[pjb923]

It's been a while since I posted an update.

I spoke to my doctor about 2 weeks ago and she didn’t tell me much that I don’t already know.

The results of the holter monitor showed that I have a lot of extra beats in my heart rhythm and an occasional pause. She said if the extra beats were closer together it could be a more serious condition. But for now both appear to be harmless, but she wants me to see a cardiologist just to be safe.

For now I am supposed to stay out of the gym and stay away from any stimulants. This has not been easy for me. Just staying out of the gym makes me feel lazy and sluggish. The lack of exercise on top of depriving me of my morning coffee are killing me. At least I got through the headache stage of caffeine withdrawal. I guess cutting out the coffee will be a good thing in the long run, but the first week was not easy.

Fast forward to yesterday...
I saw the Cardiologist for the first time, and everything went really well. He told me that the irregular rythym was nothing to worry about. I am only 27, my blood pressure and cholesterol are very good, I have no family history of early heart disease, and everything he saw in the Echocardiogram was perfectly normal. There is nothing they would do at this point to treat this, and unless I started having serious dizzy spells or actually passed out, I have no reason to worry about it. He did another quick ECG, listened to my heart asked me a few questions and I was on my way.

So I can finally get back into the gym. And I am allowed to have my morning coffee again.

During my down time I have been spending time just about every night stretching and using my foam roller. I have also been doing rotator cuff work with light dumbbells every 2-3 days and working on my grip with the captains of crush grippers. I can now close the #1 for at least 5 reps. When I first got it I could barely close it once. I'm hoping that will help my deadlift in the long run.

I have also been reading NROL and taking the time to type up and print out some of the workout logs. At this point there has been such a big gap in my current routine that I think it's time to start something new. The NROL break-in workouts will be good to get me back into the swing of things, and then I can move onto one of the Fat loss routines. After that I should still have enough time to do a strength phase and make my deadlift goal by September, and start moving my name up the deadlift chart.

My wife has also been dealing with some medical issues, and she has another doctor's appointment on Thursday. Hopefully she will also get the OK to hit the gym again and we can both get back into our routines together.