Looks like some of you girls know me better than I know myself. I was premenstrual lol. Started my unscheduled deload a bit earlier than I would have scheduled it, but that was at least some of what was going on.
veggie - yep, i’m thinking my squat will improve. i’m hoping that this will improve my ankle dorsiflexion so that one day i can squat with barefeet. or with regular oly shoes if barefeet is too much to hope for. my hip is better than it has ever been now that i’ve stopped trying to stretch it (except for squat stretches or other stretches that also involve glute activation). just needed to stop pissing it off, basically. conceptual change helped a lot - thinking of it as a muscular balance issue rather than a hip flexors being too tight issue. thanks very much for that.
nadia - i’m feeling more optimistic with each day that i’m working on my feet. i put this off for so long because i really thought things were going to get a lot worse before they started to get better. wasn’t sure that i had the mental fortitude for the ‘worse’. things aren’t getting worse, though. i can’t believe it. keep waking up in the middle of the night and grabbing my feet. it is like i have new feet. not good as new. but getting there.
debra - i’d be lying if i didn’t say that part of why i’m sorting out my feet is so that my calves and quads will grow. but yeah, movement is important, too. movement is just so hard to quantify.
brute - thanks. it is hard for me to do things that are good for my body, too. sometimes i’m not sure what i should do… sometimes i think i’m doing something good, but i’m actually not… sometimes i think i know what i should be doing - but i don’t do it for whatever reason.
TRAINING:
conceptual breakthrough:
when i hurt my feet i was in a wheelchair for 3 months (breaking both feet at the same time sucks pretty bad). then spent 1 week getting physio as an inpatient so that i could stand and mobilize a little on crutches. kept up outpatient physio and took another 3 months before i was able to ditch the crutches. so… i needed to learn how to walk.
i thought i was supposed to heel strike. impact on the heel then transfer weight through to the ball of my foot and launch from there. i thought heel striking hurt because my ankles weren’t able to absorb the shock as well as other peoples. i thought that i was having trouble transfering the weight to the ball because of my mid-foot breaks and my lack of ankle dorsiflexion. i thought i couldn’t launch from the ball because of the midfoot breaks. then of course the clawing to my toes (over time) further prevented my being able to transfer weight to the ball and launch.
but we aren’t supposed to walk like that.
i’m walking like a stealth ninja in my vibrams. yes i look ridiculous and i’m slow. striking on the ball. transfering weight back to the heel. launching from the ball. my toes are visibly straighter when resting than they were 3 days ago. my arches want to be stretched - feels so good! walking doesn’t hurt anymore. yes, my feet (and leg) muscles are weak. strengthening them is trivial, though. compared to the joint pain i thought i was going to have to suffer through.
i can jump! launching and landing on the balls of my feet.
one day… i’ll be able to run. i never thought that would be possible for me. it really is like i have new feet. i can’t believe i didn’t do this years ago.
my calves are so sore! this is progress since before i couldn’t figure out how to activate them - thought i couldn’t because i lacked the dorsiflexion. the big ropy thing on the outside of my quad (especially down by the knee) is pissed off at my foam roller.
