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!!!
Monday, August 27, 2018
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!
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