When I lay in my hospital bed numb from the chest down, barely able to move and just diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, little did I know the journey I was about to undertake. I had two choices: give into the disease and most likely end up in a wheelchair, or fight it with all my might like David did against Goliath in the Bible. I, like my namesake, chose the battle. I am now a faith based author, with a book on my journey with MS, called David’s Goliath. I am NOT limited by multiple sclerosis, and you should NOT be either. MS does not define me, hinder me or stop me from achieving my goals. There are ways to battle MS through fitness using your brain AND your body in your challenge. Let’s work on this together… Work Out Cautiously When you have MS you need to be more mindful of your limits. Our muscles and nervous system most often do not respond the same way as someone who does not live with the disease. We cannot feel pain the same way as others or know when our bodies are over stretching or over contracting. We are numb and often uncoordinated in many movements. It is therefore extremely important to always warm up properly, lift weights or use machines in a controlled movement, and DO NOT try to reach back years to prove you can do what you did before you were a person with MS. As a lifelong bodybuilder and a man who stood on a high level competition stage at 50 years old with multiple sclerosis I have found myself pushing past the point of injury in my effort to gain muscle size. Training with the intensity in which I train, lifting ridiculously heavy weights and still battling MS has educated me on what is too much when working out with this disease. The most devastating incident of what NOT to do when you are numb from MS happened on my journey to that bodybuilding stage in 2009. I was “warming up” on the bench press with 225 lbs on the bar. I completed multiple reps then went to 275 lbs, 315 lbs and 375 lbs with no issues at all. The weights felt great, my chest was pumped, and I was ready to do what I hadn’t done on a bench press in 25 years… press 405 lbs. Common Sense Goes Out the Window I loaded up the weights with my training partner, sat down on the bench and psyched myself up for the lift. After a minute or so of telling myself this was light weight, I laid down on the bench and grabbed a hold of the bar. Now, here is where common sense should have stepped in. With MS, I am left with the lack of ability to grasp anything securely with my hands and I experience tingling/numbness in my extremities. I do not feel my muscles contracting or stretching like a healthy person does and therefore cannot really feel my chest as it lifts the weight on the bench press. You would think, with all my years of training, I would have the smarts to NOT push myself beyond a point where an injury could occur. But in my desire to be Superman in the gym, common sense went out the window. When I sat back up I could not move my right arm and my right chest was swelling and turning red. It was obvious I had done some major damage. After rushing to my sports medicine doctor I was informed that I had torn my right pec severely. But it took a few weeks before the internal slow bleeding from the tear stopped and the swelling went down that the MRI revealed my pec torn completely off the tendon and half way into the middle of my chest. It took me much rehabilitation, lots of pain and an immense determination to continue training for the MS Bodybuilding Challenge. But I did it and although it set me back six months I was still able to compete and win the Most Inspirational trophy in 2009 at the Florida State Bodybuilding Championship. I did this with half of my right pec torn into the center of my chest, but I still did it. I learned later that there is no way to repair this severe of a tear, especially when the muscle itself is torn and not the tendon. A tendon can be stretched and reattached but trying to reattach a muscle to a muscle is like sewing butter together. It can be done but it will never hold. I know, I tried the repair operation…twice. The pec would not hold together the minute I started lifting weights again. So, what is the moral of this story? Workout using your brain first before your ego pushes you into trouble. The Proper Chest Movement: A simple example of the proper way to work the chest muscles is on the seated vertical bench press machine. This machine offers a stable exercise, especially when MS has taken your coordination away. You do not have to worry about losing your balance or dropping the weights in this machine so you can focus on the muscle you are working. The key to conditioning or bodybuilding is concentration. If you can keep your mind on the muscle as it is being extended and contracted your results will be quicker. The seated vertical chest press is also an excellent machine for both women and men to develop the chest muscles without having to load up free weights onto a bar. After adjusting the seat to a height that brings the handles the center of your chest, grasp the handles at a comfortable distance at chest height where your arms and elbows are parallel to the floor. Do not let your elbows drop below parallel or you will be using more triceps to push then chest. Push the handles outward to the count of 4 and come back evenly and more slowly to the count of 6. Do a light warm up set or two performing 15-20 repetitions before you get into the sets that count. Now add some weight to the weight stack and get started. Use a weight that gives you resistance but does not cause discomfort and repeat for 8-12 repetitions. 3-4 sets are enough before moving onto another chest exercise. But before you move on, stretch the chest by extending your arms to the side, pulling them back to the point that you feel the stretch. Do not pull too hard where it hurts. Just stretch comfortably to allow the muscles to stay flexible. Stretching helps with blood flow to the muscles and helps prevent injury. Set Goals, Be Persistant Keep in mind, everyone has different goals. If you want to gain more muscle mass you will need to lower reps and increase weights while for toning reps are higher and weights lighter. And when I talk about muscle mass, that does not just apply to men. Today there are many women who are bodybuilding. (I don’t recommend free weight bench press exercises for MS patients due to the ease of injury). Find the comfortable limits for your body and be P-E-R-S-I-S-T-A-N-T. Stay focused on your goal to be in shape or, if you are headed to compete in a sport, train to avoid injuries. I learned the hard way. You don’t have to.
