there.. here is a news flash:

Yoga and Antibiotics are not good friends. Yes, basically when your lymph system starts getting its little yoga inspired rush, it also makes the antibiotics go through fast. This became evident when the room got a little bit spinny, nothing major, and filled with some pretty colours at the edge of my perception.

Which leads into this confession... my thought while resting through it was, "what would that be like with a shot of morphine?" As many of you mutants may know certain chemicals given before, during or after surgery give you that warm happy feeling. Mine sadly, is morphine, or more-so pethedine. I have never used it outside of hospital administration, but, I will be honest where there is not a day once or twice a month, where you get that off day, no matter the cause be it pain/anger/sadness that you try and remember a good time. And sadly, once or twice a month, that goes not to one of the hottest girls I have ever dated/or the girls I would like to date, but back to good old morphine.

I know this is a fitness site, but, you also have to realize that as mutants, some of us are going to have a few points in our lives, where we struggle. Some of us may be angry, hurt, depressed or like me, continuously aware that we have a little friend in the closet, right at the back, who so badly wants to come out and play. Thankfully, through discipline, self-awareness and a joy of being fit and a role model to other mutants, I know that I won't let him out to play voluntarily.

Well folks, moral of the story is, don't yoga and be on drugs... good or bad.. And remember, anyone who says they have no demons that haunt them walk back 20 paces, get your mobile out and call the psyche ward of your nearest hospital. And don't say anything to upset them.

Disability and Fitness: How does it work?

Disability and fitness are generally two words that the majority of the disabled community can't see as being together. I am not sure if it is because they think it takes away from the plight of benefits cuts, or forces them to take account for their own lifestyle.

Now don't get me wrong, there are certain disabilities that fitness cannot be intrinsically connected with. These are the Motor Nuerone Disease, the ones that fully incapacitate you. But that being said, sufferers of MND who are given exercises, it increases flexibility in muscles affected by the disease and increases the strength of those that are not affected. Yet, after a period of a year, you don't go to someone with MND and then say "Oh you have been working out, therefore you no longer suffer it." Ok, maybe David Cameron, PM of the UK might try that, with his cuts to disability, but, generally no, you are still suffering. What you are doing is saving the economy an extra amount of money by doing something that decreases your dependancy on medication and therefore improves your quality of living for whatever time you can.

This was always my conundrum up until a few months ago. I am athletic, and technically I am disabled. I have only ever been on welfare for about 2 years. So out my entire working life, I have done my best to not be on benefits and provide some form of normality in my life.

I have just recently had the opportunity where I can apply to get my level 2 NVQ in personal training. If all goes well, I can start at the end of February. What my aim is here, other than to bring the gospel of fitness to the general community, and specifically the disabled community, is to eventually work my way into research of exercises for the disabled community. With this, I hope to get some sort of education around disability and its dependancy on pain medication and other chemicals to promote well being.

My only concern around this, is that of the feeling of butting heads with established disability groups who want to have the attention placed on their helplessness. In times of a hard economy, and dwindling of benefits, and a government hell bent on creating cuts for the poor so the rich can thrive, maybe the disabled community needs to start looking at how it needs to cut down dependancy on the system in times of crisis. I know a lot of cases it is hard to do, but, if the system is not protecting the most vulnerable in the community, then the vulnerable need to find a way to rework the system. I am all for grants to those disabled who want to get back to work, I am all for those who can't work to get their livelihoods looked after and have their living standards be on par with working society, but at the same time, we need to show that our disabilities are something that we can work with. For example, I know I can't sit down all day, also know I can't stand up all day. I also know that if I am doing something active, then my muscles don't bunch up. We need to start relying on the strengths of our disabilities not on what it won't allow us to do. I had a good mate back in Australia, who has MS. The guy was totally gimped when it came to anything physical, but his mind was wired like a super computer. He gets a job with the government as an IT consultant. I also have seen people who have mental disabilities doing physical tasks, just because their minds are not as capable as a scientist, they have more strength in their bodies than I do.

If we want the government to help us, what we need to do is show the government that we are wanting to do something in return. For those of us who are disabled, and can still do something, to sit and whither like grapes on a vine, receiving benefits to be locked up in an internal prison, is more of a crime still. All human beings have a role in this world, even the most disabled, crippled, mentally incapable person on earth, teaches us about compassion to others. They may not have a quality of life as we know it, but what do we know of the being that resides in the non-functioning shell. It reminds me of the first time I met someone, who all they could do was move their eyes. I had never felt so much compassion towards another person in my life. I knew I couldn't make that person's day, or make them better, but they made me a better person, because they showed a will to live, something in their eyes said that their was a whole universe of thought there that we have been deprived of, and that they relish in.

A chat on Yoga...

So I was out with the awesome pretzel lady herself for a quick coffee. We had a great chat, and were talking about her business and how she is looking at expanding her Yoga empire.

Now I know most of you mutants, especially the male ones in the group, are thinking that yoga is for wusses. Well, to be honest, I thought so to a degree at one point. But having seen how fit a lot of these yoga practitioners are, male and female, I thought "well there has to be something to it, it can't just be all pretty poses and all". Now a good 10 years on, I have become an addict. I got addicted to yoga when back in Canada, when I went with Shannon and Paula. The two girls and I had a blast at our first class, and that was it, I was hooked and went back for more. Imagine my joy, when I found out that getting the gym membership meant that it had free yoga included!!

Now, back to Pretzel Lady. Susan has to be one of the most down to earth and probably the most industrious person I have met. She is intelligent and funny as she is stretchy! Any mutant would be glad to be acquainted with her and with good reason. She runs a multitude of classes during the week, she is doing her masters degree in Osteopathy, and she is also taking time to do her practicum work in as well as getting her web presence done. So please, do me a favour, if you are a Londoner, go to her classes and show some support. Also, mutants, she is cool with training us, as long as we are ok with adapting on our own in classes. She will keep an eye out for you, but remember, there are others. If she see's that you are struggling, she will be there to help out.

So go on, stretch some, who knows, you might increase your stature at the same time!!

OH Legs, you funny things you!

So, in the interest of all mutants and normals everywhere, I now will share with you the awesomeness that is knowing your body.

What you need to know to be awesome as a mutant, and heck, even as a normal, is that when you are into fitness, listening to your body is as tantamount and important as paying attention to the stop sign at a VERY busy intersection. You don't drive through a 4 way which is home to trucks and other heavy vehicles, and then complain that you got t-boned. Well it is the same as your body.

Today, while working out on the assisted rack today. I was doing my lunges, my regular squats and ballet squats. Around halfway through second set, I was starting to feel a nagging in my left knee. Now a majority of the people would say, work through the pain. But anyone with half a brain cell, be they mutant, normal or amoeba know, this is when you suck it up and STOP the exercise that you are doing. Being the smart thing that I am, I throw my towel over my shoulder, and walk to the stretching mat. I get into a good stretch pose for the legs I learned from my awesome Yoga instructor, Mistress Stretch and Pretzel, and sure enough, it stretches itself back out and moves slightly.

I dread to think of what would have happened as I have had a tonne of knee injuries in the past that I have played through. Oh, and also today, PB on the seated calf raises. 20 at 70, 20 at 80, 20 at 90 and 14 at 100. An increase of 1 plate at each level.
Be well and rest tomorrow. Until I go to Yoga that is lol.

Is the spinal fusion the death of all fun?

Ok Mutants, here is an article that was inspired by a chat with one of my young mutant whelplings. She is a fantastic young lady, who just recently had spinal fusion (within the last year) and we met through a mutual friend.

Now, during the conversation, a question or idea was raised regarding the removal of a fusion. Now, generally, a fusion is done for following reasons:

Degenerative disk disease
Spondylolisthesis
Spinal stenosis
Scoliosis
Fracture
Infection
Tumor

Now, whilst these look all fun, and awesome scar showing off potential scenario's, they all require that the spine be set to as close a functional alignment of the spine as possible. For example, in my instance (Scoliosis/Kyphosis), having the spine fused halted the degeneration and curvature of the spine in its tracks. In this scenario, any form of continued movement would have me be the ideal change on the ground looking person in the pack. The question then stands, is not having a fusion better? Well, honestly, that would depend on the situation. Most doctors recommend fusion as an alternative to bracing. This creates what is called internal fixation, and leads to an obvious decrease in spinal mobility.

Now back to the original question, are there any instances where removing the fusion be good? Without knowing too much of the mechanics behind it, my answer still stands at a no, based on the following reasons:

Increased chance of infection: This is due to several factors. Firstly and most obvious is the re-opening of a surgical site, which by its very nature, is going to cause internal and external matter to come into contact. Secondly, the fact that the bones will have to be damaged to remove the fusion. As my surgeon told me a long time ago, that if a bone is broken internally, and there is a chance of infection externally, then you not only run the problem of blood infections, but marrow and spinal chord infections can occur. This is what nearly killed off this old mutant. And finally, as with all forms of surgery around the spine, the chance of paralysis occurring increases each time you go into a persons spine. This would be increased by the potential of dislodging internal matter into the spinal chord, and causing severing of the spinal chord through something much akin to having grenade fragments in your back.

A potential for relapse, or deterioration of the spine due to weakness in the core strength of the muscles surrounding the spine: Now, as well all know, not only is the back held up by pieces of scotch tape and duct tape, with a few bits of blutack thrown in for good measure, but we also know that there is bone, muscle, tendons and cartilage. These are all very dependent on being in harmony with each-other. Now, when these are cut into, scar tissue becomes a new factor thrown into place. Now internal adhesion, aka internal scar tissue, adds a new twist. By having to cut through already formed scar tissue, you actually create more scar tissue. Now, the original layer forms an adhesion between the two opposing sections, for example, skin. Now, opening this scar up again, or the internal scar tissue, can actually weaken the structure of the site, and make the internal areas around the site more painful. It has been known for internal scar tissue to fuse organs onto the surrounding structure and thus creating huge a mounts of pain, let alone a decrease in the functional output of the organ. Which for me is why any weight on pressing on the curvature of the spine decreases my breathing immensely, where going on a bike ride feels quite manageable. A lot of people, even flatbacks and normals, let alone us mutants, totally neglect the concept of core strength in their daily well being. For obvious reasons, having all of your abdominal muscles supporting your spine is going to go a long way to easing up the pain that many of us experience when we have had back trauma. There are many good exercises for this, but the oldest is still one of the best, and that is to lay on your back, and suck your stomach in and try to engage all of your muscles around your stomach. Sure this exercise isn't going to get you the abs where old Russian peasant women will come flocking to wash their laundry on, but it will stop your back from becoming weaker and making you look like the letter L trying to look at the ground.

Loss of feeling, sensation: If you have ever cut your finger deep enough with a kitchen knife, and you are all healed up, and notice that your finger tip is numb, that is because you have severed, or severely impaired the wiring from your brain to your finger. Ok, so now picture that on your spine. Sure, having a dead spot on your body can make for great party talk and even a few dares, but, honestly, you would like to feel that the water is too hot before you become lobster red from the burning. And seeing that the human body is still a marvel of regenerative power, the nerve endings never seem to reconnect just right. Imagine that happening two or three more times in a row.

So my little mutant friend, and for my general readership as a whole, I hope that this has answered a lot of your questions? Now, I know you have more, so I will give the answers to you briefly. No, getting a fusion removed will not instantly heal your pain or appearance. If life is anything to be learned from, you may just end up making the problem worse than it was originally. Yes, doing all of those tedious little exercises the physio people do have a purpose other than trying to drive you insane. A lot of the exercises are designed to re-introduce movement into the spine by activating the muscles around it, and to activate the spine as little as possible. This also increases the healing rate and chances of nerve regrowth by using pathways that are commonly engaged on a daily basis, and re-establishing a link that is already there.

Be well my dear friends, remember, we are all a community of people trying to make ourselves feel better! So remember, that showing someone else that there is a benifit to healthy choices, is just as much a reward unto itself as the as making a living doing it.

Am I a sadist?

We all have those parts of the body that we love or hate to train. Me personally, I hate training the upper body. Nothing honestly to do with the the old fuel cell that is my back, but more of the fact that no matter what I do, I find it hard to bulk up in the upper body.

Now, I have always hoped that I would look something along the lines of one of the best known male gymnastic greats Mr Nikolai Andrianov who unfortunately passed away last year. To top it all off, I always wanted to do gymnastics after watching him compete in the Olympics as a youngster. But not matter what I do, I tend to tone moreso than bulk. The main problem with this is, because of my back being operated on, and having high possibilities of rotator cuff injuries, I can't do the big gun creating weights.

On the other hand though, I love doing legs. Even with a temporary hip socket and joint, I used to love doing anything that got the legs moving, cycling, track and field, soccer(football), field hockey and did I mention cycling? No, ok and cycling. No matter what I do with legs, they just bulk up in no time. Once a week, I do a leg workout comprising of Lunge Squats, Regular Squats, Ballet Squats, Adductor and Abductor sets, Leg Extensions and seated calf raises. If it wasn't for the fact that pants are hard enough to find that fit cyclist legs, I would do this 2 times a week!

What is your favourite area to work, and what exercises do you find gets the look you want? If you want to throw in any ideas, feel free. An old mutant never learns new tricks by sticking his head inside a hole in the ground after all.

What I do with a bad back...

Mutants, whelps and any normal folk that stumble upon this blog.. Are you tired of your back giving you curry/chili peppers and other forms of high heat food type feelings?

Ok, walk to a mirror, stand side on and see how your back looks. Now, Mutants and whelps, this may shock you, but the normals want to look like us. Have you seen the posture that the average desk jockeying normal has at work. This is not a good feeling my friends. The primary cause of poor posture, other than a lack of discipline and poor ergonomically designed work stations, is lack of core and back/shoulder strength.

I am not going to go into the core today, because, well I am tired, and it is a very particular subject best left for when you are alert. As for the upper body and back injuries, you have to be very careful when training. For example I will share one of my stupid moments. Now as I have mentioned before, the TRX is an awesome piece of kit. Great for working out backs, even if they are mutated. Now, when you are doing it 5 days a week, it does lead to some pain. At one point, I was certain I had partially dislodged the fusion point in my back. The reason behind this, was I was working the Lats and Traps a little too much. Now as you can see, when your back is originally straight, your muscles when exercised will try and tighten back into their regular position. What this does, ESPECIALLY in Kyphotic backs, is that it will try and straighten your back. Now, this is going somewhere. IF you know a youngster who is requiring back surgery, ask your doctor to see if the condition will respond to a coached and strictly monitored workout regimen targeting the lats and traps, as well as the deltoids, shoulders, chest and core.

Now, one of my favourite exercises for areas of the body around the spine include the following. Lat Pull-downs behind the neck, standing military press with light weight. An exercise I have developed (unless someone has done it outside of an archery range) which I call the archer pull. I should put a vid of that up sometime. Standing tricep lifts using the assisted machine, both front and back, and a bunch of others. Now the main scenario most of these all have in common, is not a row or pull motion at chest height. Having learned my lesson the hard way, I have become even more back conscious. I did not know it was possible to be honest, but yes, you can be paranoid on just about anything.

Ok, now enough of my saged wisdom, and mutanty nuggets of wisdom. Remember, Banana's and Caramal soy yoghurt = freaking good snack! This could be used as a form of bribery, or if you are more honest, a form of tribute. Go, do something fitness related, even if it is just a brisk walk to get your snack, or my tribute!

That freaking thing can hurt.

Having the good ol' Kyphosis thing going on, brought about a few interesting points. First thing that came to mind, was an interesting article by a good friend, and probably one of the best rehabilitation/athletic personal trainers I have met. Dean Somerset, you can find him here wrote this little gem on Scapular Stability. Now, don't hate him for the little picture of the banjo boy from Deliverance, I think he has a fetish of finding terrifying images, but the article that can be found here is awesome. Why I link this, is for several reasons:

A: With spinal injuries/deformations, it changes the position of your scapula which then changes how your muscles direct your scapula across the range of motion of a regular shoulder movement. The main problem here, is that with either the injury or a deformation, certain movements if not supported correctly can actually lead to a worse injury, then you just snowball downhill from there.

B: A lot of people these days tend to do the whole desk jockey thing. Now, I know some good desk jockey's and Paula, who is a prime example here. Before working out, I think she had around 7 visits to the chiro. It helped to a certain degree, but just wasn't helping enough. She had a few years of competitive rythmic gymnastics under her belt, or scapula to be more precise, and had a terrible weakness in it. As Dean would say, she had, if she wanted to do it, winged shoulder blades. This is where the muscle is weak enough, that your scapula move to the absolute bottom of their range of motion, and "wing". Now, when Paula started at the gym, and actually started using TRX FORCE PACK, she had a rapid gain in muscle tone over about 5 weeks or so, and started noticing a significant increase in her posture as well as her shoulder strength.

So, my theory is, that because of the scapular placement due to the scoliosis, which is the same reason I can no longer swim freestyle, that my rotator cuff is going to be the thing to watch.. my next article, I will tell you about other parts of the back and how the function/dysfunction with scoliosis/kyphosis can be assisted with a good series of workouts.

TRX: A repost from my other blog.

Okay folks,

Today we are going to talk about a very simple yet effective piece of fitness equipment. It is called TRX which can be found here.

It is quite a well designed piece of kit, able to carry heavy loads (afterall, the straps it is made from are designed for use on airdrop pallets and holding tanks in big planes after all), and is more importantly VERSATILE!

You can use this thing anywhere. From your hallway door, to the nearest soccer/football goal post, to a tank somewhere in the middle of Iraq. Pretty much nearly every exercise in the gym, can be adapted to the TRX. Things requiring barbells, dumbells or free weights generally don't carry over exactly, but instead of doing a bench press, you can do a horizontal pull up. Squats, curls, stretches, lunges etc all cross over nicely.

Now, for those of us with non-normal structures, the system is an excellent vessel for adaptation. It is also starting to get a good reputation from trainers who work with rehab patients. If used in the gym when the doctor gives permission, you can generally find a more rapid increase in ROM from pre to post surgery. A few accounts I have read that knee's thoroughly benefit with an almost full recovery of ROM. Hips, well from personal experience, they do well, but I think requires a bit more work.

Backs on the other hand, benefit greatly! On sore days, it can be used to crucifix stretch, squat stretch, over the head stretch, front incline stretch, shoulder pull stretch and many other forms. The nice thing about it is, because it is not technically an assisted machine (ie assisted squat machines, press machines etc) it still relies on stability during strength training, and for backs, as Stuart McGill pointed out in his opus Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, Exercise Science and the Back: Removing the confusion page 43 "performance cannot be trained in a sitting posture". He does state the benefit of machines in that they "can regulate the magnitude of the resistance, the speed of joint motion and the motion of adjacent joints" with back stiffness or deformity, this in personal experience, is not necessarily a good thing. Machines are desgined for a straight line of motion. When you have upper kyphosis for example, you will only get half a press before your shoulders need to move around the kyphotic structure and then continue to press. This can lead to a scapula displacement, which in laymans terms means, shitloads of pain!

Scapula displacement, hyper-extension or tightening in back diseases, is usually a major cause of back pain. The spinal column itself can generally put up with a very small degree of malignment without the need of major pain medication, but when the Scapula, the AC Joint which joins the Acromion and the Clavicle together and the three tendons encapsulating the Rotator Cuff are damaged or displaced, physio and high end anti-inflammatories are required, as well as a period of rest and thinking about what stupid thing that you did caused it to be the whinging demon from hell it is being.

Now, where does the TRX fit into this you ask? Well, because it is a resistance and bodyweight training device, the chances of you overstacking and heavy things crusing your sternum to your thoracic vertebrae and making you look like a letter S or a tapeworm, are minimized. Yes, you can still injure yourself, and nastily, but under proper guidance, and COMMON SENSE, you can generally exercise in safety. Usually starting off with stretches, squats, lunges and runner starts, as well as curls, extensions and more stretches should ensure that you are on the road to good back health. Do no do more Atomic Crunches than you can handle, and also make sure you don't hyper extend your scapulae if you are doing suspended planks!

Hope you liked my first "real sounding" article. Tell me what you think.

Super Mutant Post #1

To Yoga, or Not To Yoga?

As a SuperMutant, I had this question run through my head for years. I had heard about all the great things it does to your body, but, then you have the doctor who has seen more of you than anyone else will have, tell you it is not a good idea. This, was also from the same doctor that told dear old me, that I was too competitive to do any form of contact sport or winter sport.

Anyways, I digress. But as I said, you have to question quite legitimately the benefits of Yoga on the SuperMutant body. Remember, depending on your level of mutation, things may or may not be there, could also be in slightly different locations, or only partially there.

Now as those of us who have beaten around the world of flatbacks and normals, we kinda know what we can and can't do, but for you aspiring and younger Mutants, what is some good advice? Firstly, gauge how long you have lived with your mutation. If you are say 20 years old, and your mutation occurred at 15, therefore you get 5 years. Now, if you can say that you have been active for those 5 years, then I would say sure, give it a shot with your doctors consent, but you MUST ask the instructor if they are willing to work with you.

For us SuperMutants, those of us who have been around a while, or have had a longer mutation cycle than the whelps, then we can do it only if we can be sure that we have that extra awesome ability that mutation teaches us, ADAPTABILITY! Yes, I know it is a tough word to use, but, if you can't adapt to your mutation, then Yoga is not your best friend, I would probably downsize to middle aged Pilates Class, Tai Chi! Actually, Tai Chi is great for Mutants of all classification!

Now personally, I love my Yoga. Also keep in mind, you will have to mix with normals. Now, if you are like me, and are able to interact with Flatbacks and other classes of Normals, then you should be good. Best thing about doing Normal and Flatback activities, is when one of them come up to you and say good on you. It does put them at ease. Now also, if you are like me, and have grown a very warped and twisted sense of humour, which is about as twisted as my back, then chuckle just loud enough for the instructor to hear when they say, "I want to see a good strong back, take the dome out of your back!". When you get to know the instructor, throw in the response "well, I was hoping Yoga would fix that! or, Well, can you tell the others to take the flat out of their backs, I am mortified at all this normal".

Overall though, and in all seriousness, Supermutants, ask your Instructor if they feel they are qualified, or at least trained long enough to handle your mutation.

Now off with you all, I need my sleep, and feel the urge to throw heavy objects at people who leave their smelly shoes in the window while the wind blows in from outside.. And Normal's think we have barbaric manners!