Bodybuilders in Wheelchairs?

[quote]King of Kings wrote:
To all of u who dont train legs read the fuckin thread again.U have no EXCUSE.This poor fella would love to train legs but he cant.
SO WHATS YOUR EXCUSE!

Much repect man.

Good luck for the future

King of kings[/quote]

Well, thanks but after all this praise I do feel ashamed for wanting to skip the gym, so I made a decision, I will get my paychek this week, and sign up into a big gym in the route from my work to my home and roll down from the office to get there as warm-up, lift my brains out and get big…

the good thing is, i’d probably hit on a pretty lady and ask her out, there’s some real sexy girls in there, and well, I guess there’s always the chance they like guys on wheels, at least they don’t have to do anything weight to give me a lap dance, or sit on my lap, LOL…

don’t think bad of me dudes, i may have lost half my legs but nothing above the knee is damaged, LOL…

LOL

I’m not so sure about the nerve damage stuff but if 4est is around he might have some insights into good exercises or modifications to exercises for guys in a chair.

I think you’re right to join a gym too. Hardly the same boat but when I was going in to the gym in March 2005 I was obese & weak and people did give me looks when I was in there, especially if I was taking up equipment they wanted to use :D. The point is, if you have a clear goal then stick in the headphones or whatever & just get to work on your own thing.

That guy is Mike Stewart btw Hanley, top guy as well.

you can also try googling npc wheelchair championships.

in M&F this month (i know, i know!) there’s a few page article on colt wynn.

Ok bro, gets as easy as this:

Lift by muscling the weight up, not shooting the weight up, lower slow enough to keep tension constant, meaning the rep feels like an isometric hold becuase you never feel the tension dissipate, and you use a full ROM.

Lifting fast and lowering under control is good in its principle, to lift or atempt to lift fast to get the best force output, but in general terms, there’s a limit to how fast, just as there’s a limit to how slow…my idea is to go heavy enough so you try to lift fast, but without momentum, a “powerful, yet controleld” lifting phase, a second should do it, although you’d try to move faster, and lower in as much time, 2, 3 4 or 40 seconds, to feel the tension even between both phases…all in all, this Vandal guy is right on the money.

Now, as they say, “shut up and lift” put on some headphones, get black sunglasses so dark you can’t see well through them and get a spotter who’s not an asshole and motivates your ass and now that you mention girls, it ain’t bad if you buy a copy of Playboy and see the centerfolds in the rest periods, that’ll keep you motivated to get big.

[quote]quadmaster_fly wrote:
hueyOT wrote:
did your rehab specialist explain WHY you must perform your sets in that matter?

what are your goals in the gym, anyways? i’m assuming you wanna get jacked up and strong. right?

Well, yes, i want to get big, ripped and strong if that’s possible. I want to get big.

Now, the rehab specialist told me that the injuries sustained in my arms and torso were very small, but my exposition to the amterial which contacted my skin was due to have caused some sort of neural response, atb a biochemical level, which explains my force and speed, and the tnedency to move fast…

I don’t joke you, I couldn’t win a million dollrs if you told me to do a tai chi movement more thana couple times, i just can’t…it’s like ajunkie on the juice…

Now, he told me that more than the nerve damage, the fact was that I would get more functional hypertrophy and some added non-functional growth out of measuring my sets duration, rather than the number of reps or their eccentric and concentric duration.

He said that since the metabolical process of hypertrophy is based on stress acumulation and fatigue management, time was the main ingredient, as opposed to a heavy lifting routine which is more oriented to a neurally-induced growth as an adaptative response, which works for strength mostly and which is very hard to use for growth, for it doesn’t produce so much growth as fast as i want to.

I was reading an article mentioned to me by this member, Vandal Savage, about timed sets, by Christian Thibadeau, but he doesn’t mention it more than once or tice in a thread he had, like he forgot all about his own method.

This Vandal Savage guy says that by moving a little slower, like a 1-second down and 1-second up no-pauses cadence, you would get functional growth and also bulk, as opposed to gaining just the bare minimum, which is his take on functional hypertrophy vs bodybuilding hypertrophy, as long as you keep sets challenging enough without using too much load, so he says that anything between 10 and 20 reps shaould do, as long as I get my sets at 30 seconds or higher…

What should I do?[/quote]

That is some of the best lifting advice I have ever heard from a rehav specialist. But remember that strength and size are highly correlated- if you get stronger, you will probably get bigger. How many scrawny powerlifters do you see? You should go for a mix of heavy and light lifting if that is at all possible in your situation.

I also have the utmost respect for you.

[quote]t-ha wrote:

That guy is Mike Stewart btw Hanley, top guy as well.

[/quote]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

I searched EVERYWHERE for that guy and had feeling his name was Michael Stewart but could find abosolutely NO info on him. I don’t suppose you have any photos??

I have a really shitty one on my phone but you can’t make out anything

[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:

That is some of the best lifting advice I have ever heard from a rehav specialist. But remember that strength and size are highly correlated- if you get stronger, you will probably get bigger. How many scrawny powerlifters do you see? You should go for a mix of heavy and light lifting if that is at all possible in your situation.

I also have the utmost respect for you.
[/quote]

Nick Slater. He moves VERY heavy weights.

Ok, you want to lift heavy? Try the option of lifting 10 x 3…after that, just do 2-3 sets of maximum reps on dips or pushups, and then just do a 100-reps set of flyies, the way most people do them: pause every now and then for a short interval so as to be able to reach the 100 reps number…any weight which forces you to pause after you have completed 20 reps is good.

Accumulating time under tension is good, and lifting heavy is good too. ?How to mix thsoe up? simple: lift a load for 4-6 times(being it your 7RM), and then lift half that load for 12-18 times…that’s guaranted to make you grow.

Now if you want to put aside all traditional concepts, like no rep which has an eccentric and a pause at the bottom under 4-5 seconds won’t produce growth (this is a big load of bullshit), go read Louisluthor’s thread of “1000 reps to bigger muscles”, and see my posts…you’ll be getting more out of that.

[quote]Avoids Roids wrote:
Trust me. Nobody at the gym has anything but the utmost respect for you going there with your handicaps. The best thing you can do in this world is show those fat gym wannabes that excuses don’t cut it. Good lifting![/quote]

I agree with this very much. I have WAY more respect (and many of my coworkers feel the same) for people that have the courage to get in the gym and train with handicaps, obesity or even mental challenges.

Bodyweight exercises will take you only so far. And it’s not that you need more weight than the 180 or whatever you weigh, it’s just that adding in more functional exercises (especially with cables!) the better off your body will be.

If you have challenges with people looking at you, hit the gym early - 5am or whatever time it opens. I’m in a 20,000 square foot gym, and there is never more than 6 people in it come it’s openning at 5am. I get free reign of any equipment I want. And the test monkeys that eyeball everyone with their “you suck; I’m better” b.s. attitude aren’t there. Those guys work out at 6-7pm.

Stick your chin up bro! And stick it to everyone who thinks you can’t do anything you want.

Wow bro, thats unbelievable. Good luck to you and I wish you best

[quote]TornadoTommy wrote:
Believe me bro., people are thinking of every excuse they’ve ever used to skip a workout and are looking at you with RESPECT. Since you didn’t mention benchpresses, why not specialize on that lift? My good friend Kim Brownfield contracted polio as a child and uses crutches to walk. This man has benchpressed 625 lbs. in the 220 class. I’ve personally witnessed him bench 405 for 17 reps and he still had some left in the tank.

If you want, PM me and I’ll try to get you in contact with him as I’m certain he can help you in this area. Also check out 4est on this website, who also uses a wheelchair. He has some pics in his profile which are very inspiring. [/quote]

Damnit, I still have not met Kim. He was supposed to be at the gym a few times and was not able to make it.

Anywho, thought I’d post one blurry pic where you can see my wheelchair.

To the OP, Keep kicking ass and adapting. You’ll surprise yourself.

Check out:

You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Ok Quad, listen well: you don’t need to worry about what people say, you just block them out and lift, and yes, getting a Playboy to the gym would help for motivation, true that…

Now let’s get into lifting.

Now, 'nuff said. I think it’s time to go over the basics of lifting, as this guy is trying to do. I once heard a teacher say: “doesn’t matter if you talk to a quamtum physicist or a 6th grader, in mathemathic, the rule is the simplest rule works all of the time, the complex rules always have corolaries and exceptions”.

That applies to bodybuilding.

Who the fuck said you eneded to lower in 4 seconds and pause for 1 second at the bottom of the rep, or whatever stupid eccentric phase and pause-at-the-bottom time combination that adds up to 5 or 6 seconds or more, gets you to be big?

I know a set of 50-60 seconds ets you big, but a set of 30-45 seconds too, any set from 25 to 45 gets you big, even if it’s not much more or less than 30 seconds,it gets you big.

The take-home lesson: count the duration of the set by simply watching the clock.

Don’t time the rep’s phases, or the entire rep, just contract the muscles hard, lift by getting the hardest sequeeze on them for as long as you can hold it, and lower by keeping the same hard squeeze, as hard as you can make the msucle by going slow, for as much as you can…it’s easy as shit.

Now, if you feel like you are all that good, start slowly, and as you get week, allow yourself to go faster, on the eccentric phse or in both phases, as long as you squeeze as much as you can out of every rep, you will get as much as you can out of every set, and adapting to the sress as the set progresses, changing from one rep to the other, you get a more thourough set.

When the set ends, it’s because you fail, reach failure, you can’t handle the load…that’s traditional thinking, you don’t fail at all…failure means you can’t keep lifting THAT weight.

So drop the load by 10-20% and squeeze out some mroe reps. Do them right, just because you already went from slow to fast on the first set doesn’t mean you can do this ones in a hurry, you are gonna try and feel them out one at a time, just like the set with the first load, and if you end the set and still can squeeze soemthing out, do it…no more than 2 weight reductions, the second being wider than the first, about 20-30% (20% if you only reduced 10% off the starting load int he first weight reduction, 30% if you stripepd 20% off) and then rest.

Now, some people would prefer to do one set and to drop the weight tight, like 10-15% when the speed of movement starts to change or your body asks you to move faster. It’s a safer way, but well, it’s your call

Just remember…in a set, you should feel that it starts working and pumping you from the first 2 or 3 reps, but as a general rule, you should feel a hard pump and the full-on effect and growth stimulus of the set by the time you reach the first third of it, or the first half for beginners.

Rest periods get you big or lean or just strong. If you train with a rest period between 30 seconds and 2 minutes, you will get big…start resting as much as you need, ONLY, not as mucha s you like. You may start with 30-45 seconds of rest and end in 2 full minutes…if you need to rest more to kep going at it, just stop doing the exercise, and if you can only do 1 per session at first, it’s ok, and if you plan on doing 2 or 3, watch out and don’t start the next exercise with a 2 minutes rest. Go home and sit it out, even if you recover by next day and hit the same muscle again, you will know that you won’t be overtraining.

I normally advise people to use a load that allows them to get the most weight moved per set…I can probably do 10 sets of 5 on a workout with 200 pounds, but if I can do 10 sets of 7 with 180, i am getting more weight moved…however, this doesn’t mean that 1 rep at 300 pounds is equal to 30 reps of 10 pounds, when you reach the peak, stop.

I know that I can get sets of 12-15 reps with 150 pounds on the bar, but if I go higher than 15-20 reps with a laod that allows me to equal or even top the amount of weight moved, I still feel the transtion from a pump set that goes to msucle density and volume, to a endurance set to get ripped or lean, and I am going for size, not lean, so unless you are a model, you will go for the pump and the size.

I went to the gym today, and lucky enough, I convinced my rehab specialist to come, since he does atend to the same gym, only on a different hour…lucky for me, it was saturday. You wouldn’t believe what happened…

First of all, I want to say that i started lifting slower, a powerful but controlled contraction as somebody said, not going as fast as possible or attempting to…well, I did feel the fibers work hard, but oddly, the stress was focalized, it was located in a small portion of the muscle.

My specialist spotted me and he asked me what i felt. I told him and he said:

"When you lift slow, you make the fibers you recruit work more intensely, becuase the load is too heavy for them alone, but you are not lifting fast and therefore, your neuromuscular system is not sending the signals to all the fibers, you make a percetage of them work harder, while the other percentage doesn’t.

That’s why you only lift smoothly in exercises that affect an specific zone, not an exercise designed to spread its effect throughout the entire muscle, where you don’t need to focus on an area but to recruit all of its fibers.

This is why you lift smoothly on the flyes and pullovers and also on some cable or pec dec exercises (if you don’t deviate towards heavy loads and instead look for concentrating tension on an zone of the muscle and extending its duration under stress) and that’s why you lift hard and fast on dips, and bench presses…"

I proceeded to timed sets, lifting a light weight, something like Thibadeau prescibes, a set of 25-35 seconds with about 1 second per rep. He also said:

" You will get functional hypertrophy, it’s just like the reason why mechanics get big forearms from their continuous wrench-turning jobs, the body will adapt to time under tension more than tension, you are piling up T.U.T…"

He then told me to do my third set in a very interesting manner: To just lift as hard as possible, lower under control, but without putting much of my energy on it, and continue at whatever pace I found sustained a pump for as much reps as I could, without reaching true failure, then reduce the load and continue, a normal drop set.

I must say, it felt great. We also tried pre-exhaustion, but it felt tiresome, not as a pumping set, a hypertrophy set but more like an endurance set, perhaps becuase I don’t know how to do them right, and he said it was ok, I should go by feeling, play it by ear as you say.

I asked him why they didn’t work, and why should I move at my own cadence and not try to do as somebody here said “Go down as slow as you can, making the muscle get as much tension and sress, keeping it as hard as when you were lifting the load, and make that last as much as possible”…

He said " You would probably do well in lifting fast, or trying to do so, rather than just keep the contraction powerful and a litle slow on purpose…you shouldn’t not pull your punches in a fight, and the same goes for bodybuilding and lifting.

Now, as for the lowering, you can lower yourself in two ways: you let the movement and resistance put the tension on it alone, or you can help them and squeeze your muscles yourself, like a bodybuilder does when he flexes and poses, and both would work to some degree, but I wouldn’t advise tot ry to reduce your whole workout to a single set by making it so intense. That will lead to injury and overtraining"

He said that pretty much, people should do their lifting like they do their pushups: try to get as many pushups per set as you can without pistoning yourself up and down, that is performing the push-up in your best form, lifting hard and fast and lowring udner control, achieveing a constant level of tension, but contrary to what I read here, it doesn’t have to be maximum tension, the idea is to find a way to dosify the srength you put into each pushup so as to get the maximum number of pushups, without looking like a race, not trying to really go as fast as possible, but to hold a pace and try to get as many as possible.

Now the strangest thing happened to me: I didn’t have a shirt to wear that I would consider confortable, since it’s a hot season here and well, my laundry service didn’t deliver on time, so I rolled from home to here on my jeans and a shirt with the company logo.

Well…this cute girl is using the rowing station, looking quite fit, almost as good as to try and get into T-Nation’s t-vixed squad, and she saw my shirt and asked me if I knew her cousin, in another section, which lucky enough, I did, and we started talking.

Boy, I was happy as hell, the hottest girl in the gym talking to the guy on wheels and every male in the gym was looking at us, green with envy. She gave me her number, we spotted each other on some exercises, when my specialist was so cool and I will always thank him for getting intense and lift heavy poundages on anothe rmachine so as to give me some time alone with this girl…who’s also an engineer, not chemical, but electronics and robotics, so wow, she’s got body and a brain. I guess it paid off to be catholic, the Lord answered my prayers at last, LOL.

I guess I got one of the things I was looking for, and due to my specialist’s advise, I am on the road for the other. I am also thankful to another group of people, in the gym.

There are 3 Colombian guys, one of which has his left leg deformed, after minefield blast in Colombia. They encouraged me last time I was there, they congratulated me when the girl left today and also helped me with my routine, and they really boosted my drive to get big.

Plus, one of them also told me that if I grew more than 7 pounds of lean muscle pounds by the end february, he would invite me to a party of the Colombian community to meet his friends, and well, latino girls are a huge turn-on for me, and the pics he showed me on his blackberry tell me that Colombian guys really should get on their knees and thank the Lord for the women they have.

I am motivated gys, and I know you were right. I shouldn’t whine, I should shut up and lift, and go heavy or go home, give it my 100 and never look back, always trying to be my best.

I guess that T-Nation saved the rest of me from a life of spctacular mediocricy hiding behind the excuse of losing half of my legs. That shit won’t fly anymore. I am gonna be like the white version of Ronnie Coleman or Vin Diesel, so I am gona try what one smart person here said: I would get big and sign up on a handicapped bodybuilding contest.

The worst I can be is the same as all the jacked-up ripped and huge guys on stage, right?

I think Cosgrove has a bodyweight exercise DVD

I think hat you have found is a gold mine…stick to hard work, leave bodyweight exercises behind and do some generalized workout more than splits, you’ll get big in no time

I was at the gym today, thinking of what you said and posted and I did notice gyms are more packed with girls now than some years ago when i started lifting, and this is the season to be jolly, so most of them are very good, and i am hping to turn them into bad girls myself, you know what i’m sayin, bro?

I also rememebr one thing my trainer told me at my beginner’s level: You just worry about doing the rep good,no rocking, no thrusting, no momentum, no dropping, no bouncing…he said that pretty much, the idea of lifting a weight to so lift bwteen 6 and 12 reps, and to ligft heavy so you don’t need to count a tempo.

I would recommend drop sets or rest pauses…ever done any of those?

You, sir, have my utmost respect. Don’t stop going to the gym. You have as much right to be there as anyone. People are probably looking at you in amazement, wondering if they would do the same in your circumstances. Keep up the good work.