Building Curves

[izzygrant]

ahhh, the dangers of lulu. I live in their founding city so witnessing the shenanigans of the company's former owner has been enough to turn me off a bit, but I still own more than I should. a teammate recently got a job there and he gets us 75% of their sale merchandise on Black Friday/Boxing Day etc, so my collection has grown

love the hair and congrats on the worst being over! it's all going to be worth it when you come back and can actually use your core, lol

[ilovethe80s]

Lululemon......I could go broke in that store! Their capri pants are incredible.

I hope you heal up quickly. I cannot imagine how awkward getting around is right now. My husband is the same....can't stomach that stuff. He can do it for me though. It's amazing what you can stomach for someone you love.

I'm being very well cared for. My father in law flew in to take care of the boys and take care of things in the house. He calls my mother in law nightly to laugh and tell her all of their antics each day, it's a lot of fun for all of them. He hasn't had to cook at all because friends and family have dropped off dinner every night of the week. I'm lucky!

Congrats on having the surgery and making it from the living room to the kitchen! Sounds like a big pain (literally and figuratively) to get around right now. Hope recovery is fast for you!

I felt a little more mobile after the drains came out, I was always afraid I was going to accidentally rip it out! Not that I move fast or with enough force right now for anything like that to happen lol, but it's nice to be able to move more freely.

Glad you are on the mend.

Been over 12 years since I had to mess with Gen's drains. She's already told me to never get sick or badly injured as she is a crappy nurse! LOL

Aw, I'm sure she'd surprise herself if it were you she had to care for. My husband is notorious for a hilariously bad bedside manner but when it comes down to it, he gets it done .

I'm glad the surgery is done and I hope the recovery is fast and easy! Your hair looks great too!

Thanks! I picked up a bottle of dry shampoo so my hair could at least look good until I could wash it myself lol.

Congrats on the surgery, glad to hear you're back home and starting to recover! And agree with Kaleida, your hair looks ~awesome~ in your gratuitous hair shot.

Thank you!

ahhh, the dangers of lulu. I live in their founding city so witnessing the shenanigans of the company's former owner has been enough to turn me off a bit, but I still own more than I should. a teammate recently got a job there and he gets us 75% of their sale merchandise on Black Friday/Boxing Day etc, so my collection has grown

love the hair and congrats on the worst being over! it's all going to be worth it when you come back and can actually use your core, lol

Oh lord, I live under a rock so have not heard about the Lululemon owners -I hope it is nothing too terrible... They fit so well that I will look past many things for this. If they do not use underage slaves or kill puppies, I think we are good to go lol.

II am out of the woods of the worst of it, just have to be patient and heal over the next month and a half.



2-week Post-op Update
More post op PR's. I am now a ninja when it comes to getting up and down stairs, can shower by myself, am down from 45 minutes to 1 getting out of a chair, and eating solid foods again. I'm off the heavy pain meds and feeling alert. And I can drive. Moving up in the world.

The spot where my belly button had been removed before is just smooth skin now, no more mesh poking through or holes/ridges. I can't feel any mesh at all- it is buried way the heck back there and the muscles sewn shut on top of it. I'm noticing easier digestion now that my stomach no longer resides in my diaphragm

As far as what it all looks like, there is a tremendous amount of swelling and it has to stay all wrapped up except for showers. I'm supposed to try not to look at it till past the 6 week mark, and it will take months for it to look how it really should, but you know I'll be checking on it lol. I'll do a little photo shoot once enough bloat falls off to see my obliques again.

There are NO visible (to others) scars. I am so glad I went with this option instead of the general surgeon/vertical scar. My scars from the previous surgery are totally gone. The hip to hip scar I have now is awesome, it is like a tummy tuck scar, which feels a lot more glamorous than midline slashes . And he got it LOW. I am just now starting to be able to stand up fully straight.

I have a belly button now! It is a few inches lower than where my original one was. It was done with just stitches and the surgeon is certain that it will hold. He is just as excited about the belly button as I am because it was his first time constructing one with no base at all.

My weight was at 128 this morning. According to the dr, I am still carrying several liters of post-op bloat, so I'm guessing I might be around 123-125. I'm sure this is more from not eating for a couple of weeks than the lack of activity. I should be cleared to at least go for walks around the 3 week mark, which will be amazing because I get winded just going up stairs right now. Very sad lol. I'll have some serious rebuilding to do but looking forward to it because we all know there is nothing better than lifting and then eating a ton of food

Can't wait to visit everyone's journals and see what you are all up to

[penny0527]

I'm glad to hear you are well on your way to recovery

[kaleida]

I'm so happy to hear recovery is going well! Scar situation sounds ideal too.

[Euqinom]

Happy to hear things are going well!

[ilovethe80s]

It's going great, I'll be back in a flash! Yeah right. Last post January.

Other than the swelling, my abdomen is functional. I'm finishing up my rehab with a MAT specialist; he's helping me with the laxity as well as the abdominal stuff. If you're reading, thank you Izzy for suggesting MAT; its a perfect fit for me. He has had me training my abs twice per day for a few months now with really short, but very difficult (for me) sessions. I'm sure anyone reading could do without any effort but I'm convulsing and can barely do it. When he tested me last week, my abs tested well in every zone for the first time. Up till then, they tested well in only obliques and everything else was a flop. As the post op swelling continues to go down, I can see I am building up muscle in my abs that wasn't there before.

I lost 20 pounds while recovering. The plan was to at least maintain weight and preserve some muscle, but having my insides rearranged turned out to be an appetite killer. I got sick pretty often before surgery so even once I could eat, I was afraid of puking and ripping my abdomen back apart. I'm back in the 130's now which is pretty normal for me, and haven't had any more digestion problems. I took some progress pictures during recovery, I'll put them in a separate post later.

For training, I did nothing for a couple of months, then fluffy stuff for a while (5lb dumbbells and bodyweight). I got the ok to start working my way back up again in April but of my workouts were 15 minutes or less due to pain and swelling. Also, my hips got worse before they got better, and they didn't change until I had healed enough. At this point I'm cleared to do whatever I'm comfortable with and am feeling A LOT better. I've been asked to just not do any all-out max efforts till 1 year post, and I can live with that

Strength does come back very quickly. Stamina is a little slower, but it's coming. Things got suddenly easier last month, and this month it looks like I might have a halfway normal training cycle. I'm still in the 'anything works' phase and working kind of minimally. That way once I am ready to push for numbers again, I'll have plenty of options.

[ilovethe80s]

Sunday
L glute TrP
Ab rehab and hip stuff
Calves

Deadlift
280/1 (5x with 15 second reset)

Snatch-Grip Deadlift
185/5
205/5
215/5

Elevator Front Squat with Multiple Pauses
~ 4-6 3-second pauses
85/7
100/5
115/4

Side Glute Cable Stuff
~ small movement, don't move torso, hand on the muscle
x40 per side

Hanging Leg Raises
~ with bar racked at bench height, pushing hips forward

Stomach Vacuums

Deadlifts have some outward pushing now. I never did that before for my conventional, or even my sumo sometimes (which is probably one reason why my sumo sucks). It's like a whole group of muscles that I didn't have use of before.

Per request of MAT guy, everything, including my deads is being treated like a bodybuilding movement for now and concentrating on muscular contractions rather than optimizing to move more weight. Surprisingly, that rule isn't holding me back as much as I thought it would.

The multi-stop squatting was also given to me by MAT guy. It's slow movement throughout, with no dropping, wiggling or bouncing around. Clenched like a fist for every pause and not just pause, but make the muscles around the hips contract hard. If I feel only one side working, it's ok, just keep at it till the other side other comes in. The squats don't look like much on paper but it takes the same amount of time for me to do one of those as it does 4 normal squats.

Everything has to be beltless for now, maybe permanently. Anyone want an inzer lifting belt size extra small? Lol. I guess I won't get rid of it just yet, maybe after I'm all healed up I'll be able to use it, though it's looking doubtful. My old cheap-o fabric belt might be ok as long as it isn't on tight.


Tuesday
L Glute trp
Ab rehab and hip stuff

Straight-arm Pulldown
4 x10

Bench
115/12

Bench with 3 Pauses
95/5 (3x)

SA Cable Row
3 x10

DB OHP
3x10

OH Tricep Ext
3x15

I was just able to get my feet on the floor to bench as of a month ago. I'm not doing a ton with bench yet; when I feel ready, I'll start adding back in some of the methods I know work well to get it back up.

The way things have been progressing is so weird, both reps and weight goes up each week. I could barely do 85 pounds 2 months ago but just tacked on a more weight each week, and the weight felt way lighter each time. Last month I decided to start 531ing my bench since it fits my minimal scheme, but both reps and weight increase rapidly each week. I planned to cut it at 10 reps but today it felt like nothing. And I didn't know where that came from because I only got 7 with 115 last time, and don't feel like I have been putting in any work to warrant bench growth. I had it in my head to come back really slowly but I guess that is a sign that I'd do well with something more linear right now.

All of my lifts have been like that. One week a weight feels hard, the next week it doesn't even register. Anything works right now. Too bad that can't go on forever

[penny0527]

Tell me about MAT?

[ilovethe80s]

Tell me about MAT?

The premise of MAT is that muscle tightness is secondary to muscle weakness. A muscle becomes tight because it is lacking stability, but instead of trying to loosen a tight muscle, MAT improves the stability of your joints by reactivating muscles and their ability to contract on demand. It gets you strong in your end range of motion (and make you aware of your end ranges) if you are lax.

It is exercise-oriented. The muscle is tested, activated, and retested over again. It is a complete solution instead of another bandaid fix as it retrains the brain.

My specialist said that the people who see the quickest and most dramatic results are either elite-level athletes, or people who are really messed up. My results have been dramatic. Within 6 weeks a lot of the quirks that were plaguing me for years eased off (bearing in mind that I just had surgery too, which helped things along).

My specialist doesn't interject too much in my programming but he does give some parameters and movements to help things along.

They also help you figure out what is going on with your body in real time. I came in for a couple of weeks in a row, not even able to do a hip hinge because my left hamstring was completely locked. It was so uncomfortable, and had I been doing things on my own, I would have just trigger pointed it to death and had another trigger point pop up in its place as soon as it dissolved. I was begging him to do something about the hamstring but instead, that is when he gave me all the ab stuff to do twice a day and as I got better at it, the hamstring melted away on its own.

I think it would be a great fit for you, too, especially if you are noticing that stretching isn't working for you, or injuring you further. And if you've been going around in circles trying to figure out what is wrong If you want to try it, this link will give you a list of local specialists:

https://muscleactivation.com/clients/find-a-specialist/

[penny0527]

The premise of MAT is that muscle tightness is secondary to muscle weakness. A muscle becomes tight because it is lacking stability, but instead of trying to loosen a tight muscle, MAT improves the stability of your joints by reactivating muscles and their ability to contract on demand. It gets you strong in your end range of motion (and make you aware of your end ranges) if you are lax.

It is exercise-oriented. The muscle is tested, activated, and retested over again. It is a complete solution instead of another bandaid fix as it retrains the brain.

My specialist said that the people who see the quickest and most dramatic results are either elite-level athletes, or people who are really messed up. My results have been dramatic. Within 6 weeks a lot of the quirks that were plaguing me for years eased off (bearing in mind that I just had surgery too, which helped things along).

My specialist doesn't interject too much in my programming but he does give some parameters and movements to help things along.

They also help you figure out what is going on with your body in real time. I came in for a couple of weeks in a row, not even able to do a hip hinge because my left hamstring was completely locked. It was so uncomfortable, and had I been doing things on my own, I would have just trigger pointed it to death and had another trigger point pop up in its place as soon as it dissolved. I was begging him to do something about the hamstring but instead, that is when he gave me all the ab stuff to do twice a day and as I got better at it, the hamstring melted away on its own.

I think it would be a great fit for you, too, especially if you are noticing that stretching isn't working for you, or injuring you further. And if you've been going around in circles trying to figure out what is wrong If you want to try it, this link will give you a list of local specialists:

https://muscleactivation.com/clients/find-a-specialist/

I'm going to look into this. Thank you. The closest place is on the other side of town. How often did you go?

[ilovethe80s]

I went weekly for a few months, now I go every 2-3 weeks and will continue seeing him till my year recovery is up. It differs for everyone though, the specialist should be able to give you an idea how long you'll need to see him for. I think a lot of people only need 6 weeks for things to resolve. There is a more in depth process you can do, MAT-rx that takes longer. Hopefully you will be one of the 6 week people

[penny0527]

I went weekly for a few months, now I go every 2-3 weeks and will continue seeing him till my year recovery is up. It differs for everyone though, the specialist should be able to give you an idea how long you'll need to see him for. I think a lot of people only need 6 weeks for things to resolve. There is a more in depth process you can do, MAT-rx that takes longer. Hopefully you will be one of the 6 week people

Once a week is a lot more doable than twice or more a week. It's probably 45 mins away from me to the closest specialist.

I guess I need to look up the difference between MAT and MAT RX

[SophieM]

Happy to see you back! Weights are still impressive even if they are "light" for you!

[Getsum]

Welcome Back!

[ilovethe80s]

Once a week is a lot more doable than twice or more a week. It's probably 45 mins away from me to the closest specialist.

I guess I need to look up the difference between MAT and MAT RX

Mine is 45 minutes away, too. They will let you know which system they are going to use on you, I didn't even know MAT Rx existed till I went. They do everything for you - you have to give them your complete health history, imaging if you had surgeries, etc. and they do all the testing and detective work to find out what is wrong and why. You just bring yourself I've never had this sort of help and it is such a relief. My MAT guy is awesome because he respects that fact that I want/need a lot more detail than the average person. I'm not someone you can just do a few tricks on and send home with a list of exercises. I think just because of what MAT is, it attracts people who are genuinely interested in what they are doing and are both capable of and happy to give their clients all the detail they need. i think it is so important to have a thorough understanding off what is going wrong in your body in order to truly fix it from every possible angle, and prevent it from hapoening again. When we finish our sessions for the day, I get the opportunity to rapid fire questions at him and he is so happy answering them. The anatomy models are out, the text books come out - it's a dream come true

Happy to see you back! Weights are still impressive even if they are "light" for you!

Thanks Sophie!

Welcome Back!

Thanks!

[ilovethe80s]

Wednesday
L glute TrP
Ab rehab and hip stuff
Calves

Squat
180/10

Elevator Squat with Multiple Pauses
~ a bit more sit back than my normal squat and a little higher
135/5
135/3 (2x)

DB SLDL
3x10

KB Front-Loaded Bulgarian
2x8

Side Glute Cable Stuff
~ small movement, don't move torso, hand on the muscle
x40 per side

Wood choppy things

Stomach Vacuums

My conditioning is not as passable as it looks here, this took me an hour and a half lol. I spent a good 10 minutes after the top 180 squat set scaling the walls gasping for air. An 85 degree gym didn't help. But good workout overall

135 is the heaviest I have gone with the paused elevator stuff so far. Here are the final 2 reps of one of the sets. I had a snapping left hip for the first set. It ended up being just that I wasn't really using my butt at the top - left side was a little sluggish. On the second rep here I added a pause just before lockout to get the left side of my butt to contract hard, and the snap went away. So the first rep in the vid has the snap, and the 2nd does not. All the banging at the end was my youngest waking up and running into the basement to tell me he did not pee the bed, and can he have a prize lol.



MAT guy recommended that I do *some* multi-paused squats to my normal depth, but most should have me sharply contracting the muscles around my hips and as a result, having a little more sit-back. And the pauses aren't too regimented - they can be in different locations each time. Just feel where I was unstable or shaky and go back there, or pause there on the next rep. I can take breaths during the pauses before or after clenching, but no breathing while I'm moving.

I tried my fabric belt today and it was ok as long as not pulled tight.

[SophieM]

Those squats looks beyond difficult. Damn!

[lazyaj]

Great to see you back!

[anandagirl]

Those squats looks beyond difficult. Damn!

Ummm yeah - OUCH!!!!

[NorwichGrad]

Welcome back. Laura.

Ummm yeah - OUCH!!!!

I've been meaning to ask. You have an interesting avi.

Are you playing air guitar while jumping on the bed?

[ilovethe80s]

Those squats looks beyond difficult. Damn!

If that doesn't teach me to stay in control, I don't know what will.

Great to see you back!

Thanks!

Ummm yeah - OUCH!!!!

Major DOMS the next day lol

Welcome back. Laura.


I've been meaning to ask. You have an interesting avi.

Are you playing air guitar while jumping on the bed?

Thank you Joel! It's great to be back.

I love her air guitar pillow fight avi

[ilovethe80s]

Thursday
L glute TrP
Ab rehab and hip stuff

OHP
70/10

DB OHP
25/8 (3x)

Rack Chin
4x10

Push-up
30

Lateral Raise/ Rear Delts

[ilovethe80s]

PICTURES - 6 months worth!

Fully dressed pic at 115 because I looked like death and felt even worse. Nothing I want to commemorate.



The only thing good about that ^^ was that it was so easy to find pants that fit. Usually if the waist fits, the thighs are too tight. Size 2 fit me right all over (unfortunately).

10 pounds and a couple of weeks had me feeling much better. I was around 125 in the pics below, end of February. Awkward camera angles because it still hurt standing up straight. I just got the ok to do some light exercise and this was after my first workout, and a couple of weeks of normal eating. I had major PMS bloating this day which also helped me look a little less scrawny; at least it's good for something.

There was still a ton of swelling and a section of skin on my lower stomach hardened and turned black. Several inches lost on legs, and arm muscles vanished. My back at least seemed to hold on to some muscle.







A few weeks later. My butt is still the only thing that saves me from disappearing in a side view. I have to get many inches deep in fat there before I can even get a millimeter of bicep.



I was taking a pic of this dress to send to my niece and see if she wanted it and thought my back was starting to take shape again.



This was some time later. Lower abs still really swollen and no sensation yet. After starting therapy, lumps started forming at the top. Hopefully they are ab muscles and not more hernias lol.



I'm out of space for pictures in this post, will post a final before and after in the next.

[ilovethe80s]

Semi-final before / after since I am still swollen and not done healing yet. I don't have many pics online of what my abs looked like before. This one is a little far away and I think it might have been before having my 3rd baby, but at least shows the scar and lack of belly button.

Before:


A few weeks ago:


My abdomen won't be winning any beauty contests but I'm really happy to have a belly button, a functional core, and to have avoided the sternum to hip vertical scar. And I can eat lol.

[anandagirl]

I've been meaning to ask. You have an interesting avi.

Are you playing air guitar while jumping on the bed?

It was a "boudoir" photo shoot for my wedding gift to my hubby, after I lost weight for my wedding. He loves to ski so one of my outfits was a beanie, goggles, thigh high socks and a scarf. As you can probably tell, I am a total goofball. It may look like I was playing the air guitar but I was really trying to hold my boobs as I jumped (braless and jumping don't always mix)

Now, back to our normally scheduled journal...

And thank you OP

[tina722]

Awesome to see you back. I'm really excited that you're moving through the healing process so well. Although I can imagine, it probably seemed like forever. The photos are great too; it really helps imagine what it took to go through it.

[anandagirl]

My abdomen won't be winning any beauty contests but I'm really happy to have a belly button, a functional core, and to have avoided the sternum to hip vertical scar. And I can eat lol.

Very important things!

[NorwichGrad]

It was a "boudoir" photo shoot for my wedding gift to my hubby, after I lost weight for my wedding. He loves to ski so one of my outfits was a beanie, goggles, thigh high socks and a scarf. As you can probably tell, I am a total goofball. It may look like I was playing the air guitar but I was really trying to hold my boobs as I jumped (braless and jumping don't always mix)

Now, back to our normally scheduled journal...

And thank you OP

'Boobs' and 'braless' and 'jumping' in the same sentence stuck out like a midget stripper playing whack-a-mole at chuck-E-cheese. So I had to check out your profile. I hope you don't think I'm a creeper.

[anandagirl]

'Boobs' and 'braless' and 'jumping' in the same sentence stuck out like a midget stripper playing whack-a-mole at chuck-E-cheese. So I had to check out your profile. I hope you don't think I'm a creeper.

You're totally a creeper!

J/K

Those photos were a long time ago and at least 20 pounds ago, but I can't let them go

[kaleida]

Hey! I'm not on bb.com much any more but I decided to stop by today since we are in the middle of a lonnnng car drive. I love seeing your updates!! Your pictures look fantastic and I am glad your healing is going well. I love seeing the multiple-pause squats too. Re: the lump you mentioned in upper abs, maybe it's just your xiphoid process showing since you lost weight? I hope you bought the olive green dress...I absolutely love how that looks on you!!