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.

Bump in the Road

After a pretty successful squat session on Saturday morning, Chris (up from Providence to train at TPS - whoo hoo!) and I went to the shed at TPS to try out some strongman lifts. I learned that although I can deadlift 295#, I am unable to pick up a 100# atlas stone, and that even though I am able to pick up a 100# oversize strongman dumbbell, for my own future health I probably shouldn't. On one of my last attempts, I managed to get the dumbbell over my left shoulder (having only been able to get it up on the right side previously) and in the process knocked one of my ribs out of place. This has happened to me before so I knew the feeling (it's a sudden, achy 'pop' in your chest - feels awesome. Not.)

In the process of relocating it back into place, with some help from Chris, I managed to basically make the injury worse, so now even though my rib is back in place, I have a lot of stretched/strained/hopefully not torn intercostal muscles and ligaments. In short, my upper left chest fucking hurts. A lot.

The worst part is this means I really can't train until it starts healing, which should happen fairly quickly, but it's sort of a day-to-day thing. At the moment I am living on ibuprofen and I think I probably have to stay out of the gym until I can be pain-killer free.

I am in week 5 of the Cube program, and there's no planned deloads in the programming, so while it's not the worst thing in the world to take a week off (please god, let it not be more than a week), I am still pretty bummed and of course convinced that I am going to get weak and fat immediately. My game plan is to try to use this week to do some more active recovery than I usually do (long walks, etc) and also catch up on Boards studying. I don't want it to be a total loss, and with a little bit of diligence on my part, it doesn't need to be, but I am still feeling a bit blue about the whole thing. Being out of the gym makes me a little crazy, and I hate that feeling.

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Training Saturday (Rep Squat day on the Cube Program):
Warmup: foam rolling and meathead mobility
Squat Warmup: 45#x10, 10; 95#x5, 3; 115#x3; 145#x3
Comp Squat: 165#x8, 8; 170#x8
Front Squat: 95#x2; 115#x3, 3
Pause Squat: 125#x8, 8; 130#x8

Sumo Deadlifts: 135#x8; 185#x5, 5, 5; 195#x5
Box Jumps: 18' box (5x3)

Strongman Lifts

100th Post and a Reality Check

This is my 100th blog post! I am pretty excited about that, as when I started this I wasn't sure if it was something I would be interested/able to keep up with, or that I would find helpful at all in my training. I'm happy to say that I have really enjoyed having this space to come to to record successes and failures and struggles and generally vent about all the stuff that tumbles around in my head but I don't often have a venue to voice. So thank for reading all my ramblings, I hope to keep it up for another 100 posts!

That said, the first 10 or so of those 100 posts will be coming a bit slower than usual. In about 10 weeks I will be taking my PT Boards, the final hurdle to becoming an actual, real, licensed, able-to-practice-independently physical therapist. Preparing for Boards involves a shit-ton of studying, and between work and training I am running seriously short on time. My goal for the next 10 weeks is to post here once a week or so, but if it's quieter than usual the reason is that I am buried under a mountain of review material and probably completely freaking out about (re-)learning it all in time for the 5-hour, 250-question test marathon I'll be undertaking on January 29th.

I know that during the next 10 weeks, training will continue to be a welcome break from regular life and a much-needed source of stress relief. Today was an excellent example of that as I have been feeling a bit antsy and unsettled in my life for the past few days or so, and have been less than 100% adherent to my nutrition plan and just generally feeling off. Getting into the gym and deadlifting was, as always, a grounding experience. I've been ending each session recently with 5 minutes of yoga stretching, and really enjoying these 5 minutes as I generally just feel a tremendous sense of gratitude that I am able to train so intensely and that my body is willing to put up with it. I feel very fortunate, and I think that gratitude was helpful to me today to get me out of my funk.

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Training today:

Warmup: foam rolling and meathead mobility

Deadlift Warm-up: 135#x5, 5; 165#x5; 187#x5

Conventional Deadlift (explosive training): 199#x2repsx6sets

Deficit Deadlift: 182#x6repsx3 sets

Kettlebell Swings: 24kgx25,25,20,15,15 (I made the jump from the 20kg bell to the 24kg bell this week and am definitely feeling it)

1A) Walking Lunges 30#DB/eachx4setsx10reps

1B) Goodmornings 110#x4setsx10reps

2A) Wide-Grip Seated Rows 120#x8,8; 130#x8,8

2B) Farmer Carries 60#DB/eachx30secondsx3

Cooldown: 5 minutes yoga

Squat Success, Picture Updates and Face-First Into Bad Habits

So I ended up squatting on Friday evening this week instead of Saturday morning since I was at a conference at work from 7am-4pm on Saturday (yes, you can totally feel bad for me for having to go into work at 7am on Saturday, I gladly accept your pity.) I enjoy Friday evenings at TPS because the gym is packed and it makes me happy to be there instead of at happy hour where I religiously spent Friday evenings for years and/or sitting at home on my couch being exhausted, which is how I generally spend Friday evenings these days if not at the gym. I seem to have lost some of my squat mojo from last week when I was feeling very solid with my form and the weights were feeling light, as the weights actually were light this week (it was "explosive" squat day, when I'm supposed to focus on moving the bar quickly) but it felt like I was moving through mud. That said, I still considered adding on an extra set of safety bar squats because I felt like maybe I wasn't getting enough work in, however the 6x3 set of pause squats that finished up my main lift work for the day pretty much crushed me, so I'm glad I didn't get ahead of myself by loading up the safety bar squats. In other words, "STICK TO THE PROGRAM, RACHEL." In other not-breaking news, the glute ham raise is essentially hamstring hell and sort of makes me want to die every time I use it, but I just assume that means it is really, really, really working.

Squat Day on Friday:
Warmup: foam rolling and meathead mobility
Warm-up Squats (regular bar): 45#x5, 5, 5 (with a lot of time spent in the hole stretching my hips out); 95#x5; 115#x3; 135#x3
Competition Squats: 145#x2repsx6sets
Safety Bar Squats: 105#x5,5
Pause Squat: 135#x3repsx6 sets (I realized a couple weeks ago that I should be using a lower 1RM weight for my pause squats, as it doesn't REALLY make sense for me to be doing almost as heavy a weight and more reps for my pause squat as my comp squat, but I also think it's helpful for me to be working heavy pause squats so I'm keeping the weight as-is for now, even if it means I have to split sets - the program is written for 6repsx2-3sets, but I can only get 3 reps out at a time at this weight.)

Glute Ham Raise 5x12
Snatch Grip Deads off blocks 165#x8, 8, 8, 8
Shrugs giant contraptionx10, 12, 15 (because sometimes you just gotta work on your traps)
Semi-inverted rowsx7, 7, 7, 6

Cool down: Yoga Stretch (5 minutes)

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This morning was Body Day, and I mixed up my exercises a little bit, substituting in the split-stance tricep extension and 3-point dumbbell row, both suggestions from a nice little article from Eric Cressey's newsletter this week. I have been wanting to make some slight adjustments to my exercises for Body Day as I tend to get bored with the same accessory work week after week, and these tweaks were perfect for making it feel fresh. Also, the split-stance tricep extension is definitely friendlier to my irritable triceps tendons which are always a little cranky with direct triceps work. As part of my goal of assessing how I'm feeling about my body without measuring my progress on the scale I snapped a couple pictures as all in all I have been feeling pretty rockin' about how I'm looking both in and out of the gym. I like my booty (yay deadlifts) and am continuing to work on accepting my belly for what it is rather than hating on it pointlessly. 

Yay for purple tights! 

Working on loving every bit of me, even my valgus knees. 

 I also took a picture of my traps, because I like them and because I remember when I first started training with Chris asking a couple friends to tell me "if I ever started losing my neck" by getting too bulky, whereas now I pretty much just want bigger traps and bigger lats, bulky neck and back be damned :) Ah how things change.

Yes, I am totally flexing my traps in this picture, and yes, I wish they were larger.

Unfortunately after a pretty good workout and feeling pretty good about these pictures, I promptly fell face-first into a pile of cookies after getting home. This is classic behavior for me, and something I am pretty embarrassed to admit to, that essentially any time I am feeling really good and on track and like I am close to my goals I generally immediately try to eat myself several steps backwards. It is a dumb and reflexive bad habit that I have yet to figure out how to break. That said, I am determined to salvage the rest of today and not spend it mindlessly eating crap with the lame justification that I already messed up so why not keep going (this is also a classic habit of mine.) I have a lot of studying and work to get done today and I need to focus on that, which I'm hoping will keep me out of the kitchen and the cookies. 

Body Day Training Today:
Warm-up: Foam rolling, elevated pushups, band pull-aparts and band pull-downs
1A) Single-arm DB Bench Press (4x10)
1B) Lat Pulldown (4x10)
2A) 3-Point DB Row (4x10)
2B) Split-Stance Tricep Extension (4x12)

Prowler Pushing: Sled+90#x200', Sled+180#x7x100' (9:36 total) = got in an extra 100' of pushing today, still under 10 minutes - whoo hoo!
Kettlebell Swings 16kgx40, 30, 30
Plank: 1:20 

Cooldown: Yoga stretching (4:20)

Bench Day, not much to say

Rep Bench Day:
Warm-up: foam rolling, band pull-aparts, band pulldowns and elevated pushups
Bench Warm-up: 45#x12, 12; 65x5; 85#x3
Competition-style Bench: 95#x8; 100#x7,6
Close-Grip Bench: 100#x2,2
Pause-Bench (pause 1" above chest): 90#x8, 7, 6

Tricep Pushdown: 60# (4x12)
Wide-grip Seated Rows: 120# (4x8)

DB Shoulder Press: 25# (4x8)

Ouch

It was heavy deadlift day and though going in I felt like the weight/rep scheme seemed a little easy, it definitely felt heavy by the end. Heavy enough apparently to distract me to the point that I dropped a 20kg plate directly on my foot while unloading the bar. OUCH. It effing hurt. I guess I'm lucky though that it wasn't an iron plate as I feel like that would have been more likely to do serious damage. As it is I think I escaped with a little bruising and swelling but nothing broken. I did skip my farmer's walks though since I figured loading up my foot with an extra 120# and carrying it around probably wouldn't help me much.

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Training today:
Warmup: Foam rolling and Meathead Mobility
Warm-up Deads: 133#x5,5; 165#x5; 199#x3; 221#x3
Competition Deadlift: 241#x2repsx3sets
2" Deficit Deadlift: 226#x5, 4 (I don't know at what point or why I thought pulling 226# from a deficit wasn't heavy enough - sometimes I amaze myself.)
Kettlebell Swings: 20kgx25, 25, 20, 15, 15, 10

Walking Lunge 25#DBsx10repsx4sets
Goodmornings 105#x10repsx4sets

Wide-grip Seated Pulley Rows (in place of stupid band pullups): 70#x10, 90#x9, 100#x8, 110#x10 (need to up the weight next time around)