<3 camping
your lookin great in your vid btw!
Wow talk about off-cue. How does one curl their toes up??? Lift your toes upwards maybe, but curl?? I would’ve done exactly the samething as you did.
Glad you enjoyed the hiking, so important to get back to nature. After my week I’m thoroughly convinced we are not meant to sit at a desk all day long.
Lula- I recently heard a PT at a seminar I attended, poo-poo them too. I don’t know if they are the end all be all for everyone, but I personally have spent years struggling with foot problems. Ever since I was young, I’ve invested in the most expensive “perfect” shoes and just ended up with more and more foot problems. As soon as I decided to ditch the shoes and strengthen my feet, things started to look up.
This reminds me of a little story when I was about 4 or 5, I got in an argument with my 10 year old cousin. I told her that I lost a running race at school because I didn’t have fast shoes. She said that it had nothing to do with my shoes, it had to do with how fast someone ran. Since we kindergarteners had all discussed and ranked the shoes for quickness, we knew otherwise. I just rolled my eyes and figured her a dunce. I think the message still applies.
My weak feet, amongst other things had resulted in poor mechanics. I wasn’t going to be able to fix it without getting out of the shoes. However, my weak feet and poor mechanics, not the shoes, were truly the problem.
Cal-Yeah, the Merrells are much more job friendly for me too!
Betty-THANKS!!! Camping was definitely a blast. We have another backpacking trip planned for August. This one will be a bit more rugged than the last trip!
Techno-THANK YOU! We asked the other guys on Saturday and they seemed to understand it.
Saturday’s lifting was fun! We worked on the hang snatch.
I can’t really remember sets and reps so I’ll just do a brief synopsis.
Warm-up
Stick work
Snatch press up to 40kg
Hang snatch up to 32kg PR! It was ugly though. I caught it with straight legs and so it jarred my shoulder.
Pulls from box 40kg
Face pulls
Pallof presses
Sunday I went to the park and did some rugby passing drills. My mobility and running strength felt great, especially considering that I DON’T RUN and haven’t done much energy systems stuff as of late. There is a 7s tournament at the end of July that I am commiting to. It’s in Chattanooga and includes white water rafting. All I want to do is increase my sprint speed and cardio just a bit before the tourny. I’ll be adding a little sprint work and prowler pushing to my current lifting. Nothing major though. Oly lifting is still my main focus.
Fun lifting is FUN!
That tournament sounds fun too!
Sprints are off the chain GOOD. If only I would have tried sooner. I love the feeling of flying, even though I’m probably not going too fast haha
…but the soreness the next day lets me know I must have been doin it right.
Do you do any foot exercises? My ART prescribed some for me. According to him, because your feet and arches are your base, if they’re weak, everything else falls apart.
I liked your homage video.
Thanks for the shoe review! That is surprising, but interesting, that the Merrell minimalist shoes worked backpacking.
You do such smart work in here. The pageant scene really made me smile.
Interesting stuff going on in here. I’ll have to check out the Merrells I’ve been looking for a ‘prettier’ alternative to vibrams. I always wonder about them on hard floors though, do your feet just adjust to standing all day indoors?
During my search today I found this article, it’s a bit old, but still interesting. How We're Wrecking Our Feet With Every Step We Take -- New York Magazine - Nymag
Betty-Yes adding the sprints should be fun, especially because it’s sprints done while passing a ball. I’m a fan of doing something while running. It keeps me engaged in it.
Ouro-I didn’t do any foot exercises per se. I just gradually went more and more barefoot. First I did my all lifting barefoot (in vibram KSOs). Then I and stopped wearing traditional tennis shoes. I would wear converse and other less cushioned shoes to work. Now with the Merrells, I feel like my feet are constantly getting a workout. I did do a lot of rolling with a lacrosse ball on the bottom of my foot and calves. If you’re suffering from some serious foot pain, the strengthening exercises may be a good first step, prior to going barefoot.
Kimba-I was surprised too, but I actually felt in tune with each step. I’m glad you enjoyed my pageant experience! It definitely was a change up of my normal lifting atmosphere.
PCH-Glad you stopped by, especially as another barefoot fan!
All of this barefoot shoe talk has got me thinking a lot about why many medical professionals hate them so much, but many people get so much benefit. I think it’s that they only see barefoot gone wrong. If you’ve been in shoes your whole life, you have poor range of motion in your feet and calves. Although the shoes may have caused this in the first place, just throwing them out isn’t going to automatically fix the damage the shoes have caused. Your muscles, bones, and tendons have essentially formed a mold of the shoe. Just as forcing a hardened plaster mold into a different shaped container would break the mold, changing your foot’s mold quickly may “shatter” your foot. Just because a minimal shoe allows more range of motion for the foot, doesn’t mean that motion exists in the foot and ankle. So, the medical professionals see the shattered feet forced into an incongruent mold, instead of the people that slowly let their feet adjust to wearing minimalist shoes.
Further, some people have “harder” molds than others and will take longer to adjust. I think this is what messes a lot of people up too. They want set timelines. Run 1 mile 1 day one, 2 on day 2 and so on and so forth. But it just doesn’t work like that. Every person is different and every day in a person’s life is different. A successful transition is dependent on being in tune with what our bodies are telling us.
Monday’s workout:
Military press 3x5x75lbs (took it way too low on accident. I could have done more if I would have remembered not to take the bar all the way to my chest)
Band assisted pull ups: 3x6
Back extensions: 3x10x10lb med ball
Single arm Kettle bell press 3x10
Band resisted kettlebell swings with 30lb bell 7sets 10sec on 50sec rest
Wow!! Excellent, excellent lifting going on in here! So jealous of your cleans! You’re putting up some nice weight there. Good stuff!
Hilarious on the cue miscommunication - I’m a touchy feely person, so I like my coach to physically show me what he means, took a period of adjustment before my coach felt comfortable touching me and getting in all close. lol! But I see coaches like I see doctors, all business.
And I’m so glad that the shoes have helped you better realize the snatch. That’s great! 40 is there, no problem. I also had a tendency to land on my toes - for me its more a matter of just being decisive and STOMPING my feet, exaggerating it, rather than literally pussy-footing the lift. “Kill that cockaroach!”
HAH! A twilight zone of pagentry! Wouldn’t it be great if a pageant contestant Oly lifted as her “talent”? That would rad!
Keep up the great work, Sb!
I think you’ve hit on why folks whose job is to fix people who have screwed themselves up hate minimalist shoes. It is so tempting to do too much too soon. If I weren’t already having issues, perhaps I’d be among them! The most I’ve done is walked for 15-20 minutes in my VFFs, and I’ve had them for a month. If everyone were really careful with these shoes, then perhaps the professionals wouldn’t view them as the devil.
Stout military presses. So, exactly how far down should one bring the bar? I generally bring it down to my collarbone.
Ha that pagent sounds hilarious! I wish I could have seen that and am kind of wondering what they thought of you and your big lifts happening at the same time. Yesterday I walked past two teenage girls on my way to the lab from the gym and heard them say when they were a little past me “Did you see that woman? She looked like a man!” Perhaps it was just that I’d worked out and was fairly relaxed, but I didn’t really take that to be as bad a thing as they meant it. Especially if you see some of the teenage boys nowdays. However, the look on their face was priceless.
Awesome pressing and pulling workout! Still making progress!
if the gp were better about moderation in any sense (here, talking about slowly adjusting to minimalist footwear) half the medical profession wouldnt be necessary.
@ pch- i’ve been wearing speedcats to work (standing for 8ish hrs per shift) for the last 4 years… one and ONLY ONE day i wore an old pair of shoxx into work (dont remember why) and was whimpering 3 hours in.
[quote]CBear84 wrote:
if the gp were better about moderation in any sense (here, talking about slowly adjusting to minimalist footwear) half the medical profession wouldnt be necessary.
@ pch- i’ve been wearing speedcats to work (standing for 8ish hrs per shift) for the last 4 years… one and ONLY ONE day i wore an old pair of shoxx into work (dont remember why) and was whimpering 3 hours in. [/quote]
Thanks, that’s good to know.
Masch-Oly lifting pageant girl=WIN. Too bad these girls were far from such awesomeness. Their training/trainer was crappy. However, she was good at teaching waving and hi heel strutting.
Kimba-You’re supposed to go down to your chin. I’m not sure why I had such a brain fart and went all the way down. I think I mush have an unconscious death with for my poor shoulders.
Iron-Yeah, so many guys look like twigs so they can fit into those atrocious skinny jeans. I’m sure you had no desire to look like the girls who said it, so really it was a compliment.
CBear-Very true. And it all starts with most news sources. I get sick everytime they take a small study finding done on cells and turn it into “truth”. As a scientist, I believe it’s irresponsible.
PCH-Sorry I missed the question about long bouts of standing. I’ve had the same experience as CBear.
Workout Tuesday:
Warm-up
Stick work and fix-its
Hang clean: worked up to 3x1x50kg NO COACH TODAY. Still landing too up right and hitching my arms 
I know I shouldn’t, but I’m getting a bit frustrated about it.
Reverse lunges: 3x10x10lb dbs
Scaptions: 3x8x7.5
External rotation on knee: 3x8x7.5lbs
Roll-outs: 3x10
Band pull aparts: 3x10
FOOD!!!
[quote]sbmart2 wrote:
Still landing too up right and hitching my arms 
I know I shouldn’t, but I’m getting a bit frustrated about it.
[/quote]
Yeah me twos on the frustration! Grrr! I just felt like throwing the bar yesterday. Can I ask what you mean by hitching?
Techno-Hitching is when you try to use your arms to get the bar up, bending your elbows and shrugging to pull the weight up, instead of letting the hips do the work. This is a novice explaination. I’m sure there’s a few others that may explain it better.
Wednesday: Local pool and rugby
I went to the pool after work and swam a few laps with a co-worker while her kids were in swim lessons. Then we played with the kids. Being at the pool with kids is way more fun. Since I don’t have any of my own, I borrow friends’ children. It’s so nice to give them back when the fun is over.
After swimming, I met some teammates at the park for some rugby practice. Since we are doing a sevens tournament, we are working on lots of long passing and sprinting. My sprinting felt fast and light. I really surprised myself with this. In the past (pre-surgery) I always felt like the ground was pulling me down and I was fighting to keep my legs moving. I haven’t really sprinted since then. Now I feel like I’m catapulting off the ground with each step, with a little left in the tank at the end of the sprint. I’m guessing there is much to attribute this to: Corrective lifting, oly lifting and a more natural foot motion (I wore my merrells).
When I got home, I ate SOOOO much. Earlier that day, I had eaten pizza and a beer for lunch (I usually just drink a 30 g protein shake) while watching the World Cup Game. So, I didn’t expect to be so hungry for dinner. I put down some serious homemade pork fried rice and strawberries and homemade whip cream dessert. I the the extra sprint workouts are turning my appetite up.
you go girl! 
SOunds like a good day! Glad to read you’re running quick and strong.
Thursday Snatch day:
Long warm-up
Hang snatch stick work
Pop-ups (behind neck press): up to 1x3x40kg
Hang snatch: Stopped at BAR!!! Foot balance was WAY off. I was tired and had a disconnect with my movement
Pull from box:
2x3x40kg
2x3x40kg w/band
1x1x50kg
1x1x60kg
1x1x70kg These all went great. It was just putting it together with the snatch that was NOT there.
Good mornings: 3x8x65lbs Kept the weight lighter so that all my focus was on keeping my foot balance. Knees were kept slightly bent.
bar-bell Step ups with front squat grip: 3x8xbar
Rows: 3x8x40lb
Band jack knife: 3x8
Side note: One of the guys at the gym came over and told me that I was looking lean. I proudly told him that I hadn’t lost a pound. I love the modified warrior diet. I have plenty of lifting energy, and eat like a champ while getting leaner. Almost every night I have some type of delicious home cooked meal and dessert or beer/wine. I’m not quite sure why it works, but I like it. I keep meaning to clean up the food a bit, but comments like that make me ask “why fix it if it’s not broken”?
I got home to find my water heater had sprung a leak. Luckily for family living in town. My dad came over and saved the day. I, in the process learned a little about the workings of water heaters.