Alexus' Adventure in Wonderland

Training
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Upscale - I’m really looking forward to the day I can finally pay someone else to have a go at my ART.

Masch - The split used to be standard technique for catching cleans and snatches. Then people discovered that with heel raise they could fit their ass down that bit lower under the bar in the squat stance which enabled them to lift more weight. I think these days people only split stance when they have trouble with the squat stance. I still get that feeling of watching something magic happen that I don’t quite understand with split catching. I’ve lost that feeling with squat catching these days. Since I can (sort of) do it I suppose.

I can’t split / lunge because my toes don’t bend back from the ball of my foot. I went to my doc the other day to let her know about my move so I can take my notes with me. She looked at the x-rays again… She said that I will have trouble with dorsiflexing my right foot because of the calcaneus / talus fusion. I will have trouble dorsiflexing my left foot because the tibia and fibula have fused down by the ankle. She said that the forefoot of both is okay under x-ray, though. So in theory… I should be able to get that crazy good monkey feet flexibility in my forefoot :slight_smile: I will work really very hard on this and hope to split one day!!

I should be able to get subsidized physiotherapy in NZ :slight_smile:

I have done a little bit of front squatting. Just a little bit, though. Not seriously trained them since the RSR. I think I might get some proper coaching after my move. Along with a proper program. Until then… I’m mostly focusing on rehab stuffs and mobility. I should do them more regularly with light weights, though.

Minimal - I found a bunch of vids of my new gym :slight_smile:

i think it might be a bit wasted on me :-/

oh wells. guess i’ll have to get a lot stronger :-/

kmc - i’ve seen quite a few people training in casts. guess that is why, because they can’t practice their sport. did you enjoy lifting back when you did wrestling??

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TRAINING (yesterday)

Basically had the day off. Went to the gym and spent a while on rolling / stretching / mobility. That is all.
Felt really very wonderful after that. I do wish I could get my ass into gear so I could spend an hour on this upon waking. Realistically… That isn’t ever going to happen.

TRAINING (today)

  • Bodybalance.

Nice mental deload. A chick in front of me is obviously into this yoga business. I have a better understanding of what you can do with the lotus pose and childs pose.

  • Rolling.

  • Oly Lifting.

  • Snatch.

Working on keeping my shoulders down and back and letting my elbows rise up as I finish the bloody pull. Things turn to shit @27.5kg. Need lots more practice with the stick / bar until this becomes automatic. Also need more strength in my lats.

  • Clean and Jerk.

Worked up to 35kg. Need to practice cleans more so I’m faster under and not jumping forwards. Front squat feeling okay but not so happy about diving under the bar. Squat jerks get higher as the weight gets heavier. Need more practice with light weights.

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Alexus: New gym looks awesome. I’m excited for all those upcoming changes for you. Re: mobility work: an hour every morning is unreasonable to expect of yourself, but daily work even for 10 to 20 minutes can make a difference.

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Lol. So your not a morning person? I think I have asked you about this, ut do you like coffee. With the weather warming up, Im aiming to do 3-4 hour sessions in the morning for mobility only. Plan is to wake up, make coffee, drink coffee, and roll.

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Nadia - I basically do spend about an hour on my soft tissue work every day. It is just that I do it before training (so I have the mobility to hit the Oly positions comfortably). So I walk around creaky all day… Then do my soft tissue work and feel wonderfully mobile… Then proceed to give all the muscles a hard time… And wake up stiff again the next day. I might experiment with waking up 10 minutes earlier and spending just 10 minutes. If I discover it is worth it I might just be able to motivate myself to get out of bed a bit earlier… Possibly… Perhaps.

Update on MobilityWOD:

I’ve become a bit dubious about it. I think I might just focus in on whatever I need to for Oly Lifting. Look at it as a resource for particular things… I thought the movements were movements that everyone should be able to do comfortably… But some stuff that someone said over on the injury forum has me rethinking that.

TRAINING

Best training session in a really long time.

  • Snatch

I got 40kg. I was pissed off at some guys watching themselves deadlift on the platform mostly because they had piled on lots of little plates including 2 sets of green bumpers so there weren’t any green bumpers left for me to put on the Oly bar. I thought I only put 35kg worth of little plates on the women’s bar and I gave a good yell and I frigging got it! It felt less ugly than last time I got it but I suppose I can’t be sure.

Then I had to lower it gently. Which was surprisingly fine.

It wouldn’t go up again.

Oly dude said ‘it is all in your head’. Which is what he said last week… This time I see that that is true. Had probably 5 more attempts at that weight then bailed when I bailed forwards a little hard on my knee (which took a couple minutes to come right).

  • Cleans

I got 40kg. 42.5kg wouldn’t go up. I farted a little on one try and then got a bit self-conscious :frowning: All in my head again.

  • Jerks

From the uprights. Triples up to 30kg and then I don’t get my ass under it properly. Need to practice more triples @25kg and get things more reliable then take more gradual weight increases.

Best-est thing…

Turns out the chick I got talking to while doing that hip flexor stretch is the wife of the guy who trains with the guy who used to compete in Oly Lifting. I see him around quite a bit… She turned up as I was close to finishing with their son who must be around 15 or something… Nobody else was there… And it became a family environment.

That is what I need. A family environment. I’ve struggled for a while now (ever since starting) with the sexualized atmosphere. Guess it is worse in a university gym. I guess powerlifting and strongman might be a bit more inclined to be like that… In that kind of environment I think I would come to feel a whole heap less self conscious and eventually get comfortable getting a spot.

:slight_smile:

  • Planks

30 sec - unweighted, 10kg, 20kg
60 sec - 25kg x3.

Seemed to have a little trouble staying upright on one of my cleans so maybe this will help.

Yes. I should have done my squats…

  • Facepulls with resistence band. set of 15. set of 10…
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You will need to elaborate more on the sexualized atmosphere?
Do guys hit on you? Perve on you?

I try and respect everyone when Im at the gym. That includes no staring at girls working out in yoga pants etc. I think thats only fair. Although one time, all of the thursday morning cardio circuit class(about 15 forty year old females) all gathered around to watch me attempt a PB in my deadlift. I hope they were impressed with the power of my hips!!

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farted myself while squating last week. And some cute guy was working not too far from me… bah, deal with it. I must admit, it screws with my head game though. Just saying it happens to all of us. Glad the new gym feels more “comfy”.

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[quote]alexus wrote:
Update on MobilityWOD:

I’ve become a bit dubious about it. I think I might just focus in on whatever I need to for Oly Lifting. Look at it as a resource for particular things… I thought the movements were movements that everyone should be able to do comfortably… But some stuff that someone said over on the injury forum has me rethinking that.

[/quote]

Yeah, after the first few I just couldn’t get into them. What thread are you referring to?

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alexus, great to see you doing well with your training in here.

Yesterday I noticed a low box in the weight room that isn’t usually there. So I tried some box jumps and was quite scared of them! There is definitely something about a two footed jump that brings out the fear factor in me too.

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That gym looks pretty cool, and I always thought it was prerequisite to drop ass while squatting, I believe it gets you out of the hole better.

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Bird - hey, you musta snuck in there. No. I am not a morning person. Really very not. Get my second wind around 11pm or midnight and prefer to sleep around 2-3am… Which leaves me getting up around 10.30-11am for preference. Hope you enjoy your morning rolling, though. If I didn’t need to work until early afternoon I’m sure I’d get into it. As for the sexualized atmosphere…

Some stuff that I won’t bother anyone with… But mostly just a room full of mostly 18-30 year old guys, I guess. Who are used to having the heavy weights room as guy space with respect to their conversations and macho interaction / bravado / swearing and carrying on. Not all of them, tis true, but a fair amount of the time. I’m sure they were impressed by the power of your hips!

nimain - I guess if you don’t do that sometimes you aren’t trying hard enough lolz. That is where my i-pod comes in handy. If I can’t hear me I didn’t make a sound :slight_smile: Haven’t been to the new gym yet… Moving on the 10th… Trying to get into the spirit of it is helping me embrace my move, though. Having a workable gym space (with a platform) really is very important to me.

Pch - it turned into a pretty long thread…

15th post down. Starting with: ‘I VERY MUCH DISAGREE…’

kimba - nice to see you around :slight_smile:

matty - wind power ftw!!

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I think I hurt my knee in training on Sunday night. Lost my balance a bit forwards on a snatch and tried to rebalance and ended up falling forwards and smashing my knees into the platform before letting the bar fall behind. My right knee felt a bit of a sharp stabby pain so gave it a couple minutes then moved it through a ROM a couple times and it felt pretty much okay… So proceeded to cleans…

Then Monday morning at work it didn’t feel so good. Bit of a stabby pain on some movements. Got really worried I’d torn my ACL or something (I really don’t know very much about knee injuries. Went up to the ER and the nurses whose job it is to send you home unless you insist on seeing a doc managed to get me to go away… I told them I was worried I’d torn my ACL so they did some ACL test and it was fine… They said the pain would have been worse at time of injury if I’d ripped it, too. And massive bruising rather than the fairly minor bruising / swelling that I had.

Took today off work…

Feels a bit more focal now. It is just inside the kneecap… Pushing my knee out or in doesn’t upset it, though… It mostly just feels unstable and a bit of a catchy almost stabby pain on some movements. Can’t use it to step up even a very small step… A bit worried about the ligament / cartilage on the inside…

They reckon they can only do an MRI - but won’t unless things are pretty bad because they are expensive (public health service)… But my ankles are crap… I really can’t afford to stuff my knee. Don’t know whether I should go back and insist on seeing a doc for peace of mind… Maybe… Perhaps… Probably being a hypercondriac :frowning:

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TRAINING (yesterday)

Off. Trying to rest my knee.

TRAINING (today)

Upper body. Trying to rest my knee.

  • Rolling

  • Chin Ups - (5x1)x5. From the Reebok stepper so not quite a full ROM. Not much rest between these singles, though. Aiming not to take arms off the bar. Only needed to for the 2 or 3 last reps on the 2 or 3 last sets.

  • Bench.

Yes I know that this uses legs but whatever…
20kg 1x10 much smoother movement than I remember the bar being
25kg 1x5
30kg 5x5. Paused. Pausing for 3 seconds on the later couple sets because this felt easy, really. Just really didn’t want to ask anyone to spot me…

  • Dumbbell bent over rows

5kg 1x10 both sides
10kg 1x5
15kg 4x5
20kg 1x5

Explosive up fairly swift lower. Mostly interested in how much I can forcefully pull while holding my back properly. Heaviest dumbbells in the stupid little circuit room!!! Woo hoo!!!

I think I freaked out a couple chicks with my ‘yes I will kill you or at least die trying’ facial expression. I hoped they felt silly doing their 1,000000 reps of moving the arms around movements with the 1 and 2kg’s… To the point where it motivates them to… Try.

  • Facepulls

4x15.

  • Planks

30 sec unweighted
30 sec 10kg
30 sec 15kg - liking these for activation
60 sec 20kg x 3.

  • Press

Probably shouldn’t have done these. Knee didn’t feel okay. Tried to keep them strict… But my strict press has turned to crap…

20kg 1x5
25kg 3x5. Needed to push-press a couple of the later reps after the first set.
20kg 2x5.

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Good stuff but sorry your knee is feeling bad.
Regarding the chicks…I tend to think they look at us, assume we’re weird or athletes or something basically alien and what we do doesn’t apply to them. Never mind.

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Oh Lexy, your poor knee! Mine started hurting me this morning a little, just to keep yours company. I don’t have much advice as this is the first time I’ve ever had a knee problem.

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Alexus- Because Im a semi pro soccer player, I fall on my knees all the time. By the sounds of things you probably have a bit of bruising. Suck it up missy. 2 days rest and then get back into it!

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Caught up on that thread, some interesting points in there. Sometimes I forget to wade through the BS to questions the physiology when it comes to stuff like WOD. After working up to episode 3 my hamstrings started freaking out, like random pain at odd times, so I just stopped doing them. Occasionally it would be nice to just find one all knowing source, but I just don’t think that’s going to happen.

I had a class once where the professor was on the far end of subjectivism. I occasionally feel that way about the entire fitness industry. It’s all made up shit and there is no generalizability between each individuals experience. Why can’t anyone actually tell me the best way? There is no best way.

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[quote]alexus wrote:

kmc - i’ve seen quite a few people training in casts. guess that is why, because they can’t practice their sport. did you enjoy lifting back when you did wrestling??[/quote]

I love how this log is so serrrirous

lexie that is a very interesting question

I went to a bunch of colleges
D3- we had no weight room

so we had to do it 10 miles away at another college
usually we did a bunch of cleans or power cleans
and then ran back to where we went to school

later - I hated it- it was a necessary evil
but I got to like it
I went allot when I was-
on crutches
on the injury list-
red-shirted

and after college when I did greco I liked it allot
when I saw some benefits to doing some things
and I got pleasure from getting ok at olifts

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[quote]kmcnyc wrote:

I love how this log is so serrrirous

[/quote]

HA! Lex is a thinkers lifter. Which is good because she does all the thinking for me! Thanks Lex!

Ack! The knees!! I hope its nothing, ice that baby.

Btw, I think its commendable you spend 1 hour with the soft tissue work. I still suck with that. I should get better. My PT guy spends 2 hours a day stretching and he’s pretty limber that man.

I like a family lifting environment too, but I won’t lie - I do like peacocking around the boys (and girls?) when I’m lifting (or at least I did when I was a more impressive lifter). The gym is like a second home, it should be a place where you feel comfortable being yourself. Luckily the iron never changes, so no matter what gym you’re lifting at being under the bar will always give that familiar feeling.

Nice work on the training, girlie! 40 on the snatch - woot woot! I like how you fooled yourself. Looks like it is in your head! And good work on the upper body lifting.

Hilarious re: “1,000000 reps of moving the arms around movements with the 1 and 2kg’s” - Metal masturbation. hee hee

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juts wanted to say that I doubt I’ve encouraged the women to lift in my gym. I even had the comment “I don’t want to look like that” pointing at me, while talking to the trainer. The PL gym is where I go to see people, both men and women lift.