Hi folks, welcome! It’s good to be here.
Got to love the weight room.
You can ask for advice, but you would still be well advised to think through your personal situation when it comes to exercise with a dangerous health challenge.
As I entered the weight room this morning, which felt great, I started to calculate: what can I do to maintain my general level of fitness, prior to impending surgery, that would not put my abdominal aortic aneurysm at risk (now sitting nicely at 5.0+ cm), whilst providing some support to the outer aortic wall, and have me more fit for surgery?
If Bill can do this, surely I don’t have to sit on the couch and cry like a baby? I see these guys at Ironman races all the time, often coming by. They impress the hell out of me.
Here is what I came up with:
- Core exercises to gently maintain intra-abdominal pressure, which should support the aneurysm, whilst taking care to avoid increasing lower abdominal pressure markedly. Largely abdominal muscle work, but not anything as violent as a crunch.
- Standard arm (sitting roll ups, bicep curl, kick backs with care), shoulder (shrugs, dumbbell raises), chest (bench press with feet on bench, light fly), and lat (standing cords, sitting pull) exercises generally confined to sitting or bench, but nothing that involves bending at the waste, such as a reverse fly. Oh! Yes! I forgot dips!
- Sitting calf raises and gentle single leg standing calf raises, with special reference to strengthening my arches, needed for when I return to attempting another Boston qualifier.
If you really want to know how to lift weights, read this guy’s early books. He was a remarkable athlete at the time.
- Quad extensions, but with light weights, lots of reps, plus adductor and abductor machine, with light weights lots of reps.
- Not sure about a safe hamstring exercises - any ideas?
- Sit when the gym is quiet and just appreciate being alive.
That, plus walking the dogs and effortless swimming, should keep me toned until my leak is fixed. Remember, training for surgery could be more important than training for the Ironman. You can always stop and walk away from a triathlon (which is sometimes the best thing to do).
All ideas and input would be much appreciated, as I keep FatOldDog at bay.
-k @FitOldDog
Important Note: These posts do not provide medical advice. You should always consult your physician before undertaking or significantly modifying an exercise program.
Copyright © 2010 Kevin T. Morgan aka FitOldDog, Old Dogs in Training, LLC.
Post Footer automatically generated by wp-posturl plugin for wordpress.
Hi Kevin,
Your aortic aneurysm is a somewhat unique problem when it comes to selected weight training options. I must confess that I would probably adopt a conservative approach to exercise selection, especially when it comes to core strength exercises. What thoughts did you have about isometric options instead of weight resistance?
Hi Glenn, isometric exercises crossed my mind for anyone really stuck in bed, and for my core exercises, just mild contractions. Umh! Maybe that’s the way to go for hamstrings, pushing back against the bench? This could also be applied to pecs and so-forth. For core, I was really considering Gyrokinesis movements, with a low amplitude of movement, to activate my core gently. I will explore all of this in the weight room, and see how it goes. Only two weeks until I meet my Cleveland surgeon, also a marathoner, fortunately. Yes! Isometrics is a good way to go, combined with stretching/lengthening workouts afterwards. Thanks, -kevin
Hi Glenn, come to think of it, I suspect that it is much more common than people realize, or they wouldn’t have invented the AortaScan machine: http://verathon.com/products/aortascan/ami-9700 Make sure you get yours checked. Cheers, Kevin