Wimpy muscles? Forever?

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Well, I am a winp, always been. It was so when I was a kid too, even though I was doing more physical activity. It's don't bother me too much. I'm a geek after all.

How I wish I could blame physical weakness on AS, but the truth is I was a remarkably sedentary child. When I decided to do something about it, I took up weightlifting and became stronger than the average man. I'm sure there are men who would have made more impressive gains on the training regimen I followed, but even with no genetic aptitude for physical improvement, I was able to make significant progress. If you want to get stronger, go for it.

I was in terrible shape as a kid, but that was more lack of interest in physical activity than anything else. My parents are academic types, not athletes, and the only activity available came in the form of team sports. Those embarassed me because, like many of us, I was an extremely uncoordinated child. I am still a bit clumsy. The other kids would laugh at me when I tried to play, so I stopped.

At age twelve, I started attending a crazy school. It had been cobbled together over the course of almost a century and streched the length of a city block. The campus was so long they had to give us seven minutes between classes with an extra bell rung at the five minute mark to help us keep track of time. One navigated this rat infested, asbesdos filled, bannana republic with a pack on one's back that rarely weighed less than thirty pounds. Students ranged from sixth grade to senior year, so those of us who were small were tossed around like popcorn as we scrambled through the gaps between larger, older kids. There were seven periods in a day. Traveling two or three miles a day just getting to class was normal. If one was hated by the scheduling gods, it could be a lot worse. This was not ordinary walking. It was speedwalking and Sherpa-esqu hauling with some martial arts thrown in for good measure. It was a full contact sport without fouls or protective gear. Ramming someone hard enough to knock them down was a socially acceptable thing to do.

I am a woman. I went in thirty or forty pounds overweight in August. I was a twig with a new wardrobe by December. The next semester, I started playing tuba. Apple_in_my_Eye, I highly recommend it. It replaced the vanished fat with twenty pounds of muscle. Working with the big BBbs is great for getting in shape. Unfortunately, it is not terribly healthy in the long run. I once decribed it as sapping strength from joints to put it into muscles. Six years later, my knees and ankles are in a sad state. My shoulders are worse. Nerve damage there has also messed up my hands.

That said, I like to be fit. Finding out I could haul my mother's two hundred pound, cast iron bench across the yard was pretty cool for a 120 lb woman who grew up as a rather puny nerd. We can get in shape. We should. Physical activity is good. It feels good. It builds confidence we desperately need. Maybe you need to eat better, or maybe you just need to find an activity that works for you. Try meat for protein, some complex carbs, and salad, not the boring kind they serve in restaurants that only tastes good with salty dressing, the kind that has a lot of different things in it and a vinegarette on top.

I read that book Smiling at Shadows which is a womans story of her sons Autism, he ended up doing powerlifting and competing in regular open grades and doing really well.
I wonder if often the hypertonia is due to a comorbid Dyspraxia? I have two kids, one with Dyspraxia and no Autism and she is fairly weak and tires easily, and one with Autism only and he is quite a bit stronger.

I think it took me a while to build up muscle. But that may be because I started training but did not increase my food intake. The result appeared to be more tone and slim body. So I became very lean. When someone told me I had to start eating supplements I did so. And I began to put some weight on but I have a body that does not put weight on quickly.

I am still lean but bit bulkier. I don't think it has anything to do with being aspie though

Hypotonia (low muscle tone) was what my son was first diagnosed with before his ASD diagnosis. He was very floppy as a baby and did not walk until he was almost 2. He always seemed very weak and fragile to me, but he is 5.5 now and is getting stronger every day. He is now walking, running, jumping, climbing. He is not the strongest kid around, but he has definitely gotten stronger. He has received physical therapy since he was 1 yr old. He has always been a good eater thank goodness, and eats a lot of proteins. He takes a multivitamin and vitamins with fishoil.

I am pretty positive that his hypotonia is related to his AS. He still has very little intersest in physical activity.