Well, lets get this thing documented. Yesterday I went to physical therapy. I spoke to my therapist about the tightness and weakness in my left hamstring. After putting me through a few new moves and checking a couple more things out he tells me it is the stiffness in my back that is the root cause. The pulled hamstring that I suffered should not be causing any issues the long after the original injury. So we've switched our focus from the legs to the back.
After running me through a routine, he sent me to a table for some stretching. There was nothing new with any of the stretches, just having someone push and manipulate you in the proper fashion made a big difference. As of today, I am still sore from some of the stretches. It is now my assignment to continue with the stretching routine on a daily basis. I'll try to fit it in every evening when the family permits me too.
As I write this, I am listening to Mike on the Dirt Dawg's Running Diatribe podcast episode #101. He referenced the Books on the Nightstand podcast episode #156 and about creating a "Literary Mount Rushmore" of books that have influenced you. He has taken the exercise and done it a couple of different ways. The first time he referred to the people who he would put up on Mount Rushmore for influencing him in his life and a second time with the Running books that have influenced him.
I have asked a question for years that some people thought odd and others thought interesting. Who, living, dead or fictional would you like to have dinner with and why. The answers that people have given me have varied. Some have surprised me and others where right along the lines that you figured they would and matched their personalities.
I ask this. Who would you put on Mount Rushmore, why and if you could have dinner with them, what would you want to talk about?
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Recovery Continues
Trying to get back at it is not easy. After pulling my hamstring during a pickup Hockey game 8 weeks ago, I've been making weekly trips to the Physical Therapist. For the first time, I got on the treadmill during lunch today to start running again. I've wanted to for the last couple weeks, but have not gotten the motivation to actually do it. Well, I did it and I feel good now.
My workout was for 15 minutes. The first 2 were walking to warm up, the next 3 were at a jog. While jogging, my hamstring tightened and felt really weak. I'll have to talk to my therapist in the morning about that. With the 2:3 intervals, I was able to get a mile in over those 15 minutes. Yep, slow, but I am just getting back at it. I'll try again in a couple days.
My workout was for 15 minutes. The first 2 were walking to warm up, the next 3 were at a jog. While jogging, my hamstring tightened and felt really weak. I'll have to talk to my therapist in the morning about that. With the 2:3 intervals, I was able to get a mile in over those 15 minutes. Yep, slow, but I am just getting back at it. I'll try again in a couple days.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Would You, Could You.
An idea has been bouncing around in my mind for a while. It is a question that I would like to pose on Twitter or Facebook. It is just that I am not quite sure how to phrase it. So I'll try it here.
If you could travel back in time to witness any event that occurred in history, where and when would that be? The key word here is "Witness". You could only be an observer and have no ability to change and can not affect history in any way. So would you go back in time and could you do it without trying to change things?
I've been trying to come up with my Top 3 events that I would like to see. As of right now, here they are
1. The Assassination of JFK
2. Custer's Last Stand at Little Big Horn
3. The Discovery of Fire
What would yours be?
If you could travel back in time to witness any event that occurred in history, where and when would that be? The key word here is "Witness". You could only be an observer and have no ability to change and can not affect history in any way. So would you go back in time and could you do it without trying to change things?
I've been trying to come up with my Top 3 events that I would like to see. As of right now, here they are
1. The Assassination of JFK
2. Custer's Last Stand at Little Big Horn
3. The Discovery of Fire
What would yours be?
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Blogger Month
I didn't know this was Blogger month. Wow, I am behind on posting a blog every day. I'll just have to jump right in now and go for the balance of the month.
On top of it being Blogger month, it is also National Novel Writing Month. That is tow things that I should be doing but am not… If I can finish strong with the Blog I'll be doing good.
It has been a while since I've posted anything. For now, I am in physical therapy due to a pulled hamstring suffered while playing hockey. It is difficult to find the time to do my exercises at home but if it can be kept to 30 minutes I'll be able to get them in. On top of the PT I am trying to incorporate an old Ab routine called Ultimate Abs II. Each night I can feel it in my Abs even without moving up to the next level. They say that it should take at least a month one each level before you advance. So far that is definitely the case.
With the therapy and the Ab workout, there has been no change in the weight. As my hamstring recovers and recuperates, I'll eventually get to do more cardio and the weight should start coming down. For now it is rest and recovery.
On top of it being Blogger month, it is also National Novel Writing Month. That is tow things that I should be doing but am not… If I can finish strong with the Blog I'll be doing good.
It has been a while since I've posted anything. For now, I am in physical therapy due to a pulled hamstring suffered while playing hockey. It is difficult to find the time to do my exercises at home but if it can be kept to 30 minutes I'll be able to get them in. On top of the PT I am trying to incorporate an old Ab routine called Ultimate Abs II. Each night I can feel it in my Abs even without moving up to the next level. They say that it should take at least a month one each level before you advance. So far that is definitely the case.
With the therapy and the Ab workout, there has been no change in the weight. As my hamstring recovers and recuperates, I'll eventually get to do more cardio and the weight should start coming down. For now it is rest and recovery.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
A Brand New Day
Okay I promise to update more often. For now I am tying to doitfrommy mobile phone so please excuse the typos.
It's been a while. I started out the year okay but quickly found myself unmotivated. I even entered the Running Fit T-Rex Triathlon series trying to finds motivation. That has not worked. All that happened is Ive done the races under prepared. So what now?
Well, I do enjoy the three sports of triathlon. So, I plan on continuing that part of my life. I'malso looking for another challenge. A few weeks ago I started to think about doing an event for charity. There may be more to come on that in the future.
For now I'm looking to get in better shape and a whole lot heartier. This last weekend was a new start to my transformation. Looking at where I am starting from. A normal BMI for a male is 25. I am starting at over 28 and this is classified as overweight. To get to where it is recommended for me to be is 25 pounds. This can't happen unless I make a lifestyle change. Being that there are more then just myself in the household, it will be no easy task. For the interim I'll settle for losing half the weight.
My goal for this week is to run 3 days. If I can do that it will be a step in the right direction as far as accrediting goes. The other goal I have for the shot term is to get more vegetables on my plate the meat. If I can do this for most of the week I'll be off to a pretty good start.
It's been a while. I started out the year okay but quickly found myself unmotivated. I even entered the Running Fit T-Rex Triathlon series trying to finds motivation. That has not worked. All that happened is Ive done the races under prepared. So what now?
Well, I do enjoy the three sports of triathlon. So, I plan on continuing that part of my life. I'malso looking for another challenge. A few weeks ago I started to think about doing an event for charity. There may be more to come on that in the future.
For now I'm looking to get in better shape and a whole lot heartier. This last weekend was a new start to my transformation. Looking at where I am starting from. A normal BMI for a male is 25. I am starting at over 28 and this is classified as overweight. To get to where it is recommended for me to be is 25 pounds. This can't happen unless I make a lifestyle change. Being that there are more then just myself in the household, it will be no easy task. For the interim I'll settle for losing half the weight.
My goal for this week is to run 3 days. If I can do that it will be a step in the right direction as far as accrediting goes. The other goal I have for the shot term is to get more vegetables on my plate the meat. If I can do this for most of the week I'll be off to a pretty good start.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Two Updates In One
This update is a couple days late. I was unable to get time this weekend to update this blog so now is the time. Saturday was set as a day for a long or in my case just a longer run. The goal was to go for 50 minutes and get some time on tired legs. That definitely worked. At about the 45 minute mark my legs felt heavy but in total I went for 55 minutes. Also, there were sessions for inversion both before and after the run of 5 minutes each and with 12 inverted sit-ups each. After that, my back was feeling really good. An additional benefit is that my right hip that has been bothering me is feeling better also. I am too chicken to have the Doctor check it out for fear that he will find that the socket is so worn down that a new hip would be needed. My brother has gone through that and I don't want to. I am still going without the glucosamine and am not feeling any ill affects from it. There is just the normal soreness that comes with the beginning of any training after an extended rest period. That is good.
Today it was up early for another 35 minutes on the rat wheel. This time upping the pace a little from last week. The plan is for periodization with a 10% increase during the weekly runs for three weeks then backing down on the fourth. The pace was a little quicker then last week in the same amount of time, with my heart rate staying the same if not recovering quicker. These are all goods signs. On another note, the inversion experiment is off. I will be looking for other means of loosening up my back and neck. So for now it is back to the crunches and planks for core work.
Let Pain Be Your Guide
Today it was up early for another 35 minutes on the rat wheel. This time upping the pace a little from last week. The plan is for periodization with a 10% increase during the weekly runs for three weeks then backing down on the fourth. The pace was a little quicker then last week in the same amount of time, with my heart rate staying the same if not recovering quicker. These are all goods signs. On another note, the inversion experiment is off. I will be looking for other means of loosening up my back and neck. So for now it is back to the crunches and planks for core work.
Let Pain Be Your Guide
Friday, February 25, 2011
Improvement Already
Day 3 Session 2
My legs were a little sore when morning arrived yesterday so the best thing for me was to skip the workout. There has been one thing that I was going to track along with the inversion therapy and that is the elimination of Glucosamine from my dose of daily supplements. It is kind of by accident that that happened but I figured why not give it a go. Glucosamine has been part of my daily supplements for years. Matter of fact, I can't remember when I first started to take it. I ran out a couple weeks ago and from past experience should start feeling it by now.
My history with Glucosamine started when knee pain started to affect my playing basketball. Someone recommended it and so I started to take Glucosamine/Condroitin supplements. After a couple weeks of taking in and apparently having the glucosamine build up in my system, my knees started to feel better. From then on I've taken it with rare exception. Those exceptions came when I would run out and just be too lazy to go get more. After a couple weeks of being off it, my knees would give me issues again and I would then head out for more. About a year ago, while reading up on Glucosamine a number of studies pointed out the lack a evidence that the Condroitin had any benefits. They also stated that Glucosamine Sulfate showed slightly better results then Glucosamine Hydrochloride. At that time I switched to strictly Glucosamine Sulfate with no adverse affects and a slightly lower out of pocket expense. And that is where I'm at to date.
Today with the inversion, I stuck with 5 minutes inverted broken into two sessions, prior to running 2.6 miles on the treadmill. I forgot about the inverted sit-ups prior to running but was able to incorporate some movement of the lower back, upper back and neck. During this I could feel some loosening in the neck and upper back and it appears to be heading in the right direction. The reason for breaking the inversion into two sessions was that the stress on my ankles was more severe then previously. Next time I will be looking at how the cuffs are fitting and aligned.
During my run, there was not the usual leg stiffening that occurs during my early morning workouts. This is a very good sign. Once again after the run, I rested and then inverted again for two sessions totaling 5 minutes. This time I remembered the inverted sit-ups and was able to complete 10 of them with deterioration in form so I did not increase the reps.. With the sit-ups and the twisting of the three regions the time flew by.
So far today there has been no soreness or stiffness. I can crack my neck and upper back when there is a need to alleviate that tense feeling. That is one of the side effects that I was looking for. As the therapy continues, hopefully the need to "crack" my back decreases as the alignment and loosening of the vertebrae improve.
As a side note and I doubt if it is related to the inversion, I've started to have some G.I. issues. Hopefully it is from an external source but only time can tell.
Maybe next time I'll post some pictures of the inversion table and the movements. That is if I can get someone or someway to take them.
Let Pain Be Your Guide…..
My legs were a little sore when morning arrived yesterday so the best thing for me was to skip the workout. There has been one thing that I was going to track along with the inversion therapy and that is the elimination of Glucosamine from my dose of daily supplements. It is kind of by accident that that happened but I figured why not give it a go. Glucosamine has been part of my daily supplements for years. Matter of fact, I can't remember when I first started to take it. I ran out a couple weeks ago and from past experience should start feeling it by now.
My history with Glucosamine started when knee pain started to affect my playing basketball. Someone recommended it and so I started to take Glucosamine/Condroitin supplements. After a couple weeks of taking in and apparently having the glucosamine build up in my system, my knees started to feel better. From then on I've taken it with rare exception. Those exceptions came when I would run out and just be too lazy to go get more. After a couple weeks of being off it, my knees would give me issues again and I would then head out for more. About a year ago, while reading up on Glucosamine a number of studies pointed out the lack a evidence that the Condroitin had any benefits. They also stated that Glucosamine Sulfate showed slightly better results then Glucosamine Hydrochloride. At that time I switched to strictly Glucosamine Sulfate with no adverse affects and a slightly lower out of pocket expense. And that is where I'm at to date.
Today with the inversion, I stuck with 5 minutes inverted broken into two sessions, prior to running 2.6 miles on the treadmill. I forgot about the inverted sit-ups prior to running but was able to incorporate some movement of the lower back, upper back and neck. During this I could feel some loosening in the neck and upper back and it appears to be heading in the right direction. The reason for breaking the inversion into two sessions was that the stress on my ankles was more severe then previously. Next time I will be looking at how the cuffs are fitting and aligned.
During my run, there was not the usual leg stiffening that occurs during my early morning workouts. This is a very good sign. Once again after the run, I rested and then inverted again for two sessions totaling 5 minutes. This time I remembered the inverted sit-ups and was able to complete 10 of them with deterioration in form so I did not increase the reps.. With the sit-ups and the twisting of the three regions the time flew by.
So far today there has been no soreness or stiffness. I can crack my neck and upper back when there is a need to alleviate that tense feeling. That is one of the side effects that I was looking for. As the therapy continues, hopefully the need to "crack" my back decreases as the alignment and loosening of the vertebrae improve.
As a side note and I doubt if it is related to the inversion, I've started to have some G.I. issues. Hopefully it is from an external source but only time can tell.
Maybe next time I'll post some pictures of the inversion table and the movements. That is if I can get someone or someway to take them.
Let Pain Be Your Guide…..
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Inversion Therapy
Over the years I've suffered from back pain. Recently the thought entered my head as to if I was loosing leg strength due to the impingement of the sciatic nerve from my back injury. So after a little research, I set out to purchase an inversion table and do a little of my own decompression therapy. Well, my wife put an end to that stating that it was not something that she wanted around the kids. Therefore, of to plan B. I borrowed an inversion table from my buddy Dan. Thanks Dan. And seeing that Dan is probably the only one that reads this blog, here to ya…. My plan is to document what I am doing, feeling and planning to do for inversion therapy. Most days it will be very short, some days, I'll get long winded, sorry for that.
A little background: the injury to my back occurred years ago when I was young and dumb as opposed to be old and dumb now. While water skiing after a couple pops, I took a nasty wipe out that bent my ankles back up to my shoulders. When the pain didn't go away after a few weeks, I started to seek medical advice. Diagnosis was muscle spasms and muscle relaxers were prescribed. After a couple more weeks of no relief, I went to a chiropractor. There he found my lower back, upper back and neck all had issues. So off we went for alignment session 3x a week for 6 weeks. My neck and upper back started to feel better, but my lower back was feeling worse when I walked out of the office then it did when I walked in, so I stopped. I lived with and got used to the pain for years. Finally a medical doctor had a MRI done and that showed a severe herniated disk at L5S1. To avoid surgery I went through a special back pain physical therapy course which finally started to help. To this day, I still do some of the exercises. That was until began to wonder about the loss of strength. This brings us back to date.
Day 1
This morning was not just the beginning of my inversion therapy; it is also the beginning of my training for the summer triathlon season. So, after setting up the inversion table I got on it and flipped to a complete inverted position. There was a instant feeling of relaxation in my lower back, but no change in my neck or upper back. I hung like this for about 5 minutes before I did 10 inverted sit-ups. The sit-ups caused a little muscle sorness in my back so I laid back down and hung inverted for another minute. I then got off the inversion table and got on the treadmill for 35 minutes of intervals. That was 2 minutes walking and 3 minutes running. During the walk my heart rate would drop to about 120 bpm and during the running it would get up to 158 bpm. The intervals got me about 2.5 miles on the rat wheel. I then sat down for a couple minutes to cool down before getting back on the inversion table for another 5 minutes and 10 inverted sit-ups. This time my back did not tighten up during the sit-ups and still no difference in my upper back and neck.
Going forward, the plan in to increase the inversion time by a minute each session and do an addition 5 inverted sit-ups every session. Once I can get to 30 minutes and 50 situps life should be good. The other indicator I am looking for is the ability to crack my back and neck. While training for the bike legs, my neck has been getting stiff and feel like it needs to crack and I haven't been able to crack it to get any relief. Hopefully the decompression during inversion loosens things up and allows more movement. Time will tell.
Disclaimer:
I am by no means a medical professional. Everything I do here, I am doing at my own risk and only to myself. I have discussion this with my doctor and he said I could be an experiment of one. His final words were "Let Pain Be Your Guide" so if I start to hurt more, I'll change things up or stop completely. If you try any of this there are no result guaranteed or implied.
A little background: the injury to my back occurred years ago when I was young and dumb as opposed to be old and dumb now. While water skiing after a couple pops, I took a nasty wipe out that bent my ankles back up to my shoulders. When the pain didn't go away after a few weeks, I started to seek medical advice. Diagnosis was muscle spasms and muscle relaxers were prescribed. After a couple more weeks of no relief, I went to a chiropractor. There he found my lower back, upper back and neck all had issues. So off we went for alignment session 3x a week for 6 weeks. My neck and upper back started to feel better, but my lower back was feeling worse when I walked out of the office then it did when I walked in, so I stopped. I lived with and got used to the pain for years. Finally a medical doctor had a MRI done and that showed a severe herniated disk at L5S1. To avoid surgery I went through a special back pain physical therapy course which finally started to help. To this day, I still do some of the exercises. That was until began to wonder about the loss of strength. This brings us back to date.
Day 1
This morning was not just the beginning of my inversion therapy; it is also the beginning of my training for the summer triathlon season. So, after setting up the inversion table I got on it and flipped to a complete inverted position. There was a instant feeling of relaxation in my lower back, but no change in my neck or upper back. I hung like this for about 5 minutes before I did 10 inverted sit-ups. The sit-ups caused a little muscle sorness in my back so I laid back down and hung inverted for another minute. I then got off the inversion table and got on the treadmill for 35 minutes of intervals. That was 2 minutes walking and 3 minutes running. During the walk my heart rate would drop to about 120 bpm and during the running it would get up to 158 bpm. The intervals got me about 2.5 miles on the rat wheel. I then sat down for a couple minutes to cool down before getting back on the inversion table for another 5 minutes and 10 inverted sit-ups. This time my back did not tighten up during the sit-ups and still no difference in my upper back and neck.
Going forward, the plan in to increase the inversion time by a minute each session and do an addition 5 inverted sit-ups every session. Once I can get to 30 minutes and 50 situps life should be good. The other indicator I am looking for is the ability to crack my back and neck. While training for the bike legs, my neck has been getting stiff and feel like it needs to crack and I haven't been able to crack it to get any relief. Hopefully the decompression during inversion loosens things up and allows more movement. Time will tell.
Disclaimer:
I am by no means a medical professional. Everything I do here, I am doing at my own risk and only to myself. I have discussion this with my doctor and he said I could be an experiment of one. His final words were "Let Pain Be Your Guide" so if I start to hurt more, I'll change things up or stop completely. If you try any of this there are no result guaranteed or implied.
Monday, January 10, 2011
New Year and a New Start
I'm getting a late start on this year's workouts. the work schedule has been crazy until now so hopefully here we go. The "Plan" is to get at leat 30 minutes in at lunch 3 days a week for the next 3 weeks. After that a weekend workout will be added.
The good news is that this year the Holiday weight was less then last year. But being a year older, means it is going to be harder to get that weight off. Got to try anyways.
So off we go and let's pray this old body holds up....
The good news is that this year the Holiday weight was less then last year. But being a year older, means it is going to be harder to get that weight off. Got to try anyways.
So off we go and let's pray this old body holds up....
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