Thanks coyotegal, I think a nice long rest over the weekend is in order.
Recon, yeah I found complexes to be fun when I did them, its nice to only have to deal with one piece of equipment for an entire workout.
Hi Minitech, I hope your summer is going well! It has not been very good weather where I live so no excuses not to hit the gym! I wonder if you are off diving in some beautiful waters somewhere. Thanx for visiting my journal. Not too many people posting over there anymore, I hope you come back, especially as I am sold on the Oly lifting, albeit at lower weight. ttyl!
Hey Recon, nope no diving for me, its been over a month now. Yeah its a bit depressing over in PW, it used to be such a lively place, you missed it. Oh well things change.
Oh goodie, yes take up oly lifting. My coach has a new trainee, she’s young and strong, seems to have picked it up very easy, should be interesting to see her progress, she’s doing the very technical split snatch too. Looks like I won’t doing any oly for quite some time now, I’ve just got to be realistic and just take things one day at a time. Anyway I’ll write about that later.
I actually lifted a weight the other day though. Even though it was only 5kg plate, did split squats and front loaded squats. I didn’t really do much but boy I’m sore for the last 2 days from it. Seeing my physical therapist today, I’ve been trying out different types of exercises just to see what bugs the ribs and what doesn’t. It’s not easy, and I really can’t stand machines. Bad enough I can’t do oly lifting without having to do exercises I don’t like. Time to find the right ones.
Just heard, ribs are less angry then they were last month. I might be able to do light deadlifting as that shouldn’t bother anything too much, in the next while. Been years since I’ve done any deads anyway, hmmm better go read up on how to do them properly again.
Hi Minitech!
well, I guess that is good news that you can do deadlifts. Did you ever find out what started the whole thing with your ribs? I hope you are having a nice summer, weather here is finally amazing. I used the oly bar again last night- ready to start adding plates I guess.
My back is really doing so much better these days- THE machine that I think has really helped is the Hammer Strength High Row. It is chest supported so very safe- half way between a lat pulldown and a row. But the key has been to let myself stretch to full ROM at the bottom. I know with a name like Mini Tech you probably just want to lift boulders on the beach, but if you get to a gym this is a really great machine- and super safe.
Hey Recon, have not been on here much. I don’t know if we have that machine, I’ll look but I’m sure I would’ve notice that, but looks good to me. Summer has been pretty crappy so far.
Let’s see I managed to do two sessions of deadlifts with my coach, we’re doing them clean style, of course, so it actually feels more like a trapbar deadlift, even though I’m using a straight bar. 1st session only managed 30kg, felt it more in the back than the legs… then next session (almost a week apart) went up to 35kg no problems. Doing split squats with a 5kg plate, my buns seem to be liking it, they get nice and burny.
I manage to walk to work mostly every day too. Went running on treadmill a couple of times, first time felt really out of shape but the 2nd session was better except for my ribs were killing me, if not I could’ve gone further. Just trying to add an extra 5 minutes each time.
I have my good days and I have had some bad ones too. Seeing osteo again.
Up 37kg in the clean style deadlifts. My left side was bugging me a bit but managed to get through it.
RRRR, my coach. Just need to vent. Well I’m planning on returning to oly lifting nice and slow, he doesn’t quite see it that way. He went on about how only training once a week won’t get me any stronger. But seriously, that’s not exactly my goal right now, Sure down the line once I know I won’t get that damn pain back.
Also not going to ever go back to training 4-5 times a week unless I become super woman. But I guess there is no need to get wound up. He has his agenda with how he likes to train people but I have mine. He likes coaching waaay too much so its not like he won’t coach me.
His new trainee is coming along very strong, and she’s so nice that it’ll be fun training with her anyway.
6 x 5 38kg cl deadlifts
These are starting to feel light, might up to 40kg tonight.
Back feels so much better when I am not at work sitting at a desk. Spoke to my boss, going to get an under the desk keyboard and maybe switching around seatings while at work, see if that helps. Might start going to a physio as my health insurance has a new plan for back pain, it should be cheaper and get someone new to take a look at things. Think the osteo has done all he can at the moment, hopefully a new desk arrangement might help.
Fri - 6x5 40kg cl deadlifts, my back wasn’t the best from sitting at desk all day but didn’t have any sharp pain so I went in.
Today actually did my first sets of snatches in a little over 6 months. The back and ribs are far from feeling perfect, but things felt ok. I feel a bit ‘shy’ with extending through the lift but at least I didn’t hit my knees. Technique wasn’t too bad either, 'cept gotta make sure I actually feel the bar. I forgot to try out a new little technique I learned during my injury time off. I only used the 15kg empty bar and that certainly tired me out, by the 3rd set I found it tough to keep concentration.
I’ve been using a make-shift yoga block to lay under my upper back to stretch things out, and also another position is to lay on top of it with the high part of the block under my sacrum to stretch out the hip flexors.
Also getting a new physio where my insurance will cover more of the costs, he specialises in work ergos and sports, which is just up my alley. I think sitting at the desk is impeding my healing, I am getting a new desk arrangement that I’m hoping will make a big difference.
Things are looking up, but I need to remain prudent and not get ahead of myself, besides the new physio will have some new input on how I should proceed.
heya MiniTech! WEll I am happy to see you exercising again! That is really great 
I like the idea of lifting weight 2-3 times a week. I am not sure if someone can’t get stronger lifting only once a week- I don’t see why not but of course I am not an expert. ttyl!
Recon - Yeah its more about me just trying to get back into things without hurting.
Woot woot, I did 2 sessions over the last couple of weeks with 20kg snatches. I planned on doing sets triples, but I find that doubles is all I can really take before I get a twinge.
Up to 5x5 cl deads of 47kg, I think I can probably go up to 5x5 of 52kg but want to take things slowly.
Going to see new physio on Wed and got a new keyboard that sits on my lap, helps a bit.
hi. sorry to hear you are still having a rough time of it painwise.
gets me thinking on something punnyguy said about sticking to higher volume with perfect form with lighter weights. i miss the old days where i used to oly lift to max and squat to max every day. i sure as hell can’t keep stuff like that up without injury these days. actually… i couldn’t really do it without injury before… i hope you get a decent physio to help soryt you out and / or the work changes help.
Stopping by to say hi. I hope you are doing well.
yep. how are you doing?
[quote]Kairiki wrote:
Stopping by to say hi. I hope you are doing well. :)[/quote]
Ah you visited me too, did not even see this before. I’m flattered.
[quote]alexus wrote:
yep. how are you doing?[/quote]
I’m hanging in there, thanks for checking in. I had to just take a different method of trying to escape from this upper back pain. I was given lots of advice, some different some not so different and had to just go with it to see what worked out, it has just taken a long ass time to do it.
My osteo gave me a treatments that at least got me back to work and stuff but after awhile he was honest enough to say that he has done all he could. I also had to give up my anger towards this, every time I was in pain I just kept thinking I’ll never lift again.
The 2 physios I saw were all about trying to strengthen my thoracic/scalp area but it really wasn’t working for me as that area is what kept tightening & spasming up. I listened to them for 5 months with no relief. I stopped lifting anything (hence why I just stopped logging here) and worked with bands, but even that was too much for the area.
So I took someone else’s advice they gave me long time ago, and decided to concentrate on just keeping the thoracic area loose and stress free. I have only been walking lots and swimming (gently because sometimes that even hurts the rib area) and going to this Fendelkrais/Somatics class. That has really helped, although I still have my episodes. Planning on doing this until April if I can remain relatively pain free for 3 months, might move onto pilates, then I definitely need to add some muscle mass to by body again, then hopefully towards the end of the year back to Oly lifting, fingers crossed.
I hear a lot of people swear by their Osteo or (more usually) their Chiro. People often say they go to Physio and don’t get much assistance or they get worse… I’m not entirely sure why that is… Whether it is more about the practitioner and their knowledge (which is what I suspect) or whether there is something more about the differences in orientation. I don’t even really understand how they are different… I do hope that you find some relief. Sounds like a bit of a journey for you, similarly to how rehabbing my feet is a bit of a journey for me… Hang in there.
Hi MT! I am sorry you are still struggling. I took Feldenkrais at the height of my injuries. I really learnt a lot about my body. Eventually I was forced to focus on other things and stopped taking those classes. Looking back, I think Feldenkrais was, for me, sort of like psychotherapy for my body. Once I learnt about the basics, I just has to stop thinking about my body all the time. Hard to do when in pain, I know, but there are all sorts of chronic pain theories now.
On the other hand, I still have not returned to ballet, which is what started all the trouble, so maybe I am just being granted a respite.
Every time I hear you mention the thoracic region, I keep wondering, did I ever ask her if she has had her bone density tested? It is worth knowing.
Well I hope to see you around soon.
Sorry to hear about the pain. Just hang in there and keep going.
Alrighty, I actually lifted something today, its been a looooong time. I just re-joined a really old gym, the limited equipment sucks but they have a hydro-therapy pool area that should be good for my back. So the plan is if my back is hurting after work, I go into the hydro area pre-workout to loosen things up, if not I do my workout and then do the hydropooling thing to keep things loose.
Finally went on my first dive of the year yesterday too which could be why my shoulder was bugging me with that heavy tank. I won’t be doing anything exciting or lifting anything remotely heavy, but at least I’ll be doing something. First day so took it handy.
Stupid cross trainer for 10 mins
KB swings
2 x 10 - 8kg
Split squats
2 x 10 - 8kg (KB)
Single leg DL
4 x 5 (w/ no rests) - 8kg (KB)
Leg curls (er the 7th pin I think)
2 x 10
Leg extensions (er can’t remember)
2 x 10
Lat pull down machine
2 x 10 (can’t remember pin)
Was planning on doing some arnie presses, ytwl’s