weightlifting breakthrough

You may recall that with the help of ChatGPT, I had set up a training program for myself. While I have nothing good to report about my walking program, I just tried something out of curiosity: lateral raises with my 10-kilogram dumbbells. More on that in a second. Ever since my stroke in 2021, I turned into a real weakling, but for the past several weeks, I've been following KevGPT's program fairly faithfully. I do dumbbells on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; I do resistance bands and kettlebells on Tuesdays, bodyweight calisthenics on Wednesdays (along with dumbbells), and a little heavy club on Thursdays.

For the dumbbell work, it's been a combination of 5-kilo, 10-kilo, and 20-kilo weights. I temporarily stopped the 20-kilo stuff in order to get my core stronger (with farmer's carries, I mean; I can't seriously curl 20 kg—yet—and I sure as hell can't do a lateral raise or bent-over rows at that weight). I've been doing this program for a little more than three weeks: today, Monday, marks the beginning of Week 4. When I began this program, I couldn't even lift the 10-kilogram dumbbells 45 degrees (in a lateral raise) before pooping out. To practice lateral raises and overhead presses, I've been religiously using the 5-kilogram dumbbells, and while my shoulders don't look any bigger, they're definitely feeling a lot more toned and firm. So tonight, out of sheer monkey curiosity, I grabbed the 10-kilogram dumbbells to see whether I'd made any progress in my strength over the past three weeks.

And guess what? I was able to lift 10 kg in a lateral raise with each arm! Just by training exclusively with the 5-kilogram weights. Well, damn.

I realize doing a lateral raise with 10-kilo dumbbells (about 22 pounds) is nothing for healthy people, but for me, this is a sign that I'm getting some strength back.

My current dumbbell routine, MWF, looks like this (sets ⨉ reps):

lateral raise, 5 kg: 3 ⨉ 12 (up from 3 ⨉ 11 last week)
overhead press, 5 kg: 3 ⨉ 12 (I do these at a slight angle because of frozen shoulder)
hammer curls, 10 kg: 3 ⨉ 12
bent-over rows, 10 kg: 3 ⨉ 12
farmer's carry, 10 kg in both arms: 45-sec march (was formerly 20 kg)
indoor stepper: 230 steps

By Week 10 (end of September), this particular routine should look like:

lateral raise, 5 kg: 4 ⨉ 12 (up from 3 ⨉ 11 last week)
overhead press, 5 kg: 4 ⨉ 12 (I do these at a slight angle because of frozen shoulder)
hammer curls, 10 kg: 4 ⨉ 12
bent-over rows, 10 kg: 4 ⨉ 12
farmer's carry, 10 kg in both arms: 75-sec march (was formerly 20 kg)
indoor stepper: 290 steps

I think I might want to alternate the indoor stepper, which is hydraulic and still a little bit easy (it'll get tiring when I'm doing 500 steps per session), with the real steps in my building's staircase. But I've been cautious about that lately because I'm worried about angina, etc., and I don't want to end up dead in my own stairwell.

Hopefully, as my strength increases in various areas, I ought to start seeing other improvements. Muscles, as they gain mass, tend to neovascularize (grow new blood vessels), and they require more energy to maintain, which is why resistance training can increase my basal metabolism and help me to burn fat passively. I'm also hoping that the various exercises I'm doing will help, in some way, with my frozen left shoulder. I'd like to be able to hang again pain-free so I can try pullups, which also work your back muscles when done right. On top of that, people are discovering that weight/resistance training is beneficial for your heart (as long as you don't turn into a constantly juicing steroid freak with huge muscles that your heart must strain to supply with oxygen—that's why all of those bodybuilder heart attacks happen).

A lot of what I do, these days, involves strengthening and bracing my core. This is both to practice proper form and to protect my back, which used to be prone to various twinges and pangs. I don't do a Pilates routine, but I try to incorporate shoulder-friendly variants of the McGill Big 3 into my routine. Farmer's carries, as well as kettlebell around-the-worlds, are great for building up the core.

Of course, until my routine really gets up there in terms of sets and reps, none of this is going to affect weight loss much. But now that I've seen some small proof of the fruits of my persistence, I'm more determined than ever to keep at this routine, and eventually to expand it to include other exercises. Not all of the improvement is happening at the same rate; right now, dumbbell-related improvements seem to be happening fastest. But I'm hoping that all of this work will eventually prove to be a seamless whole as it all comes together. So it's not all doom and gloom regarding my health. We'll see whether I can reach my intermediate goals by the end of August. I'll try not to have a second heart attack before then, or before my end-of-September doctor's appointment.