We are never completely still.

Our blood is always moving.

Nerve impulses are constantly travelling through our bodies.

Even at rest we are in motion.

We never stay the same either.

Skin cells reproduce and die.

Hair and nails grow.

Tissue is added or taken away.

We learn and forget.

We do nothing about any of this. It just happens. It is part of our nature to adapt. Our bodies are designed to survive.

I have made more gains in the last few months by abadoning the silly notion that adaptation has to be forced.

I do not have to increment load in a certain way.

I do not have to reduce or increase rest periods according to a formula.

I do not have to train an exercise "X" many times a week.

I just have to listen to my body and train within my abilities.

My post on Adam's blog that was published yesterday and the comments I've received got me thinking again. Those three months following the accident were miserable yet I don't look back at it as a negative experience. I'm very grateful for it and a lot of good came from it.

The good, the bad and the ugly

We can start with the ugly. Again I will post the slideshow of pictures. How disturbing it is will depend on you. No one has watched it and gone stark raving mad.

The Ugly

As I was putting two 2 1/2 lb plates and 2 1 1/4lb magnets on the bar I couldn't help but think of Jack Reape's pink plates. I remember reading that he painted all of the small plates in the gym pink so they would stand out when people where using them. But then I remember he said something like the fractional plates are for PRs and world records so my shame went away.

If it stop's raining I will spray paint them pink today.

I actually had done 493 before this lift but messed up the camera. 500 went up easier. I can't believe my hands can actually support that weight. I still don't think I can pull over 385 from the floor. I will probably start dropping the height of the bar for the rack pulls.

It has been about a year since I was diagnosed with narcolepsy. Recently I've been motivated to find more information about narcolepsy. I will begin to share some of my research here. I just realized that this paragraph is really dry and now most of you reading it probably feel like you have narcolepsy.

Narcolepsy is

• a sleep disorder
• rare (0.05% of the population have been diagnosed)
• often undiagnosed so may not be as rare as they think
• characterized by
  • excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS)
  • abnormal sleep patterns
  • hallucinations while falling asleep or waking up
  • cateplexy (temporary loss of muscle tone)
  • sleep paralysis

I have experience the excessive daytime sleepiness for as long as I can remember. In high school I would fall asleep in class often and when I got home, all I wanted to do was take a nap. I drank incredible amounts of coffee throughout high school.

At work, I used to curl up and take naps under my desk. I used to fall asleep waiting for reports to generate in Access. Most of the time I fell asleep it would be for a second or two. Just a black out and then twitchy jump awake. They call that a sleep attack.

When I started working as a personal trainer I was always dissapointed when I'd go home for my mid-day break and have to sleep the whole time. It was miserable to know it was nice outside but I had to sleep.

My sleep is interrupted and restless. Some of that may have to do with untreated sleep apnea. I have a mild case of apnea that normally wouldn't bother most people but I'm more sensitive to disturbed sleep.

The other reason for the interruptions is what is usually reffered to as individualized sleep patterns. A typical sleep cycle is around ninety minutes (could be closer to two hours). The last twenty percent of that cycle is spent in REM sleep. I enter REM almost immediately. This also explains the next symptom, hypnogogic hallucinations.

Hypnogogic hallucinations are weird half dreams that occur as someone is falling asleep. This happens to me often when I'm falling asleep in public. I wrote a description of this on my friend Josh's blog.

Cateplexy is a temporary loss of muscle tone. Normally when sleeping your body shuts down some muscles so you don't wake yourself back up. This happens at innapropriate times for people with narcolepsy and is usually preceded by a strong emotional experience. This is the reason that I spent last Valentine's Day in the hospital being monitored for a stroke. My face goes numb sometimes, I mumble, can't move my mouth well and drool. It's actually the least intrusive symptom for me. Doctor's keep offering me medication for it but I don't care about it. I just don't want to be tired all day. Some people become completely paralyzed.

Speaking of paralysis, I've experienced sleep paralysis only a few times that I know of. I'm only really aware of it when someone is trying to wake me up. It is truly an out-of-body experience. I can't move, I can't talk but I know exactly what is going on around me. It's weird and hard to explain. Lucky for you my wife filmed me on day when I was stuck.