Dani's Rebel Log

[Moonflower]

I usually do some version of this:

How to Rehab Muscle Strains and Tears

This is the worst case scenario kind of rehab, more for complete tears. Does this need to happen for pull/strains? No. But what does work is the overall mindset and theory behind this: light weight, high reps to rehab and heal. Whenever I tweak a muscle or strain something I figure out how to apply the same mindset to the injury and I usually can get away with doing less actual work with fewer details to worry about than the article requires for more serious injuries.

My best success with this was in the summer of 2018 when a midsized farm tractor ran over my foot/leg and somehow didn’t break anything but pretty much smushed everything up really good and strained everything else. My ankle was hurting pretty good, but after the initial swelling went down I went to work on it after a couple days and started doing bilateral calf raises on the floor and tib raises, really just to take the ankle through the as much of the range of motion as I could for really high reps, I think I even started with partials on the calf raises and I remember doing a lot of greasing the groove-style as well with it–like 25 of each every hour throughout every day for a few weeks afterword. Worked pretty well for me, I have zero problems with it and haven’t since it initially healed after that accident. Took a minute for it to heal, but it healed pretty well.

Anyway. That’s my experience. Works for me, at least.

[Dani_Shugart]

@Moonflower

what does work is the overall mindset and theory behind this: light weight, high reps to rehab and heal.

This is great advice. I’ll give that episode a listen; I’ve enjoyed a few episodes of AOM but totally forgot about it!

I like to think about this quote every time an injury rears its ugly head:

“Injuries are the price we pay for the thrill of not having sat around on our asses.” - Mark Rippetoe

Somehow that makes me feel better.

@Moonflower

when a midsized farm tractor ran over my foot/leg and somehow didn’t break

That is insane! I can’t believe you didn’t break anything. What a testament to your bone strength and joint resilience. I bet muscularity had something to do with it too. Sounds like you were a lifter at the time, since you knew how to proceed with the calf and tib raises.

There was a famous CrossFitter, years ago, who got in a nasty car accident, and she was basically saved by her enormous traps. Here’s the story. So I get the impression that muscle has all sorts of preventative benefits.

@Moonflower

take the ankle through the as much of the range of motion as I could for really high reps, I think I even started with partials on the calf raises and I remember doing a lot of greasing the groove-style as well with it–like 25 of each every hour throughout every day for a few weeks afterword.

Really cool strategy. Thank you!!

[Dani_Shugart]

Hamstring is getting better already. Sitting down, staying seated too long and walking upstairs are mildly irritating, but this doesn’t seem bad, actually.

I won’t be sprinting any time soon, but I’m going to carefully try the strategy discussed above.

Today’s Upper Workout

• DB Bench

Ramped up to 40s, then did 3 sets of 8 with a controlled eccentric.

Tri-set:

• Seated Cable Row
• Lateral Raise
• Arnold Press

Went relatively light on all of them and didn’t really count reps. Since this is an area I haven’t been able to hit too consistently, the burn was intense and I milked it.

I need a gym with a T-bar row and more shoulder options. Might be time to start looking around again.

Superset:

• Straight Arm Pulldown
• Tricep Pulldown

Didn’t do anything for biceps today because they’re weirdly tight/sore from last week.

Random

And now I don’t feel so bad for sniffing my husband like a crack addict.

Also, this right here.

There are few things more intimate than being understood.

This is super funny to me…

[DoesTheHeavyLifting]

How could women not be affected by so many guys working so hard on behalf of her hormones and pheromones? (Cue moans. If too intoxicated, Old Spice suggests calling a friend so that you get home safely.)

[Dani_Shugart]

I prefer the sweat smell over the product smell.

[Andrewgen_Receptors]

@Dani_Shugart

I’m wondering what the timeline is for when I can start lifting again.

When it doesn’t hurt to do weights, IMO.

I have recurring hamstring problems. It’s never a tear, but I can just tell something is off for a few weeks/months. I just stop working them, then slowly get back into it with high reps when they start feeling okay again.

Best injury recovery I’ve seen, which is generally tendonitis/related, is performing lifts that dont hurt, targetting 50 reps per set. Once you can hit 50 reps, up weight and repeat the progression.
This has helped me with recovery, but it hasn’t been able to fix my hamstring issue entirely. Its just allowed me to train them longer in between injuries.

[Dani_Shugart]

@Andrewgen_Receptors

I have recurring hamstring problems. It’s never a tear, but I can just tell something is off for a few weeks/months. I just stop working them, then slowly get back into it with high reps when they start feeling okay again.

Oh man, I’m sorry to hear that. Yeah, like yours, this is definitely not a tear. But it sure does feel irritated in certain positions.

It’s right up in that high ham area that’s circled, so it almost feels more like a butt injury:

But then the aching kind of spreads downward into the long head of the biceps femoris at times. I don’t know what a professional would even be able to do for this, so I haven’t made any appointments. It’s not excruciating, just annoying.

@Andrewgen_Receptors

Best injury recovery I’ve seen, which is generally tendonitis/related, is performing lifts that dont hurt, targetting 50 reps per set. Once you can hit 50 reps, up weight and repeat the progression.

This sounds like a good idea with the right exercises. Outside of leg extensions though, I’m not sure what’s safe. I’m afraid of putting it in a stretched position. It would suck to test an exercise out, make it worse, and then take steps backward in recovery.

I kind of re-irritated it just by assembling a cabinet a couple days ago.

@Andrewgen_Receptors

This has helped me with recovery, but it hasn’t been able to fix my hamstring issue entirely. Its just allowed me to train them longer in between injuries.

DANG!! You know what though? I can relate, but maybe not to the same extent. I had this exact problem before in the same area – once from doing sprints during Crossfit in 2015, and another time from a completely different exercise. So I think hammies are just stupid and vulnerable for certain people. UGH.

Hope yours are feeling good right now.

[Friedrich]

I am out of hearts, so may I add, get better!

[Dani_Shugart]

Thank you! It’s well on the way to being recovered.

[Dani_Shugart]

Monday: Upper

Skipped back again. Scap area was ticked off from all the projects I did over the past week. More on that in a bit.

• Arnold Press
• Bench
• Lateral Raise
• Tricep Pulldowns
• Bicep Curls

The shoulder work feels novel still, and I’m getting massive pumps. There’s a little aching in the left shoulder joint, but I’ve upped my testosterone a bit and feel like I’m recovering a lot better. Also, just started a teeny 2.5 mg dose of Anavar to see if it helps with the nagging injuries. and being hotter.

Tuesday: Lower

This was interesting to navigate with the (recovering) high-ham strain. So just three lifts. I spent time in those burning, searing rep ranges. It felt safe enough but I definitely went to bed with some hamstring irritation.

• Walking Lunge

I took the tension out of the posterior chain and placed it on the quads by keeping my torso upright. Joints felt so rusty on that first set.

• Leg Extension

Went to failure on 3-4 sets. Didn’t feel like counting reps so… I didn’t.

• Hip Thrust Machine

Used the Bret Contreras booty band thing and started with leg abductions using a posterior pelvic tilt. Then for the actual hip thrusts, kept the load lower (to avoid recruiting the hams on accident) and just did staggered-stance burn out sets to failure. Kept the booty band around the thighs the whole time.

Today: Snow Workout

Shoveled sidewalks and walked two dogs separately. Might be doing that again this evening.

My Holiday Traditions

When you marry an only child with an ailing parent, and you can’t leave your elderly dogs at a kennel to visit your own parents, you end up doing holidays alone sometimes. And while that sounds horrifically sad to normies, I take great pleasure in not participating in most traditions. Developing JOMO is the secret to life satisfaction.

When I was a kid, we did have huge holiday gatherings. So I experienced that before, and glad I did. But I’m not chained to that. Most traditions are just peer pressure from dead people.

So, my secluded holidays are sacred. It’s kind of a whole vibe. Typically I work on a house project or two or three, blast podcasts back to back, and dial in my diet pretty hard. One year, I took a series of scandalous photos for Chris’s 50th birthday. And so, when I do thanksgiving alone, I make a goal of maximum productivity and beautiful moments.

This year, my holiday week kicked off with building (assembling really, but my dogs think I built it) a huge cabinet.

I lined up a million different pieces and hardware. Kipper was so confused.

SO. MUCH. PACKAGING.

And five hours later, here it is. I only had to undo and redo one step.

Then onto the next project…

The cabinet replaced the bookshelf, so the bookshelf had to move. But the place where I wanted to move it had a gallery wall on it, which meant I needed to remove the pictures, then patch and repaint the wall.

The before of this area.

And the after.

I also had to reposition the mirror, which was freaking heavy, and that meant patching and repainting the wall behind it as well. This room glows the hour before sunset:

I learned that most plastic wall anchors are crap and that you just need to have metal mollies on hand at all times. And I believe this so fervently that if I ever had a daughter, her name would be Metal Molly. (A good sign I wasn’t meant to have kids.)

Then I decided that this room needed curtains:

So I did that too. And now I’m wondering why it never had them.

To stay with the non-conformist theme, we don’t ever have a Christmas tree, but we do have a ficus tree. So that’s where I put presents.

These curtain rods were insanely hard to install. Why? Because about an inch behind the drywall is metal. This, according to ChatGPT, is called a header. So after several attempts, two trips to Home Depot, ChatGPT steering me the wrong way, and some serious drywall damage (that had to be patched and repainted), I figured out how to solve the problem, and you’d never guess what did the trick…

Metal Mollies!

So the husband is stuck in Texas a bit longer due to bad weather, and I’m still finding little projects here and there. I adore being married but a little dose of alone-time doesn’t suck either… if you know how to create your own traditions.

[SvenG]

This is a fantastic post!

Good on you.

[simo74]

So much work and looking great. Well done you.

[Dani_Shugart]

@SvenG

This is a fantastic post!

Thank you for the sweet comment and for reading it! That was a long post!

[Dani_Shugart]

@simo74

So much work and looking great.

Thank you so much! I really savor this kind of work.

[Dani_Shugart]

Full-ish Body Friday

I tested the hamstring with lying leg curls (just one plate on a selectorized machine) and it immediately made the pain worse. So, can’t do those yet. I might’ve taken steps backward in recovery, but still grateful this isn’t a torn ham.

Hip Thrusts
Hip Abductions
Leg Extensions

Decided not to risk lower body with anything else.

Arnold Press
Lateral Raise
Incline Bench

I could’ve hit arms but my body was done. No back work until my scapula pain stops flaring up.

Testosterone Thoughts

Turns out my nurse practitioner is only bumping my test to 1.25 mg a day from 1 mg, which is basically nothing, despite how low my testosterone was when it was last tested.

My testosterone November 2025: 12 ng/dL

According to this article:

a total plasma level of under 25 ng/dl in women under 50 years old is considered deficient .

Well, mine was less than half that. So, with the help of my husband, I’m strategically and cautiously boosting it. The goal isn’t just to raise it enough it so that I’m not hurting all the time, it’s to bring me up to mid-normal or high-normal; places I’ve never been before.

I started getting my testosterone measured in my early 30s. I’m now in my early 40s, and my testosterone has never not tested low. It’s always been on the low end of normal.

So here’s a list of tentative adjustments:

1. Luteal-Phase Boost

Dosage and schedule: Chris will inject me with 7 mg (or as close to that as he can get) about 7 days before shark week.

Here’s why: The week before my period is what hits hardest, even now with the use of a lot of progesterone, I just don’t recover from workouts. So hitting the gym twice a week is as much as I can do without pain and ongoing fatigue. The goal is to be able to lift 3-4 days a week without feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck.

2. Anavar

Dosage and schedule: 7 weeks on, 7 weeks off using 2.5 mg a day. I was planning on using it every other day but my body has been so injured and fatigued, for no apparent reason, that I just want to get out of this hole. So, I’m thinking 5 days on, 2 days off for 7 weeks.

Here’s why: Anavar has the fewest androgenizing side effects. But from what I’ve been told, women shouldn’t stay on it for more than about 7 weeks at a time. And, when cycling off, they need to spend at least 1-2 weeks off for every 1 week spent on it. I’m just repeating what I was told, but open to hearing other thoughts.

3. Prescribed T

Dosage and schedule: I’ll use the 1.25 testosterone cipionate daily, as prescribed.

Here’s why: This is what I was prescribed. To be fair, my NP isn’t aware of how bad I’ve been feeling. Why? Well, because when I make appointments or plans of any sort, I’m typically feeling great. Mood and energy-wise, I’m on top of the world. So when she sees me, I’m like this:

A bubbly bitch who might flippantly mention a couple tweaks and injuries, and somehow completely forget that just a couple weeks prior, she felt like DYING and couldn’t sleep or move without pain.

4. Regular testing

I’ll have my blood drawn and testosterone measured every two months, or maybe at the end of each anavar cycle and at the end of each phase off of it. I’m open to suggestions.

Here’s why: The goal is to see where my testosterone levels are when I’m feeling great and recovering from workouts. If that happens to be smack in the middle of the normal range, there won’t be any reason to try and get T levels higher.

But if every workout still makes me feel like taking up tae chi and quitting the gym (the way it has been lately), then that’ll tell me something too.

Other Notes

Chris gave me the injection a few days ago and it took a while to start kicking in, but I’m feeling better energy-wise. I have theories on the effects of testosterone that people don’t tend to talk about for women.

You get more than just an elevation in mood or physical energy, you somehow acquire a willingness to stand up for yourself. I have a lot to say about this – and about the last two years – but I’ll wait until my testosterone rises a bit more.

[SkyzykS]

@Dani_Shugart

Metal Mollies!

I’m going to have to give these some serious consideration. I usually use tap in plastic anchoors with good results, but those look very interesting.

And I always hit the header. I’m aware of them. I understand their placement and function, but I hit them every single time.

Being an all or none type, I either do really good with drill related stuff or ridiculously head scratching/hair pulling out bad. . There’s no middle ground with me.

[Dani_Shugart]

@SkyzykS

I usually use tap in plastic anchoors with good results,

I was able to get away with those on the wall of the east-facing windows, but not the south-facing windows! Weird, right?

Apparently the builder put header behind the drywall only on one side of that room. And at one point in the debacle, I drilled into the metal, the drill bit stopped rotating because it got stuck in the header, and then when the bit cooled down enough to pull it out, a tiny scrap of metal came out with it.

I was seriously considering hopping on here and asking you what to do.

[SkyzykS]

@Dani_Shugart

I was seriously considering hopping on here and asking you what to do.

You wouldn’t if you knew about last weeks snafu!

Short version- I was drilling into an unknown and layered chunk of steel. First layer went fine. The next one though- I destroyed 3 pretty expensive hole cutters and 1 drill bit, And Still Didn’t Get Through!

The second layer was a type of steel alloy that work hardens. Like tank armor, kinda.

I even had to consult my father in law, a machinist, to finally make a hole.

Oh, if it happens to you again- you can drill small holes in steel pretty easily ( ) by slowing down the drill speed on a decent quality bit for steel, using a fair bit of pressure and a few drops of oil. Like if the anchor needs to be in a ³/16ths hole, hit the steel with a ⅛ bit, then a 3/16 bit (and more oil).

[Dani_Shugart]

@SkyzykS

And Still Didn’t Get Through!

Noooooo!!!

I’m mad for you now.

@SkyzykS

Oh, if it happens to you again- you can drill small holes in steel pretty easily ( ) by slowing down the drill speed on a decent quality bit for steel, using a fair bit of pressure and a few drops of oil. Like if the anchor needs to be in a ³/16ths hole, hit the steel with a ⅛ bit, then a 3/16 bit (and more oil).

Thank you! It just might happen again, and I’ll be able to scroll back to this.

The metal mollies ended up being short enough to not even reach the header, so they grabbed onto the drywall which ended up being okay. It was for the bracket between the two windows. For the brackets on the outsides of the windows, I moved them about a foot away from the windows, where apparently the header ends, and found some regular studs that I was able to screw into.

Although, I did end up stripping some screws that wouldn’t go in all the way but also wouldn’t come out. So now they’re just part of the house forever.

[Dani_Shugart]

Upper-ish

Banded shoulder warm-up:

• No-money drill
• Overhead raise

Sure, these are just drills but they pump blood into the shoulders really nicely. A warm-up that makes you look more jacked? I’m in.

Superset:

• Push-up
• Alternating curl

Then a nice pump for biceps and chest.

• Bradford Press

Going behind the neck has been too risky for the shoulder, but today, these felt really good. They’ll burn even if you go light. You never bring the bar low enough to remove tension from the shoulders. So it’s a set of continuous tension. Move slowly and pause at the end ranges if you like torture.

• Arnold press, incline bench

If you have tricky shoulders, overhead pressing with your bench at a 75-80 degree angle (instead of a right angle) is a game changer. Andrew Coates wrote about this and I’ve been using it ever since.

• Dumbbell bench

I used a lot less than what I could a couple weeks ago. My body doesn’t give a shit about progressive overload. The heaviest I could go today is about 10 pounds lower (per side) than what I could safely use during ovulatory phase. Hormones matter.

Superset

• Cable straight-arm pulldown
• Tricep pressdown

I’m being conservative with any back work, but the pulldown hit the lats nicely. Triceps got murdered.

Other Stuff

Vibration plates are a thing again. It sounds wacky, but there’s some evidence that it does stuff, and I’m always up for experimenting.

So I purchased one for circulation and recovery. Here’s what ChatGPT says about that:

Supportive for muscle recovery, circulation, possibly flexibility

• Vibration may help improve circulation (blood flow) and enhance oxygen/nutrient delivery to muscles, which could support recovery and reduce muscle soreness.
• WBV (whole body vibration) offers a lower-impact alternative to help maintain some muscle activity and joint mobility.

Chris and I both got on it yesterday and noticed that our joints felt amazing afterward. Different areas of musculature do seem to light up based on how you’re positioned on it. We tried out some planks with our hands on it too.

So anyway, just like any gadget, it’s handy for certain things but not necessary.

It’s blooming again!

I thought it wasn’t a Christmas cactus because it bloomed during mother’s day. But these flowers started showing up during thanksgiving and they’re still going.

So, I want to call it a holiday cactus, but then that sounds like a woke person trying to avoid the word, Christmas. But maybe I just lean into that and call it my woke holiday cactus. Or go the Seinfeld route, and make it a Festivus Cactus.

Fun facts: this is a jungle cactus originating in Brazil, not a desert cactus. They live so long that you can pass them down from generation to generation (though mine came from a friend), and you can propagate them pretty easily and make more.