Adarqui's Journal

thanks man! ya it sucks but, sometimes it works out for the better.

pc!

Thanks man! Yea, stuff like this is frustrating. One good thing is that i’ve been able to run slowly through most of it, keeping some level of fitness. Probably kept quite a bit of fitness tbh… Running a sub3 1k & low 5 mile while injured is a good sign i guess. I’ll get a big boost once i’m back to 100%, just having that confidence that I can really push it without tweaking something, will be significant. Hope those days come soon 8|

Really sucks about your back man. Stuff like this is part of the game unfortunately. Maybe some of the stuff I did recently could also help.

A few recent things I did which i felt really putting some “good pressure” on my sacral spine/low back/hips was dead hang ng pullup holds (while moving my trunk around gently to cause some cracks/pressure), and the same technique while holding the top of a dip. Both for “as long as safely possible”. Kinda chiropractic.

The thing that really helped my glute/hamstring/sacral spine the most, yesterday, I feel was simply doing this: basically a lat-like stretch, holding on to some handles, but keeping my legs very straight, low angle, just hanging on and relaxing while my hamstrings/glutes/back stretched. Eventually both of my glutes started pulsating, but much more so on the injured side. It started pulsating very intense, right in the injured area. I held this stretch for close to 10 minutes, arms completely numb. Shifted around a few times to change the angle a bit but just non-stop stretch.

(so kinda like this but some handles and very straight legs, and different angles)

i did a bunch of other stuff too… but, that triggered the exact area in my glute, from the spine to the insertion/hamstring origin, to pulsate like crazy. So I think that probably had the biggest effect.

The “pulsating” sensation has always interested me. When I injure stuff and do long holds, that’s usually what happens, and much more so in the injured side than the healthy side.

pretty cool.

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^^ long story short, I might have worked some magic on myself. I got really annoyed at the injury and just tried to stretch the living fu*k out of it - which I knew could be a very bad idea. This was up there with the longest & most intense i’ve ever stretched.

holding stretch positions for 5-10 minutes and such is very difficult. you have to focus so hard on just staying relaxed & calm. really controlling your breathing, trying to just melt into it, and then hold with no protective tension.

could be a David Goggins moment lol. He’s well known for 2-3 hour stretch sessions every night. I def don’t want to get into that… But sometimes your body is just urging you to do some intense stretching, it feels like an instinct. Apparently he fixed his jacked up body (from stress/training) by really committing to stretching.

when I was stretching yesterday, I wasn’t thinking about the injured area actually healing… I just wanted it to release it’s grip for a while and fucking relax.

would be amazing if it’s fixed now.

pc!

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Thanks, I’m going to give it a try…gently! Work my way into it slowly. I ran a mile today, and it flared my back up some again. It does not like quick repetitive movements.

Hope you found your fix!

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Loved the stretch tutorial. I’m working on stretching sore or immobile areas after reading that. Especially my feet. I went barefoot all day today outside. Working on my feet was my reasoning. I’ve got a heel that hurts like hell in the mornings and after sitting. Once I get up and walk some it doesn’t hurt so bad. Currently both my heels are aching.

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I’ll cross my fingers Adarqui, and hope you’ve recovered yourself.

Good job doing it and explaining it.

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Dude

I’m not a fan of this guy after hearing he cheated in the crossfit games, but he puts some jems out occasionally. This video is one of them.

That back supported forward forward position deep squat gave me immediate relief. Similar to what you described above. After 2 two minute stretches, 90% of the pain was gone. 2 hours later, I still feel just as good.

I actually like all the moves in this vid.

My back is healed, I just have all the tightness left. I’ve been missinterpreting that for it still being injured.

:+1:

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ah damn that sucks. heel pain can be a real bitch. i used to have crazy heel spurs/pain when i was like ~12 year old hoop addict. i dont think i did anything, just kept hooping. i remember it was pretty awful during some basketball camps i went too, it sucked.

one weird thing i do occasionally is walk around barefoot on rocks (small round gardening rocks) in the back yard. lol. i walk around very gentle and when i hit a spot, i just stand there for a bit. sometimes it’s worked magic. other times it hasn’t done anything. but the times it did work, was awesome. tbh not sure if i’d do it if my heel hurt real bad. most of the stuff i did it for was when the middle/front/side of my foot hurt. the rock technique feels like some deep tissue MFR. it also seems pretty natural. actually maybe i’d try it if my heel hurt. everything is connected down there.

i think i’ve actually heard of people doing the “rock walking” technique too… can’t recall where. but to me it makes sense. just have to be careful obviously. i’m pretty light, so it’s probably a bit easier. it’s incredible how painful it can be initially, then just like normal mfr techniques, you melt into it. that’s always a good feeling.

pc!

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damn awesome man! I really like the long relaxed holds, especially if you “pin yourself down” with your bodyweight. like in that vid, you’re just using your weight to cause everything to relax. it’s way different than “pulling yourself into a stretch”, or “pulling a limb into a stretch” etc.

ya i like that one the most in the vid. the other movements are more like “exercises”.

i’d personally have to be careful with that squat one because when i do stuff that “support my weight” with knees very flexed, my popliteus (or both) freak the fu*k out. it’s nuts.

one thing i can’t do for example, is kneel down then sit back on my heels. if i do that for even just a few seconds, i risk causing some weird reaction in there. it feels so damn good at the time though, that’s what pisses me off about it. maybe one day i’ll slowly work my way up to tolerating some form of it. i’ve been doing it slightly recently, but nowhere near sitting on my heels. more like, supported on my knees but also hands down on the ground also, then sitting back a bit. that’s as much as i can do without flaring up the back of my knee or hamstring tendons. come to think of it, the hamstring tendon flare up is the craziest reaction of it.

hoping you found some new stuff to accelerate that recovery. nice man!

gn!

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Much appreciated man!

So far so good. But still have to be careful, haven’t done anything very intense since “the fix”. Kinda scared to, even though I feel so good. hehe. But ya, i’ve tested positions that felt like they were “ripping” the area, many times since “the fix”, and it’s felt completely fine. crazy.

pc!

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very quick log.

this morning’s run… legs felt insanely loose/relaxed. in fact, i was going as slow as possible and still hit 10:0X min/mi. That’s actually pretty nuts. Recent sessions at the same effort were > 11 easily. Evening session wasn’t as good, legs felt heavier, 11:0X… but that morning session, legs were crazy loose. I love that feeling. Need to figure out how to always have that “snappy loose feeling”. I imagine lots of elite runners, jumpers, sprinters etc experience that often.

06/03/2019:

  • hamstrings sore
  • morning “looseness” was amazing

09:15 AM: run + bw + light stretch

run: light: 25 min ::: (grass/dirt/rocks)

bw:

  • strong
  • 3-5 sec paused dead hang chinups: BW x 7
  • full dips: BW x 8
  • dead hang ng pullup holds: BW x failure
  • dip holds at the top: BW x failure

light stretch:

  • very relaxed, loose, fairly quick tho
  • also got some pulsating

08:30 PM: very light: 39 min ::: (concrete)

12:30 AM: stretch

  • havent done it yet… plan on doing 30-45 min tho.
  • up way too late but whatever :<

gn!

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feel ok. a bit bloated from last night’s rice + saute’d peppers dinner.

feel great after the evening session + dinner. had turmeric/egg pasta (a kind of pasta), sitting really well in my stomach. very nice. the one in the middle:

06/04/2019:

08:00 PM: run + bw + light stretch

run: HR anomaly or watch glitch? wtf? HR slowly went up 1 BPM for the entire run - was blowing my mind during the run lmfao. ::: light: 36 min ::: (grass/dirt/rocks)

how crazy is this. i was trying to maintain the same effort, stay very relaxed etc… and my HR kept going up 1 beat over the course of the entire run:

bw:

  • weak
  • 3 sec paused dead hang ng pullups: BW x 6
  • full dips: BW x 6

light stretch:

  • just a few light stretches

11:55 PM: stretch

  • about to do a long stretch session

I’m trying to figure it out - but can’t. What is the general framework for your running progression?

some speed tonight.

felt pretty good. felt ok after. felt a little tightness/pain in the injured area… got annoyed. been stretching the fuck out of it. feh.

06/05/2019:

09:50 AM: run + bw

run: light: 13 min ::: (grass/dirt/rocks)

bw:

  • 5 sec paused dead hang ng pullups: BW x 6
  • full dips: BW x 8
  • dead hang ng pullup holds at the bottom: BW x failure
  • full dip holds at the top: BW x failure

07:30 PM: just 400m @ 68 before getting kicked off the track

decent. 4:2X pace for most of it.

warmup strides good too.

12:00 AM: idiotic stretching

  • annoyed

one thing so far before i sign off: standing ground touch (hamstring stretch) x ~15 minutes non stop. hamstrings/glutes spazzing out insane by the end. triggers a sensation directly in the injured area (glute/hamstring/sacral spine). i probably actually injured it by doing stuff like that. heh.

gn!

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decided to do lunges.

sat with wide squat posture on a physioball while computing today, to try and target my sacral spine/hips. hit it really hard actually.

i sit on the ball when working/coding but normally with shit posture. forcing a wide squat+good posture on it really stresses the hips/sacral spine hard. feels good and bad.

06/06/2019:

09:00 PM: lunges: 15 min (400 total)

  • 0.24 mi 17s /mi 4s

can’t move.

06/07/2019:

  • extreme glute/hamstring soreness from lunges (both sides). hehe.

if i feel better tmw i’ll lunge again. if not, will probably lunge sunday. if not, will probably lunge monday.

i’m such a stubborn nutbag.

still can’t move. but legs feel strong.

06/08/2019:

  • extreme glute/hamstring/quad soreness. both sides.

sup man.

whachu mean? i’ve been injured for 4 months, just doing what i can to keep as much fitness as possible without causing more damage.

pc!

Totally - been following. But before - volume then speed? Speed then volume? Etc. what kind of mechanisms besides running when you can’t run, etc.

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Also - recovery plan?