THE QATSPY® Quapaw Aviation Tiger Sportswear Performance Yukan Using Sports to Improve Our Health, Fitness, and Lives
THE QATSPY® SATURDAY’S SPORTS PAGE for YOUR LIFE
By: Charles W. Boatright, President & CEO of THE QATSPY®
Pre/Post Surgery Rehab Fitness Technique: I have had 9- Surgeries with the latest one being Prostatectomy for Stage 2 Cancer at age 66. My fitness regimen that I had followed since age 12 have significantly improve my recovery schedule
The moral of the story is DO NOT underestimate establishing a fitness program, the earlier the better. Age 12 is a great starting point.
FIRST OF ALL- Guys please schedule your Physical and get your PSA Test performed annually, especially if you’re over 45. African-Americans have a 33.3% higher rate of Prostate Cancer than the Caucasians men have. My PSA TEST Saved my life.
Quick Review of my Prostate Diagnoses
15Aug2023- I had elevated blood pressure readings that caused me to move up my Annual Physical to see what the issue was. Elevated blood pressure levels can indicate Prostate Cancer.
29Aug2023- Had my routine physical where I had an elevated PSA Test results of 6.2
20Dec2023- Had my appointment with Urologist, Dr. Mark Runnels with Jackson Urology in MS.
22Dec2023- Had a Prostate Biopsy
28Dec2023- Biopsy showed that I had Stage 1 Prostate Cancer, Scheduled Prostatectomy for 05Feb2024. There is a recovery period needed before surgery is performed of one-month after a biopsy.
05Feb2024- had a Prostatectomy stayed overnight for observation (the surgery is considered SAME DAY SURGERY
14Feb2024- Learned that my Prostate was actually Stage 2 Cancer, a little disconcerting!
21Mar2024– Return for a follow-up PSA Test to see if my reading was at or below 0.08. This is where early detection is invaluable to you and why you want to have regular PSA Test performed- I’m clear of Prostate Cancer where the PSA value could not be detected. This means that I don’t have to have radiation of chemo. I will go back for regular checkups with my Urologist, Dr. Runnels, quarterly for now.
I would like to thank everyone that prayed for me and my recovery over these past 3- months.
Side Effects of Prostatectomy and Recovery
A major side effect of having a Prostatectomy surgery besides sexual issue is incontinence (that both can be address). The incontinence takes a little more time to recover from that interferes with you getting back into a physical regimen and active lifestyle. But after giving yourself adequate time to recover (4-6 weeks), you will need to get back into your workout routine by starting off slow and light at first for a couple of weeks than building up from there to your normal regimen.
You will need to start your Pelvic Floor exercises as soon as they remove the catheter about a week after bringing discharged from the hospital.
If you are like me, I’m glad just to get back to my Mojave Gym last week on 12Mar2024, five weeks after my surgery. I did have some catching up to do.
If you previously had a workout routine before your surgery and you are getting back to the gym for your workout routine, I would strongly recommend to you to consider including certain yoga poses that I have listed below. The yoga poses will help decrease your incontinence significantly along with Kegel Exercises. I perform 7- yoga poses regularly before my surgery, but there are five that can specifically address your incontinence issue.
I follow seven yoga poses within my current workout to warm up and to cool down, five of them are listed below for incontinence. These are recommended by the Urologist Dr. Alejandro. These Poses have allowed me to have a quicker recovery time after my Prostatectomy (Removing the Prostate). I dropped my incontinence by 85% within four weeks using these Yoga Poses.
These Yoga Poses has allowed me to get back into my welding shop and into aviation again last week, 13Mar2024.
Here are Five Yoga Poses that I do to address my Incontinence:
Mountain Pose
Combo Chair/Squat Pose
Triangle Pose
Cat Pose
I perform each Yoga pose above for 10- reps and hold the pose for 10-seconds
If you perform your normal strength training, the best way to build muscle and definition is to follow the 10-count during your reps. of lifting and return. In music they refer to this tempo as Lento meaning slow tempo. I do it with all my strength training like my Bench Presses, shown below:
Returning to an Active Lifestyle
After a Prostatectomy and recovery, your next stage is rehab to get back to an active lifestyle consisting of getting back to work, your hobbies, sports, and enjoying your regular social life. In my case, I run an aviation gear hangar outfitter, sportswear, and performance business that includes benefits of health and fitness that are huge motivators for me personally.
I’m retired from working as a grid engineer for 33-years with a utility here in Mississippi to start my THE QATSPY® business. My business and hobbies has allow me to have an incentive for me after surgery to get back into an active schedule. My schedule includes working on my farm, welding shop, and in our hangar online outfitter. I have cut back my flying time from inside the cockpit to flying more as a passenger to meet my clients.
What has shortened my recovery time was my fitness regimen that I followed in my Mojave Gym which was six- times per week up to my surgery on 05Feb2024. Fitness is your best age-defying therapy that anyone can have and perform, nothing on the shelves of stores can even compare with a fitness workout that includes strength training. Your muscles are your best defense against the normal aging process and the ravages of aging. Besides my fitness regimen that improves the appearance of my skin, my body doesn’t function as a 66- year old man, but more along the lines of a 35- year old man.
My fitness has sped up my recovery time to weeks instead of months. My Doctor even commented during my 21Mar2024 follow-up visit that I was 6-8 weeks ahead of my recovery schedule.
The benefit of being young, or young at heart as in my case at age 66, is the speed at which you can recover that is measured in weeks instead of months from a illness or medical procedure. Besides having age-defying skin and the capability of a man enjoying a lifestyle as if I’m in my mid-30’s, I have the ability to recover faster. Within 6-weeks from my Prostatectomy I have decreased the side effects of incontinence.
The five yoga poses listed above with my photograph demonstrating each one that I did just yesterday, 19Mar2023, in my gym for this article. The yoga actually had more impact on reducing and speeding up my recovery from my incontinence than the Kegel exercises that you are given at the Urology office. BUT DO BOTH! The more active you are the faster will be your recovery time, especially if you include these five yoga poses.
But you will have to work your way back up to your fitness routine that you had before your surgery. After your workout, you will experience some peak in your incontinence, like you did something wrong, but this is completely normal and will subside in a couple of hours after your recovery. These exercises will help eliminate your incontinence going forward, however. You will see an overall improvement in your incontinence within 6-8 weeks by exercising including these yoga poses.
My yoga and fitness regimen has assisted me with my recovery and decreasing my incontinence, by strengthening my pelvic floor muscles with Kegel exercises and yoga poses. I hope by the first to mid part of April to have totally eliminated my entire incontinence totally.
Maintaining My Weight
I was able to maintain my weight and actually lose weight during my recovery while I was unable to work out in my Mojave Gym by following my MELIORA DIET. The MELIORA DIET is based on two simple principles of WHAT I ate (DAC score of food at or below 3.25) and WHEN I ate (between 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.). You can use the standard nutrition label to calculate the DAC score based on 9- Data points, shown below:
One of My main objectives of my fitness regimen was to maintain my weight and my activity level to where after 4- weeks I could return to my interest in aviation, agriculture, welding shop, and running my sportswear and performance business. If you don’t have a hobby, please develop one that can become your second career after you retire, as I have done. The objective of hobbies and sports is to stay active even after you retire. I also coach golf and play golf.
Below, I did a video for WJTV-12 Sports Zone that they aired in 2021 in June of my Orange Bucket Challenge:
No one wants to have to give up their active lifestyle and especially their independence that has a huge impact on one’s psyche and mental acuity, especially over the age of 65. You worked hard to get to retirement to not be able to enjoy your retirement. But you need to give your body the time to heal and recover first after surgery. I treat my fitness regimen like my rehab and my fountain of youth.
Do I have aches and pains associated with being 66 after my workouts? I most certainly do. One issue is a Sciatic Nerve issue from flying and sitting in a cockpit over 500- flight hours per year for 33- years. But Yoga has improved this issue. To my aviation friends out there, when you land for refueling, take the time to drink water and do some yoga exercises to prevent sciatic nerve issues from occurring and leg clots from forming.
If you are a woman that takes hormones and fly a lot of hours during the week this is especially critical for you to do your yoga for relief exercises to prevent clots.
My Entire MELIORA DIET & FITNESS Program is in my new BOOK below:
