DrDenim

I've never used my HSA for anything. I added money to it, and it just sits there, mostly invested, so it is getting a return/dividend. I imagine only using it in "oh shite" type scenarios. All the routine, planned, or otherwise expected health/medical expenses I just pay for out of pocket. But it's good to know that it's not difficult to use HSA funds for these things as I've thought about it. I have about 12K just sitting there, unused for years.

I paid $765 out of pocket for the complete panel through Marek, and while I'm glad to have all those tests done so I have a baseline level on those obscure ones, I realized pretty quickly that as a non-bodybuilder, most of that stuff wasn't necessary for me. Once I learned more I decided that Marek wasn't a service I needed to use any more. I have plans to do TRT at some point, once I lose more body fat, so to prepare for that I subscribed to Fitomics back in February, I think. I really want to stay on top of my bloodwork, and while I don't know for sure which route I'll do TRT (local physician, local clinic, telemedicine, self driven/UGL), I know I will want to do more bloodwork than required by any outside clinician.

Uncle Jackd, do you know for sure how long a lab requisition is good for? I'm always reading that it's 180 days for routine bloodwork. I'm toying with the idea of paying for the monthly Fitomics subscription to access the insider pricing(I currently do the $75/3months subscription), ordering all the blood work I want for the next 180 days, canceling the subscription to save money, and as long as I get the blood drawn within that 180 day window I should be good, right? Then whenever I want to get bloodwork again, I'll reactivate the insider subscription, and do it all over again. I've never done bloodwork that way, I always get the blood draw pretty quickly once I have a lab requisition. I'd hate to pay, wait weeks/months and then go to get my blood drawn and be told to take a hike because the lab requisition is too old.

well...it's not a fricking race, man, but if it is ... I guess you won, didn't you?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you don't lift shite.

Understood, but you're not loafing around, you're "recovering" and if you screw around you may be asking people to pick things up for you for 6 months instead of just 6 weeks. That's what I'm thinking. I don't know how you sprint, but when I do it, it's explosive and violent. I'm not sure exactly what kind of hernia you had, but I would think flatland walking sounds more like it for week #1 to me.

But I'm not a medical doctor, I'm a denim doctor, and you are not a pair of jorts so what do I know? It just "sounds" like a bad idea. :cheers:

Until recently, I've been a left side, left arm cranked up under my head, sleeper. Just like any PT tells you NOT to sleep if you want to have good shoulder health(not the left side part, the arm raised up to support your head part). It finally bit me in the arse after not being a problem for who knows how long, maybe my whole life. I can only say for sure I've slept like this for about 10 years, all with no issues or pain as a result.

For about a month now I've been pretty consistent about keeping my arm down near my side when I sleep, hopefully this helps, I really need to break that bad habit. I'm at the age where it's always something. It used to be pain in the elbows and shoulders only while squatting, but as soon as I fixed all of that I started having left wrist pain with pressing/push-ups, and now I've added left shoulder pain while bench pressing. I'm just gonna start pumping myself full of HGH and be done with it.

5-6 pumps, like I said, this pump device on the tube broke and it doesn't squirt anything out unless I simultaneously push up on the bottom of the plunger while pressing the button and what it shoots out, volume wise, is not consistent so the dosing is really hard to maintain consistent. It pisses me off, I'd love to throw it in the trash, but I've got 2 tube's and I can't bring myself to throw money away. I just do it all on inner thighs and eyeball the amounts.

I appreciate the feedback from both of you (yeti and 777s), I'm a relative newcomer to the GSLP. This is something for me to consider, (that perhaps I should allow my progressions to ride closer to 5s), but as is my custom, I always do my own modifications to almost everything I touch and so far I've enjoyed great progress by resetting well before my +5AMRAPS get down to that point. Still currently doing 5/3/1, but I'm about to change it up to either something more Greyskull adjacent or a RPT scheme. I'm entering week #13 of being in a consistent caloric deficit and I'm looking for a way to keep my training in the most pared down manner possible because fatigue is eating me alive and has been ever since I started taking tirzepatide.

Anyway, not to derail any further, Obiwan, definitely re-examine your squat set up and how you are getting tight (or not getting tight enough, as may possibly be the case) prior to unracking the bar. Whenever the weight "feels" heavier to me than I think it should, and it's not due to me just being tired and old (likely this most of the time) it's always due to my not getting tight enough at the beginning. I do fine with my core bracing, but I'm guilty of cheating my hands wider and wider to give my cranky elbows/shoulders a break some times, and it effects how tight my upper back is under the bar, and waddaya know? It makes the damn bar feel deceptively heavy. Once I realize I've let this happen, I correct it and get those hands back closer together and get my upper back TIGHT and it's like 20lbs gets taken off the bar. Don't know if that'll help you, maybe you just need more recovery, but what you said about how your groin feels makes me think you aren't setting your breath correctly and fully getting tight before you unrack. Good luck.

I mean, how big are we talking here? ... it could have an impact on my training. I just want to be prepared.

I hear yall, but I always shot for >5

Sounds like he's been struggling right at 5 for 3 sessions? or 4?

Just reset it and move on ...that's my way and it's been working well. Either reset or just transition away from squat for some number of weeks. I agree with JP's attitude (or what it seems to be to me, I'm not putting words in his mouth) in that resets are just part of the program and people should not avoid resetting out of a misplaced sense that resetting is "bad" or somehow a less than desirable outcome. I used to feel that way and it made me grind away on these kinds of sets way too much. Being more quick to reset has kept me progressing overall at a better pace.

I respect a dude that writes his own program... :cheers:

But if I'm being honest, when I read this initially I was biting the hell out of my lip over it all and I wanted to jump in with my critique, but it doesn't matter what I think about your program, if it is working for you it's working for you. Keep at it.

The best thing a person can do besides train, is apply some analysis to their training and constantly be trying to improve their systems. This is why keeping a record of everything is so helpful. If you keep a solid training log you can almost be guaranteed to succeed with any plan if you're also dedicated to constant adjustment and experimentation and learning.

OP, are you able to accomplish what you set out to accomplish with this plan?

I'm also a little perplexed by the downvotes, but who gives a shite.

:lol: I gotcha now. I just don't know that many potheads I guess. I live a pretty small life socially speaking and I live in a small town now.

I'm an critical care nurse and my interaction with people is mostly all while I'm at work, so when I run across people who admit to being daily smokers of marijuana they are always daily smokers of cigarettes too. Hardly anybody admits to drinking, they always try to downplay it, even when we know they're lying. They even lie when they know WE KNOW they're lying.

It's hard to know exactly what bad habit from what substance is causing some of these people to be so sick.

Last daily marijuana user I had as a patient was on death's door, so to speak, had an ejection fraction of 10%(heart muscle is incredibly weak and can't hardly pump any blood) but he was also a long time meth user on top of being the kind of guy who just never went to the doctor, ever, for anything....until he started passing out in his 50s from low blood pressure. I think his marijuana use was probably helpful, it may have provided some comfort to him in his final years, he had a pretty miserable life but to me, it was all his fault.