DECimate your workout

krokador

Happy to report I survived squat day, even though I didn't quite hit the number I was hoping for. My entire left side is feeling a little wonky today, in a "not quite in the socket" type of way. My hip was so stiff at the start of the workout it didn't really matter, but my shoulder did bother me a bit on squats to where I wasn't able to properly lock it in. Didn't hurt, just uncomfortable in an unsettling, clicky fashion. So I didn't force anything with it.

Squats 45x5/5 (I like to do 5 slow to let my hips warm-ups, then 5 fast ones to remind them of explosiveness, then I usually tack on 10 good mornings and 15 calf raises to rounds it out before I get into the meat of it)
65x5, 85x5, 105x3, 120x3, 135x3, 155x3, 165x3, 175x3 - top set felt like death, but the video I have of it I seem to go back up relatively fast. I may have had 180 in me. Maybe. we'll never know. Then 3 sets of 5 @125 to finish is off. The hunger was strong with those O_o

In between sets I was doing hang power snatches. 65x5 twice, 70x3/4/4, 75x3 and 85x1, then a floor power snatch @ 85, and a back off set of 8 high hang muscle snatches @ 35. Just working that good groove I found today.

Moved on to my low incline DB presses and rows. 30x15, 35x10, 40x6, then I tried 45s, got 2 reps and my left shoulder kind of caved/misgrooved, and there was no saving that rep without hurting something, so I figured I was done. Did a set of 15 with 20lbs one side at a time, then an extra 8 on the left just to keep working that motor pattern.

I then did 15 minutes on an old old stair-stepper like machine that didn't even have HR handles... not a fan. My stride length is so different on both sides I was a wobbly mess when I wasn't holding on. Hey, I sweat. I'm kind of hoping that forcing myself to use the machines instead of avoiding them will eventually correct that odd pattern I got? Maybe I'm just making it worse.

I then found an ab crunch machine that wasn't used (so many people there!) and did 75lbx x12, 80lbs x10, 80lbs x6, 45x10, and finished with some of those PVC pipe mobilizations and OMG those were targetting EXACTLY where that upper back tightness usually settles. So yep, buying a PVC pipe is on my todo list now.

krokador

canadianlbs wrote: »

someone else that i like on youtube was matt hsu of upright health. solid physio info, and my kind of sense of humour. right now i'm in a state where the last thing i need is any extra mobility, so i'm more of an eric cressey girl.

I watched something today about pelvic tilt/SI joint position, and the inability to fire the glutes med/glutes max because of an anterior pelvic tilt (I think). Is it possible that that could be a part of the issue? If I dig into my memory, you were having issues with feeling the squat right, before this whole odyssey into rehabbing. Maybe it's all stemming from something really simple. Then again, I'm guessing the doctors you saw would've also seen that? But maybe they just weren't looking at it. Figured I'd mention it just in case, though. Video was about a way to reset it in the proper position, so if you think that could help I'll send you a link

canadianlbs

^^^ if it was hsu, i may have seen it. my acquaintance with him stems from back then and research into exactly that. he seems to have an fai fix to peddle, which doesn't invalidate him for me but it does mean i see him as a bit more of a niche practitioner than when i first came across him.

idk. i'm having a day of 'tired of being poked and prodded and all the guessing' right now. gonna go do controlled face plants with my brand new theraband tape for a while and pretend none of it's happening.

my abductions are up to four pounds, for whatever that's worth. and i guess i'm . . . what? not even four weeks in yet. so at least that's on track for the goal of being able to handle eight pounds.

i did two - count them TWO - air squats yesterday just to try out my new improved muscle mass on that side, and that's why i'm so churlish and surly today. all the same old stuff hurts.

krokador

Last workout of the year, and it was... well, brutal, for one.

Started off with deadlift and OHP. That was fun. And tiring, since I worked up to heavy triples.
deadlift 95x6, 115x5, 135x3, 165x3, 185x3, 205x3, 215x3, 225x3

OHP 35x6, 45x5, 55x3. 65x3, 72.5x3, 80x3, 85x3, 92.5x3

Pretty sure the OHP is a PR. That 3rd rep got stuck about top of the head level and I probably leaned back a little to push it past the tipping point, along with a rather loud grunt of effort. Deadlift was not quite a max effort, but all 3 reps were slow and didn't quite lockout smoothly, so I left it there.

Then I hit another one of those "12 rounds of christmas" type of WODs. This one was a lot more gnarly than the previous one, though.

1 KB Turkish Get Up (/side)
2 Double KB Start-Stop Squat Clean Thruster
3 Single KB Goblet Lunge / Leg
4 Single Arm KB Snatch / Arm
5 Double KB Deadlift Burpee
6 KB Push Ups (Hands On Handles)
7 Double KB Push Press
8 Sit Outs
9 American KB Swing
10 Double KB Thruster
11 Double KB Hang Power Clean
12 Double KB Start-Stop Power Clean and Press

I used 2x25lbs DBs for the double KB moves, and a 30# KB for the single KB moves. And after the first 2 times going through the burpees, I regressed them to squat thrust deadlifts (so removed the push-up). Push-ups were all done on the floor cuz my left wrist is still not feeling awesome.

Wanna take a stab at how much time this took me? 1h00m10s
I tried to race through the last few exercises to make it in under an hour, but I had already taken that extra water break I shouldn't have and there was no salvaging it.

By the start of the round of 6 I was already like 20 minutes in and thinking to myself I could probably just quick and call it a day, considering the heavy weight I moved beforehand.

Towards the middle of the round of 10 I was just about ready to quit. Knowing I had 2 more round to run through was hell.

By the middle of the last round I was barely moving myself from one exercise to the other. I must've spent about 30-45s after the sitouts crawling myself to the DBs for the push presses. I'd already been 95% of the way though, so I wasn't about to give up.

Had not eaten a thing before hitting the gym, btw. I was feeling hungry before I even started but I forgot the granola bar I had in the car in the car, and didn't feel like re-braving the cold to get it. I had my trusted BCAAs with me and that's all that kept me fueled for this one. I am still shaky and wobbly from it, and it's been like 3 hours xD Obviously have had some food since. OMG I was starvingO.o

Definitely a good one to end the year on, and make me feel less guilty about pigging out tomorrow.

canadianlbs

minor check-in just so i don't dismiss even the crumbs of stuff that i'm doing, just on the basis that it's only crumbs.

i set up a resistance-band thing so i can do the full falls. twelve feet of heavy theraband stuff, looped round the cross-bar part of my futon frame and then over/under my shoulders like some kind of a toddler harness. it's not strong enough to hold all my weight, but it has made it at least so i can experience the motion of taking the fall all the way. i feel like a lot of this particular move is not a strength thing; there's also the sheer bodily bewilderment and reaction to doing something that nobody, in any stretch, could call 'functional'. this one is something you'd only ever be doing if you were doing this thing.

did them properly for the first time last night: 3x8 times. and maybe it's psychosomatic but somehow this morning i'm now ready to do them the same way without using the band. i still fall like a rock but at least i'm sort of kind of a bit in control, so there's that.

abductions still at four pounds. i'm fully able to do them by now; it's just that i still struggle like crazy to FIND my glute med. as opposed to glute min or tlf or who even knows what other muscles might be jumping in and doing it instead of the one that i'm trying to use.

i just checked date lines last night and got reminded by that that i only saw the doctor on december 12. so i guess i should cut myself and this process a little more slack, but i truly did think it had been a lot longer than that. i still have a little bit more than five weeks \o/