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This series of three emails ended my initial correspondence with Coach McD. They were written on the 11^th, so my neck had yet to stiffen up, which is why there is no mention of it. I thought about writing Coach McD to ask him about it, but it didn’t take long before it started feeling better, so I never did.

July 12, 2007

“Unfun Memories” with Coach McD

After Coach McD’s prompt and detailed response to my question about my shoulders and pull-ups, I wanted to write to thank him and respond to his advice.

Here’s what I wrote:

Hi Coach McD,

Thanks for your quick reply.

The problem is free weights are difficult for me right now, as I am traveling/moving around a lot. I suppose the bands, like the nautilus machine, don’t provide the same kind of effect as the free weights… but P90X with the B-lines Bands should get me on the path that you are talking about just by making me stronger, no?

I used the chair with the pull ups today rather than using the bands per your recommendation and it was easier than I thought it would be.

Thanks for the help.

-James

P.S. The tightness behind my shoulder blade isn’t there so much at the moment.

I didn’t say much, and wasn’t necessarily expecting a response this time, but I got one:

Jim,

Sorry -forgot that you mentioned using the bands. I would guess that they offer very similar results as the weights actually. A nautilus machine typically has only one movement, or track. You can push sideways on a device that only moves up and down, but it won’t budge to the side, meaning that you don’t have to use any other muscles to keep it from moving to the side. The machine does that for you. Only the very narrow range of muscle responsible for the up and down movement will have to engage.

However, I betcha the bands will perform very much like weights. There is no track that you are locked into when exercising with them, which means that you have to incorporate all of the little, stabilizer muscles as well, just like weights. Besides, they are a great way to add strength, as you say.

Glad the pullup tip helped. You brought back some unfun memories with that

Mark

So, I responded back:

Hi Mark,

Sorry to bring back the “unfun memories”.

Looks like I was placed with the right coach. I look forward to conversing with you and sharing my shoulder woes. (But hopefully there won’t be many.)

Thanks, James

Which is precisely how I feel. It’s cool that Million Dollar Body provides you with a coach in the first place. It is even cooler that mine responds. Yet even cooler that mine responds with so much detail. And it’s the coolest that mine has shoulder issues just like me. The folks at Million Dollar Body must be psychic or something!

I wonder if Coach McD has neck issues…

While this may have ended my initial correspondence with Coach McD, this certainly did not end my correspondence with him. In fact, we have been corresponding with some frequency. For, the next time I contacted him, it was to ask him about the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program…

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 10:28 am and is filed under Exercise, MDB Coaching, MDB Community, P90X, Rich, Ripped. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.