Bloh Update

I'm putting this up in bullet-form because there are a couple different things I want to post about, and I am lacking the brain-space to string them together nicely in a coherent way, so here goes:

• I have even less time than I anticipated having with Boards studying and life stuff (all good stuff!) and so this blog is getting put on hiatus until after January 29th. I have loved having this space to go to and I hope to return to it but for now I just don't have the time to keep up with it so I'm putting it on hold officially.
• My ribs are getting better! For the last week or so I have been able to squat and deadlift heavy and relatively pain-free. I still can't bench but am hoping to be able to start with some light benching next week, we'll see how it goes. 
• I was able to squat and deadlift at the clinic the weekend before last and I got really great feedback on my form from Brandon Lilly (he literally walked up to me and asked my name and complimented my squat form at the very beginning of the clinic. It was a pretty awesome moment.) Overall the clinic was a little disappointing in that it was targeted towards less experienced lifters, but it was definitely a confidence-booster for me and I do think I walked away with some good tips that I can apply going forward, mainly that I need to approach my squat more aggressively and with more speed going down into the hole. It was also a totally fun day catching up with Chris so I have zero complaints over all.
• I am coming up on the end of my nutrition coaching with Jen (we're at the end of a 12 week cycle in a couple weeks and I am not planning on renewing again.) I feel like I have learned a lot from her and have some great plans to use going forward for competition-dieting as well as every day eating, but right now I don't have the drive to adhere to a strict nutrition plan. I have been indulging in holiday treats and drinks/dinner out and I have been enjoying it. I hope that I am approaching a place of more balance in my life, where I can still eat well and healthily and support my lifting but also enjoy some treats and live/eat less rigidly day-to-day. In the end, I did not achieve my goal of becoming a "ripped hottie", but I did gain a bit more self-acceptance and understanding, and I'm still okay with what I see in the mirror most days, so all in all I think working with her was a good and worthwhile investment. 
• I am pretty sure there are things I meant to post about but am forgetting, but I need to get cracking on Boards studying, so that's what I am going to do! Right now! (Errrr, after I eat dinner.)

Over and out, blog! See you in February 2014! 

Speed bump?

Well, it's turned into rather a larger bump than I first anticipated . . . 12 days in and my ribs are still pretty sore. I haven't been able to lift heavy since I messed them up at TPS, and after a couple attempts at training around the soreness and trying to get some work in without aggravating the injury, I ended up deciding to take a week of complete rest in advance of the powerlifting clinic I'm going to this Saturday. It's run by the Juggernaut team, specifically Brandon Lilly and Chad Smith and I've been looking forward to it for the past couple months. At this point I'mn just hoping I'll be able to squat and deadlift enough to 1) not feel completely embarassed about my numbers and 2) actually be able to take advantage of the coaching opportunity. I gave up on being able to bench by this Saturday, considering I can't even weight-bear through my left arm enough to foam roll properly, the chances of me benching are nil. (On a side note, I now know that my lackadaisical 5 minutes on the foam roller every session was working, being away from it for a couple weeks my IT bands are absurdly tight and making my knees even crankier than usual. So yeah, all that insistent chatter about the benefits of foam rolling is legit.)

The last 12 days have been hard. I don't feel like myself. I miss the gym tremendously, both the time spent there and the feeling of satisfaction, exhaustion and euphoria that comes afterwards. The 5 minutes of stretching and yoga and feeling grateful that I had been finishing my workouts with feels extra poignant now. I'm glad I started doing it, but wow am I going to be feeling 1,000x more gratitude once I'm back to heavy weights after this experience. At the same time, I am trying to remember to be grateful for all the things I can still do: walk, work, get through my day without assistance, etc. I know that in the grand scheme of things this injury and setback is minor and I am still wildly fortunate in terms of physical health. At the same time, it's still really shitty.

I think one of the hardest things has been not knowing how long this is going to last. I am hoping that I will be able to get back to regular, semi-heavy lifting next week, and that within another 3-4 weeks I'll be back to lifting pain-free and hopefully making progress again, but it's hard to predict, and even harder to tell at what point it's safe for me to go back to lifting heavy. On the one hand, I don't want to delay healing or turn this into a chronic issue, on the other hand I don't want to take a ton of time off and lose a lot of strength and fitness and have to rebuild all that. There's also plenty of anecdotal evidence that it's just fine to train through these types of minor injuries as long as the pain/discomfort isn't unbearable and isn't causing any compensatory negative movement patterns. I know that in all of this I am very far from being able to take a clear and objective perspective, but I'm trying.