Cyp,
You mind sharing how your MS affects your bodybuilding/daily life? It would be very interesting to hear your perspective man
No worries man,
To be honest there are some days where any kind of 'extra activity' i.e. outside of getting to work, dressing the kids etc are a big NO. But most days, I will time my workout for when I have the most conserved energy, or if my time window is set for the gym, I will have to really go easy all day or i'll mess it up.
By 'go easy' I literally mean don't leave the office at lunch to get food, avoid the stairs - maybe even use my lunch break for a 30min nap.
A good analogy is having a certain amount of chips (as in casino) at the start of each day, and deciding how to spend them. Most people have an unlimited amout of chips, and so give or take a couple of hundred it's not a concern - however with PPMS (primary progressive MS) using too many chips in monday, fucks up tuesday BIG time.
Training - It is endurance that mainly causes a problem with lifting, because MS is a central nervous system disease (the protective sheath around my nerve cables is damaged/eating itself lol) so it takes probably twice the energy to send a signal for my bicep to contract per rep as it used to before I was sick.
I get round this as I said by starting my workout with as much energy as I can conserve, and I stick to a 5X5 program or thereabouts, with some burning sets at the end of each workout (final exercise I will go until failure / cables / conc. curls / leg raises etc)
Squats I had to adjust because they are HARD on the nervous system anyway. I used to love 20 rep squats, but now I do more like 5 x 5 (but damn heavy) with a final set of 15 at a lower weight to finish off.
Things that piss me off about MS:
1. If my body temp goes up by just a couple of degrees (cycling, weights in summer, walking too far, yardwork etc) I get double vision, and very weak, so have to sit down for 20 mins just to regain sight, energy etc.
2. ringing in my ears - constant and very loud (due to damage to cranial nerve that supplies the ear)
3. I have very bad balance - again due to damage in the brain stem
4. After I excercise, or even walk for a while my speech gets very slurred/almost like drunk slurred until I have rested.
But all said and done, I have a beatiful family, I don't take myself seriously enough to moan to people about my illness, and I see countless people all the time who are in such a bad way - how can I compare to that. I work full time, I train and lead a busy life so there is so much to be thankful for