Okay, so tonight, after having sat still for a good portion of the day (I was doing my best, honestly... I want this knee to heal up!) I decided to go out and exercise a little bit. I did bench press yesterday, topping out at a 405 pound triple, and incline bench press topping out at 345, and so I thought that punching a freaking punching bag, which mostly just involves swinging your little fists, would be okay, too, and maybe give me some nice cardio work. It turns out, though, that there's a certain amount of torsion in your legs, when you punch, and now my hamstring is absolutely screaming at me. Looks like I'm just going to go back to bench pressing/incline benching and doing chest supported rows on alternating days, for a while, until this thing sorts itself out completely.
On the other hand, I'm super happy that I've got my class schedule worked out for my first two quarters! I'm taking Church History I and II, New Testament Literary Orientation I and II and hermeneutics (my absolute favorite subjects). I ordered my books today, for a whopping (not really) 426 dollars, and can't wait for them to get here next week so I can get into them. Hopefully I haven't lost all of my ability to write, since I've a good bit of that to do!
ETA: I'm also planning on doing another lengthy ramble about masculinity, epic failures and (God help us all) Mark Madden in the next couple of days.
Showing posts with label injury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label injury. Show all posts
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Strength and Deconditioning 10: Oh God my freaking leg...
Okay, last night I got injured in a fairly embarrassing way. As I was walking out to the gym to do my squat workout--which was gonna be big and huge and epic, like, you know, around 455 at the end! maybe 475!--I slipped on a wet patch of grass and went arse over heels. My left leg was thrown out and hyper-extended pretty awfully. I heard a kind of a ripping noise, and found myself unable to pull myself to my feet for a few moments.
Hoping that it was just a little twinge, or something, I hobbled to the gym, after I had gotten to my feet, and tried to squat my warm-up, to see if I could handle it. Only 225, basically little baby weight. I mean, ladies and gents, I do my high rep rows with 225. It was so heavy, as I was going down, that I couldn't imagine all the forces of gravity pulling on me any harder. I rolled the weight over my head and dumped it. After managing to put my glasses back together, and to somehow dead lift the 225 one handed and one legged back onto my rack, I crawled to the house and collapsed. Not the most pleasant night, you understand.
So, now, for a couple of weeks it looks like I'm going to be a 'bench press only' athlete. As my hamstring, which I think is torn a little bit, heals, I'll work dead lifts and, eventually, squats back into my programming. Hopefully it won't take too long... I hate sitting still!
Hoping that it was just a little twinge, or something, I hobbled to the gym, after I had gotten to my feet, and tried to squat my warm-up, to see if I could handle it. Only 225, basically little baby weight. I mean, ladies and gents, I do my high rep rows with 225. It was so heavy, as I was going down, that I couldn't imagine all the forces of gravity pulling on me any harder. I rolled the weight over my head and dumped it. After managing to put my glasses back together, and to somehow dead lift the 225 one handed and one legged back onto my rack, I crawled to the house and collapsed. Not the most pleasant night, you understand.
So, now, for a couple of weeks it looks like I'm going to be a 'bench press only' athlete. As my hamstring, which I think is torn a little bit, heals, I'll work dead lifts and, eventually, squats back into my programming. Hopefully it won't take too long... I hate sitting still!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Strength and deconditioning : The importance of a rest day
The most important thing you can do, if you're trying to get bigger, get strong, lose weight, whatever, is to exercise with great intensity every time you step into the gym or onto the track. By the time you finish you ought to be staggering, dripping and gasping, but not hurting... endorphins will keep you from hurting, and if you're truly hurting, you're doing it wrong.
Anyway, that's the most important thing: working out hard. The second most important thing is to take a rest day, when you need it. When one lifts weights, one causes micro-tears in the muscles affected by the movement you engage. If you never allow these tears to heal, then they'll continue to get bigger, making you weak and eventually causing an injury. If you give them a day or two to heal, however, they muscle fibers will knit together, a little bigger and tougher than before, and produce a world class physique! That feeling of soreness, common to beginners and those just returning the Iron Game, is called Direct Muscle Soreness. Serious strength athletes, like power lifters, face a more insidious problem called Deep Muscle Fatigue. DMF is a leaden feeling that pervades the body, emanating in waves from the core and making it impossible to move the limbs. When the symptoms of DMF are ignored, and you keep punishing your body, you'll end up blowing a lift and hurting yourself, or find yourself simply unable to get out of bed in the morning, since advanced DMF feels like a mild form of paralysis. I can remember one of my biggest limit squats, taken earlier this summer... I had been working out hard for two weeks with little rest, and knew that a limit squat was a bad plan. I was all hyped up, though, and there were a couple of cute girls over on the cardio machines watching, and that can make a man foolish. After barely beating my old PR, I staggered two steps back, got light headed, and fainted into my two spotters arms. I was just glad that I didn't get a nose bleed. I have seen that, during a max on squat or dead lift, and worse. For the next three days, I moved through life like something out of a zombie movie, sluggish and moaning for food. It was the worst!
I say all of this because today is a good day for rest, like Dr. Seuss used to talk about a great day for up. I've been exercising hard for a full week, and just need to rest. There are bruises all over my body... my neck is bruised from back squats, my chest from bench press, and there are huge, ugly, purple blotches on my shoulders from cross-grip front squats. The ever present scuff marks on my shins, from dead lifting, are raw and ready to bleed, and I have a huge, ugly abrasion on my stomach from a clean that I almost lost at the top without racking it completely. I look like I just lost a fight with a small, angry bear, and to prevent something bad from happening I took today off and am mostly sitting still, aggravating as that is to me. Resting can be as hard as working out, but it's just as important!
Anyway, that's the most important thing: working out hard. The second most important thing is to take a rest day, when you need it. When one lifts weights, one causes micro-tears in the muscles affected by the movement you engage. If you never allow these tears to heal, then they'll continue to get bigger, making you weak and eventually causing an injury. If you give them a day or two to heal, however, they muscle fibers will knit together, a little bigger and tougher than before, and produce a world class physique! That feeling of soreness, common to beginners and those just returning the Iron Game, is called Direct Muscle Soreness. Serious strength athletes, like power lifters, face a more insidious problem called Deep Muscle Fatigue. DMF is a leaden feeling that pervades the body, emanating in waves from the core and making it impossible to move the limbs. When the symptoms of DMF are ignored, and you keep punishing your body, you'll end up blowing a lift and hurting yourself, or find yourself simply unable to get out of bed in the morning, since advanced DMF feels like a mild form of paralysis. I can remember one of my biggest limit squats, taken earlier this summer... I had been working out hard for two weeks with little rest, and knew that a limit squat was a bad plan. I was all hyped up, though, and there were a couple of cute girls over on the cardio machines watching, and that can make a man foolish. After barely beating my old PR, I staggered two steps back, got light headed, and fainted into my two spotters arms. I was just glad that I didn't get a nose bleed. I have seen that, during a max on squat or dead lift, and worse. For the next three days, I moved through life like something out of a zombie movie, sluggish and moaning for food. It was the worst!
I say all of this because today is a good day for rest, like Dr. Seuss used to talk about a great day for up. I've been exercising hard for a full week, and just need to rest. There are bruises all over my body... my neck is bruised from back squats, my chest from bench press, and there are huge, ugly, purple blotches on my shoulders from cross-grip front squats. The ever present scuff marks on my shins, from dead lifting, are raw and ready to bleed, and I have a huge, ugly abrasion on my stomach from a clean that I almost lost at the top without racking it completely. I look like I just lost a fight with a small, angry bear, and to prevent something bad from happening I took today off and am mostly sitting still, aggravating as that is to me. Resting can be as hard as working out, but it's just as important!
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