Tag: pull-ups

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My Post-Stroke Fitness Comeback

Brian’s fitness journal after a brain stroke

This morning, I hit what I can only describe as a personal triumph, the kind that makes you feel smugly satisfied in the best possible way. I completed two full sets of 10 pull-ups, back-to-back, with only a few seconds of rest between sets. For most people, that might sound modest. For me, it’s a mountain crossed.

Let me give you some context. A few years back, my wife, a thoughtful woman that she is, bought me a pull-up tower. She purchased it about a year before I had a brain stroke. The machine sat in the corner for quite a while after that, patiently gathering dust while I did the rather unglamorous work of recovering. When a stroke takes you out of commission for three to four months in bed, your muscles don’t exactly hold a farewell party. They just leave. Quietly. Without notice.

But the tower waited. And eventually, I came back to it.

After hitting my 10-kilometer running goal, I decided resistance training needed to be part of the picture too. I rebuilt the pull-up tower, dusted off a set of weights I bought about fifteen years ago (they’ve aged better than I have), and my wife kindly agreed to get us a “Stealth,” a planking platform that doubles as a gaming platform. Yes, you read that right: you plank while playing a game on-screen. It’s either the best invention of the modern age or a sign that we’ve all lost the plot. Possibly both. Either way, my core is not complaining.

Consistency, as it turns out, is the real workout. In the early days, I was constantly juggling training sessions, appointments, and house chores. My wife handled nearly all the housework until 2020, when I gradually started taking over. These days, she handles lighter tasks while I tackle the most physically demanding one: mowing our very steep hill. If you’ve never mowed a steep hill, allow me to inform you that it is its own cardio program, and it does not care about your schedule.

For a while, the hill was winning. Fitting in full-body workouts and lawn mowing during summer without something slipping off the schedule was a puzzle, and it was always the resistance training that got dropped. Then, a few years ago, I cracked the code: spread the workout menu throughout the week so no single day feels overwhelming. Simple idea. Took me a while to get there.

And today, the plan paid off. Two full sets of ten. Clean. Done.

My run, on the other hand, had a bit less glory. I finished 45 seconds behind my target pace, which means that skipping my Saturday 10K did not, as I had perhaps secretly hoped, gift my legs with mysterious renewed speed. Wednesday looks promising: warm enough to head out immediately after waking up, though rain may have other ideas. The weather and I have a complicated relationship.

Still, today belonged to the pull-up bar. And I’m taking it.

Keep moving, one rep at a time.

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Overcoming Challenges: My Journey Back to 10 Pull-Ups After a Stroke

Written December 16, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

For the first time since I stopped doing pullups every day, I could do 10 consecutive pullups. It was quite a big deal for me. When I was a teen, I was doing gymnastics. Before the brain stroke, I was able to do pull-ups. When I was paralyzed after my brain stroke, I stayed on the bed for over one month, losing substantial muscle mass. 

I started using a pull-up machine, which my wife bought me on my birthday a year before my brain stroke. I used to use a door frame pull-up bar. It was convenient because the device was mobile. After we moved to this house, she thought it would be better to have the machine since I used it. The machine even allows me to work on my abs.

Once I was more comfortable with my running schedule, I started to work on my muscles. So I reassembled the machine. I struggled a lot, even completing one at the beginning. However, gradually, I gained more and could do 5-6 times. During the summer, I had to reduce the amount of muscle exercise because I had to do so much yard work, which was quite exhausting. So, when introducing the muscle exercise, I realized I lost my muscle again.

I’ve been working on my muscles every day. Although I do different parts of the workout daily, I train my muscles daily. Despite losing my muscles, it took much longer to rebuild them.

It is still hard work. For example, while the last three were hard today, finishing the final pullup required a lot of grit. I’m pretty pleased to get back to this baseline.  I’m sure it’ll get easier to do all 10 in the following weeks, and if I’m able, 

I will push myself to higher numbers. If I reach 15 before next summer’s demands, I will shift my schedule back to running before breakfast and cease my other exercises. Then, when running is again pushed to after breakfast, I can start back at 10 pull-ups.

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Adjusting to Winter: Balancing Workouts, Cold Weather, and Health Challenges

Written October 14, 2024

Hello Dear Readers,

Last night, I decided to start my winter running routine early. The day is getting shorter, and the sun is rising past 6:40 a.m. now. I used to run a little past 8 a.m. to avoid the Nashville heat. The later the sun rises, the chilly the outside temperature is. The coldest temperature of some of the day was below 40F.

I started to shift around my workout schedule so that activities involving going outside are done much later in the day. I began adding pull-ups and push-ups just like before implementing the summer exercise curriculum.  After setting my breakfast bowl and coffee on my desk, 

It had just been a few months since the change, so I decided to do push-ups like I used to. In reality, that is not what happened. I found doing the pullups to be much more complicated than I remember them being the last time I did them. Previously, I remember being able to do a set of 10 without pause, but today I could only manage 4.  I completed 10 in total but had to drop off for a few seconds between bursts of effort. At least the push-up exercise was easy for me to complete.

It was a little disappointing. Now, I wonder how long it will take me to return to where I was before summer. I’ll just have to keep working on them and doing what I can until they’re more accessible. The only way I will do this is to increase the rep per set gradually. 

In summer, I had to do much more chores outside. The chores can be stressful for my body, especially with the steep hill in our backyard. Some days, I didn’t have enough energy to complete both, so I changed my exercise routine. I have kidney conditions, so I get tired much faster than a healthy adult. 

I started adding muscle training to my routine in the last two years. It was better in the first year because my reps and sets for each session were much smaller. 

For next year, I should schedule a little differently so I can still do my muscle training, like push-ups or pull-ups. There are some solutions to this. I could have yard work split not into two days but three days. I could also reduce the days I work out but keep doing them.