Walked/hiked/jogged/ran 17km in SF yesterday.
Today, a grr workout.
Warmup backwards lunge / spiderman crawl / foam roll glute med
1x5 45 lb plate deep squats
3+3 90lb DL
empty bar OHS practice (still needs work)
Pistol progression-- 1-legged squat practice atop short box (idea from Power Moves book)
Intermix jump rope & 5+5 8kg Kb sw / 5+5 8kg Kb sn
ASLR
Stretch
Lats need work... my new weakest links: something around the lat/shoulder chain. Need to do more Z R-phase camshafts and review shoulder mobility drills / literature.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
on running and summer plans
Now that my quals week is drawing to a close, I'm looking fwd/ahead to the summer, with thoughts of where to live (SF) and how/why to train.
Yesterday I spent a lil time before dinner listening to Senior RKC Mark Reifkind talk as part of the KB secrets series, and I'm definitely glad I got a chance to hear and remember what Mark has tried to teach me in workshops and in training, directly and indirectly.
Mark and I seem to share a love for intensity, and whereas he started out as a gymnast eventually competing against (pre-Olympian) Kurt Angle at the collegiate level. After getting injured he started to run, and with his love of volume eventually started running ultras.
running / parkour
I started running more recently, partly because I wanted to give my L wrist a break (in case I tore my forehand ligament) and partly because I know that running (endurance that is) is a weakness of mine relative to sprinting / max-strength / body control. I also did Wii Fit for a while this quarter whilst injured, which helped my balance a lot, but I guess I wanted to be a better runner for a few reasons. I watched Watchmen with my momma (heh) and kind of wanted to be more like Rorschach... whatever that means, you tell me :p
So given that, I started my parkour (rather than freerunning) practice on campus, and I've been slowly getting better! I had to ease off of the upper body work to give my L wrist a rest (was doing GTG pullups on my door, didn't have access to that fancy lifeline jungle gym though in retrospect that's probably a better investment than the pullup bar I have and don't have installed).
Actually, yesterday was a little bit of a breakthrough in my parkour practice (I don't train parkour, I just practice...)--I was feeling a little tight but I started slowly on Wilbur, felt good running past the Law school, and then did a continuous run from the geo corner of the quad (after navigating through the bushes) over the physics / stats lawns and then through that Sequoia window I spent months looking at wistfully :p then over the Packard cement blocks and through the EE lawn finally to Gates.
on sprinting not
It wasn't just that I was pushing myself, I wasn't, but it was probably the first time I felt like I was pacing myself appropriately and trying to feel my way to a good rhythm and cadence... I guess I was inspired by this article on Why [the author] Sucked in College, where he noted:
Being addicted to intensity, I just love intervals, and sprinting rocks... at least until you gas yourself out heh but I kind of realize that strength work and sprinting work over a bent frame (as Cook would say) or one that hasn't learned to sustain itself on aerobic paces is probably not a good idea... kind of how I learned to DL my bodyweight and DL some 1500 lbs in 15 minutes months before I even tried a weighted squat, or how I learned to sprint 100m in sub-14s or so without knowing what my mile / 5k times were. But that's me, trying to take shortcuts and sometimes screwing myself over in the process :p
monthly progress
so yea, i just wanted to look back and remind myself that my lower body stability has gotten a lot better, i have far fewer restrictions, my lower back recovers so much better with improved posture / form / hip mobility, and my balance / walking gait / running form have all improved over the last just 6 months. i still have a ways to go, but i just wanted to remind myself that things have progressed even though I haven't been able to devote myself to intense sprint training, deadlifts, or much Kbell work either.
that said, one thing before the next... it was good to be reminded by Rif that it's not just a question of whether you do corrective exercise first and then get stronger or jump into strength work, but that it's an ongoing process. i'm not actually that informed about the Conjugate Method way of training, although i know a little about periodization / block training / waving etc. I guess what Rif was trying to say was that training is kind of like trying to walk somewhere on shifting sands, where your strengths and weaknesses, your imbalances and injuries keep moving. Hopefully they don't keep moving in the same direction or else you're either going to get injured soon or you've found the exact perfect routine but I'm guessing the former is more likely :)
I actually find that my body has an incredibly fast training response, in a matter of days I notice a difference, and so I have to be really careful about L/R training asymmetry... maybe anterior/posterior is a different story? lateral/medial? not sure.
kbells
Rif talked a lot about stability in his KB secrets call and I've definitely taken this lesson to heart and improved my stability in the primal patterns (deep squat, lunge, etc). It was also good to be reminded that perhaps 1-handed swings might be an easier way to swing for me due to my L/R posterior chain / medial chain asymmetries... cuz I've been taking a break from KB work cuz I know I'll be doing more over the summer.
I'm also looking forward to ETK, err I mean Pavel's RTK, which just came out and has more on KB periodization, double KB work, snatches, KB squats and the like.
I guess the plan is to continue my parkour practice on campus until the quarter ends, then give my parkour running a break as I get settled in SF (maybe just do aerobic runs without much parkour spirit?). While I'm still on campus I think I'd still like to do light (less than half bodyweight) DL practice, don't think I'll be training backsquats since that's pretty technical, or OHS cuz I'm still at the practice phase and empty bar OHS is still a struggle, but I think a mix of light DL practice and plated goblet squats will be a nice way to end out the campus year.
And actually I realized that if I can double swing then dbl snatch then clean / front squat two 12kg bells, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to do the same for a 1.5 pood bag of flour (well not exactly, but the weight I mean :). That said, even though it's tempting to go out and buy 40 lb plates just cuz it's cool to go to the gym and grab a big-bass barbell plate and start doing front squats, I'm not really going to use a 40 lb plate for much except lookin' cool, and I might as well invest in symmetric kbells for dbl bell work. That said, it sounds fun to work my way up to 40 lb bbell plate in each hand front squats haha holdin' em like shields or some such.
I've actually thought about sandbag work and maybe that'll be my fun alternative to buying more kbells (I already have DD 8kg USA black, 12kg & 16kg DD red, 8kg & 12kg cheapo Apollo) or plates (tempting tho! maybe one day :p). Plus it'll be easier to transport sandbags & I wanna learn how to lift a 1.5 pood bag of organic Giusto's flour with good form from the ground to the kitchen :D
So yea, screw the gym this summer (at least in SF, it might be fun to do a variety day in the campus gym for fun once a week or every other week), I think I'd rather invest in sandbags / kbells / my own education (reading Vern Gambetta's book on coaching!) and maybe even do PT with my RKC asst instructor MartyC :)
Okay, back to studyin' for a lil bit longer...
Yesterday I spent a lil time before dinner listening to Senior RKC Mark Reifkind talk as part of the KB secrets series, and I'm definitely glad I got a chance to hear and remember what Mark has tried to teach me in workshops and in training, directly and indirectly.
Mark and I seem to share a love for intensity, and whereas he started out as a gymnast eventually competing against (pre-Olympian) Kurt Angle at the collegiate level. After getting injured he started to run, and with his love of volume eventually started running ultras.
running / parkour
I started running more recently, partly because I wanted to give my L wrist a break (in case I tore my forehand ligament) and partly because I know that running (endurance that is) is a weakness of mine relative to sprinting / max-strength / body control. I also did Wii Fit for a while this quarter whilst injured, which helped my balance a lot, but I guess I wanted to be a better runner for a few reasons. I watched Watchmen with my momma (heh) and kind of wanted to be more like Rorschach... whatever that means, you tell me :p
So given that, I started my parkour (rather than freerunning) practice on campus, and I've been slowly getting better! I had to ease off of the upper body work to give my L wrist a rest (was doing GTG pullups on my door, didn't have access to that fancy lifeline jungle gym though in retrospect that's probably a better investment than the pullup bar I have and don't have installed).
Actually, yesterday was a little bit of a breakthrough in my parkour practice (I don't train parkour, I just practice...)--I was feeling a little tight but I started slowly on Wilbur, felt good running past the Law school, and then did a continuous run from the geo corner of the quad (after navigating through the bushes) over the physics / stats lawns and then through that Sequoia window I spent months looking at wistfully :p then over the Packard cement blocks and through the EE lawn finally to Gates.
on sprinting not
It wasn't just that I was pushing myself, I wasn't, but it was probably the first time I felt like I was pacing myself appropriately and trying to feel my way to a good rhythm and cadence... I guess I was inspired by this article on Why [the author] Sucked in College, where he noted:
1) How much faster I ran in college on most runs than I did when I actually was good and how hard I ran intervals and 2) How much less I ran and less endurance I had in college compared to after.
Being addicted to intensity, I just love intervals, and sprinting rocks... at least until you gas yourself out heh but I kind of realize that strength work and sprinting work over a bent frame (as Cook would say) or one that hasn't learned to sustain itself on aerobic paces is probably not a good idea... kind of how I learned to DL my bodyweight and DL some 1500 lbs in 15 minutes months before I even tried a weighted squat, or how I learned to sprint 100m in sub-14s or so without knowing what my mile / 5k times were. But that's me, trying to take shortcuts and sometimes screwing myself over in the process :p
monthly progress
so yea, i just wanted to look back and remind myself that my lower body stability has gotten a lot better, i have far fewer restrictions, my lower back recovers so much better with improved posture / form / hip mobility, and my balance / walking gait / running form have all improved over the last just 6 months. i still have a ways to go, but i just wanted to remind myself that things have progressed even though I haven't been able to devote myself to intense sprint training, deadlifts, or much Kbell work either.
that said, one thing before the next... it was good to be reminded by Rif that it's not just a question of whether you do corrective exercise first and then get stronger or jump into strength work, but that it's an ongoing process. i'm not actually that informed about the Conjugate Method way of training, although i know a little about periodization / block training / waving etc. I guess what Rif was trying to say was that training is kind of like trying to walk somewhere on shifting sands, where your strengths and weaknesses, your imbalances and injuries keep moving. Hopefully they don't keep moving in the same direction or else you're either going to get injured soon or you've found the exact perfect routine but I'm guessing the former is more likely :)
I actually find that my body has an incredibly fast training response, in a matter of days I notice a difference, and so I have to be really careful about L/R training asymmetry... maybe anterior/posterior is a different story? lateral/medial? not sure.
kbells
Rif talked a lot about stability in his KB secrets call and I've definitely taken this lesson to heart and improved my stability in the primal patterns (deep squat, lunge, etc). It was also good to be reminded that perhaps 1-handed swings might be an easier way to swing for me due to my L/R posterior chain / medial chain asymmetries... cuz I've been taking a break from KB work cuz I know I'll be doing more over the summer.
I'm also looking forward to ETK, err I mean Pavel's RTK, which just came out and has more on KB periodization, double KB work, snatches, KB squats and the like.
I guess the plan is to continue my parkour practice on campus until the quarter ends, then give my parkour running a break as I get settled in SF (maybe just do aerobic runs without much parkour spirit?). While I'm still on campus I think I'd still like to do light (less than half bodyweight) DL practice, don't think I'll be training backsquats since that's pretty technical, or OHS cuz I'm still at the practice phase and empty bar OHS is still a struggle, but I think a mix of light DL practice and plated goblet squats will be a nice way to end out the campus year.
And actually I realized that if I can double swing then dbl snatch then clean / front squat two 12kg bells, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to do the same for a 1.5 pood bag of flour (well not exactly, but the weight I mean :). That said, even though it's tempting to go out and buy 40 lb plates just cuz it's cool to go to the gym and grab a big-bass barbell plate and start doing front squats, I'm not really going to use a 40 lb plate for much except lookin' cool, and I might as well invest in symmetric kbells for dbl bell work. That said, it sounds fun to work my way up to 40 lb bbell plate in each hand front squats haha holdin' em like shields or some such.
I've actually thought about sandbag work and maybe that'll be my fun alternative to buying more kbells (I already have DD 8kg USA black, 12kg & 16kg DD red, 8kg & 12kg cheapo Apollo) or plates (tempting tho! maybe one day :p). Plus it'll be easier to transport sandbags & I wanna learn how to lift a 1.5 pood bag of organic Giusto's flour with good form from the ground to the kitchen :D
So yea, screw the gym this summer (at least in SF, it might be fun to do a variety day in the campus gym for fun once a week or every other week), I think I'd rather invest in sandbags / kbells / my own education (reading Vern Gambetta's book on coaching!) and maybe even do PT with my RKC asst instructor MartyC :)
Okay, back to studyin' for a lil bit longer...
Thursday, May 28, 2009
bsquats
Yesterday:
2nd of 3 qualifying exams!
Z lower body warmup
Reverse lunge warmup
Spiderman crawls
First time practicing bbell high back squats.
Light DL practice (~50 lb 1x5)
40 1x5 plate squat practice
First time empty bar OHS practice
10+ min interval rope work
Pistol practice (still need work when getting close to rock bottom, esp L side)
Jog cooldown
Today:
Interval grass run w Free 3.0 v2 to work (cross Wilbur, Law school lawn, continuous W quad lawn / through Sequoia window / door)
Funny, my left adductor was a little tight the other day, then my right glute was a little tight & r adductor a little weak... hm.
What's my practice going to be over the summer? Maybe 2 days lifting, 2 days running, 2 days cross-train / Ulty? Plate deep squat / goblet squat / OHS practice w balanced DL, focus on running form and endurance, focus on deceleration / having fun? :)
2nd of 3 qualifying exams!
Z lower body warmup
Reverse lunge warmup
Spiderman crawls
First time practicing bbell high back squats.
Light DL practice (~50 lb 1x5)
40 1x5 plate squat practice
First time empty bar OHS practice
10+ min interval rope work
Pistol practice (still need work when getting close to rock bottom, esp L side)
Jog cooldown
Today:
Interval grass run w Free 3.0 v2 to work (cross Wilbur, Law school lawn, continuous W quad lawn / through Sequoia window / door)
Funny, my left adductor was a little tight the other day, then my right glute was a little tight & r adductor a little weak... hm.
What's my practice going to be over the summer? Maybe 2 days lifting, 2 days running, 2 days cross-train / Ulty? Plate deep squat / goblet squat / OHS practice w balanced DL, focus on running form and endurance, focus on deceleration / having fun? :)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
variety day
Having a bummer of a week... this quarter has been surprisingly non-bummer-y but I suspect I'm hitting a post-season low :(
Anyway, had a variety day at home and then some friends wanted to hit the gym so I agreed even though I've been avoiding the inside gym for the quarter.
Z ankle/lower body warmup--surprisingly somewhat loose, adductor work everyday has helped. Foam roll on medial calf muscles.. I think the peroneus brevis? is noticably less tight / painful for the same road volume in previous months... so I think the Free 3.0 has helped there, plus also just working on easy light running form & hip mobility etc. Calves pretty good too, I think I worked out the major knots over the last few weeks.
12kg 1/2 TGU practice
8kg TGUs (odd, my left wrist TFC seems okay but it's the opposing soft tissue that feels weird. Strange. Been laying off the climbing / pressing anyway.
3x8 8kg Goblet Sq practice (feelin pretty good)
3x8 8kg Sw practice
break
Hand walk up dynamics
Spiderman crawl dynamics practice (note to self: stay low, reach w/ opp hand fwd)
Mounting/unmounting to open hips
RKC arm bar
Headstand practice cuz Greg wanted to
Pistol practice (can go down pretty stable on right side, left side needs more stability work but ankle mobility is getting there on L side!)
3x5 40lb plate deep squats
backwards lunge warmup
15-20 min rope work (mix of bounce, alternate step, power jump, cross-over), stay low
intermixed w/ DB farmer-type lunges / pistol practice / deep squat form practice
3 reps of 90lb DL for fun
OHS practice, 20 lb bar, 25 lb barbell
cooldown
birddogs
side planks
pyramid sets of Cook hip lifts (feeling more stable, a bit stronger, doing more than 1 set now)
stretching
edamame + chia fresca
Anyway, had a variety day at home and then some friends wanted to hit the gym so I agreed even though I've been avoiding the inside gym for the quarter.
Z ankle/lower body warmup--surprisingly somewhat loose, adductor work everyday has helped. Foam roll on medial calf muscles.. I think the peroneus brevis? is noticably less tight / painful for the same road volume in previous months... so I think the Free 3.0 has helped there, plus also just working on easy light running form & hip mobility etc. Calves pretty good too, I think I worked out the major knots over the last few weeks.
12kg 1/2 TGU practice
8kg TGUs (odd, my left wrist TFC seems okay but it's the opposing soft tissue that feels weird. Strange. Been laying off the climbing / pressing anyway.
3x8 8kg Goblet Sq practice (feelin pretty good)
3x8 8kg Sw practice
break
Hand walk up dynamics
Spiderman crawl dynamics practice (note to self: stay low, reach w/ opp hand fwd)
Mounting/unmounting to open hips
RKC arm bar
Headstand practice cuz Greg wanted to
Pistol practice (can go down pretty stable on right side, left side needs more stability work but ankle mobility is getting there on L side!)
3x5 40lb plate deep squats
backwards lunge warmup
15-20 min rope work (mix of bounce, alternate step, power jump, cross-over), stay low
intermixed w/ DB farmer-type lunges / pistol practice / deep squat form practice
3 reps of 90lb DL for fun
OHS practice, 20 lb bar, 25 lb barbell
cooldown
birddogs
side planks
pyramid sets of Cook hip lifts (feeling more stable, a bit stronger, doing more than 1 set now)
stretching
edamame + chia fresca
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
progress?
physical practice is goin' okay although not a high prio- these days with deadlines and quals coming up...
that said, it's been great to do SMR on the hips/calves with my new polarfusion.com tiger tail stick. got it @ zombie runner and it's been nice to hit the points that have been missed by foam rolling (which mainly hits the larger muscle groups more easily like quads, lats) and lacrosse ball (glute meds and tissue adjacent to spine for me), mainly the tissues around the iliac crest, knees, calves, and the curvier bits around the shoulder/arms complex that are tough to hit with a roller or ball. i guess i like how it's a nice middle ground between knuckle-based release (focused and intense) and roller-based techniques (broad brush).
it's been a few weeks since regionals and my left shoulder is still a little pookie or whatev, i blame it on the one ugly layout D i had (versus the one or two? decent layout Ds) where i landed left side first. actually it's not really the shoulder that seems to be the root, as manual therapy suggests my L & R anterior shoulderbits are similarly tight, but it seems to really be the bits around my L sternocleidomastoids that seem to be most upset. i guess it'll just take a bit of time to heal that up.
hip cook lifts are goin' okay, my adductors are making mild progress but it'll take time cuz they've been week for heckalong time.
i got new sneaks--nike free 3.0s! been running in them pretty regularly, mostly interval work on grass but a little continuous work with mah runner friends. i guess it makes me realize that i do like running on grass, running intervals (ze intensity), and mixing it up with parkour practice. & some combo of the more barefooty sneaks, tiger tailin' and just less overall training volume iz makin my lower leg soft tissues a lot less distressed.
i was doing some pull-up GTG work and was tempted to pull heavy again but just realized that i should wait until my doc checks out my left wrist ligament to make sure it's not torn.
but yeh overall training is pretty light and overall balance is pretty good. squat pattern could be smoother and wish i could practice more upper body parkour work etc. but the summer will come soon enough?
that said, it's been great to do SMR on the hips/calves with my new polarfusion.com tiger tail stick. got it @ zombie runner and it's been nice to hit the points that have been missed by foam rolling (which mainly hits the larger muscle groups more easily like quads, lats) and lacrosse ball (glute meds and tissue adjacent to spine for me), mainly the tissues around the iliac crest, knees, calves, and the curvier bits around the shoulder/arms complex that are tough to hit with a roller or ball. i guess i like how it's a nice middle ground between knuckle-based release (focused and intense) and roller-based techniques (broad brush).
it's been a few weeks since regionals and my left shoulder is still a little pookie or whatev, i blame it on the one ugly layout D i had (versus the one or two? decent layout Ds) where i landed left side first. actually it's not really the shoulder that seems to be the root, as manual therapy suggests my L & R anterior shoulderbits are similarly tight, but it seems to really be the bits around my L sternocleidomastoids that seem to be most upset. i guess it'll just take a bit of time to heal that up.
hip cook lifts are goin' okay, my adductors are making mild progress but it'll take time cuz they've been week for heckalong time.
i got new sneaks--nike free 3.0s! been running in them pretty regularly, mostly interval work on grass but a little continuous work with mah runner friends. i guess it makes me realize that i do like running on grass, running intervals (ze intensity), and mixing it up with parkour practice. & some combo of the more barefooty sneaks, tiger tailin' and just less overall training volume iz makin my lower leg soft tissues a lot less distressed.
i was doing some pull-up GTG work and was tempted to pull heavy again but just realized that i should wait until my doc checks out my left wrist ligament to make sure it's not torn.
but yeh overall training is pretty light and overall balance is pretty good. squat pattern could be smoother and wish i could practice more upper body parkour work etc. but the summer will come soon enough?
Thursday, May 7, 2009
85kCals
A year in college Ultimate.
About 85,513 Calories burned.
Average 1h/training 6.5 days a week.
Legend:
Wk 47=OFUDG
Wk 4,5,6=Santa Barbara, Davis, Vegas
Wk 8=SJ RKC (not a tourney, but still 3 intense days)
Wk 9=Stanford Invite [qualifier]
Wk 11-14=Rest+Rehab
Wk 16=Sectionals
Wk 18=Regionals (3720+ Cal on Saturday, 7400+ the whole week inc. practice)
Hmm!
2009 retrospective
Since our college season is over, at least for P'fly, I thought I'd spend a little time processing how my training went this past academic year, and writethink my way through what I'll be up to the rest of the quarter and only slightly beyond.
But first for the shorter bit, trying to figure out what I'll be up to in these next few weeks before the quarter ends. A few weeks ago I had set a summer-type goal on working on my overhead squat (thx Dan John) form, my Cossack stretch hip mobility, and the Vo2max snatch protocol, which all are good tests/training for my specific imbalances (L/R lat tightness, medial thigh weakness vs ITB/glute med tightness, medial calf tightness vs some kind of calf amnesia / non-recruitment, general hip mobility and glute strength-endurance, work capacity limited to 7kCal/wk)...
I guess I haven't really thought through how how to articulate what the higher-level goals for that are, but basically I suppose it comes down to getting mobility back to a top-flight state (it's already better than it's been for years), balancing out my anterior/posterior chain strength-endurance, and I suppose some prehab flexibility (specifically ASLR) would be nice. Aiyah, it's already getting complicated but I suppose program design isn't easy, especially self-programming where you tend to focus only on building your strengths rather than managing your weaknesses as well.
Maybe it'd be easier to process through what I'll be doing these next few weeks. I'm a fan of cross-training for general sustainability, and just like I picked up Kettlebells last summer (and eventually attended the RKC in San Jose a few months ago) I've been starting to train interval parkour on campus, which has been a bunch of fun. So I guess in these 6 weeks or so I'll probably start days with some Z-health mobility to check in with myself, address soft tissue restrictions/asymmetries, and then figure out what subset of pistols (1-legged squats), TGUs, MPs, and pull-ups I want to do, plus reminding myself to do a mild amount of ASLR & bird-dogs + Cook hip lifts. I guess it's just too tempting to do "random acts of variety", and I really shouldn't GTG more than one or two things at once. I really want to balance out my L/R leg asymmetry, so that's why the Pistol progression is in there (time to re-read Pavel's NW), and I've been GTG pull-ups rather than 1-arm push-ups b/c pulling is a bit more fundamental as a Parkour movement than pushing. MPs + pulls are at least push/pull but probably too much for me right now since I'm recovering from those layout Ds (the ugly one or two specifically) from Regionals, and I don't really need to grind a push and grind a pull even if they aren't done at different periodicities.
I really love sprinting too, especially if I can get my HR above 215 (been 223-225 a few times this last year), but Parkour interval sprinting on hard surfaces with year-old Nike Frees can be as tough on my medial chain as high-intensity+speed interval ropework (PVC 9.5' done at greater-than 3Hz with periodic cross-overs, power jumps (double unders), and low/high knees), aiyah. So I'm going to have to make myself not train my power moves until I address hip soft tissue restrictions / do more ASLR corrective practice for repatterning (esp. avoiding lumbar flexion with lower body movements!), so no sprinting at above 180-200bpm :( and no ropework or KB snatch work either :(. Anyway I need to err study for my qualifying exams this quarter ahem :)
I guess I haven't scheduled it all out yet, but something like GTG Pistols / Pull-ups Sun-Fri, running [but not sprinting] to lab and back 2-3x/wk, light TGU skill practice on a variety day / medium TGU on another day (non-running). That still might be a bit much, esp w/ SMR pre- and bird-dog/repatterning/glute hip lift after, but I'll give it a shot?
Okee well that turned out to be a longer sensemaking process than I signed up for, but I still wanted to braindump what went well this year and what didn't. I went to RubyFringe last year and stopped by FailCamp, which is an interesting meme-inspired (or meme-inspiring?) event wherein you tell stories of Fail, where Fail != Failure, but Fail in the Silicon Valley sense where you pick yourself up / dust it off / and go again.
So how did my training go?
Kettlebells
FTW: Kettlebell training, hard-style -- definitely great for body composition, efficient+effective compound multi-joint exercises that include core+appropriate stability work+focus on the hip and power generation, large & amazing community of strength athletes and teachers, portability and the fun of learning something (ostensibly) really new [and yet really old school]
Fail: The way I swung the KB for months before the RKC. I did seek out good teachers, but was a bit stingy when it came to shelling out the bucks to be trained 1:1 pre-RKC (just a couple of sessions and workshops)... a lot of that was spacetime "restrictions", a lot of it was it being the college season both academically and physically and having plenty on that plate
Fail: Working myself too hard, too soon. Can you tell I'm good at that? :) I was working on a razor's edge by playing four tournaments last quarter (three of them in a row, ending with Vegas I think!) and also having the RKC that quarter. Ouch, I know I like to push it, but that hurt. Pavel enjoyed putting the pain on me, or so he said on the DD forum, but maybe I should have learned the lesson that my most recent PT(herapist) told me, "no pain, no pain". Wow, that was new to me :D
Deadlifting
FTW: Learning to DL my bodyweight in a few weeks was a lot of fun, and even though I didn't get to do more than a 5-6 week cycle, I do heart DLifts... plus pulling heavy made me sprint faster than I've ever run (learned from PttP & Barry Ross's book, just getting to 180x5 (as part of a pyramid set) was a fun and useful way to spend a month last summer.
Fail: Training the DL without maintaining (or more specifically just having) a [deep squat] :( I think PttP is great, but after a certain point, you should probably not just do one exercise especially if you're at a certain point in your development (and esp. if you've had issues with your posterior chain or lumbar etc. before like I have). Cook suggests training DL:squat 3:1, and now wonder the RKC hurt--it was the first time I'd done a real weighted rock-bottom squat (yea, that hurt, but I got there).
Fail: Expecting the DL to automagically prevent future back injuries. Didn't know at the time that it's strength-endurance and not max-strength that is shown to be protective for lo-back problems. Speaking of which I need to borrow/buy that copy of McGill's other work, Ultimate Back Fitness or what not.
Jump rope
FTW: agility, aerobic, anaerobic work that can be easier on the legs than running. Don't need to hit the stinky gym full of people with bad form who can barely squat/DL their bodyweight. Okee not that I mind people working to bodyweight squats, but... well never mind.
Fail: it actually takes a long time to build up your soft tissues to handle high-intensity interval rope work esp. when you add power and stepping moves. It's funny though, pretty much all my minor injuries this past year have been from training too hard and training off the field... too much KB posterior-chain swing volume without goblet squats to balance it out, too much ropework without knowing as much about soft tissue work / L/R leg asymmetries, too much barefoot or Parkour interval training.
Fail: when I started tho I barely hit anaerobic, but didn't realize it at the time. oh well, it takes time to learn these not-so-little things. I guess it's also taken me a while to settle on an aerobic/anaerobic balance that makes sense... doing just enough aerobic to maintain, not too much to deplete energy stores (esp on the week of tourneys! maybe I should have been more aggressive about that at practice, but how do you tell your coach that you think you'd be better served just taking a break the week before a tourney at least re: burning 1200+ Cal at a practice? hmm)
Barefoot work
FTW: have written about this elsewhere... but basically last year I had achilles tendinosis (not tendinitis, see Runner's Lore book for details or google) issues, but with barefoot training I've had no ankle problems at any tourney. I think once or twice I did too much ropework without addressing some trigger point / myofascial restriction and that bugged my ankle for a short while but I reduced the rope volume and that went away, yay.
Fail: I still don't know how to periodize barefoot / no-padded shoe (thx Dea) / Nike Free / skate shoe training, especially with rope work & sprinting & recovering from cleated practice / tournaments?! Aiyah. I guess the win here was realizing there's a diff between training for Health and training for Performance (shoes help with the latter, not the former!!!), and yet also knowing when to back off barefoot work and just chill.
Fail: I lost my Italian Diadora cleats :~( so my captain had to pick-up Adidas cleats for me mid-tourney. I guess I still haven't found the perfect cleat for me, and cleats just make me miss barefeet (except for the cutting bit). That said, playing in Frees is awesome as long as you don't need to actually cut ~_~.
SMR / trigger point therapy
FTW: zomg, how do we not know about SMR / foam rolling / trigger point therapy? I guess they're therapy on the cheap yet which require skill / learning / manual sensitivity / time. Proper SMR/self-massage/trigger point work made me recover soo much faster.
Fail: not using the roller to probe for tightness in a consistent / comprehensive way can make you really loose here and really tight there. D'oh. Plus it's hard to do it all with a roller, so manual work and lacrosse balls are useful too...
Fail: i guess doing rolling for too long / going for pain can be somewhat less-than-helpful if you don't keep the "no pain, no pain" mantra in mind.
FMS / mobility / Z-health
FTW: I'm going to lump these all in here b/c this entry is long enough already. FMS-type study has been more directly useful, or rather it's easier to pick up on what Cook teaches through FMS since he has a book and multiple explanatory DVDs plus workshops whereas for Z-health it's more mysterious and the training manuals / community just are way smaller than the FMS world. That said, FMS really aims to assessing other people rather than yourself, whereas Z-health can be used more easily as a pinpointing self-assessment of mobility issues. I don't know enough about Z to say it works for my rehab but it hasn't hurt and has helped me screen for what I work on with SMR / adjusting training / FMS-type corrective practice.
Fail: Doing ASLR with too much lumbar flexion? I think that was a bad thing. Also, these things are soo complicated that I don't have a single mobility reference to go to or re-work through. Pavel's Super Joints seems nice (haven't read it thoroughly but seems more like a collection of techniques than a system like RKC or FMS), FMS is about screening other people, Z-health isn't well documented (relatively). Maybe Magnificent Mobility? I don't really know. At this point my mobility is good but it still needs a lot of real work... joints! I don't know enough about them.
Fail: I guess I was thinking of having a separate posture section but I'll just dump that here. Addressing alignment/posture through Gokhale method + Yoga moves has been useful FTW but I have to type a lot (I'm typing a lot here, I guess I stayed up late last night arr) and I haven't quite figured out how to spend my immobile time besides reijggering position and working on stacksitting etc. Boo.
Okay, well this was a long entry but that's a short bit of what I learned training this past year. It was a lot of fun to just learn the basics of what fitness professionals know, and I'm far from expert at many of these things, but there's still time to learn! I've been throwing around the idea of going to PT school after my doctorate in engineering so that I can do vernacular bioinformatics for my academic research as a professor (rather than med school like my friends / family have done, I just am hesitant to step foot in that medical-industrial complex after I've seen what bad shape almost all my MD friends are in), and this year in Ultimate & training might just be the beginning :p
But first for the shorter bit, trying to figure out what I'll be up to in these next few weeks before the quarter ends. A few weeks ago I had set a summer-type goal on working on my overhead squat (thx Dan John) form, my Cossack stretch hip mobility, and the Vo2max snatch protocol, which all are good tests/training for my specific imbalances (L/R lat tightness, medial thigh weakness vs ITB/glute med tightness, medial calf tightness vs some kind of calf amnesia / non-recruitment, general hip mobility and glute strength-endurance, work capacity limited to 7kCal/wk)...
I guess I haven't really thought through how how to articulate what the higher-level goals for that are, but basically I suppose it comes down to getting mobility back to a top-flight state (it's already better than it's been for years), balancing out my anterior/posterior chain strength-endurance, and I suppose some prehab flexibility (specifically ASLR) would be nice. Aiyah, it's already getting complicated but I suppose program design isn't easy, especially self-programming where you tend to focus only on building your strengths rather than managing your weaknesses as well.
Maybe it'd be easier to process through what I'll be doing these next few weeks. I'm a fan of cross-training for general sustainability, and just like I picked up Kettlebells last summer (and eventually attended the RKC in San Jose a few months ago) I've been starting to train interval parkour on campus, which has been a bunch of fun. So I guess in these 6 weeks or so I'll probably start days with some Z-health mobility to check in with myself, address soft tissue restrictions/asymmetries, and then figure out what subset of pistols (1-legged squats), TGUs, MPs, and pull-ups I want to do, plus reminding myself to do a mild amount of ASLR & bird-dogs + Cook hip lifts. I guess it's just too tempting to do "random acts of variety", and I really shouldn't GTG more than one or two things at once. I really want to balance out my L/R leg asymmetry, so that's why the Pistol progression is in there (time to re-read Pavel's NW), and I've been GTG pull-ups rather than 1-arm push-ups b/c pulling is a bit more fundamental as a Parkour movement than pushing. MPs + pulls are at least push/pull but probably too much for me right now since I'm recovering from those layout Ds (the ugly one or two specifically) from Regionals, and I don't really need to grind a push and grind a pull even if they aren't done at different periodicities.
I really love sprinting too, especially if I can get my HR above 215 (been 223-225 a few times this last year), but Parkour interval sprinting on hard surfaces with year-old Nike Frees can be as tough on my medial chain as high-intensity+speed interval ropework (PVC 9.5' done at greater-than 3Hz with periodic cross-overs, power jumps (double unders), and low/high knees), aiyah. So I'm going to have to make myself not train my power moves until I address hip soft tissue restrictions / do more ASLR corrective practice for repatterning (esp. avoiding lumbar flexion with lower body movements!), so no sprinting at above 180-200bpm :( and no ropework or KB snatch work either :(. Anyway I need to err study for my qualifying exams this quarter ahem :)
I guess I haven't scheduled it all out yet, but something like GTG Pistols / Pull-ups Sun-Fri, running [but not sprinting] to lab and back 2-3x/wk, light TGU skill practice on a variety day / medium TGU on another day (non-running). That still might be a bit much, esp w/ SMR pre- and bird-dog/repatterning/glute hip lift after, but I'll give it a shot?
Okee well that turned out to be a longer sensemaking process than I signed up for, but I still wanted to braindump what went well this year and what didn't. I went to RubyFringe last year and stopped by FailCamp, which is an interesting meme-inspired (or meme-inspiring?) event wherein you tell stories of Fail, where Fail != Failure, but Fail in the Silicon Valley sense where you pick yourself up / dust it off / and go again.
So how did my training go?
Kettlebells
FTW: Kettlebell training, hard-style -- definitely great for body composition, efficient+effective compound multi-joint exercises that include core+appropriate stability work+focus on the hip and power generation, large & amazing community of strength athletes and teachers, portability and the fun of learning something (ostensibly) really new [and yet really old school]
Fail: The way I swung the KB for months before the RKC. I did seek out good teachers, but was a bit stingy when it came to shelling out the bucks to be trained 1:1 pre-RKC (just a couple of sessions and workshops)... a lot of that was spacetime "restrictions", a lot of it was it being the college season both academically and physically and having plenty on that plate
Fail: Working myself too hard, too soon. Can you tell I'm good at that? :) I was working on a razor's edge by playing four tournaments last quarter (three of them in a row, ending with Vegas I think!) and also having the RKC that quarter. Ouch, I know I like to push it, but that hurt. Pavel enjoyed putting the pain on me, or so he said on the DD forum, but maybe I should have learned the lesson that my most recent PT(herapist) told me, "no pain, no pain". Wow, that was new to me :D
Deadlifting
FTW: Learning to DL my bodyweight in a few weeks was a lot of fun, and even though I didn't get to do more than a 5-6 week cycle, I do heart DLifts... plus pulling heavy made me sprint faster than I've ever run (learned from PttP & Barry Ross's book, just getting to 180x5 (as part of a pyramid set) was a fun and useful way to spend a month last summer.
Fail: Training the DL without maintaining (or more specifically just having) a [deep squat] :( I think PttP is great, but after a certain point, you should probably not just do one exercise especially if you're at a certain point in your development (and esp. if you've had issues with your posterior chain or lumbar etc. before like I have). Cook suggests training DL:squat 3:1, and now wonder the RKC hurt--it was the first time I'd done a real weighted rock-bottom squat (yea, that hurt, but I got there).
Fail: Expecting the DL to automagically prevent future back injuries. Didn't know at the time that it's strength-endurance and not max-strength that is shown to be protective for lo-back problems. Speaking of which I need to borrow/buy that copy of McGill's other work, Ultimate Back Fitness or what not.
Jump rope
FTW: agility, aerobic, anaerobic work that can be easier on the legs than running. Don't need to hit the stinky gym full of people with bad form who can barely squat/DL their bodyweight. Okee not that I mind people working to bodyweight squats, but... well never mind.
Fail: it actually takes a long time to build up your soft tissues to handle high-intensity interval rope work esp. when you add power and stepping moves. It's funny though, pretty much all my minor injuries this past year have been from training too hard and training off the field... too much KB posterior-chain swing volume without goblet squats to balance it out, too much ropework without knowing as much about soft tissue work / L/R leg asymmetries, too much barefoot or Parkour interval training.
Fail: when I started tho I barely hit anaerobic, but didn't realize it at the time. oh well, it takes time to learn these not-so-little things. I guess it's also taken me a while to settle on an aerobic/anaerobic balance that makes sense... doing just enough aerobic to maintain, not too much to deplete energy stores (esp on the week of tourneys! maybe I should have been more aggressive about that at practice, but how do you tell your coach that you think you'd be better served just taking a break the week before a tourney at least re: burning 1200+ Cal at a practice? hmm)
Barefoot work
FTW: have written about this elsewhere... but basically last year I had achilles tendinosis (not tendinitis, see Runner's Lore book for details or google) issues, but with barefoot training I've had no ankle problems at any tourney. I think once or twice I did too much ropework without addressing some trigger point / myofascial restriction and that bugged my ankle for a short while but I reduced the rope volume and that went away, yay.
Fail: I still don't know how to periodize barefoot / no-padded shoe (thx Dea) / Nike Free / skate shoe training, especially with rope work & sprinting & recovering from cleated practice / tournaments?! Aiyah. I guess the win here was realizing there's a diff between training for Health and training for Performance (shoes help with the latter, not the former!!!), and yet also knowing when to back off barefoot work and just chill.
Fail: I lost my Italian Diadora cleats :~( so my captain had to pick-up Adidas cleats for me mid-tourney. I guess I still haven't found the perfect cleat for me, and cleats just make me miss barefeet (except for the cutting bit). That said, playing in Frees is awesome as long as you don't need to actually cut ~_~.
SMR / trigger point therapy
FTW: zomg, how do we not know about SMR / foam rolling / trigger point therapy? I guess they're therapy on the cheap yet which require skill / learning / manual sensitivity / time. Proper SMR/self-massage/trigger point work made me recover soo much faster.
Fail: not using the roller to probe for tightness in a consistent / comprehensive way can make you really loose here and really tight there. D'oh. Plus it's hard to do it all with a roller, so manual work and lacrosse balls are useful too...
Fail: i guess doing rolling for too long / going for pain can be somewhat less-than-helpful if you don't keep the "no pain, no pain" mantra in mind.
FMS / mobility / Z-health
FTW: I'm going to lump these all in here b/c this entry is long enough already. FMS-type study has been more directly useful, or rather it's easier to pick up on what Cook teaches through FMS since he has a book and multiple explanatory DVDs plus workshops whereas for Z-health it's more mysterious and the training manuals / community just are way smaller than the FMS world. That said, FMS really aims to assessing other people rather than yourself, whereas Z-health can be used more easily as a pinpointing self-assessment of mobility issues. I don't know enough about Z to say it works for my rehab but it hasn't hurt and has helped me screen for what I work on with SMR / adjusting training / FMS-type corrective practice.
Fail: Doing ASLR with too much lumbar flexion? I think that was a bad thing. Also, these things are soo complicated that I don't have a single mobility reference to go to or re-work through. Pavel's Super Joints seems nice (haven't read it thoroughly but seems more like a collection of techniques than a system like RKC or FMS), FMS is about screening other people, Z-health isn't well documented (relatively). Maybe Magnificent Mobility? I don't really know. At this point my mobility is good but it still needs a lot of real work... joints! I don't know enough about them.
Fail: I guess I was thinking of having a separate posture section but I'll just dump that here. Addressing alignment/posture through Gokhale method + Yoga moves has been useful FTW but I have to type a lot (I'm typing a lot here, I guess I stayed up late last night arr) and I haven't quite figured out how to spend my immobile time besides reijggering position and working on stacksitting etc. Boo.
Okay, well this was a long entry but that's a short bit of what I learned training this past year. It was a lot of fun to just learn the basics of what fitness professionals know, and I'm far from expert at many of these things, but there's still time to learn! I've been throwing around the idea of going to PT school after my doctorate in engineering so that I can do vernacular bioinformatics for my academic research as a professor (rather than med school like my friends / family have done, I just am hesitant to step foot in that medical-industrial complex after I've seen what bad shape almost all my MD friends are in), and this year in Ultimate & training might just be the beginning :p
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)