Comic collecting and health

[The Less Blob]

"Out of all the gym rats I know, only a handful of us ever got to our 300lbs + bench presses all natural."

 

In high school I weighed about 180 (5' 10") and put up 320 at my peak without any supplemtns, juice, etc. I could do 220 like 20-25 times. I wasn't all that crazed about lifting, but I did track and field, so it was part of the routine. Needed to be explosive to throw the shotput and discus and for sprinting. Shortly after hitting my peak, I tore my pec. Ouch. That was sort of the end of tossing around lots of weight. I think I topped out at 240 after I got over the pec tear, but whenever I pushed myself I'd feel popping in there. So, it's been a while since I did much lifting, but I just do lots of reps in the 170-180s.

[underthebigw]

This has been a pressing concern of mine for the last two years as I've watched several people I care about deteriorate. I've gone from being extremely active and athletic to a Coke-chugging couch potato. Unfortunately, grad school did a number on me--just couldn't figure out how to get a doctorate, work two full time jobs, do my clinical work, and work out. I had brief period of diligence after grad school, but kids (and sleep deprivation) came along and dashed that.

 

Overall, my big accomplishment this year is to have stopped drinking 6-8 cans of Coke a day. Lost 10 pounds without trying, and am down to 193 (I'm 5'10"). I'm stretching regularly, getting ready to start running before any lifting. I'm giving myself 12 more months to change my lifestyle, as well as cholesterol and triglyceride levels, before hitting the statins.

 

Now, if you think comic collectors are in bad shape, you should see cartoon glass collectors. Overall, not too fit. And, sadly, quite a few prominent ones have passed away way too early in their lives.

[Rodey]

Me? I spend 4 days at the gym and 2-3 days doing martial arts. Can't get too big at the gym or else I lose flexibility and speed during my sparring sessions. Ever get hit with a bamboo stick?

[Larryw7]

My health has detiorated quite a bit in the last few years. I found out three years ago I have eurythmia, which is a very serious heart condition. I had chicken pox as an adult, and it seems that the virus attacked my heart. So now I have a defibrillator, have to take five meds a day, and can't exercise as much as I used to, with the result that I'm starting to look like Ralph Kramden. I try to eat healthy-lots of fruit and veggies-but old habits die hard(there are too many great foods in Philly!). Doesn't have much to do with comics, I guess, except that I find myself reading archive editions and sitting around more than I ever did in the good old days.

[toro]

I'm a doctor, so I hope I know what I'm talking about (if not, I should be able to lie fairly well). For general longevity and overall health, the best thing you can do IMHO is cardio in ANY form. Walking a distance is about the same benefit as running, only it takes longer. Swimming, gardening, anything that gets your heart rate up consistently for a period of time is excellent. The thing to keep in mind is not to be sedentary. Allowing your muscles not to be used in some form or fashion is terrible for your health. Weight lifting doesn't have much added benefit over what it does for your heart rate.

 

That being said Genes are Genes, and there isn't anything you can do to change it. I have patients who do little and will live to be 80-90, while others have MIs in their 30s while living a healthy lifestyle.

Hari (heartened) can probably chime in here, a lot of the medical interventions we do with pills make a 1-3% overall difference in outcomes over 3-5 years, despite aggressive therapy.

 

Bottom line is: exercise, eat right, be happy, when you have a heart attack - get a stent.

 

It's all in the Genes! Hopefully I will inherit my Aunt's genes! She is 86 and still works a couple of days a week. Her brothers, my father passed away at 36, my uncles, one at 40 and one at 52! So I try to eat as healthy as possible, either run 3 to 4 miles or swim 1 mile on my lunch hour. My tendons are giving out and was told to stop running 6 years ago, but I hate walking! Today, some 30 years later I weigh less then I did in high school. I'm about 6ft, 175 then around 167 now. My BP is good and my resting pulse is around 50-55. But for me none of that matters, I just have to hope my gene pool is better then the other males before me.

[nik]

5'9" about 185, smoke a couple of packs a day, drink about a case every other week and a couple of bottles of wine thrown in just for good measure. Spend too much on funny books sometimes, haven't been to the gym in 3 years,

 

Life is good and I feel just ducky.

[Stronguy]

I'm a doctor, so I hope I know what I'm talking about (if not, I should be able to lie fairly well). For general longevity and overall health, the best thing you can do IMHO is cardio in ANY form.

 

...Weight lifting doesn't have much added benefit over what it does for your heart rate.

 

For longevity of life you might be right (I've never looked into it). However, for overall health you are 100% incorrect. There are dozens of studies on how resistance training improves ones quality of life -- especially in the elderly. In fact, it is widely understood that if one must choose between doing cardio only or doing resistance training only resistance training should always be selected (physical limitation not withstanding). There is a cardio component to resistance training by its very nature. However, the opposite can not be said about cardio.

 

Actually the best thing to do is a little of both.

[Stronguy]

One of these two statements is... (thanks for the image )

 

no steroids

 

or

 

250 pounds with 5% body fat

 

That means you were bigger than (and as lean as) almost every professional BB in history (with the exception of the past 6 years). And you were 100% natural. C'mon -- gimme a break! Post some picture -- I gotta see that.

[OldGuy]

5'9" about 185, smoke a couple of packs a day, drink about a case every other week and a couple of bottles of wine thrown in just for good measure. Spend too much on funny books sometimes, haven't been to the gym in 3 years,

 

Life is good and I feel just ducky.

 

[wrcomics]

My health has detiorated quite a bit in the last few years. I found out three years ago I have eurythmia, which is a very serious heart condition. I had chicken pox as an adult, and it seems that the virus attacked my heart. So now I have a defibrillator, have to take five meds a day, and can't exercise as much as I used to, with the result that I'm starting to look like Ralph Kramden. I try to eat healthy-lots of fruit and veggies-but old habits die hard(there are too many great foods in Philly!). Doesn't have much to do with comics, I guess, except that I find myself reading archive editions and sitting around more than I ever did in the good old days.

 

Is it eurhythmia or arrhytmia? Regardless, I can relate to your story. I had chicken pox as an adult about 3 years ago (I'm 43 now). I didn't take it so seriously, but my wife, who was my fiance back then, was extremely concerned! Now I know why. I had no idea the chicken pox virus could attack other things like your heart!

[Stronguy]

BMI is such a load of hooey. For the average person it might work out to some extent but you don't have to be too far on either side of the bell curve for it to fall apart. My BMI is 37 (5' 11" @ 265#) -- if you just look at that number you would freak (at least my insurance company does). Little do they know that I am very active and not fat.

 

Here's my routine...

45-60 min. intense weight lifting -- 4-5 days/wk

20-30 min. moderate cardio (after lifting) -- 4-5 days/wk

6-8 hours of martial arts training a week (including 2 back-to-back hours of Muay Thai -- where's that puking greamlin) -- Jun-Fan Gung Fu (JKD), Fillpino Kali, Pentjak Silat Serak, Muay Thai.

 

I'm 5' 11", 265 -- bf% is ~15% (and dropping), my resting heart rate is in the low 50s. Due to how screwed up the system is my life insurance premium is higher than my brother's who is 1" shorter than me, weighs 5# less, eats like a pig and doesn't get any exercise.

[Wally's Comics]

Insurance companies are nothing but legalized Mafia...

 

If you don't look fat nor feel fat you are good to go...

 

I am 5' 11" @ 270

 

I have a little pudge but I added some nice cardio to my weights

and started more reps and negatives to control mass...

 

 

I used to be 300 when I started my plan in late august.

 

Lost fat and gained back solid muscle that I lost from a massive car wreck two years ago...

 

I plan to be 250 by mid summer and that is where I want to maintain.

 

Nice rotine though TG.

[wrcomics]

Bravo Stronguy! Seriously only 15% BF? Ahhhhhh someday.... someday!

[richnerd]

Your right it should of said 230 pounds. (typo) and I like the image.

 

Anyways if you want pics you will have to contact my exwife as I wont call her, bad enough to mention her here. Do a research for threerivers Natural Body building in Fort Wayne. If they still have a website they had photos posted there.

Oh and pro's have been larger than 250 for longer then 6 years, didn't Coleman win his first about 7 or 8 years ago? And Kevin Levrone had shoulders that weighed 100 pounds by them self.

[Stronguy]

Your right it should of said 230 pounds. (typo) and I like the image.

 

Anyways if you want pics you will have to contact my exwife as I wont call her, bad enough to mention her here. Do a research for threerivers Natural Body building in Fort Wayne. If they still have a website they had photos posted there.

Oh and pro's have been larger than 250 for longer then 6 years, didn't Coleman win his first about 7 or 8 years ago? And Kevin Levrone had shoulders that weighed 100 pounds by them self.

 

Couldn't find any pictures. So why weren't you at least a top amature? Unless you were put together like Frankenstein you should have dominated. I've been to man 100% drug free shows and those guys look like free range chickens. Anyone who came even close to 200# (and looks halfway decent) kicked butt.

 

Ronnie (I used to train at MetroFlex with him back in the day) just won his 8th -- he's been competing over 250 for about 10 years. What I was saying is that most of the pros are under 250, 5%. Until the last few years 250 was considered insane. In fact I remember when Dorian Yates walked on stage at 255. Everyone though the world was going to come to an end -- no way a person can get bigger than that!

[richnerd]

Oh yea I remember seeing yates in colobus at the Arnold classic. What a freak... Still have Dorians work out on VHS.

 

As for why I didn't go anywhere with the competition was a ton of bad [embarrassing lack of self control] happened when I finally got to the spot I wanted to get to. I got divorced from a woman I loved and it tore me apart, my life long friend died and I thought about taking my own life. Lucky for me I had a great friend smack me in the head. I never really got back into competing I went the route of personal training instead. Everything actually worked out for the best as I work with many troubled kids here in town and have been doing that for many years. My kids want me to get back into it and go for the 40 and over class.

We must have had all the better natural builders here because there was 4 of us that worked out together and none of us was under 220# (maybe thats why the cows screamed when we walked by). I was the shortest at 5'11.. Had knee surgery 6 months ago. I will show you the new pics, I just started a 14 week routine that I am documenting.230# starting weight 22% bodyfat(from down time with surgery) goal right now is get cardio back with light weights till knee gets strong. End of week #1 220# 18% bf...

[Larryw7]

My health has detiorated quite a bit in the last few years. I found out three years ago I have eurythmia, which is a very serious heart condition. I had chicken pox as an adult, and it seems that the virus attacked my heart. So now I have a defibrillator, have to take five meds a day, and can't exercise as much as I used to, with the result that I'm starting to look like Ralph Kramden. I try to eat healthy-lots of fruit and veggies-but old habits die hard(there are too many great foods in Philly!). Doesn't have much to do with comics, I guess, except that I find myself reading archive editions and sitting around more than I ever did in the good old days.

 

Is it eurhythmia or arrhytmia? Regardless, I can relate to your story. I had chicken pox as an adult about 3 years ago (I'm 43 now). I didn't take it so seriously, but my wife, who was my fiance back then, was extremely concerned! Now I know why. I had no idea the chicken pox virus could attack other things like your heart!

 

 

Perhaps "arrhythmia" is the correct spelling. Get a cardiogram as soon as possible.

[buttock]

I'm a doctor, so I hope I know what I'm talking about (if not, I should be able to lie fairly well). For general longevity and overall health, the best thing you can do IMHO is cardio in ANY form.

 

...Weight lifting doesn't have much added benefit over what it does for your heart rate.

 

For longevity of life you might be right (I've never looked into it). However, for overall health you are 100% incorrect. There are dozens of studies on how resistance training improves ones quality of life -- especially in the elderly. In fact, it is widely understood that if one must choose between doing cardio only or doing resistance training only resistance training should always be selected (physical limitation not withstanding). There is a cardio component to resistance training by its very nature. However, the opposite can not be said about cardio.

 

Actually the best thing to do is a little of both.

 

Quality of life and overall health are COMPLETELY different. If you're doing resistance training at a consistent level (e.g circuit training) you may be right. But without keeping your HR up for the duration of your training, you're not going to get the benefit.

I won't get into the quality of the studies.

[Red Hook]

If you have any concerns, see if your insurance company will cover the cost of a nuclear stress test. It makes an EKG look like the mickey mouse test it is. It's not invasive. 43 is a good time to start getting aggressive about checking out the ol' ticker.

[buttock]

If you have any concerns, see if your insurance company will cover the cost of a nuclear stress test. It makes an EKG look like the mickey mouse test it is. It's not invasive. 43 is a good time to start getting aggressive about checking out the ol' ticker.

 

 

Unless you have a reason to suspect you may have CORONARY heart disease (i.e. your dad/brother had a HEART ATTACK before 50, or mom/sister before 60) or are having chest pain or exertional shortness of breath, this is a good way to get into a lot of trouble.

The false negative rate on these isn't trivial (5-10%) and that leads to a catheterization which has about a 0.1% risk of big-time badness, and a 1-2% risk of small-time badness.

 

It's not meant to be a routine screening test.