Users: 6/24 - 6/30

[banshee]

OK, it's a new week, and it looks like it's going to be a rest week for me.

I was cleaning out our hot tub yesterday in preparation for refilling it. Despite being careful, I slipped and fell hard. Wrenched my right shoulder, banged up my right wrist, and today my neck, left shoulder/arm, and entire back is sore. Even my abs hurt when I try to twist my trunk side to side.

So no lifting until I heal. Sigh.

My legs seem ok, so I might try some very careful leg stuff, but I know even when doing straight leg work you tend to recruit other muscles and I don't want to make anything worse. The neck is especially worrisome, as it doesn't seem to be a muscular hurt. At least, nothing hurts in that area when I press on it. I may have gotten a mild case of whiplash or over-stretched nerves. It's not hugely painful, but the slight burning sensation was enough to keep me awake for a large part of last night. Annoying and from what I've read, that kind of thing takes a long time to heal.

:( :( :( :(

I just hope things calm down enough that our multiple days of driving for a trip this weekend isn't an agonizing experience!

So what are the rest of you doing this week? Let me work out vicariously through you! :rolleyes:

[Mitra]

Mary, I hope you feel better soon. I'd wait a few days until some of the aches and bruising settle down, then get someone to look at your neck if it's still sore.

I'm starting off the week with my "cautious" yoga practice. My back is still feeling delicate. Most of the time it doesn't hurt, and even when it does, it's not very painful, but there's enough going on to warn me that I still need to be careful. There's some warrior, some chair pose, plenty of backbends (variations on the superman theme), so there's enough to give me some challenge, but very limited forward bending. If it settles down, I might move on to my alternative practice by the end of the week - I've only had these two for a few days, so I haven't tried the second one yet.

[maxlharris]

Be careful Mary,

I missed Monday. I hate travelling to see family, because I feel very out of control. Can't go where I want, can't do what I want, ritual all messed up.

any rate, back today, back on plan, Intervals. 30 on, 90 off, 6* with 4 minute warm and cool. Hard. Music was Joe Satriani, which is useful for this type of endeavor. 7.2 miles, 135 calories, resistance 6 for the first half, 5 later in. The innermost muscle of the quad was hurting something fierce. Not injury hurt, just "Why are we here" hurt.

[maxlharris]

Back to lifting today:
3 sets of everything, 15 reps of everything (cept as noted)
Dumbbell Stepup - 60 lbs (15 reps per leg per set) alternated with
Neutral Grip Shoulder Press - 40 lbs
Goblet Squat - 55 lbs alternated with
Dumbbell Pullover - 30 lbs
and
1 rep, 60 seconds, The Plank. I think I'm getting better at the form on this. Held belly button towards spine the whole time. Finished rep, and let go and it felt like being punched in the stomach, a little. Just from ribs to hips, momentary dull pain. I look at it like victory. The guy who was moving to the Smith Machine, he looked at it like I was nuts. Either way.

tomorrow, Intervals

[Mitra]

I tried my second yoga practice today. I think I need to stick with the first one a bit longer :(.

I really couldn't do any asymmetric bending at all :(. It's obviously going to be a fairly lengthy recovery - my back doesn't hurt now, and I can pretty much go about life as normal as long as I'm careful with lifting, but it seems I'm managing by letting the stronger side do most of the work, which shows up as soon as I do the kind of asymmetric moves that isolate each side. I'll need to use those kind of movements to build up the strength on the weaker side, but I'll need to ease into them more slowly than I'd like :angry: .

[banshee]

Max, I know what you mean about the planks. I've gotten up to 90 seconds with one now, so my trainer decided it was time to add stability ball planks to my mix. I could only do about 10 seconds of that!

I'm feeling better today - most of the soreness is gone. My neck wasn't hurting yesterday except for a slight ache. My wrists are still giving me a bit of trouble, which is to be expected since they took the brunt of the fall. I'm feeling pretty good about this little accident, though. Even a year ago, that kind of a fall would have had me in agony for days, popping dozens of pain relievers. This time, I took some ibuprofin twice on the worst day, but that was all I really needed. I have been sleeping a bit more than usual...

I think the weight lifting has made it possible to recover quicker, both because my muscles are used to being torn up a little from the lifting, and because I'm stronger and can handle my body weight better. Yesterday I felt like I had done a superset of pushups - all the muscles in my arms, chest and back that are used in pushups were really, really sore. But since I've been working on pushups and had gotten to the point where I could do a full set of deep pushups, I think my body just said "yeah, that was one heck of a hard pushup, but you muscles know what to do - heal up just like you've been doing on the little pushups!" :rolleyes: :D :p

Anyway, I'm still taking it easy the rest of this week. I might try doing some swimming while at the hotel. That will be good exercise, but easy on the joints. You might not hear from me until the week of the 9th. Things are about to get crazy - whirlwind trip to the east coast for a wedding, returning Monday, prepping Tuesday for our 4th of July party Wednesday, recovering Thursday then heading north Friday for a concert hubby wants to attend in Chicago, then heading partway south for BIL birthday party, then back to Chicago for a friend's birthday party. Whew! It makes me tired just thinking about it! :D

[maxlharris]

Intervals. 60 seconds on. 180 seconds off. 3 reps. Warm up 4 mins before, and pace the rest out at 95-100 rpm.

FWIW my third 60 second sprint was about as fun as a sixty second beating.

Tomorrow: The TNT Back In Shape, Phase 1, Plan A, 3 set nightmare. Scary.

[maxlharris]

Back to lifting. I dunno if the weight loss has been a success this month, but the lifting seems to have added 3-4 lbs of LBM. Nice.

Any rate,
3 sets, 15 reps (except as noted):
Static Lunge@60 lbs (reps per leg... least favorite thing I do... alternating with...)
Incline dumbbell bench press @80 lbs(12 reps... I feel weak with this number, but remember that 12 is a higher rep number... course, if I do 100 for 10 reps, I still think I'll feel weak...)
and
Hip Extension (favorite... alternated with)
Row to neck @40 lbs
Plus
Prone Cobra - reps to 60 seconds... I did 4 reps. 5 seconds. 10 seconds. 15 seconds. 30 seconds. I am not a big fan and I will not miss this. And I don't mind back exercises. Go fig.

Any rate, next week, we cut the rest.

[Mitra]

I had to give up on even my "easy" yoga practice today - and do a very easy one instead.

[maxlharris]

I had to give up on even my "easy" yoga practice today - and do a very easy one instead.

Hrm, every time I've started a Yoga practice, it's been the easy one. I gave it up for the couch. That was really easy. My favorite pose then was, "The Slouching Potato." I have seen it promoted as the cure for good backs and proper posture. :D

[Mitra]

Can it cure bad backs and proper posture? ;)

I have to keep reminding myself how much better things are now - a month ago I could hardly walk across the room, and now walking isn't a problem. Even bending to pick something off the floor isn't a problem. But something like the warrior that puts my hips in a twisted position feels uncomfortable. The cobra, which is almost always OK for me, puts too much stress on the lower back/pelvis just at the moment. I'm not even going to try twisting or seated forward bends :eek:. I know it'll be much better in a few days, but I'm still frustrated now :rolleyes:.