Progress report on chiropractor, supplements and "The Impingement":
Well, it has now been three weeks without bench press, it seems like forever but I am holding strong. The pain has definitely abated but I can steel feel the scapula rubbing. The chiropractor tells me that a side benefit of the stuff he is doing for my neck should also give some relief to the impinging shoulder. We shall see. I see him twice a week. For the first ten minutes I lay on my back on the mechanical massage table. These two rollers roll up and down from your neck to the back of your thighs. Then the doc cracks my neck to both sides. Then he takes this little hand held electric tapping hammer and applies it to my spinal column in various locations. He gave me this Tens unit that I apply to the back of my neck for a half hour twice a day. It has two pads like one of those emergency defibulators they have most places now. I stick them on either side of my neck, plug the electrodes into what looks like an old style pager and it puts out these pulsing vibrations that are supposed to break down the old scar tissue. The tens unit is most commonly used for muscle cramping and pain. The side to side range of motion in my neck has definitly increased and the tingling sensations come much less often than before. So if this guy is a quack than I must be a duck because what he is doing does seem to be working well.

I quit the ATP for three weeks because I thougth it was causing my creeping weight gain. I went from 258 after bench press nationals to 264 while taking it. My weight is back down to 258 this morning so I believe my suspicions were correct. The ATP taken directly, which is what your body creates when you take creatine monohydrate, has the same effects. This should be expected. I do feel more tired the last couple of weeks but this could be attributed to other factors as well. I have been working back and legs a lot more and upped the cardio as well.

All in all, I feel much better overall than I have in the past. Friends have told me I look good, and people that new me ten years ago say I look great. I of course think I look like I did when I was nineteen. Then I see my reflection in a window or mirror or other shiny surface and wonder where my father came from.













Five more weeks without bench!! I can do it!!