Just. Don't. Suck (Part 1)

A positive thought for the day: I got two free meals thanks to some leftover food at the station.

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Spent some time flopping around on the floor tonight doing some foam rolling and a bit of stretching. I found The Stick and used that on my feet and anterior tibialis. Go figure, it’s tight as hell. This is going to be a process. I just need to stick with it.

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All independent contractors are assholes out for only themselves. They have no problem ripping you off for tens of thousands of dollars and months of time (at least), so why do you need to pay them “on time”?

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12.10.18

Woke up sick and weighing 239.0 lbs.

I had an odd morning. I’ve been planning to go to the doctor (again) for this sinus crap. The rest of my body feels so off today that I’ve barely noticed my sinus problems. I woke up feeling normal. I went to pee and my gut started cramping. I had to switch it up and sit down real quick. My intestines were angry. I was in pain for awhile and even broke out into a sweat. I managed to finish up after a couple of minutes and laid on the floor. I felt some gas move down the line a bit in my stomach and that alleviated the pain.

My son was up so I went to get him. I was changing his diaper and it hit me again. I felt chilled and weak. I’ve recovered since then but I’ve been cold all morning. My temperature is in the 97’s. The first time I took it, it was in the 95’s. Other than feeling cold I feel alright now. I’m starting to notice my sinus pressure so I guess I’m getting back to normal.

I blame it on the two massive servings of veggies I had at work yesterday. They were leftovers from a catered event the night before. I’m just glad I didn’t end up puking all day. I feel pretty weak so I don’t think I’ll be going to the gym today or training at home. I did some foam rolling and a couple of band exercises for my hips this morning.

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That’s shitty. It’s hard for me to trust vegetables in general, but leftover veggies? Nah… I do applaud you for making healthy choices, though. First it was the romaine lettuce, now it’s this… vegetables are out to get us, man

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My trip to the chiropractor was great. I’m all sorts of jacked up. My pelvis was off and my legs weren’t the same length (you know what I mean).

He worked on my hip, my hamstring, and my bicep. I think my hamstring has been a result of the problems with my hip so that’s the least of my concerns. He found that my adductors on the left leg (bad leg) are super tight. This can cause internal rotation of the femur during movements. This can cause a tight TFL on the outside as a result. This could all lead to damage in the joint like a torn labrum.

My first priority is to roll and stretch the adductors more. He’s going to work on them when I go back next week. This may not be the source of my problem but it’s a start.

Other theories are that the muscles are still guarding the joint as if it’s still hurt even if it’s not. The joint could also be damaged again justifying the guarding. The plus side is that he didn’t feel any catching or clicking when moving my leg around. He said he can usually feel it when the labrum is torn.

There’s a chance my biceps tendon problem can be remedied too. The tissue below the groove is tight. If we can loosen it up then perhaps it will give my biceps enough additional length so that the tendon doesn’t pop out of the groove when it’s pulled of my the muscle.

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They are truely witch doctors

Funnily enough, if you have been working your feet soles that could be a reason for your sinus playing up
The whole Chinese remedies shtick has been done to death but there are so many pressure points in your feet that it does lead to other parts of your body releasing enzymes and bacteria that plays havoc everywhere else.
Look it up, remarkable stuff
Glad you’ve had a mini break through mate

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Really really hope he can do wonders for you J.
It seems he have found some areas to work on.
And him not thinking it a torn labrum sounds great.

Keep working on it, would love to see you back during 2019.

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12.11.18

Woke at 239.8 lbs. It’s nice to see numbers below 240 again. I thought I’d broke that plateau last week but I guess not.

I realized yesterday that it’s been four days since I did anything. I need to put some work in today but I’m not overly motivated at the moment. I took some Nyquil before bed. That stuff is great for sleeping, but terrible for waking up.

My daughter seems to have a cold or something so she stayed home from school today. That cancels my trip to the Y. I was planning to do intervals on the assault bike. I’ll have to force myself to do Cindy in the basement at some point today.

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Hang in there man. As you know I’m rehabbing also. It’s a different sort of grind. I know what I want to do and probably could do more than I am doing, but I want the long term heal so I can move on.

Stay focused and good things will happen

What was all the bruising in the pic of your arm and shoulder?

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That’s a result of some of the treatment from yesterday. It looks worse than it feels. Oddly enough, my hip feels worse than it looks. No visible bruising in that area but it sure is tender.

I think the treatment is called graston. My chiro uses that and ART to loosen up tight tissue.

I looked up the Limber 11 last night and rolling out the adductors is part of that warm up. My left adductors are horrible! I can only roll them for about 10-15 seconds at a time.

According to DeFranco, the more it hurts, the more you need to do it. I can’t argue with that.

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I think there are limits to if it hurts you need to do it. But the limber 11 is a keeper for me in my training.

He was talking about the rolling portion. He was actually rolling his piriformis with the lacrosse ball at the time.

Training?

CINDY (7 rounds 8:17)
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats
I used a wider squat stance (the one I actually prefer) and it hurt my hip for the first few sets. After that it warmed up and then I could only feel tight muscles like the adductors. I think a wider stance will reduce how much I use the adductors, right?

REV BAND FLY
black band x 20 x 3 sets

superset with

BENT KNEE HOLLOW HOLDS
20 sec x 3 sets

REV BAND FLY (REAR DELT EMPHASIS)
black band x 20 x 2 sets

superset with

SIDE PLANK + HIP ABDUCTION
2 x 10 ea
Holy crap these are hard! I had no idea how much the lower leg would have to work.

Total Workout Time: 20 minutes

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(Just to give my personal experience in case anything resonates with your hip issue.)

When my right hip was (super) tight, I literally had to pull with all my strength to (barely) point the right knee to my left shoulder when lying down (it’s a hip stretch, you’re probably familiar with it). It turned out to be the cause of my extreme lower back soreness after deadlifting. Fortunately, I never had back issues from deadlifting, but once I loosened up my hip, the difference in soreness level was literally amazing.

I’m old, 56 1/2 now, and pretty much squat for “health” (look up some of Lee Boyce’s articles on TN). But back when I was trying to increase #s, I had issues with the right hip from squatting, nothing that painful but a nagging “always something there in the joint” kind of thing that started to worry me. What works for me is that I actually need to think of posteriorly tilting my right pelvis (I don’t know if tilting just one side of your pelvis is anatomically possible, but that’s my mental cue) before squatting down; and definitely not “knees out”. Conversely, strangely enough (or not), I have to do the opposite with my left side (knees out, let the hip do it’s thing with no cue from me); on my left side, I’ve also experienced patellar tendonitis (and still do if not careful) but that’s another long story.

My bro’ science conclusion from all this is that hip mobility is (extremely) important, but control of how one tilts their pelvis (as a right side/left side, and not just one way for both sides) is a key part of that.

Hope that wall of text helps you, you’re a good guy and I wish you luck with your rehab.

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I wanted to add (#1 obviously, note the comment about McGill):

My .02: do the bodyweight squat in front of a mirror; at the bottom, see if one hip is lower than the other, play with tilting your pelvis and see what happens/how it affects what you feel in your hips.

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Thanks, @punnyguy. I appreciate you sharing your own experiences. I feel out of balance when I squat. I’m not sure where the problem is but I have plenty to work on for now.

Hopefully I’ll get things to loosen up if I continue rolling and stretching and avoiding loaded barbells. I think I’m done lifting for December. I might do some shoulder stuff on occasion but that’ll be it. I don’t feel the need (or desire) to do much after running a few rounds of Cindy.

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This is good. You’ll be back. Sooner than later.

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I’ll be back someday. The obstacles are time and money - time invested in addressing the weak links and money invested in my chiropractor.

It’s hard to go to the gym or go downstairs without a structured plan. This is the first time in my life that I haven’t had a tentative plan. You know, Monday is upper push, Tuesday is legs, etc. Right now it’s nothing.

New goals/priorities:

  1. Get healthy
  2. Improve conditioning
  3. Maintain muscle mass while cutting fat

I think I’m going to push the range of motion on my squats even though there’s some pain. It’s bodyweight for crying out loud; I need to be able to move my own body pain free. If I can’t then I won’t be able to call myself healthy.

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