Back to reality for this girl...unfortunately.
Jamaica was awesome. The theme of the week was doing nothing. We basically got up in the morning, got some breakfast, then sat in the pool until it was time to get ready for dinner, ate dinner, then wound down until it was time for sleep. It was so nice. The pool had these nice benches and tables that were actually inside the pool and 10' away from the swim-up bar.....so you could find Matt and I sitting at one of those pretty much every day with our Kindles. There were plenty of pina coladas had. And the wedding was awesome! Overall, it was very relaxing and just the right kind of break I was needing.
The working out and eating didn't go as well as we initially planned. We had great intentions the first day. We got up at a decent time and went to the gym before breakfast. Well we quickly figured out that this gym was teeny and we were apparently not the only ones with the same idea. Needless to say that was the only time we attempted it. That day I was pretty sore from all the deadlifting still so I ended up doing a ROMWOD and a lot of stretching anyway. I was feeling a little better after that but for the rest of the week my SI joints were feeling pretty insulted from the firm beds the resort had so my back didn't exactly take a vacation. BUT we DID try paddleboarding for the first time. I've been wanting to try for awhile and I figured since it was included in our resort stay, why not. It was a good time! We only went out for a little while and I didn't try standing since being on my knees was a struggle in and of itself, but it was cool to try! I'll probably try it again if given the opportunity. Other than that my physical activity consisted of whatever swimming I did when I got bored with reading and I am so fine with it. You never realize just how much of a break your body needs, until you actually give it a break. Just need to work a little bit on my flexibility and work out some of the stiffness I developed while doing nothing.
The eating we definitely could have done better. Buffets are my weakness and well, everything was buffet. But a big part of the issue was that I struggled to find healthy things that I wanted to eat. There was no shortage of carbs. In fact, there were always numerous kinds of carbs at each meal. Protein was hit or miss. There wasn't a shortage of protein, but if it wasn't an exotic protein source it was slathered or flavored with things I'm not a fan of. We really liked breakfast and weren't impressed with lunch, so we would eat a big breakfast and skip lunch. Let's be real, it was also partially because we didn't feel like getting out of the pool. Dinner we had pretty good luck finding things we liked. Wouldn't have killed me to go to the salad bar more often though. I don't regret the debauchery though. I did get to try some new delicious foods.
We got back late Sunday night and only had Monday before it was back to the grind. So we had meal prep Monday instead of Sunday. This week we didn't order Balanced Body since we weren't enthused by the choices so we were on our own for lunches. I've been jonesing for lentils lately, don't ask me why. My usual dish to make with them is lentils with rice and sausage, but I quickly realized that both lentils and rice are huge carb sources so that wasn't going to work out so well. Instead, I used quinoa, which still has a decent chunk of carbs but to a lesser extent. It ended up being a nice hearty meal and it's scratching the itch for lentils. Dinner we kept it super simple. We bought some pork chops and strip steaks to grill up and we just put zucchini and corn on the side. I feel like every week I'm talking about how simple we wanted to keep things. Not to make it seem like I don't like cooking, I love cooking, just very rarely have had the energy for it this summer. But I would really love to change that and start testing out some more things. Now that I'm getting a little more comfortable with how ingredients mix together as far as macros, I'd like to start branching out from the simple.
Today was my first day back at the gym. Endurance Thursday as usual, but now with new programming. Since I missed last week, today was my opportunity to test in for the endurance training
30 min row or bike
That's it. That's the workout. Just hop on a thing and do it for 30 minutes. The whole point of it was to find a pace that we could maintain for the whole 30 minutes and then in the upcoming weeks we'll do intervals to build on that pace. We did something similar last fall. It actually wasn't the worst thing ever. I got on a bike because I could never imaging rowing for 30 minutes. I picked a pretty good pace from the beginning and just went with it. It's hard finding a sustainable pace! I constantly want to start out strong just to see what I can do, but then I have to keep telling myself to keep it low key even though it may feel easy in the beginning because after 10 minutes it's not going to be easy anymore. The interval from the 10 to 20 minute mark sucked a lot mentally and my legs started burning, but I got through it and I didn't die. I think another personal goal of mine for this programming is to work on my breathing. I suck at breathing while I exercise. I just start breathing fast and shallow and everything else ends up going to hell. So considering it's looking like we're going to be working on longer intervals and increasing the speed gradually, I think it's a good time to work on it.
That's all I got for now! We've just been trying to get back into the swing of things. I loved going on vacation and just getting out of here for awhile, but at the same time I felt ready to get back into our routine. Well, most of it - the working out and eating right part of it. I wouldn't complain about sitting my ass in the pool for a little while longer, but I feel ready to tackle things head on again, and my body's ready too. Only thing I hope is that I can keep my back happy, which I wasn't very good at doing this summer...
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Monday, August 27, 2018
Don't Call It a Comeback
It's been a whirlwind of a week around these parts. I worked most of last week, which kept me busy, but now I'm officially on vacation!!! We leave for Jamaica early early tomorrow morning. One of my best friends is getting married so we decided to turn it into a little mini-cation for us. Cannot wait for some sand, sun and R&R. I plan to eat all the delicious food, not get out of the pool and maybe try to get some workouts in while I'm at it...mostly because I know my back wouldn't be too thrilled with lack of motion for almost an entire week. Plus I just don't feel ready to take a full vacation from the healthy habits yet. I just now started feeling like I'm getting back into the swing of things so I don't want to set myself back any further than I need to. We'll see how it goes.
Last week was a decent week! Eating wise I got a little off track. I changed things up a bit with what I was eating and it kind of threw my macros off, but by the time I figured it out, it was too late to try and get to the store to find things that would make up for it. So I spent a decent part of the week coming in under my macro counts. I also went out to eat one night unexpectedly after work with a friend. So it wasn't a bad week, just a little tough and I didn't have the constitution to fight with MyFitnessPal much. One of our meals was some delicious grilled steak from Seven Bridges Farm though and it was delicious. We got a nice flat iron and threw it right in the sous vide and then finished it on the grill. Could eat that stuff for days. The only thing that was truly disappointing was the Balanced Body. For some reason the meals I got from them in our last order just weren't as good as they usually are. I don't know if they went bad or just wasn't a good pick, but I was barely getting through like half of them for lunch before I couldn't take it anymore. So that didn't help the macro counting either. Hopefully our next order with them is a little more delicious. Otherwise I'll have to go back to doing that crazy thing called making my own lunches.
Working out felt amazing. I ended up going to the gym Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. I intended to go Thursday, but I decided sleep was much better so I made it up on Saturday instead. I woke up Saturday morning feeling great and I basically said what the heck, I've been hunting down a 4th day in a week for the past 2 months and my back feels good, so if I don't do it now I never will.
Monday's workout was:
4x5-6 Bulgarian Split Squats
then
4 rounds for time:
- 12 burpees
- 200' farmer carry
- 1 mile bike
The split squats as usual felt terrible, but not as terrible as normal. I still did them with an empty barbell but I was kind of to the point where it was tempting to add just a little weight, even if it was 10 pounds. Not enough to actually try it though. It was good to feel just a little bit stronger though.
The workout was a beast. It was like having endurance Thursday on a Monday. My total time was 24:40. I ended up modifying the burpees to just 6 because my back started to feel them. The farmer carry I used 44 pound kettlebells. So really what made it feel so awful was that it was long. A mile on a bike for me takes just over 3 minutes so right off the bat I'm looking at 13-14 minutes just for that alone. BUT I found a pace and I stuck with it for all 4 rounds, which is basically unheard of for me. It's always been one of my struggles, even when I was more in shape. I would go out strong and die halfway through something. But this time I just cranked on through it and stayed consistent. So that is definitely something for me to be proud of. Maybe someday down the road I'll add back the extra burpees and see how long that takes.
Tuesday's workout was:
20 min to find 1RM snatch
then
For time
- 800m run
- 50 wall balls
So, I obviously didn't feel quite ready to be testing my snatch yet. But after having a conversation with my chiropractor where she told me if I don't get back into these lifts soon, I'll never get back to them, I decided to just do some quality work with low weight. So I kept 55 pounds on the bar and just worked on power snatches and full snatches both from the floor and the hang position. It didn't feel too bad. I definitely felt weak.
The workout took me 7:17. I guess these Tuesday workouts are meant to be sprints. I kind of suspected, but no one confirmed it until this week. So basically we were told to do whatever modifications we needed to do to be able to sprint through it and get it done under 8 minutes. I obviously don't run so I modified to the bike with the intention of going a mile. Well I ended up surprising the hell out of myself and banged out that mile in 2:46 like it was nothing. I won't be repeating that anytime soon, but it's still pretty cool! The wall balls can just go die in a hole somewhere. I used the orange ball, which is 12 pounds and ended up being hard enough. I didn't do them against the wall like I usually do. I was at the rig where you have to hit a circular target. And man that target is fucking high. It took me a good amount of reps to even figure out how to get the ball that high. Basically my strategy was to just not die so I did sets of 5, partially because throwing the ball that high was exhausting and because I wanted to keep a good pace without dying. And honestly, my pace stayed pretty consistent on this one too. Maybe I'm actually starting to pick up some endurance in all of this!
Thennnnnn after that my quads were pretty smoked. Between all the biking and the squats, I basically took the stairs until about Thursday. For some reason too, my sleeping has been super out of whack for the past couple weeks. It's alternating between me being up between the hours of 3-4 every morning regardless of if I was going to the gym or not, or I was sleeping like the dead because of all the stress I've been feeling. It was getting rather irritating. So when the alarm went off on Thursday morning and I was still dead asleep, I decided to take advantage of it and get a couple more hours in. It was much needed. I felt a little more human after that.
Friday's workout was:
4x5-6 single leg deadlift with kettlebells
then
4 rounds for quality
- 10 alternating goblet reverse lunges
- 5 toes to bar
- 25 cal bike/row/ski
I love it when they program quality days in. It's so relaxing but you still get a good workout in. For the single leg deadlifts I didn't use any weight. It was my first time attempting a deadlift in any form since hurting myself and I knew it was a movement I struggled with even before this all happened. If you ever want to know if your back muscles are tight, just do a single leg deadlift because you'll feel them. Eventually I loosened up though and it wasn't so horrible. Really the biggest part of the struggle is trying to keep your balance. Don't really have much to say about the actual workout since we did it at our own pace. For the toes to bar I just did straight leg raises. And the reverse lunges we did with kettlebells. They didn't feel too bad but man did the booty hurt the next day. And don't ask me why considering after all the biking I did over the week, but I gravitated more towards the bike to get the calories done. It wasn't fast by any means and my quads certainly had some choice thoughts about it. 25 calories at the speed I was doing added up to just over a mile, so not too horrible.
Saturday morning, like I said, I woke up feeling like a champ, so I decided to go to the gym. I was apprehensive about it because it was a hero workout and it basically resembled the workout that messed me up in the first place, but I decided to go for it anyway. So the workout itself was:
4 sets
- 2-3 kettlebell clean and press
- 5-6 bent over rows
then
"DT" - 5 rounds of:
- 12 deadlift
- 9 hang power clean
- 6 shoulder to overhead
The strength portion wasn't too bad. When I first saw it I didn't realize how possibly taxing it would be on my back, but it was also a really good opportunity to work on getting the right muscles activated considering I don't get much opportunity to work slowly with a kettlebell. I ended up using the 35 pound, which was a pretty good weight. It was just heavy enough that I felt like I was doing something productive, but light enough that I was keeping the right form.
For the workout, I chose to do it partner style. It was actually kinda funny because I partnered up with my chiropractor. The prescribed weight was 105, which was laughable. I ended up with 65, which was borderline light. The way we were supposed to do it was to alternate rounds and with that weight I was just tearing through the rounds without an issue. But again, like all things nowadays, had to think about the back. What a nagging bitch. I felt good through the 3rd round, but after that I could feel it getting tired and tensed up. But I got through it. Our final time was 15:33. I think it would have been interesting to see how I did solo, but I was very happy doing it with a partner this time.
After that one though, I was feeling pretty sore and tired. I was really proud of getting to the gym 4 times in one week. I feel like I picked a really good week that was not only good for working on my endurance and lower body strength, but it allowed me to really work on movements that I had been avoiding because of my injury. That's not to say it felt great doing them. I definitely felt it Saturday and most of yesterday. It wasn't a debilitating pain like I had reinjured myself, so I was at least thankful for that. But it was also a little more significant than just simple muscle soreness.
Today we went back for one more day of fun before we leave for Jamaica. The workout was:
4 sets
- 4-6 back squat w/ tempo
- 6-8 kettlebell bent over row
then
10 min AMRAP
- 5 deadlift
- 7 pull ups
- 9 wall ball
I was so stoked to be working on some back squats. I love me some back squats. Except the part where 135 pounds felt heavy.....not happy about that. To put it in perspective, my one rep back in like 2014 was 255 pounds and here I was struggling with 135. To also be fair, we were doing it with a tempo, but still. It also felt super awkward because we've been doing so much work in the front rack position lately I've forgotten how to squat with something on my back. I'll get the muscle memory back at some point though. The workout pretty much smoked my back. I was already feeling tight from Saturday, but I just think it ended up being too much deadlifting too soon. I used 85 pounds, which felt really good the first 3 rounds. I was cranking through this thing. The wall balls weren't even getting me down (shocking, I know). And then I got to my 4th round and my back basically just said nope, not doing it. It took me a very long time to get through 5 reps on that one but luckily the workout ended before I had to start a 5th round. I think it was just a little too much all at once. I was really stoked after Friday and Saturday, but I just didn't have a third day of deadlifting in me. It's fine. I've done a lot in the past week and worked a lot of muscle groups so I'm not too worried about it. I'll get in some short, low impact workouts in Jamaica and we'll call it good.
Well I don't have much else to report. Time to go finish up some packing. I'll see y'all in September!!!
Last week was a decent week! Eating wise I got a little off track. I changed things up a bit with what I was eating and it kind of threw my macros off, but by the time I figured it out, it was too late to try and get to the store to find things that would make up for it. So I spent a decent part of the week coming in under my macro counts. I also went out to eat one night unexpectedly after work with a friend. So it wasn't a bad week, just a little tough and I didn't have the constitution to fight with MyFitnessPal much. One of our meals was some delicious grilled steak from Seven Bridges Farm though and it was delicious. We got a nice flat iron and threw it right in the sous vide and then finished it on the grill. Could eat that stuff for days. The only thing that was truly disappointing was the Balanced Body. For some reason the meals I got from them in our last order just weren't as good as they usually are. I don't know if they went bad or just wasn't a good pick, but I was barely getting through like half of them for lunch before I couldn't take it anymore. So that didn't help the macro counting either. Hopefully our next order with them is a little more delicious. Otherwise I'll have to go back to doing that crazy thing called making my own lunches.
Working out felt amazing. I ended up going to the gym Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. I intended to go Thursday, but I decided sleep was much better so I made it up on Saturday instead. I woke up Saturday morning feeling great and I basically said what the heck, I've been hunting down a 4th day in a week for the past 2 months and my back feels good, so if I don't do it now I never will.
Monday's workout was:
4x5-6 Bulgarian Split Squats
then
4 rounds for time:
- 12 burpees
- 200' farmer carry
- 1 mile bike
The split squats as usual felt terrible, but not as terrible as normal. I still did them with an empty barbell but I was kind of to the point where it was tempting to add just a little weight, even if it was 10 pounds. Not enough to actually try it though. It was good to feel just a little bit stronger though.
The workout was a beast. It was like having endurance Thursday on a Monday. My total time was 24:40. I ended up modifying the burpees to just 6 because my back started to feel them. The farmer carry I used 44 pound kettlebells. So really what made it feel so awful was that it was long. A mile on a bike for me takes just over 3 minutes so right off the bat I'm looking at 13-14 minutes just for that alone. BUT I found a pace and I stuck with it for all 4 rounds, which is basically unheard of for me. It's always been one of my struggles, even when I was more in shape. I would go out strong and die halfway through something. But this time I just cranked on through it and stayed consistent. So that is definitely something for me to be proud of. Maybe someday down the road I'll add back the extra burpees and see how long that takes.
Tuesday's workout was:
20 min to find 1RM snatch
then
For time
- 800m run
- 50 wall balls
So, I obviously didn't feel quite ready to be testing my snatch yet. But after having a conversation with my chiropractor where she told me if I don't get back into these lifts soon, I'll never get back to them, I decided to just do some quality work with low weight. So I kept 55 pounds on the bar and just worked on power snatches and full snatches both from the floor and the hang position. It didn't feel too bad. I definitely felt weak.
The workout took me 7:17. I guess these Tuesday workouts are meant to be sprints. I kind of suspected, but no one confirmed it until this week. So basically we were told to do whatever modifications we needed to do to be able to sprint through it and get it done under 8 minutes. I obviously don't run so I modified to the bike with the intention of going a mile. Well I ended up surprising the hell out of myself and banged out that mile in 2:46 like it was nothing. I won't be repeating that anytime soon, but it's still pretty cool! The wall balls can just go die in a hole somewhere. I used the orange ball, which is 12 pounds and ended up being hard enough. I didn't do them against the wall like I usually do. I was at the rig where you have to hit a circular target. And man that target is fucking high. It took me a good amount of reps to even figure out how to get the ball that high. Basically my strategy was to just not die so I did sets of 5, partially because throwing the ball that high was exhausting and because I wanted to keep a good pace without dying. And honestly, my pace stayed pretty consistent on this one too. Maybe I'm actually starting to pick up some endurance in all of this!
Thennnnnn after that my quads were pretty smoked. Between all the biking and the squats, I basically took the stairs until about Thursday. For some reason too, my sleeping has been super out of whack for the past couple weeks. It's alternating between me being up between the hours of 3-4 every morning regardless of if I was going to the gym or not, or I was sleeping like the dead because of all the stress I've been feeling. It was getting rather irritating. So when the alarm went off on Thursday morning and I was still dead asleep, I decided to take advantage of it and get a couple more hours in. It was much needed. I felt a little more human after that.
Friday's workout was:
4x5-6 single leg deadlift with kettlebells
then
4 rounds for quality
- 10 alternating goblet reverse lunges
- 5 toes to bar
- 25 cal bike/row/ski
I love it when they program quality days in. It's so relaxing but you still get a good workout in. For the single leg deadlifts I didn't use any weight. It was my first time attempting a deadlift in any form since hurting myself and I knew it was a movement I struggled with even before this all happened. If you ever want to know if your back muscles are tight, just do a single leg deadlift because you'll feel them. Eventually I loosened up though and it wasn't so horrible. Really the biggest part of the struggle is trying to keep your balance. Don't really have much to say about the actual workout since we did it at our own pace. For the toes to bar I just did straight leg raises. And the reverse lunges we did with kettlebells. They didn't feel too bad but man did the booty hurt the next day. And don't ask me why considering after all the biking I did over the week, but I gravitated more towards the bike to get the calories done. It wasn't fast by any means and my quads certainly had some choice thoughts about it. 25 calories at the speed I was doing added up to just over a mile, so not too horrible.
Saturday morning, like I said, I woke up feeling like a champ, so I decided to go to the gym. I was apprehensive about it because it was a hero workout and it basically resembled the workout that messed me up in the first place, but I decided to go for it anyway. So the workout itself was:
4 sets
- 2-3 kettlebell clean and press
- 5-6 bent over rows
then
"DT" - 5 rounds of:
- 12 deadlift
- 9 hang power clean
- 6 shoulder to overhead
The strength portion wasn't too bad. When I first saw it I didn't realize how possibly taxing it would be on my back, but it was also a really good opportunity to work on getting the right muscles activated considering I don't get much opportunity to work slowly with a kettlebell. I ended up using the 35 pound, which was a pretty good weight. It was just heavy enough that I felt like I was doing something productive, but light enough that I was keeping the right form.
For the workout, I chose to do it partner style. It was actually kinda funny because I partnered up with my chiropractor. The prescribed weight was 105, which was laughable. I ended up with 65, which was borderline light. The way we were supposed to do it was to alternate rounds and with that weight I was just tearing through the rounds without an issue. But again, like all things nowadays, had to think about the back. What a nagging bitch. I felt good through the 3rd round, but after that I could feel it getting tired and tensed up. But I got through it. Our final time was 15:33. I think it would have been interesting to see how I did solo, but I was very happy doing it with a partner this time.
After that one though, I was feeling pretty sore and tired. I was really proud of getting to the gym 4 times in one week. I feel like I picked a really good week that was not only good for working on my endurance and lower body strength, but it allowed me to really work on movements that I had been avoiding because of my injury. That's not to say it felt great doing them. I definitely felt it Saturday and most of yesterday. It wasn't a debilitating pain like I had reinjured myself, so I was at least thankful for that. But it was also a little more significant than just simple muscle soreness.
Today we went back for one more day of fun before we leave for Jamaica. The workout was:
4 sets
- 4-6 back squat w/ tempo
- 6-8 kettlebell bent over row
then
10 min AMRAP
- 5 deadlift
- 7 pull ups
- 9 wall ball
I was so stoked to be working on some back squats. I love me some back squats. Except the part where 135 pounds felt heavy.....not happy about that. To put it in perspective, my one rep back in like 2014 was 255 pounds and here I was struggling with 135. To also be fair, we were doing it with a tempo, but still. It also felt super awkward because we've been doing so much work in the front rack position lately I've forgotten how to squat with something on my back. I'll get the muscle memory back at some point though. The workout pretty much smoked my back. I was already feeling tight from Saturday, but I just think it ended up being too much deadlifting too soon. I used 85 pounds, which felt really good the first 3 rounds. I was cranking through this thing. The wall balls weren't even getting me down (shocking, I know). And then I got to my 4th round and my back basically just said nope, not doing it. It took me a very long time to get through 5 reps on that one but luckily the workout ended before I had to start a 5th round. I think it was just a little too much all at once. I was really stoked after Friday and Saturday, but I just didn't have a third day of deadlifting in me. It's fine. I've done a lot in the past week and worked a lot of muscle groups so I'm not too worried about it. I'll get in some short, low impact workouts in Jamaica and we'll call it good.
Well I don't have much else to report. Time to go finish up some packing. I'll see y'all in September!!!
Saturday, August 18, 2018
#SwoleandFlexy
Well I'm laying on my yoga mat with some battery life left in my computer so I figured, what the heck, I'll hit up the blog for a hot minute. I don't have a TON to report (because it's only been 2 days), so this will be a short one for once! Woo!
So Thursday after I posted my last post, I ran off to work. And it was a horrible day for my back. I don't know what it was. I THINK what happened is that this week I didn't work a lot of day shifts, and didn't hit up the gym much. I worked one day shift, an overnight and Thursday was an evening shift. The one downside to the evenings/overnights is that there is a lot of sitting. Like for hours. So I think I just got super tight. Even if that's not actually what happened, by back was pissed. Like really pissed. Inactivity kills, people. It hurt almost as bad as it did when I originally injured it. And because doing anterior pelvic tilts is awkward as heck to people that don't know what you're doing, I was sneaking off to the bathroom to do them. All new low, lemme tell ya. I got home and tried to stretch out a little before bed, which helped a little. Friday we got up to go to the gym and I knew I wasn't doing deadlifts, thrusters and sit ups. There was just no way. So I made best friends with the yoga mat and did a couple ROMWODs. Even then it took a couple hours, a full dose of tylenol and ibuprofen to make the pain go away.
Not a great end to the week, but it forced me to make a decision. I'm just tired of my back getting flared up and having to wait until the next day to get to the gym and really be able to do something about it, but then I have to miss the workout and do ROMWODs. Don't get me wrong, I've learned to love ROMWOD, but when you go to the gym you want to work out. Not gimp yourself around the yoga mat and watch other people kick ass. It's better than nothing, but not really a part of the long term plan here.
So, today I signed up for my own ROMWOD subscription. Basically, it's Crossfitter's yoga. That's what I've decided to call it. I think I gave a brief description about it before, but in case you missed that one, it's short "workouts" that comprise of only mobility work. It's not crazy yoga poses like standing on your head and shit. It's just basic stretches and stretch progressions that really target muscle groups that we hit on a regular basis. And you're holding poses anywhere from 1 minute to 3 minutes (I think that's where the swole part comes from). What I didn't know until today was that they actually have a daily WOD so I don't have to randomly pick workouts for myself, I can just do the daily one and be done. At the gym, I was just picking random ones that hit up the low back and legs.
I used to think I was flexible, but holy shit I've learned I have a ways to go with this. Like for example, they have us doing deep lunges and holding them. I can pretty easily do them with my hands on the floor but these athletes are doing them and getting their elbows down on the floor. It'll be awhile before I get to that, but I'm really excited to see how much I progress. Ideally I'd like to add this into my daily regimen. I think it'll be really good for me physically because it'll keep my muscles stretched, especially on my non-gym days, and hopefully keep my back happy. But after doing this one today I feel nice and relaxed. Everytime I've done them at the gym, you have the ambient noise of people dropping barbells and loud music. But at home I've found out that they work on breathing and relaxing into the poses. The background music isn't the worst either. The longest one I've encountered so far is 20 minutes so it's not even like it's a huge time commitment either.
Alright, time to get myself off my mat and get back to relaxing. What I do best :)
So Thursday after I posted my last post, I ran off to work. And it was a horrible day for my back. I don't know what it was. I THINK what happened is that this week I didn't work a lot of day shifts, and didn't hit up the gym much. I worked one day shift, an overnight and Thursday was an evening shift. The one downside to the evenings/overnights is that there is a lot of sitting. Like for hours. So I think I just got super tight. Even if that's not actually what happened, by back was pissed. Like really pissed. Inactivity kills, people. It hurt almost as bad as it did when I originally injured it. And because doing anterior pelvic tilts is awkward as heck to people that don't know what you're doing, I was sneaking off to the bathroom to do them. All new low, lemme tell ya. I got home and tried to stretch out a little before bed, which helped a little. Friday we got up to go to the gym and I knew I wasn't doing deadlifts, thrusters and sit ups. There was just no way. So I made best friends with the yoga mat and did a couple ROMWODs. Even then it took a couple hours, a full dose of tylenol and ibuprofen to make the pain go away.
Not a great end to the week, but it forced me to make a decision. I'm just tired of my back getting flared up and having to wait until the next day to get to the gym and really be able to do something about it, but then I have to miss the workout and do ROMWODs. Don't get me wrong, I've learned to love ROMWOD, but when you go to the gym you want to work out. Not gimp yourself around the yoga mat and watch other people kick ass. It's better than nothing, but not really a part of the long term plan here.
So, today I signed up for my own ROMWOD subscription. Basically, it's Crossfitter's yoga. That's what I've decided to call it. I think I gave a brief description about it before, but in case you missed that one, it's short "workouts" that comprise of only mobility work. It's not crazy yoga poses like standing on your head and shit. It's just basic stretches and stretch progressions that really target muscle groups that we hit on a regular basis. And you're holding poses anywhere from 1 minute to 3 minutes (I think that's where the swole part comes from). What I didn't know until today was that they actually have a daily WOD so I don't have to randomly pick workouts for myself, I can just do the daily one and be done. At the gym, I was just picking random ones that hit up the low back and legs.
I used to think I was flexible, but holy shit I've learned I have a ways to go with this. Like for example, they have us doing deep lunges and holding them. I can pretty easily do them with my hands on the floor but these athletes are doing them and getting their elbows down on the floor. It'll be awhile before I get to that, but I'm really excited to see how much I progress. Ideally I'd like to add this into my daily regimen. I think it'll be really good for me physically because it'll keep my muscles stretched, especially on my non-gym days, and hopefully keep my back happy. But after doing this one today I feel nice and relaxed. Everytime I've done them at the gym, you have the ambient noise of people dropping barbells and loud music. But at home I've found out that they work on breathing and relaxing into the poses. The background music isn't the worst either. The longest one I've encountered so far is 20 minutes so it's not even like it's a huge time commitment either.
Alright, time to get myself off my mat and get back to relaxing. What I do best :)
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Catalyst Games and Gloomy Days
Happy hump day!
Worked the overnight last night so I'm in the process of re-acclimating myself to the land of the living again.
It's been a busy week for us! We both worked a bunch and had the Catalyst Games on Saturday so we've been playing a little catch up but nothing too bad. I got myself to the gym a couple times, which felt pretty good. My back continues to recover. Really the worst times for me now are in the morning. I still wake up feeling super stiff, which I hate because it gets bad enough that it makes me very apprehensive about going to the gym to the point that I've just said no a couple times. Then the one day I sucked it up and went, I ended up feeling fine halfway through the warm up. So fuck you, spine. It's just rude to play a person like that.
Eating last week we lost a little of our focus and went out a bit more than we intended. Towards the end of the week the stress levels were pretty high and the last thing on my mind was chicken and roasted veggies. There was no behaving to be had there. Then Catalyst Games day we ended up getting out late so we just went and grabbed something quickly so we could go home and assume a horizontal position as soon as possible. But now we're happily back on track and life is ok. I surprisingly didn't feel nearly as guilty as I usually do. Huge change from a little over a month ago where I guilt-tripped the shit out of myself for like a week straight. Sure, it set me back a little bit and I'm a little bummed I didn't push myself just a little harder to keep my goals in mind. It was definitely impulsive and I was fully focused on the instant gratification of comfort food. But I kept myself on track all the other meals of the day and it meant getting to keep just a little shred of sanity. There are just some days that cannot be fixed by chicken and veggies. Think that'll be my quote of the month.
Eventually, if I ever update this blog more than once in a week, I plan to talk about foods I've tried and loved lately. If anything it'll be something I can look back at when I need some inspiration. At some point too I'd love to explore the healthy options that Rochester has. I know they're hiding somewhere. I think it'll be a good way to expand our palates and have somewhere we can go where we don't feel guilty doing it.
Catalyst Games on Saturday was an absolute blast. Matt and I started volunteering for it last year and fell in love. It's fun to help with setting up and getting everything ready. The judging is kind of eh. I feel pretty confident with knowing the movement standards. But it's still tough judging someone on things you can't do yourself. Sometimes you feel like "who am I to tell someone they didn't complete the chest to bar pull up when I can't even do a pull up." But then there's also athletes that refuse to listen to you no matter what you have to say. Is it really that hard to just squat one more inch??? Regardless, it's really fun to be on the competition floor amongst some pretty amazing people. It gets you pumped up and makes you want to work your ass off so you can be just as good someday. I got to see some pretty incredible things happen and it was so worth the sore feet and back...and having to wear my compression socks the next day. I'm toying with the goal of competing again in 2020. We'll see. The competition is a lot more tough than it was back in 2013 when I did it so I'm nervous about if I'd even be ready for it, but 2 years should be more than enough time if I keep myself motivated.
So let's see. Workout days. For it being my first week back last week I'd say it went pretty well! Thankfully a lot of the workouts were pretty low impact so I didn't have to do an excessive amount of modifying. I was pretty close to going the 4th day on Friday but the stiffness got the best of me. That whole "listen to your body" thing doesn't work very well when your body isn't sending clear signals. But I kinda sorta worked out Saturday with moving equipment. We'll call it half a workout. The truck packing WOD.
Anywho, Tuesday. I'll just write down the things I modified to.
5x2 snatch balance
then...
For time:
30 cal row
0.3 mile bike
30 cal row
I felt really good with this one. I did snatch balances instead of full out snatches, which is fine because I love snatch balances. I maxed out at 75 pounds. I took the time to really focus on using my legs as much as possible and keep my form solid. My legs were sore as heck from the split squats but they felt good. It's so weird to feel like I'm completely restrengthening my entire lower body. It had to happen at some point. I loved the workout. Calories are so much more fun than distance. Then the bike was instead of a run. My final time was 5:43. I started off kind of strong with the first row with a pace I couldn't keep up in the 2nd round, but for the most part I maintained and kept moving the whole time. After just about dying the day before, it was a good feeling.
Then endurance Thursday came along. Such a love hate relationship.
(3) 10 min AMRAPs
21 cal bike
7 burpee box jump overs
3 min rest
The total score for this one was rounds + reps but the overall goal was to just maintain the same number of reps each round. I was pretty apprehensive about that goal with this one....because burpees. I don't burpee often, because they suck and now they're adding a box to hop over at the same time. But...shockingly....it went really well. I was slow as hell, I certainly wasn't winning any competitions, but it was a pace that I could keep up with just about the whole time. The first two rounds I got 2 rounds + 11 reps, then the last round I got 2 rounds + 4 reps, so I was about a minute behind on that last one. As soon as I hopped on the bike my quads were like Nope so I ended up slugging through it.
Monday we woke up......and went back to sleep. We were both exhausted so we took the extra 2 hours of shut-eye. We were back at it on Tuesday though. I'll just put in the modifications I made again because Tuesdays are still snatch days.
3x3 muscle snatch
3x3 snatch balance
then...
For time:
45 cal row
15 deadlift
30 cal bike
15 box jumps
I did the muscle snatches from hip level and kept them at 55 pounds. It was mostly just to get my hips and back reacclimated to doing that quick extension to get the bar overhead but with less impact than if I was doing a power snatch. Didn't cause any pain so I was happy with that. Snatch balances I did only 65 pounds. I was feeling a little off balance. Probably could have warmed up a little more than I did but I got through it. The workout went well. Those damn box jumps slowed me down though. For the deadlifts I kept it at 65 pounds even though prescribed was like 135. It was light, but it was my first time deadlifting since I came back so I needed to make sure I was doing it right. I'm definitely getting much stronger with my rowing and biking. It's still taking me just as long to do certain distances, but I don't feel as much like death afterwards. It's pretty cool! The box jumps they wanted us pushing the height a little bit, which for me is a whopping 15" Box jumps are that one thing that I really want to be better at and I will never figure out how to do it. At my best I was able to do 20" and that was about my limit. I can't imagine ever being at a point in my life where I can just go up to a box and jump on it. But I'd love to be there some day.
Tuesday was a gloomy as hell, rainy day and I loved every minute of it. I don't know what it is but sometimes I just need a gloomy day at home to just decompress and relax. Yes I do that plenty when it's nice outside, but it's different when it's dark and moody. It's like the universe giving me permission to just exist for a day. It always makes me feel so much more relaxed after days like that. I'm definitely not someone that could live out on the West Coast. Sun all day 365 days of the year would just piss me off. I need the nice rainy days to just get cozy on the couch with the dog and pick an activity that involves minimal brain usage. Only for a day though, more than that and I just become lazy and sluggy and it's not a good look on me.
Well I must run off to work now. Just wanted to make sure I got everything updated this week! I should just call this the Every 7-10 Day Blog.
Worked the overnight last night so I'm in the process of re-acclimating myself to the land of the living again.
It's been a busy week for us! We both worked a bunch and had the Catalyst Games on Saturday so we've been playing a little catch up but nothing too bad. I got myself to the gym a couple times, which felt pretty good. My back continues to recover. Really the worst times for me now are in the morning. I still wake up feeling super stiff, which I hate because it gets bad enough that it makes me very apprehensive about going to the gym to the point that I've just said no a couple times. Then the one day I sucked it up and went, I ended up feeling fine halfway through the warm up. So fuck you, spine. It's just rude to play a person like that.
Eating last week we lost a little of our focus and went out a bit more than we intended. Towards the end of the week the stress levels were pretty high and the last thing on my mind was chicken and roasted veggies. There was no behaving to be had there. Then Catalyst Games day we ended up getting out late so we just went and grabbed something quickly so we could go home and assume a horizontal position as soon as possible. But now we're happily back on track and life is ok. I surprisingly didn't feel nearly as guilty as I usually do. Huge change from a little over a month ago where I guilt-tripped the shit out of myself for like a week straight. Sure, it set me back a little bit and I'm a little bummed I didn't push myself just a little harder to keep my goals in mind. It was definitely impulsive and I was fully focused on the instant gratification of comfort food. But I kept myself on track all the other meals of the day and it meant getting to keep just a little shred of sanity. There are just some days that cannot be fixed by chicken and veggies. Think that'll be my quote of the month.
Eventually, if I ever update this blog more than once in a week, I plan to talk about foods I've tried and loved lately. If anything it'll be something I can look back at when I need some inspiration. At some point too I'd love to explore the healthy options that Rochester has. I know they're hiding somewhere. I think it'll be a good way to expand our palates and have somewhere we can go where we don't feel guilty doing it.
Catalyst Games on Saturday was an absolute blast. Matt and I started volunteering for it last year and fell in love. It's fun to help with setting up and getting everything ready. The judging is kind of eh. I feel pretty confident with knowing the movement standards. But it's still tough judging someone on things you can't do yourself. Sometimes you feel like "who am I to tell someone they didn't complete the chest to bar pull up when I can't even do a pull up." But then there's also athletes that refuse to listen to you no matter what you have to say. Is it really that hard to just squat one more inch??? Regardless, it's really fun to be on the competition floor amongst some pretty amazing people. It gets you pumped up and makes you want to work your ass off so you can be just as good someday. I got to see some pretty incredible things happen and it was so worth the sore feet and back...and having to wear my compression socks the next day. I'm toying with the goal of competing again in 2020. We'll see. The competition is a lot more tough than it was back in 2013 when I did it so I'm nervous about if I'd even be ready for it, but 2 years should be more than enough time if I keep myself motivated.
So let's see. Workout days. For it being my first week back last week I'd say it went pretty well! Thankfully a lot of the workouts were pretty low impact so I didn't have to do an excessive amount of modifying. I was pretty close to going the 4th day on Friday but the stiffness got the best of me. That whole "listen to your body" thing doesn't work very well when your body isn't sending clear signals. But I kinda sorta worked out Saturday with moving equipment. We'll call it half a workout. The truck packing WOD.
Anywho, Tuesday. I'll just write down the things I modified to.
5x2 snatch balance
then...
For time:
30 cal row
0.3 mile bike
30 cal row
I felt really good with this one. I did snatch balances instead of full out snatches, which is fine because I love snatch balances. I maxed out at 75 pounds. I took the time to really focus on using my legs as much as possible and keep my form solid. My legs were sore as heck from the split squats but they felt good. It's so weird to feel like I'm completely restrengthening my entire lower body. It had to happen at some point. I loved the workout. Calories are so much more fun than distance. Then the bike was instead of a run. My final time was 5:43. I started off kind of strong with the first row with a pace I couldn't keep up in the 2nd round, but for the most part I maintained and kept moving the whole time. After just about dying the day before, it was a good feeling.
Then endurance Thursday came along. Such a love hate relationship.
(3) 10 min AMRAPs
21 cal bike
7 burpee box jump overs
3 min rest
The total score for this one was rounds + reps but the overall goal was to just maintain the same number of reps each round. I was pretty apprehensive about that goal with this one....because burpees. I don't burpee often, because they suck and now they're adding a box to hop over at the same time. But...shockingly....it went really well. I was slow as hell, I certainly wasn't winning any competitions, but it was a pace that I could keep up with just about the whole time. The first two rounds I got 2 rounds + 11 reps, then the last round I got 2 rounds + 4 reps, so I was about a minute behind on that last one. As soon as I hopped on the bike my quads were like Nope so I ended up slugging through it.
Monday we woke up......and went back to sleep. We were both exhausted so we took the extra 2 hours of shut-eye. We were back at it on Tuesday though. I'll just put in the modifications I made again because Tuesdays are still snatch days.
3x3 muscle snatch
3x3 snatch balance
then...
For time:
45 cal row
15 deadlift
30 cal bike
15 box jumps
I did the muscle snatches from hip level and kept them at 55 pounds. It was mostly just to get my hips and back reacclimated to doing that quick extension to get the bar overhead but with less impact than if I was doing a power snatch. Didn't cause any pain so I was happy with that. Snatch balances I did only 65 pounds. I was feeling a little off balance. Probably could have warmed up a little more than I did but I got through it. The workout went well. Those damn box jumps slowed me down though. For the deadlifts I kept it at 65 pounds even though prescribed was like 135. It was light, but it was my first time deadlifting since I came back so I needed to make sure I was doing it right. I'm definitely getting much stronger with my rowing and biking. It's still taking me just as long to do certain distances, but I don't feel as much like death afterwards. It's pretty cool! The box jumps they wanted us pushing the height a little bit, which for me is a whopping 15" Box jumps are that one thing that I really want to be better at and I will never figure out how to do it. At my best I was able to do 20" and that was about my limit. I can't imagine ever being at a point in my life where I can just go up to a box and jump on it. But I'd love to be there some day.
Tuesday was a gloomy as hell, rainy day and I loved every minute of it. I don't know what it is but sometimes I just need a gloomy day at home to just decompress and relax. Yes I do that plenty when it's nice outside, but it's different when it's dark and moody. It's like the universe giving me permission to just exist for a day. It always makes me feel so much more relaxed after days like that. I'm definitely not someone that could live out on the West Coast. Sun all day 365 days of the year would just piss me off. I need the nice rainy days to just get cozy on the couch with the dog and pick an activity that involves minimal brain usage. Only for a day though, more than that and I just become lazy and sluggy and it's not a good look on me.
Well I must run off to work now. Just wanted to make sure I got everything updated this week! I should just call this the Every 7-10 Day Blog.
Monday, August 6, 2018
It's Not Twerking, It's Anterior Pelvic Tilts
Been almost two weeks since I've been on here. Yikes! Sorry about that guys.
In all honesty, haven't had a whole lot to update with lately. I've just been trying to get my back in working order. It's been a long 2 weeks since this all happened and I'm really not sure if the physical or emotional toll was worse. The physical part was pretty bad. There were some moments where I wondered if I would ever come out of this. But the emotional part....ugh. I wish I was one of those people that take adversity with grace, poise and a smile on their face through it. But I'm not. My coping mechanisms are more similar to a cross between a hobbit and a hungry T-rex (yeah, picture that one). I tend to shut the world out, but if someone bugs me I bite their head off. It doesn't help I got my period in the midst of all this so that did nothing but add to the pain and emotional turmoil. There was a lot of wallowing happening.
I think I just got sick of feeling like everything has been an uphill battle. Every week there's been some kind of struggle and for once I just want to get through a whole week and feel like I really accomplished something instead of just keeping my head above the water. Yeah yeah I know, nothing worth doing was meant to be easy or else everyone would do it, or however they say it. But that doesn't mean I feel like duking it out on a regular basis. It's kind of exhausting. I don't need this to be easy, and I know better to think it should be easy, but I'm not trying to be an elite athlete here, just trying to do better so I don't know why this needs to be so hard. Life was a lot more peaceful and less disappointing when I was fat and unhappy.
Last week I went to the gym twice. I was finally feeling ready to at least go back, but wasn't quite ready to tackle a workout so I worked on mobility instead. I did this program called ROMWOD for the first time ever and I actually figured out that it was hard! I was sore afterwards but felt great. It's short mobility workouts between 15-20 minutes with a couple different poses that you hold for several minutes at a time. So not only do you need flexibility, but you need the strength to hold them that long, which for some of them I didn't. I did ones that focused a lot on the hips, back and legs. Then on top of that I did several rounds of anterior pelvic tilts, glute bridges, squats and some QL-specific stretches. It helped a lot to do the ROMWODs and the other exercises because it stretched my back a little, but most importantly it activated my other muscles.
If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that I'm still using my back way too much. After working on slow squats and glute bridges, I realized I've been going through the past few weeks activating all kinds of the wrong stuff. Which likely explains the lack of soreness up until now. It also explains why I've been feeling like my quads aren't keeping up with the work....because I haven't been using them the way I should. It kinda sucks I needed to get injured to figure it out, but better late than never I guess.
As always, I have to give huge props to my chiropractor and massage therapist. Without them I probably wouldn't have recovered as quickly as I have. They've been amazing at helping me get back on my feet and giving me ideas on how to avoid this in the future. I got to see them both today, and my pelvis is already moving a lot better and things aren't as tight anymore. I still have some residual tightness that'll need to be worked out, but I'm just happy to be on the mend again. Which means......*drumroll*......I got to actually do a workout today. Not that it was enjoyable in any way, shape or form.
The workout was:
4 x 8+8 Bulgarian Split Squats
then
15 min AMRAP
5 power snatches
10 wall balls
5 toes to bar
10 lateral over bar jumps
Remember when I saw front foot elevated split squats were the devil? Yeah Bulgarian split squats are the devil's mother. I was using an empty bar and I still could only do 4 reps at a time. BUT I will give credit where it's due - the single leg work was good for getting back on the horse. Because it was all quads, hamstrings and ass. It's virtually impossible not to activate those guys when doing these. But I still hate them with a wild passion. The workout was not a fun one to come back to. I decided to take it "easy" this time. I only did 55 pound snatches. The wall balls and bar jumps I cut down to 5 reps. I don't have toes to bar yet so I did knee tucks. Even with all those modifications, this was one tough mother. I was pretty concerned I was going to black out around the 9 minute mark. It was those damn wall balls. Even when I was in shape I hated wall balls because they gassed me so much. And lateral bar jumps aren't exactly my strongest event either. I have this irrational fear of jumping on and over things. Mostly because I'm terrified of tripping and falling. Because of this, I end up overestimating how high I need to jump and use way more energy than I should. I didn't count my rounds and reps because after the 1st round my only goal was to just get myself through it. I will say despite being nervous about my back, the power snatches felt pretty good. I kept it light and was careful about form. It wasn't easy and I was shaky, but the big thing is that it didn't bring the pain back on.
I plan on just taking this week one day at a time. Get to the gym as much as I can and probably do a lot of modifying. And making sure I stay true to my nutrition plan. I'm getting close to a goal of mine and it'd be great to meet it sometime this month. July can go down in history as a rough month, so here's to hoping August is a little better.
Until next time!
In all honesty, haven't had a whole lot to update with lately. I've just been trying to get my back in working order. It's been a long 2 weeks since this all happened and I'm really not sure if the physical or emotional toll was worse. The physical part was pretty bad. There were some moments where I wondered if I would ever come out of this. But the emotional part....ugh. I wish I was one of those people that take adversity with grace, poise and a smile on their face through it. But I'm not. My coping mechanisms are more similar to a cross between a hobbit and a hungry T-rex (yeah, picture that one). I tend to shut the world out, but if someone bugs me I bite their head off. It doesn't help I got my period in the midst of all this so that did nothing but add to the pain and emotional turmoil. There was a lot of wallowing happening.
I think I just got sick of feeling like everything has been an uphill battle. Every week there's been some kind of struggle and for once I just want to get through a whole week and feel like I really accomplished something instead of just keeping my head above the water. Yeah yeah I know, nothing worth doing was meant to be easy or else everyone would do it, or however they say it. But that doesn't mean I feel like duking it out on a regular basis. It's kind of exhausting. I don't need this to be easy, and I know better to think it should be easy, but I'm not trying to be an elite athlete here, just trying to do better so I don't know why this needs to be so hard. Life was a lot more peaceful and less disappointing when I was fat and unhappy.
Last week I went to the gym twice. I was finally feeling ready to at least go back, but wasn't quite ready to tackle a workout so I worked on mobility instead. I did this program called ROMWOD for the first time ever and I actually figured out that it was hard! I was sore afterwards but felt great. It's short mobility workouts between 15-20 minutes with a couple different poses that you hold for several minutes at a time. So not only do you need flexibility, but you need the strength to hold them that long, which for some of them I didn't. I did ones that focused a lot on the hips, back and legs. Then on top of that I did several rounds of anterior pelvic tilts, glute bridges, squats and some QL-specific stretches. It helped a lot to do the ROMWODs and the other exercises because it stretched my back a little, but most importantly it activated my other muscles.
If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that I'm still using my back way too much. After working on slow squats and glute bridges, I realized I've been going through the past few weeks activating all kinds of the wrong stuff. Which likely explains the lack of soreness up until now. It also explains why I've been feeling like my quads aren't keeping up with the work....because I haven't been using them the way I should. It kinda sucks I needed to get injured to figure it out, but better late than never I guess.
As always, I have to give huge props to my chiropractor and massage therapist. Without them I probably wouldn't have recovered as quickly as I have. They've been amazing at helping me get back on my feet and giving me ideas on how to avoid this in the future. I got to see them both today, and my pelvis is already moving a lot better and things aren't as tight anymore. I still have some residual tightness that'll need to be worked out, but I'm just happy to be on the mend again. Which means......*drumroll*......I got to actually do a workout today. Not that it was enjoyable in any way, shape or form.
The workout was:
4 x 8+8 Bulgarian Split Squats
then
15 min AMRAP
5 power snatches
10 wall balls
5 toes to bar
10 lateral over bar jumps
Remember when I saw front foot elevated split squats were the devil? Yeah Bulgarian split squats are the devil's mother. I was using an empty bar and I still could only do 4 reps at a time. BUT I will give credit where it's due - the single leg work was good for getting back on the horse. Because it was all quads, hamstrings and ass. It's virtually impossible not to activate those guys when doing these. But I still hate them with a wild passion. The workout was not a fun one to come back to. I decided to take it "easy" this time. I only did 55 pound snatches. The wall balls and bar jumps I cut down to 5 reps. I don't have toes to bar yet so I did knee tucks. Even with all those modifications, this was one tough mother. I was pretty concerned I was going to black out around the 9 minute mark. It was those damn wall balls. Even when I was in shape I hated wall balls because they gassed me so much. And lateral bar jumps aren't exactly my strongest event either. I have this irrational fear of jumping on and over things. Mostly because I'm terrified of tripping and falling. Because of this, I end up overestimating how high I need to jump and use way more energy than I should. I didn't count my rounds and reps because after the 1st round my only goal was to just get myself through it. I will say despite being nervous about my back, the power snatches felt pretty good. I kept it light and was careful about form. It wasn't easy and I was shaky, but the big thing is that it didn't bring the pain back on.
I plan on just taking this week one day at a time. Get to the gym as much as I can and probably do a lot of modifying. And making sure I stay true to my nutrition plan. I'm getting close to a goal of mine and it'd be great to meet it sometime this month. July can go down in history as a rough month, so here's to hoping August is a little better.
Until next time!
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Disaster Week
I feel like I've been having a case of the Mondays...for the past 7 days. It's been fantastic fun.
After I last posted things went a bit downhill. I slept like crap Thursday night so by Friday I was exhausted and felt sick as heck, so I skipped the gym and even had to call out of work. Then spent most of the weekend just trying to recuperate, which I did semi-successfully. It wasn't until Sunday night that I actually slept the whole night....but then had to get up at 415 for the gym on Monday. Life is just unfair that way I guess. I was feeling kind of badly about not getting to the gym, but I managed to stay on track with my nutrition despite it all so I took the small victory.
The one good thing to come out of the weekend was that I made the executive decision to delete the Facebook app off my phone. I wasn't sure why it needed to happen this weekend, other than wanting to focus on getting better instead of staring at my phone screen, but I'm glad I did it. I actually spent time relaxing and doing relaxing things instead of keeping up with the outside world. I still check in every once in awhile when I'm on my computer, but other than that my life no longer revolves around other people's lives. It's nice. You don't realize how much pointless time you waste on Facebook until you stop doing it. I actually read books and stuff now.
Nutrition this week has been interesting, which I expected. I knew it was going to be an adjustment with the new macros and being a daywalker again and it certainly has been. I'm still working at planning my meals a day ahead, it's just tough finding things that perfectly fit into everything. I'm managing but I'm certainly not perfect. We didn't get our usual delivery of balanced body this week for lunches so in that respect we've kind of been winging it. One of our dinner meals was a one pot meatballs, rice and peas that we had made a ton of meals of so I ended up bringing that, but I'm quickly realizing rice is kind of a carb-killer. The other meal we made for this upcoming week was a salsa chicken and rice that we made in the instant pot. It's pretty good! But again, carb-killer. I would like to start working on that a little more because overall I do a little better with less hefty carbs. It's leaving me with like no room for fruit, and I love fruit. Plus it wouldn't hurt to leave extra room for veggies too so I get the fiber. Because my digestive system is becoming a cantankerous little wench.
Speaking of cantankerous digestive systems...there was a lesson on the Precision Nutrition system today about dairy. It talked about how dairy products have a lot more complex nutrition than just protein and calcium and it can create some issues for people because we can't digest the sugar or we can't digest the other nutrients in it. Now most times, if you're lactose intolerant, it becomes apparent by the bloating, diarrhea and overall feeling really crappy. But, sometimes it's not that obvious and can manifest itself in other ways like constipation and acne. Back when I did strict paleo for awhile, when I came off it I found out quickly that I was lactose intolerant. Anytime I would eat anything with a hint of dairy, I would get pretty sick, especially with cheese. Over the years, that seemed to calm down a little because I fully reintroduced myself to it and would stop having such severe reactions. So when I started this journey, I was really excited for cheese because it's a great source of protein and fat. But now I'm starting to think maybe that's not such a great idea. So I'm going to give myself a week off from the cheese. I do ok with yogurt and I don't really eat a ton of it anyway. But cheese can wait for a bit. It's going to make getting my macros even more interesting, but maybe it'll actually leave room for other stuff since it's so heavy in protein and fat. Guess I'll find out!
Monday we got to the gym. Workout was:
6x2-4 front squat with tempo, 75-80% of 1RM
then
15 min EMOM (every minute on the minute)
- Minute 1: 20 double unders (or 20 sec practice)
- Minute 2: 20 sec battle rope
- Minute 3: 150m ski
For me, 75% of my 1RM would be 131 pounds, rounded up to 135. I got up to 125 by my 2nd set and that honestly felt heavy enough. The way I've been going the past couple weeks, I usually get up to the prescribed percentage by like the 2nd to last round so I haven't really been spending much time at the weight I'm supposed to be at. I decided to stay with the 125 and just stick with it for the rest of my sets. They felt good this week and I kept my form solid the whole time so won't hear any complaining from me. The workout went really well. It was hard but borderline fun. I even managed to get a couple double unders! After I whipped myself about 10 times....don't mess with those jump ropes. They do not like to be trifled with.
Tuesday we went back for more fun. Workout was:
6 sets of snatch pull from the floor + hang snatch from below knee
then
7 min AMRAP
- 9 deadlift
- 6 hang power clean
- 3 shoulder to overhead
They wanted us using similar weight to last week, which for me was 55 pounds. I started off this workout feeling like crap. My lower back and pelvis were stiff and nothing I was doing was loosening that up. I stretched like crazy and tried every method I know. Wasn't working. It took until about the 4th set before I could even get into a full squat, which is super not normal for me. Squatting is usually the one thing I can always do no matter what. So that set off warning flags. Not to mention I just didn't feel like my hips were extending as explosively as they should have been. It's not like things hurt. I just felt stiff and immobile. But the show must go on. So we started setting up for the workout. I was so excited for this. The prescribed weight was 95 pounds and I was psyched to give it a try. Our coach was telling us that the limiting part was going to be what we could put overhead, but after the lifting session I'd had, I knew it was going to be the cleans. I threw 85 pounds on the bar. Tried a deadlift - it went great. Tried a clean - I was still super stiff but it was doable. Overhead was fine. So I took the safe route and just left the 85 on. I bumbled through my first round and things really started to not feel good. The deadlifts were fine as long as I kept my mind on my form. The cleans just started to fall apart. I still couldn't move my hips and getting into the hang position was murdering my back. By the 6th rep I was hurting bad. Then I knew I was in for a world of hurt when I clocked myself in the chin putting the bar overhead. Literally, I never do that. I should have taken it as a sign. I got to my 2nd round of cleans, went to try the first one and the moment that bar hit hip height and I tried to extend it felt like someone stabbed me right in the pelvis. I just dropped the bar right then and there. I told the coach there was no way I'd be able to do hangs and she just told me to take it as a sign and stop. So I did.
I spent the rest of the day in so much pain I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry or vomit. Of course, I had to go to work, which I thought would be a blessing since it would keep me moving, but by noon time I was seriously considering checking myself in as a patient. Walking hurt, sitting hurt, standing hurt, I had to physically hold on to something to sneeze. I was miserable. And of course I had to deal with some of the worst people I've met in a long time that demanded attention I just could not give and it all added up to a no good miserable day. Probably one of the worst I've had in a long time. What was really worrisome was that this pain was different from anything I'd had before. It felt like my pelvis was being ripped apart from the inside. It didn't hurt to bend or squat or anything else like that, which usually those things are the first to go when I flare up my back. It was all just very weird.
Thankfully, I was seeing the chiropractor the next day anyway. I honestly think that's what just kept me going. As soon as I described what I was feeling, she told me it was probably a strain of my quadratus lumborum, which attaches at the top of the pelvis and causes a lot of problems once it gets tight. She also goes to the CrossFit gym I go to so she knows what the workouts and movements are like. We think what happened was that I was just tight and doing movements that can put a lot of stress on the back, like hang cleans, and it all added up to a decent muscle strain. So she adjusted me and did this suction cupping thing and I left already feeling better. For all of you that don't believe in chiropractic care, you're nuts. I've slowly gotten better since yesterday. I still feel a lot of spasms, especially when I'm sitting, but I'm more functional than I was and it's no longer excruciating to exist. I guess it goes without saying that I didn't work out today. I may go back tomorrow to do a mobility workout, but we'll see how things feel in the morning.
So this has basically wrecked my week. I'm devastated and pissed off. I'm angry that it always seems to be something trying to hold me back. I'm even angrier that this week I was really excited to hit up these workouts and I got to see maybe 1.5 of them. And I'm pissed to see everyone's happy facebook posts about how they stuck it out through the workouts because I wanted to be doing them and feeling proud of it myself (yeah that one shocked me too, I don't even know myself anymore). It makes me sad to know that I've come so far and tried to get myself stronger, but it's still just as easy to get injured. It's been a tough pill to swallow and I've been doing a fantastic job of wallowing in my self-pity. I want nothing more than to just eat all the bad food, but luckily it still hurts to get in the car so I haven't done that. Although I haven't been an angel with the snacks at home. I just want it to be over so I can go back to the track I was on. I've been feeling really good lately and it just feels unfair that I've got this now. I'm not even really sure how it happened. I know when, obviously, but how I have no idea. My theory is that I was stiff from Monday with the ski-ing and battle ropes and the warm up I thought I needed Tuesday was not actually the one I really needed. And I just need to be really careful with doing things from the hang position apparently.
I'm hoping I'll feel semi back to normal by Monday. I'm working all weekend so that'll at least keep me off the couch, although a little couch time has done me some good in the past couple days. Too much is bad though, I don't recommend that. Guess we'll just have to see what happens. I just need life to go kick someone else in the ass for like a week.
Until next time, folks!
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Surviving Zombie Mode
Nights officially done. Thank goodness because my body did not like that round even a little bit. Wasn't the worst thing ever though. Just hoping I can sleep tonight since tomorrow is back to a daytime schedule already.
So Tuesday I was planning on going to the gym. Unfortunately the 730 AM class is no longer so that left me super indecisive on when I was actually going to get there. I debated with just going to open gym and trying to motivate myself to work out on my own, but yeah that just wasn't going to happen. Then I said I would just come up, make a quick breakfast and stay up until the 915. And then zombie mode kicked in at about 2 AM and I realized that was not going to happen. So I decided to try for the 545. Well I woke up at 2 and determined I didn't feel like waiting around for several hours so I went to the 330. So much drama and inner turmoil just to get to this one gym class, lemme tell ya.
3x3 snatch balance
5x2 hang snatch from below the knee
then...
2min AMRAP
- 3 power cleans
- 5 burpees
- max calories on the bike
Rest 4 minutes
Repeat 2 min AMRAP
I didn't think this workout was too bad, but my body, especially my quads, were just not feeling it. Plus I was dumb and didn't wear my lifting shoes, which help me feel much more stable with Olympic lifts. I have pretty good mobility but having the wider and completely flat base with the lifting shoes helps me keep my balance when I'm trust falling myself into a squat with a barbell over my head. Just one of my little nitpicky things. So, either way, didn't exactly hit the weights I was hoping to. I got up to 75 pounds with the balances. I tried 85 and could not keep it overhead safely. With the hang snatches I only got to 65 pounds. Kind of disappointing, but it gave me a chance to work on form at least. The workout really wasn't bad at all. The score was the total number of calories you were able to rack up between the two rounds. I got to 31, which was similar to the other women in the gym. I really love these short and sweet workouts, although my quads gave out in that last round of biking. They were pretty over it. It just felt good to get moving. I knew I wasn't going to break any records and I was ok with it.
I haven't been back to the gym since. I considered today, but I think I'm going to do tomorrow and Saturday instead. Which means I super have to try hard to get back on a normal sleeping schedule. I see Benadryl in my future tonight.
Eating this week has been interesting. I've been putting in a lot more effort to preplan my meals for the day the night before and it's been working out fairly well. Tuesday was tough because my plan got messed up with the ever-changing gym schedule so at 5 PM I still had like 1200 calories to eat before midnight. Don't get me wrong, I can eat my way through 1200 calories easily...but it wouldn't be on healthy stuff so doing it mindfully was tough. But I did it. Surprisingly I don't feel super full even with eating the actual amount I'm supposed to be eating and as of yesterday I had lost a little more weight compared to Sunday so it's certainly doing good things for my body. I'm definitely looking forward to trying it more while on a day schedule, which I think will feel a little less cumbersome since I'll actually be eating during normal person hours instead of over the span of two calendar days. We'll see how it goes.
Short post today. Mostly because I was actually just on here a couple days ago.....and my computer is about to die. And I should probably get off this couch at some point. *shrug*
Hope everyone is having a good week!
So Tuesday I was planning on going to the gym. Unfortunately the 730 AM class is no longer so that left me super indecisive on when I was actually going to get there. I debated with just going to open gym and trying to motivate myself to work out on my own, but yeah that just wasn't going to happen. Then I said I would just come up, make a quick breakfast and stay up until the 915. And then zombie mode kicked in at about 2 AM and I realized that was not going to happen. So I decided to try for the 545. Well I woke up at 2 and determined I didn't feel like waiting around for several hours so I went to the 330. So much drama and inner turmoil just to get to this one gym class, lemme tell ya.
3x3 snatch balance
5x2 hang snatch from below the knee
then...
2min AMRAP
- 3 power cleans
- 5 burpees
- max calories on the bike
Rest 4 minutes
Repeat 2 min AMRAP
I didn't think this workout was too bad, but my body, especially my quads, were just not feeling it. Plus I was dumb and didn't wear my lifting shoes, which help me feel much more stable with Olympic lifts. I have pretty good mobility but having the wider and completely flat base with the lifting shoes helps me keep my balance when I'm trust falling myself into a squat with a barbell over my head. Just one of my little nitpicky things. So, either way, didn't exactly hit the weights I was hoping to. I got up to 75 pounds with the balances. I tried 85 and could not keep it overhead safely. With the hang snatches I only got to 65 pounds. Kind of disappointing, but it gave me a chance to work on form at least. The workout really wasn't bad at all. The score was the total number of calories you were able to rack up between the two rounds. I got to 31, which was similar to the other women in the gym. I really love these short and sweet workouts, although my quads gave out in that last round of biking. They were pretty over it. It just felt good to get moving. I knew I wasn't going to break any records and I was ok with it.
I haven't been back to the gym since. I considered today, but I think I'm going to do tomorrow and Saturday instead. Which means I super have to try hard to get back on a normal sleeping schedule. I see Benadryl in my future tonight.
Eating this week has been interesting. I've been putting in a lot more effort to preplan my meals for the day the night before and it's been working out fairly well. Tuesday was tough because my plan got messed up with the ever-changing gym schedule so at 5 PM I still had like 1200 calories to eat before midnight. Don't get me wrong, I can eat my way through 1200 calories easily...but it wouldn't be on healthy stuff so doing it mindfully was tough. But I did it. Surprisingly I don't feel super full even with eating the actual amount I'm supposed to be eating and as of yesterday I had lost a little more weight compared to Sunday so it's certainly doing good things for my body. I'm definitely looking forward to trying it more while on a day schedule, which I think will feel a little less cumbersome since I'll actually be eating during normal person hours instead of over the span of two calendar days. We'll see how it goes.
Short post today. Mostly because I was actually just on here a couple days ago.....and my computer is about to die. And I should probably get off this couch at some point. *shrug*
Hope everyone is having a good week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)