Sounds exhausting! Heh. I must admit when I do 20 swings followed by push-ups I need to sit down after. Heh. I need to be fitter. That foot injury’s really slowed me down.
There was something we did at the kettlebell workshop I did where you do 10 push-ups, 1 swing, 9 push-ups, 2 swings, 8 push-ups, 3 swings…until you get up to 1 push-up and 10 swings. Non stop. I was pleased on the day because finished first despite the fact I was older than most of them, and several of them were guys. It’s a good little workout if you only have 5 minutes.
Now that it’s warmed up a bit I decided to give running another try. I’ve run very little since the ankle sprain/accessory navicular injury though I managed to eek out a 2 miler a few weeks back, before the snow hit. I thought 3 miles would be a reasonable goal for today’s run.
There’s a series of 10Ks each year on Clapham Common (which isn’t far from me) and last year I ran two of them, and two 5Ks. It’s fun and they’re mainly on grass, which suits me as I don’t like to run on roads and pavements due to my crappy knees. I just got mailed this year’s dates and the first one is on March 7th, so six weeks away. I would like to give it a go, so today would be a good indication as to whether or not I would be able to.
I felt good enough that ended up running about 4.5 miles. Heart/lung function and overall stamina is still pretty decent (metabolic conditioning is another matter, however - hence me running out of puff on squats). Foot discomfort was low to moderate. It was there, but it wasn’t bad. Left and right ITBs both had minor twinges which went away quickly (no sharp knee pain though). I’ll just keep rolling those. Niggly leg/glute ham was there but nothing major. By far and away the worst thing was developing blisters under my right big toe and the ball of my foot, which suddenly kicked in after I had decided to run the extra lap (typical). I’ll stick some plasters or tape on them in future.
So, after that, I’m a lot happier and I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to do the 10K in March. I’ll obviously keep on workng on my hip and ankle mobility in the meantime.
Oh, and this was with some wicked inner thigh DOMs from yesterday’s kettlebell blast. I will have to do those more, given my inner thighs are a source of great dissatisfaction to me.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Sounds exhausting! Heh. I must admit when I do 20 swings followed by push-ups I need to sit down after. Heh. I need to be fitter. That foot injury’s really slowed me down.
There was something we did at the kettlebell workshop I did where you do 10 push-ups, 1 swing, 9 push-ups, 2 swings, 8 push-ups, 3 swings…until you get up to 1 push-up and 10 swings. Non stop. I was pleased on the day because finished first despite the fact I was older than most of them, and several of them were guys. It’s a good little workout if you only have 5 minutes.[/quote]
Cal, that sounds like a fun workout. Your conditioning must be pretty sound for you to have finished before the young 'uns.
They used to make us do stuff like that in MT and by the eigth round, there were no resounding kicks because everyone was wiped…
I’m starting to get pretty good with the 16kg KB…I did single arms swing with it yesterday.
I’m gunning for that 20…
Had my ART and Jesus it hurt. I expected it to, actually, but I think I earned a few new lines on my face from all the grimacing. My therapist, ominously named Dr Paine, (or Nicole) was a young lady with forearms like a stevedore who competed in the Ironman triathlon and was sympathetic to my sporting needs, so to speak. She duly ground her thumbs into my scalenes, subscaps, psoas, TFLs and calves (correctly deducing that I landed on the outside of my foot when I ran - which is true - because that was where it was tight). It will take more than a few sessions to right my wrongs but I feel much loser and more relaxed already. I’m going back next week - maybe I’ll take something to bite on next time.
Only posting in my own thread tonight - hands are freezing and it’s hard to type. The weather got cold again (no snow though, thank god).
Still deload week so training not too interesting. Body hurts from ART last night.
Can’t be arsed to type it all out. Main exercise was bench: (bar x 20, bar x 20), 25kg x 5, 32.5kg x 5, 40kg x 5.
Did some light (20,22,24kg) dumbell rows, very strict, some straight arm pulldowns, very strict, and some cable rows (30kg), very strict. That was all, really. Spent extra time on stretching.
I’m on the second day of protein shake fast - which may be contibuting to me being colder. If it’s like this tomorrrow I may say fuck it and eat something solid and hot (no, not cock, that doesn’t count. Chance would be a fine thing anyway).
I don’t have a scale - I use the one at the gym but no more than once a week (Saturday mornings usually).
Must confess I had a can of tuna with vinegar and nori at 8.30 - I find it impossible to do just liquids when it’s cold. Reason I do them though is that it’s easy to work out the calories. I’m not one for weighing food and estimating stuff but I know two scoops of protein is 220 calories.
how you feeling after your ART session? could you please spell that out for me, btw? i know what it IS, but not what it stands for. last time i had deep tissue work like that, my butt felt like hamburger. that had been squished around mind you. but it hurts soooo good when you are getting it done.
dear Cal, i wish you luck with the liquid food. i just couldn’t even attempt it. i know it’s short term but i am a complete wus when it comes to something like that, too extreme for me. enjoy your deload week.
how you feeling after your ART session? could you please spell that out for me, btw? i know what it IS, but not what it stands for. last time i had deep tissue work like that, my butt felt like hamburger. that had been squished around mind you. but it hurts soooo good when you are getting it done.
dear Cal, i wish you luck with the liquid food. i just couldn’t even attempt it. i know it’s short term but i am a complete wus when it comes to something like that, too extreme for me. enjoy your deload week.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
If it’s like this tomorrrow I may say fuck it and eat something solid and hot (no, not cock, that doesn’t count. Chance would be a fine thing anyway).[/quote]
Thanks for providing me entertainment as I lounge on the sofa.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
If it’s like this tomorrrow I may say fuck it and eat something solid and hot (no, not cock, that doesn’t count. Chance would be a fine thing anyway).[/quote]
Tal - Active Release Therapy. It involves breaking down scar tissue and adhesions in the fascia, so it’s not what you’d call a nice relaxing massage. The woman I went to dug her thumbs into bits of me while moving me around (so she’d have me move my arm from one point to another while digging her thumb into my subscapularis, and so forth).
I know it did something because a lot of my joints clonked and cracked when I had finished - obviously moving back to where they should be, heh.
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
If it’s like this tomorrrow I may say fuck it and eat something solid and hot (no, not cock, that doesn’t count. Chance would be a fine thing anyway).[/quote]
Thanks for providing me entertainment as I lounge on the sofa. :)[/quote]
Hahaha! Ditto that.
FYI - semen only has 5 calories. So its really a negative food like celery.
I want ART! my calves…whigne
Cal, do you know how I can help get my hip flexors be less tight? I foam roll and stretch, but it doesn’t seem to help.
I wish I did. Mine are as tight as violin strings. I stretch (lunge-stretch sorta thing, cobbler stretch, etc) and roll but, therapies like ART aside, I think the only thing that would really work for me would be to get a job that didn’t involve sitting all day.
Today was deload squat day. I can’t be arsed to go into detail about my three sets of five with an empty bar (lame). I did some 60kg rack pulls, both straight leg and sumo style. Sumo felt better on my back. Pins were set just below my kneecap. Didn’t do a lot else beyond stretch.
Still on a very limited diet. I’ve added caffeine pills (this is mostly to stop me falling asleep at my desk - I get very sleepy at work) and rapsberry ketones which seemed to do something - I felt quite energetic on my lunchtime walk and walking back to the tube station (2 miles) after work. My waist is still 29 inches though. It’s pissing me off. When I was a teen (I reached my adult height at 14) I had a 24 inch waist. I’ve obviously built some obliques since then but really, I should be able to get it down to 26. Or at least 27 anyway. I’m going to have to do something drastic, methinks. Meh.
Cal, do you know how I can help get my hip flexors be less tight? I foam roll and stretch, but it doesn’t seem to help.
[/quote]
Strengthening your glutes is going to be the thing that helps your hip flexors STAY loose. You can stretch them all you want, but if the antagonist muscle isn’t strong enough to “pull” them back the other direction, then they will tighten right back up.
I am not sure if you remember the pics I posted in my thread about my SUPER tight forearms and limited wrist mobility. My forearms (flexors) are SO TIGHT and the tops of my forearms (extensors) are SO WEAK, that no matter how much I stretch my flexors, they go RIGHT back to being tight because my extensors aren’t strong enough to KEEP my forearm stretched. Make sense? =D
29" is still appreciable(and healthy)