Vixoen

jehan--that's what I've been doing so far. Glad to know that I can still get to the level I want even if it may take longer. katscratch--thank you so much for replying! I'm delighted to hear from someone who has been in the bone-filled trenches of orthopedic surgery. The surgery was for scoliosis. Even after having worn a corrective brace throughout my adolescence, my curvature reached 50 degrees. I managed to upload an image of the x-rays I got at a ten-year follow-up, you can see it here. The surgeon told me all the technical details of this bone to that bone but I was heavily drugged and remember little. I've watched videos on deadlifts and I can replicate the movements without hindrance from my back. What I'm concerned about is that much weight being spread down through my spine and any long-term damage that could cause. What I remember from my surgeon (again, my memory is foggy) concerning activity was "If it hurts, don't do it. If it doesn't bother you, you should be fine." I have yet to experience pain, only discomfort once in a blue moon (usually from sitting too long in a car/on an airplane). Thank you very much for your response. I'm looking forward to reading the links you mentioned.

Hi everyone, I'm brand-spanking new (intro here) and it's great to have found NF! I want to follow in the steps of Staci as far as lose bad weight, gain good weight/bulk up. From what I've read, it seems like one of the core exercises she did to pull this off was deadlifts and squats. I'm all for pushing myself to the limit with lower-body workouts (hated these thunder thighs in high school, now I love them!!), but I hesitate to test that much weight on my lower back because of a crazy reconstructive spine surgery I had at 18. [see x-rays here] Now five of my lower vertebrae are fused together, I bend my back as one piece (imagine C3PO doing sit-ups), and I shudder at the thought of doing anything that could damage my spine. I can still do 90% of the movements I did before surgery, so that's not really an issue. And yes, I have a WICKED awesome scar! What is the best way to bulk up while abstaining from movements like deadlifts that I fear would compromise my back? Would I be okay if I spend the time to strengthen my back before attempting deadlifts? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks and have an awesome day. Vixoen

Hi, I'm Vix, and I used to be an alcoholic. Actually I prefer the term "wino"--so much classier and lady-like and all that good shit. Thanks to several unfortunate roads in my life converging at the end of 2012, I saw that I was approaching a catastrophic clusterfuck of a future if I didn't stop and get my act together. So I entered something I call "life rehab" wherein I'm re-evaluating every aspect of my life and actively trying to improve myself mentally, emotionally, and physically, all recorded daily in a life rehab notebook. Getting my body back on track seemed the least important at the time, and ironically it was getting my ass back to the gym that made all the pieces of my self-improvement come together. A lot has changed in the week since I had that revelation but I'll yada yada over that part for now. Here I am! Ready to level up in awesomeness. Specs gender: female age: 32 height: 5' 8" weight: 192 pounds but I have always been 20 lbs heavier than I look thanks to thunder thighs size: 14 Bionic Woman When I was 18, I had major reconstructive surgery on my spine. A 10" titanium rod and four seriously huge bolts fused four of my lower vertebrae together. It's all peachy-keen now (yay for fantastic posture and a seriously badass scar), but since then I've hesitated to do any free-standing lower body exercises because I want to make DAMN sure I have perfect form when I've got 275 lbs hoisted on my shoulders. Since my back doesn't curve in the normal way, it limits a lot of the ab/core exercises I can do. Imagine C3PO doing sit-ups. My Fitness Style I'm a brute force kind of girl. I like to throw things around and grunt and sweat and track a quantifiable improvement to my performance over time. Been trying to get back into free weights but it's hard to gather up the ovaries to go to that side of the gym with guys whose biceps are as big as my thighs. Not that I'm one of those little bobble-headed blow-up-boob Barbies who lift 2.5 lb dumb bells and I'm like YOUR PURSE WEIGHS FIVE TIMES THAT BEFORE YOU PUT YOUR FUCKING YIPPY DOG IN IT YOU IDIOT. It sucks being such a weakling in upper-body when my lower-body is built like a bull. I was considering signing up in the Warrior category but I think I need to work on building endurance with things like running more than 3 miles at once so I came to Ranger. What it finally took for me to jump back on the gym-junkie wagon 1. Realizing I look like a bloated caricature of myself 2. Chronic depression. Because lifting weights and sweating a lot is better than crying in bed for days at a time. 3. Becoming single again. Gym = sausage-fest FTW Changes & Accomplishments I've already made in 2013 1. Threw out (nearly) all junk food from my house. What little remains is tucked away somewhere forgettable and difficult to reach to discourage giving in to cravings. 2. Threw out all booze. Put a gold star on calendar for every day I don't drink because stickers make everything more fun. Or at least suck less. 3. Stocked up on a wide variety of healthy food and I'm actually eating it. 4. Rearranged fridge and pantry to encourage healthy eating 5. Read a lot about paleo diet and best strategy for exercising (most of it on nerdfitness.com lately!) 6. Nearly lost my sweet tooth << I NEVER thought that would happen. I once wrote Blue Bell Ice Cream a very passionate email about how they should have an IPO so I could buy stock in them. 7. Keeping track of everything I eat, work-outs, and measurements. Six-week Goals 1. Do 10 push-ups in a row 2. No longer crave alcohol even under circumstances that would normally trigger cravings 3. Run 5k without stopping 4. Lose 1" in waist 5. Wean myself off of dairy & grains (but cheese!!! THINK OF THE CHEESE.) Six-month Goals 1. Do a pull-up unassisted 2. Do 10 burpees in a row 3. Run a half-marathon 4. Lose 3" in waist 5. Follow a full paleo diet Long-term Goals 1. REPAIR--if possible--the damage I have already inflicted on my body with alcoholism and frequent sugar binges. 2. PREVENT injury/disease when I'm older, particularly osteoporosis and diabetes which run in my family. 3. MAINTAIN: create a personalized structure for eating, living, and exercising healthy that I know I will be able to maintain on my own years and decades into the future. 4. MARRY Steve Kamb. Thank you in advance, everyone. I'm sure I will love being a part of the NF community. NERD LOVE!!! xoxo Vix