NEW SITE IS LIVE!!!! Finally..

Posted by jim on Sunday, February 17, 2008. Visit jim's BodyDaemon Journal.

As I am guessing you can all tell, the new website has gone live.

I really, really hope you all like it.

I want to say a very, very big thank you to the following people:

• Zoe, for putting up with me spending literally thousands of hours coding the new site, and helping me test it.
  
  
• Kuldip & Grant (the new team members) for their amazing technical and design input.
  
  
• Obsession, Dimebag & Woot - long time members of the site - who have given a great deal of feedback during testing of the new site.
  
  
• Everyone else that has spared the time to look at the site, including: Roger, Asad, Mark, Richard, Tom, Lee..

Please let me know what you think by leaving comments in my journal. This is the first release of a very complicated piece of software, so there are bound to be a few bugs. We'll try to fix them as quickly as we can.

Shoulder surgery

Posted by jim on Monday, February 18, 2008. Visit jim's BodyDaemon Journal.

I had shoulder surgery last saturday. This is a video clip of the inside of my shoulder. how weird is that??

on an unrelated note, i just released the latest version of the site. we've fixed about 30 bugs tonight. most of them were little things, although a couple of major ones. let me know if anyone has any problems. i'm off to bed!

Blogging. Blog. I don't think, I just type.

Posted by Zoweh on Tuesday, February 19, 2008. Visit Zoweh's BodyDaemon Journal.

I'm not really sure why or what I'm blogging particularly. I just thought I'd have a go, since I'm trying out all aspects of the site :)

(if anyone actually bothers to read this, please be excusing the rubbish which I write)

Hugo and oscar are minding their own business for once, and it's all quite peaceful in the living room. I'd like to go in the other room and do some cycling, but it almost feels mean to move them since its so rare they relax and settle down, whilst both in the same room.

On a slightly related/unrelated note - I'm trying to work my way up to cycling for a quite a while. I started last week at 5 minutes (how pathetic is that? my thighs, oh my most poorest of thighs!)

And now I'm up to ten! ten whole minutes! Haha. The main thing that really puts me off is pure boredom. I have such a short attention span when it comes to anything like cycling/rowing/elliptical. I've tried taking my mind off it by doing other stuff at the same time, like watching TV, listening to music, reading...have you tried reading whilst cycling btw? its not easy. the book jiggles around like no-ones business and I kept reading the same line over and over because I kept losing where I was. Back to music, for now, I suppose. Its silly because I know if I put my mind to it I can do it. I think I've got a mental blockage on it. I've convinced myself that cycling is very very boring, with a lump of slate on top, and indeed it has become very, very boring. Also I am kind of unhealthy, but surely being bored by the one thing that will help me on the path to healthdom is somewhat counter productive?

I'd like to do something more jazzy when it comes to exercising, purely from an interest point of view...like I used to do gymnastics when I was smaller, and dancing, but now the closest I come to dancing is on a sticky floor in a nightclub. I tried this dance DVD - what a load of cack that was. I can honestly say I've never felt more ridiculous in my life - and embarrassed cos the dog was watching me, looking like

"seriously, I've just had a leg operation, and I'd look better doing this dance than you do."

Onwards I trundle.

P.s No longer is the livingroom filled with dogs being good and quiet. Oscar has just solved the stupid, cardboard mindbender puzzle thats been sitting on the floor all week, just waiting for someone to complete it.

He has eaten one of the pieces.

knackered.

Posted by jim on Wednesday, February 20, 2008. Visit jim's BodyDaemon Journal.

I had an interesting day with respect to knee problems, but that's the subject of another post, a very long one..

Just a quick message to say I will be doing another release of the site tommorow evening which should sort out quite a few problems people are having and hopefully make things nicer to look at.

Thanks for the feedback so far everyone - really appreciated.

Things

Posted by Dimebag on Thursday, February 21, 2008. Visit Dimebag's BodyDaemon Journal.

 Things are going quite well at the moment and I've started posting my workouts back on the site now its gone live.

Unlike most people over the Christmas period my body fat seems to have plummetted superbly and at the moment the scales seem to think im just below 8%, although how much they can be trusted is another matter. I do appear a bit leaner even though I didnt have much to lose in the first place.

I seem to be as strong as ever which is great going on the strength of yesterdays deadlift personal best AFTER doing a half hour crosstrain section but there is one major thing still holding me back.

I've got to have my tonsils out, they make my life a living hell. Consultation is on Monday next week at 10 past 10 at the hospital and I know what the result will be. That'll knock me back a couple of weeks I'm sure but after they're out perhaps I won't keep getting perpetually ill after every single workout I do. Right now my throat is closing up and my tonsils are right on the virge of majorly flaring.

 

Not good.   

new release

Posted by jim on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. Visit jim's BodyDaemon Journal.

I just did a major release of the site.

If anyone notices any problems please give me a shout

Over the next week I am going to overhaul the exercise list with a couple of hundred new exercises, amongst other things

Thanks
Jim

new pb!

Posted by adsy on Friday, March 07, 2008. Visit adsy's BodyDaemon Journal.

Finally hit 140 kg squat tonight. It was controlled and down to parallel. In about 10 months my squat has improved from 6x80 to 1x140 kg so very happy with the progress. Although i had done some extra workouts between my last pb attempt and the start of the new program, im sure the smolov routine quickly improved my squat max. I didnt even do the total 3 weeks of the base mesocycle, only doing the last 2 and my squat increased 15 kg. Definitely will be using it again. Thinking of trying it for other lifts starting with deadlift, although might have to cut back on volume to allow my back to recover.

Knee operation - cyclops lesion

Posted by jim on Monday, March 10, 2008. Visit jim's BodyDaemon Journal.

I've just had a knee operation.

I can't type much due to my shoulder still being in a sling, but it turns out I had a 'cyclops lesion' in my knee. To quote kneeguru:

---

A cyclops lesion is a complication of anterior cruciate ligament surgery, where the new replacement ligament slowly strips away and bundles into a knot, jamming up the 'intercondylar notch' and preventing the knee from fully straightening. The lump sometimes looks like the central eye of a mythical 'cyclops' monster, hence the name.

---

A little background for people that don't know me that well - I've had several knee operations over the last 5 years for an ACL reconstruction, a meniscal tear, nerve damage / scar tissue removal, 2 more meniscal tears, then removal of a plica. The last of these was in 2005. Since then I've had the following problems:

• pain when straightening leg
• horrible noise / crunching when straightening leg
• pain during any exercise
• pain when sleeping
• stabbing pains in knee when driving
• pain when sitting
• weight gain due to inability to do any cardio exercise, or indeed even just be on my feet for more than a few minutes
  
• no-one knew what was wrong.. several medical professionals suggested i "live with it". one (a senior surgeon at a respected hospital) said it was just 'wear and tear' and 'id probably need a knee replacement in 10 years'. good eh????
  

The goal of the operation was to figure out what on earth was causing all of this, and hopefully fix it. Since this isn't covered by my insurance, I had to pay for the surgery (around £4000).

So, the operation identified and removed this cyclops lesion.

Other than that, my knee is apparently in great shape inside. I've got around 85% of my cartilidge left, and there's hardly any wear and tear (not bad for 7 surgeries).

One of the most frustrating things about this has been fighting for the diagnosis of the problem. I've been complaining of this for well over 18 months during which time I have seen countless physiotherapists, surgeons, chiropractors, paid for MRI scans / x-rays, etc. In the end they had to go inside my knee to see what was wrong, but I was discouaraged from having an operation at all, since it came with no guarantees.

I guess it's a good thing I stuck with my instincts and insisted on a procedure to hopefully figure out what was wrong.

I won't know for sure whether this has fixed the problem until I'm back on my feet properly, but I was getting pain upon extension - the symptoms of a cyclops lesion - so hopefully this is it fixed.

I now have lots of rehab to do. I was discharged from hospital today and I've been walking around and it's not too bad, although obviously it is extremely sore.

If this is the end of my knee issues, I can't begin to explain how happy I am :-) My injured knee has literally been the bane of my life for the last 3/4 years, as anyone who knows me in person can attest. I've been affected not just physically, but emotionally and financially. That may sound a bit over the top, but until you've been through a chronic injury you can't appreciate how horrible it is.

 It's too early to tell yet whether this has fixed things, but I'm very, very hopeful.

I'll resume physio next week at the Droitwich knee clinic.

Cheers
Jim

A small update

Posted by Dimebag on Tuesday, April 15, 2008. Visit Dimebag's BodyDaemon Journal.

Urging yourself to workout when you've been at work for 8 hours and you've barely eaten 1000 carlories in the day is particularly hard work.
I'm not even convinced I'm going far enough either... time will tell but will I be able to keep this torture up?

I do want to be leaner though..

Body Daemon Noob

Posted by markdark on Thursday, May 15, 2008. Visit markdark's BodyDaemon Journal.

Hey guys, just posting to try out the blog.

I'm currently having a rest day so I'm looking forward to getting back to my routine!

I filled in my "Body" section info today. Was interesting to see the size difference in dominant VS non-dominant muscle groups - time to shape up! ;D

Mark

A new start?

Posted by Dimebag on Monday, June 30, 2008. Visit Dimebag's BodyDaemon Journal.

    My tonsil surgery is now behind me and I've spent the last 3 weeks trying to recover after my throat was reinfected. I'm back at the gym which feels good but at the same time I have to be careful as I am still getting worn out fairly quickly and I am still sleeping long hours at night.

As a result of the operation I've lost quite a bit of fat and a little bit of upper body strength. My shoulders seem alright, about as special as they always were, my chest has lost a a few kilos of lifting power which is annoying because it was never that strong in the first place.

Due to the weight loss I think I am about 10 lbs lighter than before the surgery and from what I can see most of it is not muscular loss, my strength hasnt gone down that much so i'm fairly happy with that as a result.

What I have been looking into at the moment is a diet along the lines of the velocity diet or the V diet as its known. This diet is an extreme weight loss plan, protein rich which I believe was developed as an extension to a diet aimed at obese people who need to lose weight quickly. Porting it to a body building point of view to shred fat still works a charm but working out whilst on the plan is kinda hard as the carb level is rediculously low. The diet even goes as far as allowing you a whole one solid meal per week which to me is not going to happen. I am not *that* desperate to lose a bit of fat that I am going to cut back to one solid meal a week, I'd be seriously miserable and I wouldnt be able to keep that plan up.

To this end I have changed the diet as it were slightly, at the moment I have one solid meal a day. That is I have a protein shake with a bit of fruit smoothy when I wake up (for vitamins), depending on whether or not I go to the gym in the morning or the evening i'll have a bacon roll from the canteen in the morning and a shake shortly after. Then I have a shake for lunch and a meal around 5 or so of good lean food with a lot of protein (tonight is sausage and prawn miso ramen) and then a shake later on before bed.

I wouldnt like to say I can "see it working" or anything of the sort yet as I've only really been doing it in dribs and drabs for the last week to see if I can actually stomach it. Ahuhuhuh I see my sense of wit is still with me. Seriously though its actually fairly hard to maintain but think of it as just cutting lunch out as a solid meal and having a shake instead. I think that a couple/few weeks on this diet with normal training should let me lose enough weight without loss of muscle or strength to the point that my body fat will be very low, around 7% again if I do the course well.

I want the fat this low so I can then focus on starting to train for mass again without having a lot of fat on me. I just think i look and feel a lot better when my body fat is very low. The fact that I now have a girlfriend (I'll look back on this in however amount of time when I randomly read this entry again and will most likely be letting myself in for a whole host of sorrow but hey) is not going to deter me to start getting slack with my health, she's a lovely trim size 8 and I want to look good for her too.

Dime

Going to Start my Full Body Workout Plan.

Posted by Ibn Saeed on Tuesday, July 01, 2008. Visit Ibn Saeed's BodyDaemon Journal.

Hello

I will begin a full body workout plan for weight loss. Presently, I am setting up my routine so that I may begin exercising.

My First Day of Workout

Posted by Ibn Saeed on Sunday, July 06, 2008. Visit Ibn Saeed's BodyDaemon Journal.

Hello

Finally, I started my beginners workout plan today. I was able to workout for around 25 minutes straight and at the end, I was dripping in sweat. It was a nice feeling :)

Now, my quadriceps muscles are aching a bit.

Also, as I was going to down to place my head and nose on the ground for prostration, my shoulders did not held up my upper body. I was about to hit my face on the ground, but i got hold of myself as i was just about to touch my head on the ground.
Getting back up from the prostration position was quite difficult as it felt as my shoulders were not there. I did eventually get up slowly. By the time on my last unit of prayer, the shoulders were aching less and were back to normal (almost).

So this was my first day. Tomorrow is Core and that is going to be tough.

A new start?

Posted by Dimebag on 30 June 2008. Visit Dimebag's BodyDaemon Journal.

    My tonsil surgery is now behind me and I've spent the last 3 weeks trying to recover after my throat was reinfected. I'm back at the gym which feels good but at the same time I have to be careful as I am still getting worn out fairly quickly and I am still sleeping long hours at night.

As a result of the operation I've lost quite a bit of fat and a little bit of upper body strength. My shoulders seem alright, about as special as they always were, my chest has lost a a few kilos of lifting power which is annoying because it was never that strong in the first place.

Due to the weight loss I think I am about 10 lbs lighter than before the surgery and from what I can see most of it is not muscular loss, my strength hasnt gone down that much so i'm fairly happy with that as a result.

What I have been looking into at the moment is a diet along the lines of the velocity diet or the V diet as its known. This diet is an extreme weight loss plan, protein rich which I believe was developed as an extension to a diet aimed at obese people who need to lose weight quickly. Porting it to a body building point of view to shred fat still works a charm but working out whilst on the plan is kinda hard as the carb level is rediculously low. The diet even goes as far as allowing you a whole one solid meal per week which to me is not going to happen. I am not *that* desperate to lose a bit of fat that I am going to cut back to one solid meal a week, I'd be seriously miserable and I wouldnt be able to keep that plan up.

To this end I have changed the diet as it were slightly, at the moment I have one solid meal a day. That is I have a protein shake with a bit of fruit smoothy when I wake up (for vitamins), depending on whether or not I go to the gym in the morning or the evening i'll have a bacon roll from the canteen in the morning and a shake shortly after. Then I have a shake for lunch and a meal around 5 or so of good lean food with a lot of protein (tonight is sausage and prawn miso ramen) and then a shake later on before bed.

I wouldnt like to say I can "see it working" or anything of the sort yet as I've only really been doing it in dribs and drabs for the last week to see if I can actually stomach it. Ahuhuhuh I see my sense of wit is still with me. Seriously though its actually fairly hard to maintain but think of it as just cutting lunch out as a solid meal and having a shake instead. I think that a couple/few weeks on this diet with normal training should let me lose enough weight without loss of muscle or strength to the point that my body fat will be very low, around 7% again if I do the course well.

I want the fat this low so I can then focus on starting to train for mass again without having a lot of fat on me. I just think i look and feel a lot better when my body fat is very low. The fact that I now have a girlfriend (I'll look back on this in however amount of time when I randomly read this entry again and will most likely be letting myself in for a whole host of sorrow but hey) is not going to deter me to start getting slack with my health, she's a lovely trim size 8 and I want to look good for her too.

Dime

Going to Start my Full Body Workout Plan.

Posted by Ibn Saeed on 01 July 2008. Visit Ibn Saeed's BodyDaemon Journal.

Hello

I will begin a full body workout plan for weight loss. Presently, I am setting up my routine so that I may begin exercising.