I've been noticing some wrist pain along with numbness. It's not carpal tunnel syndrome, but it's really close. I already saw the internist, and I've an appointment to see a neurologist tomorrow, I expect that will be part of a series of appointments leading to a hand surgeon, which I am not really confident about.

So in addition to limiting my posting here and general computer use, dropped playing instruments, and limited my fencing to left handed. In the gym I've dropped all the upper body and grip work. Which leaves pretty much just squats.

Anyone with experience just doing squats for an extended period of time? Smolov is only supposed to last two months, and I might be in it for a lot longer.

Hey, at least I really like squats.

Sorry to hear that Zens. I've been real bummed out in the past when nagging injuries limit my physical activities. I don't have any answers to your questions, but just letting you know I hope you can still post here. I've always enjoyed reading your posts and feel you have a lot to add, even to an old timer like me.

A couple of years ago, I developed a numbness down one arm into the fingers. I had the usual nerve conduction test done by a neuro (he had the bedside manner of Hannibal Lecter) and he gave me some pills called Lyrica. I took them, it helped and the numbness and tingling went away for the most part. Occassionaly I'll get it if I'm driving for long distances, but it no longer limits my physical activity.

I'm like you, I love doing squats (but also hate them at the same time, if you know what I mean.) Its always been one of my favorite exercises.

Good luck to you.

I hope you can still post here.

A couple of years ago, I developed a numbness down one arm into the fingers. I had the usual nerve conduction test done by a neuro (he had the bedside manner of Hannibal Lecter) and he gave me some pills called Lyrica. I took them, it helped and the numbness and tingling went away for the most part. Occassionaly I'll get it if I'm driving for long distances, but it no longer limits my physical activity.

I'll still be able to post, if nothing else I have a ton of typing I have to do for my work (does that sound weird for a retired guy? yes, I still have work to do for my academic stuff, and some friends I'd like to keep have asked for consulting work...). I'm going to think about voice recognition.

I'll look into Lyrica. Never heard of it. OK It looks like it's mainly for diabetics and people who have had shingles. I'm quite far from diabetic, and haven't had shingles. It appears to keep too much calcium from getting into certain nerve cells. Since I'm full of calcium (do squats go with that milk?) maybe that's a thought.

I was wondering about inflammation. Who knows, I'll see what the docs say.

Anyone with experience just doing squats for an extended period of time? Smolov is only supposed to last two months, and I might be in it for a lot longer.

Hey, at least I really like squats.

Sucks about your wrist .... hope it heals up soon.

I don't think it is really possible to do Smolov for extended periods of time (at least from what I've read).

Chicanerous had some pretty amazing results though.....

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=46725

Sucks about your wrist .... hope it heals up soon.

I don't think it is really possible to do Smolov for extended periods of time (at least from what I've read).

Chicanerous had some pretty amazing results though.....

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=46725

Well I'm not doing a Smolov, I'm keeping the volume down a compared to that I think, so maybe I can last longer. The stuff I was doing with the trap bar already seems to have added strength to my squat, which although nice, probably also means that I'll run into the need to deload sooner rather than later.

I'll still be able to post, if nothing else I have a ton of typing I have to do for my work (does that sound weird for a retired guy? yes, I still have work to do for my academic stuff, and some friends I'd like to keep have asked for consulting work...). I'm going to think about voice recognition.

I'll look into Lyrica. Never heard of it. OK It looks like it's mainly for diabetics and people who have had shingles. I'm quite far from diabetic, and haven't had shingles. It appears to keep too much calcium from getting into certain nerve cells. Since I'm full of calcium (do squats go with that milk?) maybe that's a thought.

I was wondering about inflammation. Who knows, I'll see what the docs say.




Years ago, when I was in the legal business I liked to stay on top of all the latest technology and I gave voice recognition a try. Mind you this was 15 or more years ago and after trying Dragon Naturally Speaking, it wasn't there quite yet. I'm sure it has come a long way since then and if you try it, I'd be interested in getting your feedback on it. I've got some writing projects on the back burner myself and it might motivate me to get them going if I didn't have to type it all.

You're right about the Lyrica and its intended use. They have found that it has an ancillary benefit for other types of nerve damage (duh! shingles is caused by a virus that spreads through the nervous system). I researched it pretty thoroughly before I took it as I generally don't take drugs unless I really have to. In this case, nothing else worked (physical therapy, OTC, etc.) so I was at the end of my rope. All I can say is that it cleared up my nerve problem however it did it.

You raise an interesting point about the calcium and its effect on the nervous system, particularly if you're taking in a lot of milk, cottage cheese, heavy cream, etc. I haven't done a bulk yet and have completely cut dairy from my diet. Most of my calcium comes from the brocolli I eat 3-4 times a day. About the time I started with the Lyrica one year ago, I also cut the dairy out of my diet per the instructions from my trainer at the time.

Let me know what you find out.

That sucks, Zen. Hopefully you figure out a way to fix it.

In the meantime, you could always work on perfecting the krispy kreme :twitch:

Years ago, when I was in the legal business I liked to stay on top of all the latest technology and I gave voice recognition a try. Mind you this was 15 or more years ago and after trying Dragon Naturally Speaking, it wasn't there quite yet. I'm sure it has come a long way since then and if you try it, I'd be interested in getting your feedback on it.

You raise an interesting point about the calcium and its effect on the nervous system, particularly if you're taking in a lot of milk, cottage cheese, heavy cream, etc. I haven't done a bulk yet and have completely cut dairy from my diet. Most of my calcium comes from the brocolli I eat 3-4 times a day. About the time I started with the Lyrica one year ago, I also cut the dairy out of my diet per the instructions from my trainer at the time.

A: I haven't tried voice recognition since about the same time as you, and I have heard it's miles ahead of that now.

B: I drink a lot of (1% fat) milk.

The big news from the neurologist is that he thinks it is carpal tunnel, but there are some odd symptoms that don't line up, so he wants to do an EMG which he thinks will have a very good chance of telling the story.

The good news is that he feels changing from right to left handed for fencing is a great idea, and that I can lift normally with the hands - except for exercises with wrist flexion and extension. Which means deadlifts and presses are OK. The way I do them, jerks should be OK, dunno about snatches and cleans.

This is a big load off my mind. :claphigh:

Now I'm off to get a headset for voice recognition.

Sounds like good news from the neuro. :tu: Treatment for carpal tunnel has come a long way.

I'll be interested in getting your review of your voice recognition software.

Sounds like good news from the neuro. :tu: Treatment for carpal tunnel has come a long way.

I'll be interested in getting your review of your voice recognition software.

I'm dictating this reply using the voice recognition software of vista and it's pretty good. Navigation is little bit problematic, but with practice I might get better.

The actual recognition of words is very accurate and normal speaking is all that's required. It is a lot faster than typing, but the punctuation to get you from time to time.

I'm using Internet Explorer because it didn't seem to work at all with Firefox.

I'll say something more about this when I've figured out how to use it in my mathematical word processor and programming systems.

Did you have to "train" it by reading a page of text so it could learn your voice?

Did you have to "train" it by reading a page of text so it could learn your voice?

They have some training stuff if you want to use it, but it seemed pretty good before I trained it. At the moment, the recognition is good enough that I won't worry about it.

What is not yet good enough is integration with all my important applications. In my mathematical word processor (also in Firefox), the speech recognizer somehow doesn't realize that dictation is OK, and when the speech doesn't convert into commands that make sense to it, it generates an error instead of just putting the text into the text input window. That one is a bit of a head scratcher for me, but undoubtedly it's because these applications are probably dealing with keystrokes in some way that the recognizer didn't expect.

This morning I have learned a lot more about how to use the speech recognition features. Enough to be able to use a computer completely without the use of hands except for password entry and user access control.

In a dialog box such as this the more advanced features a speech recognition are unavailable. But it's still possible to enter the text as long as you understand alternative methods.

Y8R_qczqdHY

I didn't use my hands for that either.