Oil change and lube

Training is going really well, despite my shoulders that hurt all day long, which caused me to back off a little in terms of intensity and weight on certain exercises. This last week, my shoulders are feeling better, I wonder if it's just growing pains for the most part. I know I hurt my shoulder 6 weeks ago doing shoulder presses, followed by single rep dead lifts two days later that left me feeling like my shoulder blades just pulled right off me. What a feeling that was, YIKES!

That was pretty much when the shoulder pain started all day long especially while sleeping. I guess some injuries do take longer to heal as we get older. I'm not out of the woods yet, but I do feel much better. I'll know more after tomorrow's chest and shoulders work out.

If you haven't seen the documentary Bigger Stronger Faster, you should. It is about steroid usage in America and it can be a real eye opener for some in many aspects. It doesn't "weigh you in" in either direction, as to approve of steroids or not.

In this documentary there is a professor named Doctor Skip Pope whom they interview to get his opinion on the subject of steroids in America

Doctor Pope was recently granted money to perform a study on Steroids and the Heart. (this is what he does, research studies) Do steroids cause heart attacks?

Skip needs 150 men between the ages of 35 to 55, who lift weights and have used steroids, have never used steroids or have tried them and no longer use them.

I went to his office for a consultation that lasted an hour and a half. He asked me a series of questions about my life, my training, my drugs, prescription, recreational, enhancements.  (I guess this is the good time to mention, this is 100% confidential, you're a number in the study, not a name.)

At the end, I got a check for $125 and found out I weighed 228 pounds and had 8.5% body fat with a Fat Free index of 30 and this qualified me for the next testing, which would  happen on a Thursday morning at Mass General Hospital and which I would be given a physical, a heart ultra sound (that was cool) while lying in the bed pedaling, under a stress test. a CAT scan, where they check my arteries with contrast, a dye that they push through your arteries, after they give you nitrogen under the tongue to dilate them.

Sounds like fun right?  I gave up about 9 big vials of blood and 4 small ones. This was $9000 worth of testing and I was pretty excited to get this done. I haven't had the chance to speak to Doctor Pope yet about the results, as it was just this Thursday, he said by the end of next week the results will be in

To think I got paid for this! Normally, I would never had these test done to me unless I had a problem, which in some cases might be too late, and on top of all this, got paid $400

Funny thing about my shoulder pain is that it definitely changed after Thursday, maybe with all that blood drawing and having my artery flushed with saline a few times to make sure the IV was good, it was like having an oil change and lube, maybe that was all I needed... they do feel better!

If anyone would like to get involved with this study and get $9000 worth of testing done on you and get paid  $525 to do it, please feel free to call Doctor Skip Pope at (617) 855-2911. Skip's a real nice guy and has a great staff working with him Give him a call and tell him Rob Costarelli sent you.

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