7.4 - 7.06.09

Got an extra walk in on July 3rd - 45 minutes w/Rhianna.

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July 4th -
Graveyard run, 55 minutes. Three little fawns were watching us through the fence separating the graveyard from a large field. As we zig-zagged up some long hilly lanes, they were waiting at the fence to watch us. Tried to take a cell phone picture, but they took off.

~~~~

July 5th -

10 minute treadmill (walk 5, run 5)

compound sets:

flat bench chest pres 15/40
flat bench fly 15/40
shrugs 15/50
Repeat for 3 sets

5 minute treadmill run

machine pec fly 15/35
machine delt fly 15/35
machine biceps 15/45
machine triceps 15/45
Repeat for 3 sets

5 minute treadmill run

single arm cable curl 15/20 each, 15.15 each, 12/30 each
triceps pressdown 15/65
single arm crossover 15/65
Repeat for 3 sets

5 minute treadmill run

crunch frog 20
Russian twist 15/15
bicycle crunch 20 sets
Repeat for 3 sets

15 minutes elliptical

Stretch

Total time: 1 hr. 37 min.

LATER: 45 minute race walk

~~~~

July 6th -

6 minute walk to gym
45 minutes elliptical
6 minute walk home

25 minutes yoga

7.3.09

Got an extra walk in on Wednesday - 55 minutes w/the dogs & Rhianna. Teaching Sasha to walk on a leash...ugh.

Yesterday (Thursday) was a day off. Supposed to get a trigger point injection. After almost 2 hours in the doctor's office, it turns out I didn't need one. I'd so enthusiastically used my new Body Back Buddy the night before, that I had broken up all the major trigger points. She couldn't find anything injection worthy.

Today:

10 minute elliptical warmup

Leg curl machine 15/75
Leg extension machine 15/75
Butt blaster 12/75 each leg
Repeat for 3 sets

10 minute treadmill run

Prone row 15/50
Step-ups 16" 16/20
Assisted pull ups 10
Stability ball hamstring curl 20
Repeat for 3 sets

10 minute treadmill HIIT

Stability ball roll out 20
Crunch 25
Reverse crunch w/wt 15/6
Repeat for 3 sets

10 minutes Stairmaster
10 minutes elliptical

Total workout time: 90 minutes
plus some stretching

Now it's off to the chiropractor for a back workout, a trigger point massage and an adjustment!

6.30.09 - 7.1.09

Yesterday - a little 30 minute treadmill run. That's all I could eek out, miserable as I was with a sinusy summer cold.

Today - the rest did me good.
I'm still coming way down on the amount of weight I'm lifting.

10 minute elliptical warmup

lat pulldown back & front 15/60
seated row 15/80
upright cable row 15/75
Repeat for 3 sets

10 minute treadmill run

standing bicep curl w/body bar 20/24 (10 on each leg)
stability ball pushup 10
triceps dip (legs up) 15
Repeat for 3 sets

5 minute treadmill run

stability ball crunches w/plate 20/25
rope cable crunch 15/90
back extension 12 (hold last one)
Repeat for 3 sets

10 minutes stairmaster

10 minutes elliptical

Stretch!

Total workout time: 1 hr 25 minutes

My BodyBackBuddy arrived today. I love it! If you have trigger points and getting a massage once a week is not enough, you've GOT to get one of these. Ah!

6.29.09 (and two days before!)

Saturday - Pool running, 25 minutes. Elliptical 45 minutes.
Sunday - 1 hour cardio - 30 minute treadmill run, 10 minute stairmaster, 20 minute elliptical

Today -
6 min walk to gym
10 min elliptical

squat 15/40
1-leg deadlift w/body bar 12/24 each side
sumo squat 15/40
Repeat for 3 sets

5 minute treadmill run

kettlebell swing squat 12 sets/15 lb
reaching squat w/body bar 12/24 each side
leg band side step with weight 12/15
Repeat for 3 sets

5 minute treadmill run

Hanging ab raise 15
medicine ball touch the sky 20/10
wide leg sit up 10
1 knee in crunch 20 each side
Repeat for 2 sets

20 minutes stationary bike
6 minutes walk home
Stretch
Total time: 82 minutes

At the chiropractor:

seated row 15/70
standing row 15/70
front & back lat pull 15/60
Repeat for 3 sets

U-T-Is 15 each/7 lbs

Rowing machine 4 minutes over hand, 4 minutes underhand.
Total time: 20 minutes

Later: 25 minute walk (with a bit of running at the end) w/JNo ... It rained on us and the wind started blowing. An old antenna came flying down from the roof of a house far too closely behind us.

A bit more than I intended on doing in one day. Trying *not* to succumb to the temptation to over train.

6.26.09 workout & links

Got to the gym bright & early for a quick hour before VBS workout:

10 minutes elliptical

15 minute compound set:
lat pulldown (front & back) 15/55/3
seated row - stripping down, 15/90, 15/85, 15/80
shrugs 12/50 (I never do shrugs, but Doc said "Do shrugs.")

10 minute treadmill run

15 minute compound set
Ys, Ts, Is 15/10/3 each (Oh, I hate these, hate these, hate these...but they're good for me)
Dumbbell pullover 15/25/3
Single arm dumbbell row 12/20/3 each side

10 minute treadmill run

Some stretching...

Lately there have been some great blogs posted about what is bulky, what is the ideal female body, and even a reference back to a GREAT oldie by Josh Hillis.

Valerie Waters - Can Women Get Too Bulky?

Leigh Peele - Bulky Muscles and Female Training

Leigh Peele - The Ideal Female Body (I love the last question with the pictures. It's funny that all the people who said Jessica Biel was "too bulky" in prior questions sure did want her body!)

Josh Hillis - How Thin is Too Thin - Many women workout because they want to be attractive for the opposite sex - and they become emaciated thinking the skinnier the better. Take it from a guy, skinny isn't appealing! This is a good one.

I haven't checked out Valerie Water's new bikini workout, but I will say that Red Carpet Ready is a good program and definitely not a bulking up program.

Running more..

I had my first trigger point injection today and I'm already noticing some improvement. I'm definitely noticing the expected "ouch" effect, too, now that the numbing agent has worn off. My days are all screwed up - I thought my appointment with the pain management specialist was on Monday. Instead I got an automated reminder call yesterday. I was a bundle of nerves thinking about the possibility of a needle in my muscle. I envisioned lots of needles in lots of muscles! Thankfully, there is a rule: one injection per visit.

The doctor did go on a seeking mission and found many hot spots. When she pressed on my forearm trigger points (which are secondary to the trapezius pont), while it hurt like heck, I felt release in my stiff hand. Amazing. Quite possibly treating the hot points in my trapezius will take care of the rest and they'll release with just the help of the masseuse.

She picked a major trigger point on the right trapezius to be the first to hit. My Type A personality kicked into gear and I asked a million questions, trying to make sure nothing would go out of control. Hmmm, being a control freak helped get me to this place, maybe I need to chill a bit and not dissect every situation? Next time maybe!

My back was sprayed with a cooling spray. The numbing agent was injection in the muscle. I asked for 1/2 the usual dosage. It worked. Whatever poking/probing had to be done was done. The doctor then had directives to give me. I knew it was coming...

I never met a pushup I didn't like, but once again here was a doctor telling me: Lay off pushups for a while. Please don't let anyone come along and tell me to lay off squats! I already had to cut down on deadlifts, lower the weights extremely, etc, etc.

I've come to the point where I'm sitting back and reexamining my whole concept of fitness. Once I was a runner. I worried about running local 5Ks and 10Ks, not even to be fast - just for the personal accomplishment and for the T-shirt. I ran a trail marathon for my 40th birthday with one of my best friends. We took the wrong fork in the trail and our marathon went from 26.2 to around 28.5 miles. After that, I turned to more weight training - which I had been doing to complement my running, not replace it.

Suddenly I was listening to these eBook authors who mock on the "cardio bunnies" at the gym. Heavier weights, negative sets, etc, etc, etc. I found that I was no longer taking Saturday morning long runs and was spending less and less time on cardio, more and more time on muscle.

It's not that I didn't like it - it was different, but still my body was moving and that's what I liked - to be moving.

So here I am in a place where it's "Ouch!" followed by "Don't do that any more!" "Cut out this for a while!" and I'm starting to run more to fill the void. There was a time when I logged more than 1200 miles a year running - and log it I did, at CoolRunning.com. I'm thinking of picking that log up again, but perhaps not being so extreme. I think my days of extremity need to fade a bit....maybe 1000 miles a year instead, lol.

This week's workouts so far:

Sunday - 1 hr race walk with my girls
Monday - 20 minute back workout, 1 hr cardio (cross training)
Tuesday - 1 hr 10 minutes legs/glutes/abs and cardio - 10 minutes elliptical, a compound set, 10 minutes run on treadmill, another compound set, etc, and so forth including the evil Stairmaster
Wednesday - 1 hr cardio split between the elliptical, the stationary bike and a 12 minute treadmill endurance test. (I was a bit peeved to get just "above average" and am now determined to work my way back to excellent).
Later Wednesday I ended up doing a 1 hr 4 min walk/run with my daughters. The first part was walking with my oldest having the jogging stroller along. Little Layla was not happy, so after 30 minutes, Jenna went home and Rhianna and I finished by running for the next 34 minutes.

Throw a good amount of stretching in there after every workout.

I'm not allowed to work out today. Doctor's orders are to call this a rest day.

Plans: I want to do the Potato Stomp 15K in the autumn, but I'll need to train Rhianna to do it with me. :) I like to have someone to chat with; I'm doing it for fun, nothing else. I'm pulling out my running books and I'm going to be working on a sensible plan to increase my speed and endurance once again. I want to cut down on some of this bulky muscle that I've created so while I'm not going to neglect weight training entirely, I'm going to go for lighter weights, greater reps and no more than 3X a week.

I want early Saturday morning to become LSD day again. No, not the hallucenogenic! Long Slow Distance! There is something so special about running on the trails when the sun has barely come up, seeing the wildlife, avoiding the heat of the summer's day...

I also have to get better at biking. I'm an idiot, an absolute spaz, when it comes to changing gears. My husband found me a good bike so that we can go out together. I really need to get over my technical difficulties so that we can do the more challenging rides. (See how i progress from going out for a ride with my husband to the idea of doing more challenging things? Type A, Type A, Type A).

The blogging laziness continues...

I have still been working out regularly, I've just been too preoccupied to blog my workouts.

What have I been preoccupied with? My stinking numb/tingly/aching right hand. It gets better, it gets worse. The official diagnosis: cervical radiculitis. It is effecting the nerves in the thoracic outlet, but it is coming from nerves up by the cervical spine getting pinched.

Why? Too much chest/over head shoulder work. I'm sort of cursing the whole "lift like a man, look like a goddess" thing right now. Weight training like a man means focusing on a lot of shoulder and chest work. I was messing with my own variations on NWLW and Leigh Peele's Opt Remix, but there were so many things involving a million kinds of pushups (I love pushups) and shoulder presses of varying kinds. It seemed like such a good thing - help in defying age and gravity. I don't want the "girls" ending up down by my knees, so tell me 10 pushups will help and I'll give you 50!

I've been going to the chiropractor regularly. First three times a week, then two and now once. I arrive, get put through a work out consisting of a compound set: lat pulldown, seated row, upright row. 3 sets, 15 reps each. After this, I must do the chicken-head band thing. Lay on a table and do 15 reps each with 5 - 7 lb weights of U-T- and I's. After than, I sit on a rowing apparatus and do 4 minutes overhand grip, 4 minutes underhand grip.

Once that is done I have to lay down with my neck in traction, pumped up to a "good" stretch, for 10 minutes. It's medieval torture. After I have survived that, it is off to the masseuse for a half hour of trigger point massage.

When I first heard that massage was part of my treatment I was all "Whoo hoo!" Then I found out what trigger point massage was. Oh, I like it still, but it's not at all what I expected. It definitely is a "hurts so good" treatment. The masseuse finds "trigger points" - sore spots where the muscle has knotted up or is hyperirritable. It is more than a sensitive spot, however, it effects nerves and often causes referred pain. Rub one place on my neck and I'll feel shooting pain above my left eye. Rub another and my right ear will experience sharp pains. The therapist finds these spots and either applies pressure or uses a pincher grip. It is very uncomfortable but an hour or so later, you feel sooooooooo good.

After Carla is done with me, I'm off to see the doc and he adjusts my back and lectures me a bit on what I should and should not do. I try to obey but keep finding that I do things that probably were meant to be on the "should not" list, but I've sought out loop holes. That doesn't work in my favor.

With that in mind -- I've already been sworn off of any over head presses. Now I must give up chest work for a couple of weeks. I will be amazingly better, then have a chest day - even with heavy weights cut down drastically - and end up hurting or in discomfort again for another 2 days. I also discovered which ab exercises put undue stress on my cervical spine. Those will be avoided for a while, too.

This coming week I plan to use for recuperation. Vacation Bible School every morning is going to restrict my activities anyway. I plan to do a lot of cardio, a good amount of yoga and very limited weight training. I may slack off on the weight training for another week after this, as well, and focus on body weight work.

I've been afraid to do plyometrics for the past few weeks. I'll have to ask the doc whether I should continue to avoid them until my condition clears up.

That's the update - so far today I did 40 minutes of yoga. I do plan on some cardio later on, probably an hour. Father's Day is a rest day. Yesterday I did cardio (elliptical, HIIT on the treadmill, & a bit on the stationary bike) and 20 minutes of yoga. The rest of the week before that was the normal leg/glutes/abs one day, back/shoulders/biceps, and chest/triceps/abs with HIIT and all that jazz worked in.

Another catch up

Once again, I've been super lazy at blogging workouts. I haven't missed any and it was a really good month. Mostly - that is - except for the pain in my right hand.

I'm praising God for a small article in Oxygen magazine in Volume 12, Issue 117, Spring 2009 (page 136) about Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. It said something about it being mistaken for carpal tunnel syndrome and asked this question:

Q. What are the most common signs?

A. “Most often, dull pain in arms, and possibly numbness and tingling in hands and fingers. Sometimes arms also feel heavy and weak – like they’re not attached,” Mehaffy says. “A way to differentiate TOS from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is to note the numbness: CTS causes numbness in the thumb, index and/or middle fingers, and sometimes part of the ring finger. But the whole hand? Pinky? Above the wrist? Then it’s likely TOS or another RSI.”

As the article stated, the symptoms can be similar but often more severe the CTS. It says that TOS does not involve "healing" because it's not an injury, per se, but a condition most people create foryears before knowing they have it. Yep, that would be me.

I was waking up at night to my hand feeling like it was being licked by the flames of hell. After I got the tingling/numbness/burning to go away, I'd wind up with a stiff hand and forearm that felt too weak to even squirt a spray bottle. It would take an hour of waking up and stretching to get a simple grasping motion to feel "right" and have some strength to it.

I ended up going to the chiropractor and am slowly improving. This particular condition can take weeks or even months to reverse.

How did I get it? Too much work on the pectorals, plus an old injury which left a small bit of arthritis in my cervical spine. Working out the pectorals hard and overdeveloping them can cause the muscle to pinch on the nerve creating... PAIN.

I've been going to see the doc twice a week for therapy, an evil neck-stretching contraption, a trigger point massage and an adjustment. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I did have two horrible days after the long weekend - but that was directly related to ingesting sucralose which caused me to retain massive amounts of water which in turn caused pressure on the nerve. Since that has cleared out of my system (no more sugar-free caramel lattes!!!), everything feels better.

This week has been a long over due recovery week. No weights, just yoga and some cardio -- but not excessive cardio. I actually need to do *more* yoga, the doc says it's just what I need to lengthen the muscles and relieve that pressure.

Changes in my workout due to this - no overhead presses, no Arnolds. I'm not sure when I can add those back in. Seated rows, upright rows, those are what the doc ordered. Also, shrugs. I never do shrugs - however, just holding a good heavy weight in my right hand eases the stiffness and pain that comes in the morning.

Great stretches I must do - The Doorway Release: grab the sides of the door way and lean foreward to stretch the pecs. Nice! The Hand against Wall: put the hand against the wall at shoulder height, stretched out, Tilt the head the opposite direction and gently apply pressure with the other hand.

Sunday & Monday, 5.3.09 - 5.4.09

Got up early Sunday morning:

10 minute warm up on elliptical
50 minutes leg/glute workout

Later: 35 minutes HIIT on stationary bike

Today:

6 min walk to gym
10 min elliptical
50 min weight lifting - mostly back & biceps, but with squats & some ab work thrown in for good measure
10 min Stairmaster
10 min elliptical
5 min stretch
6 min walk home

On Saturday, the hike turned out to be 2 hrs and 4o min long. NOT at a comfortable hiking pace. Rhianna was trying to make us racewalk through it which made it very hard to enjoy the beautiful spring day with its abundance of wildflowers.

Catching Up, Sort of and a Brief Review of Yoga DVDs

The bad thing: I have been incredibly lazy about logging my workouts here.
The good thing: I haven't been missing any workouts. That's what counts!

It would be too crazy to try to report all the missing workout logs. I worked HARD. I've been frequently changing things up in order to get the best results. Currently, I'm on a more "lift like a guy" approach, taking a break from crazy circuits. I miss them - but I know my muscles need a change. I'm going to have to add in some more glute-focused work, I feel that was lacking...and I have such a fear of having a flat butt!

I've got some great bootcamp style workouts planned now that the weather is finally making being outdoors feasible.

Today's Workout: Run in graveyard for 1 hour, up and down hills. Lovely!
P90X Yoga - 1 hr 25 min - and I even had the house to myself while I did it. :) (A huge rarity).
And it gets better... I'm about to go on a nice hike.

In the past couple of months, I 've gotten three new yoga DVDs. I did this because I am addicted to Tony Horton's P90X Yoga but can't be always doing the same ol' same ol'. I can't afford the extra bucks for a regular yoga class - plus the local ones I tried were sadly lacking. So...

Kathy Smith Yoga Sculpt: Mostly boring. Too easy. A couple of harder moves. Boring set. I'll probably do it occasionally just because I don't want to waste my money.

Beth Shaw's YogaFit Ultra: Sure there are some more difficult positions thrown in here but - UGH. I want to gag the instructors! They need to just shut up already. The airy-fairy talk is over the top, annoying and well... the workout is nothing to write home about, even though it does have a couple of nice moves.

Mark Blanchard's Progressive Power Yoga: I saved the best for last. This one I can actually enjoy doing and look forward to doing. Oh, the instructor isn't as engaging as Tony Horton and he says some very silly things (but seems to mean them seriously). One reviewer said he had an "insincere" voice. That didn't even really bother me. The flow was great; the workout was challenging. The outdoor location (Sedona) was breathtaking. Instead of just one or two people (like the above two DVDs), this is a whole group who are of varying ability. Better yet - I felt great when I was done. Revived. Invigorated. Calm. I am definitely considering buying one or more of his other yoga DVDs.