Nymeria plays the Game of Thrones

[Nymeria]

 

I'm back from vacation, I (hopefully) have found some new motivation, and I'm ready to get back in the game.  I also haven't really improved much with the parkour over the last 6 months, and I'm finally in a mental place where I'm ready to step up my training.

 

Goal 1: Learn to Zig Zag

 

I have been slacking on getting cardio workouts, which in turn makes me less agile when doing parkour.  I HATE cardio, but the goal is to force myself to do that at least 3 times/week.  Parkour class counts.  So does HIIT or shadowboxing.  I might even *gasp* go for a jog.  

 

Goal 2: Work that dragon ass

 

 

I've struggled A LOT with knee and hip pain over the last few months.  When I did some research and some physical tests, I found that I have an anterior pelvic tilt along with relatively underdeveloped posterior chain muscles and overdeveloped quads.  I've already started on the road to fixing this, and I'm already seeing progress.   I have stretches for the hip flexors and calves that I need to do.  I also have great exercises for helping activate the glutes and hamstrings.  I also have started really trying to fix my squat.  I had assumed that poor ankle mobility and short calf muscles were the reason I would fall backward or tend to shift weight to the balls of my feet when doing AtG squats.  But now I have other avenues to explore.  I can actually do a good form squat if I'm front squatting a light dumbbell.  The goal is to accumulate time over the week in a deep squat as well as stick with the physical therapy-esque stuff.  I will start with a goal of 15 minutes per week in deep squat, and see how that goes.  

 

Goal 3: A Girl must Cook

 

I got lazy.  And then went on vacation and ate out for a couple weeks.  And for whatever reason, it seems harder to cook when the kids are home.  But I need to clean up the diet a lot.  The goal is to do at least one batch cooked recipe per week and eat out at most once per week.  

 

Goal 4:  I drink and I know things.

 

While it would certainly be *fun* to have a goal of drinking, it doesn't fit with my goals.   The thing I need to drink is protein, and the thing I need to know is how much protein I've been getting.  My muscle recovery has been poor, but I also have been much lower with the protein intake than I ought to be.  The goal is to track protein and drink a protein shake each day that I lift or do parkour.  

 

Bonus: Be mighty like Brienne

 

Work on upper body strength by doing pull ups and grip training work.  The goal is to start doing a GtG approach where I have to do a pull up or hang on something anytime I go under the pull up bar or go down to the basement.  

 

 

 

 

[Terra]

First to follow!  Wahoo

 

Not too many GoT spoilers...  I'm trying to get caught up with the show, I've read some of the books.  I got through 2.5 episodes last night!!!  

 

We got this, take care of ourselves so we can take care of all the rest...  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along again, glad to see you looking forward to Parkour.

[Elastigirl]

Glad you are back. Was this your London vacation? Did you enjoy it?

[Marauder]

We're like opposites. I have a strong posterior chain but my quads are useless. I'm not even sure how that happened.  I have limited ankle range too and finally just got a board to put under my heels and voila... great squats. I've been working on improving my ankle range. It's very slow going and honestly I'm wondering if it might be anatomically impossible. 

 

Following!

[Charlie_Quinn]

Following! 

[Nymeria]

Damn..  What happened to all of my gifs?  Now I need to re-find the pictures.

[Wild Wolf]

17 hours ago, Nymeria said:

The goal is to start doing a GtG approach where I have to do a pull up or hang on something anytime I go under the pull up bar or go down to the basement.  

 

This makes me very happy. 

 

17 hours ago, Nymeria said:

 Parkour class counts.  So does HIIT or shadowboxing.  I might even *gasp* go for a jog.

 

Join me in some jump rope??

 

17 hours ago, Nymeria said:

While it would certainly be *fun* to have a goal of drinking, it doesn't fit with my goals.   The thing I need to drink is protein, and the thing I need to know is how much protein I've been getting.  My muscle recovery has been poor, but I also have been much lower with the protein intake than I ought to be.  The goal is to track protein and drink a protein shake each day that I lift or do parkour.  

 

You got dis!! The shakes really help with recovery but I've also started taking turmeric on training days and it's really helped. The stuff I take is called Turmeric After-Sport by Irwin. I didn't really know about the benefits of turmeric until about a month ago and since introducing it into my system it's really seemed to help  

 

Any chance for some PK videos this challenge? It's always so much fun to see you kickass

 

Wolf

[Nymeria]

16 hours ago, Terra said:

First to follow!  Wahoo

 

Not too many GoT spoilers...  I'm trying to get caught up with the show, I've read some of the books.  I got through 2.5 episodes last night!!!  

 

We got this, take care of ourselves so we can take care of all the rest...  

 

Yes!  You need to get caught up!  The current season has been amazing!

And yeah.  It's tough to find that balance between being the mom and having to take care of everything for everyone else in the household vs. taking care of yourself.  

 

14 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following along again, glad to see you looking forward to Parkour.

 

Yep!  I don't want to overburden myself this challenge, but I will hopefully start looking toward picking up some new PK techniques soon.  

 

13 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Glad you are back. Was this your London vacation? Did you enjoy it?

 

London was great!  The trip ended up being a little too long, and we were all dragging at the end, but we had a great time!  My biggest disappointment was that the playgrounds there were SO MUCH COOLER than US playgrounds, but they also had age limits such that adults couldn't play.  (We did anyway, by getting there early enough that no one else was there   ).  I still feel kind of jet lagged from the whole thing.

 

8 hours ago, Marauder said:

We're like opposites. I have a strong posterior chain but my quads are useless. I'm not even sure how that happened.  I have limited ankle range too and finally just got a board to put under my heels and voila... great squats. I've been working on improving my ankle range. It's very slow going and honestly I'm wondering if it might be anatomically impossible. 

 

That's really wacky, since women generally are quad over dominant.  I wouldn't worry too much about needing a board under your heels for the squats, unless you're getting hip and knee pain like I am.  You might even want to do quasi squats where you're on the balls of your feet, just to force the quads to do most of the work.  

 

12 minutes ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

Following! 

 

Hi!

 

8 minutes ago, Wild Wolf said:

Join me in some jump rope??

 

You got dis!! The shakes really help with recovery but I've also started taking turmeric on training days and it's really helped. The stuff I take is called Turmeric After-Sport by Irwin. I didn't really know about the benefits of turmeric until about a month ago and since introducing it into my system it's really seemed to help  

 

Any chance for some PK videos this challenge? It's always so much fun to see you kickass

 

Wolf

 

I'm not sure if I even have a non-kid sized jump rope, but I can give it a try.  I'll look into the turmeric.  I'm still not sure whether I'm having DOMS last longer than 1 day from too low protein, just not working out enough in the first place, or whether I'm just getting old.  Maybe there will be PK videos.  I'll have to see if I do anything worth videoing.  

 

10 minutes ago, Nymeria said:

Damn..  What happened to all of my gifs?  Now I need to re-find the pictures.

 

Pictures fixed....which is good since the post didn't really work without them.  

[Marauder]

I was stalled on my barbell squats at a relatively low weight and kept getting dizzy. The board under my heels totally fixed me.  Well, fixed my squat. LOL. 

[Terra]

1 hour ago, Nymeria said:

Yes!  You need to get caught up!  The current season has been amazing!

And yeah.  It's tough to find that balance between being the mom and having to take care of everything for everyone else in the household vs. taking care of yourself.  

I got through another 1.5 episodes last night...   UGH the balancing of life is so hard!  Right now, for a couple more days, I am focused on relaxing and taking care of me.  I had a wonderful night with friends last night. 

[Nymeria]

I'm so glad it's still week 0, so I can ease into the accountability.  I have the ingredients to make some stuffed bell peppers, and I'll most likely do that tomorrow.  I also did pull ups, push ups, toes to bar, and deep squats.  No HIIT yet, but I'll get some cardio when I go swimming tonight.  I forgot to start tracking the protein, but I at least did have a post lifting shake.  

[Red1263]

YES! A GoT themed challenge!! Oh, I'm definitely following!!

[RhiaWolfe]

I'm so far behind on GoT... It's not even funny. I just don't have time for TV much anymore! 

 

 

Following your challenge for GoT, parkour awesomeness, and hopefully hear about all the batch cook recipes! I demand food pr0n!!!! 

 

Hehe. 

[RhiaWolfe]

23 hours ago, Nymeria said:

I'm so glad it's still week 0, so I can ease into the accountability.  I have the ingredients to make some stuffed bell peppers, and I'll most likely do that tomorrow.  I also did pull ups, push ups, toes to bar, and deep squats.  No HIIT yet, but I'll get some cardio when I go swimming tonight.  I forgot to start tracking the protein, but I at least did have a post lifting shake.  

 

Love stuffed bell peppers. I made them for the first time last month and I"m in love with them. What do you put in yours? 

[Nymeria]

Stuffed peppers are in the crock pot, so the cooking is going great!  I also did my HIIT today by visiting Darebee and doing one of their workouts.  My biggest problem with Darebee, though, is that I get really bored with repeating the same moves over and over for like the 20th time.  I instead just kind of freestyled it and subbed in moves when I was otherwise bored with something in the program.  Like, if they wanted jumping jacks, I sometimes did high knees or ice skaters or grapevines, or jumping rope.  Oh well.  It gets the job done.  Soon I'll be heading out to swim with the kids, which mostly involves treading a lot of water for my part.  But heck, it's still a workout.  

 

I'm so glad I have another few days to get my act together with the protein tracking.  Tracking at all is a very hard habit for me to get into, and I just keep forgetting to do so.  

[Nymeria]

3 minutes ago, RhiaWolfe said:

 

Love stuffed bell peppers. I made them for the first time last month and I"m in love with them. What do you put in yours? 

 

Cheese, beans, quinoa, and enchilada sauce, using this recipe.  I'll put some guacamole on top when I serve them, which ends up being so yummy!  

[RhiaWolfe]

1 hour ago, Nymeria said:

 

Cheese, beans, quinoa, and enchilada sauce, using this recipe.  I'll put some guacamole on top when I serve them, which ends up being so yummy!  

 

Oooh.. that sounds awesome. 

 

I put shredded chicken, mushrooms, diced tomatoes, with a buffalo hot sauce in mine. I cover it in a little bit of shredded gouda. mmmm mmmm... 

 

I may have to try your recipe next time I make them though! 

[karinajean]

hey hi! I'm interested in hearing more about your research, because i've been having crazy hip pain all year this year. I chalk it up to being super imbalanced from driving a bunch, but regular chiropractic and acupuncture is just sort of keeping it from being awful, not making it go away.

 

On 8/9/2017 at 8:55 AM, Wild Wolf said:

 

You got dis!! The shakes really help with recovery but I've also started taking turmeric on training days and it's really helped. The stuff I take is called Turmeric After-Sport by Irwin. I didn't really know about the benefits of turmeric until about a month ago and since introducing it into my system it's really seemed to help  

 

I was going to jump in and say that according to my chiro and acupuncturist, magnesium is super helpful for muscles and is something we are often deficient in our diets on. and then I clicked the link, and it's got magnesium and also bosweillia, another supplement they recommend to me for it's anti-inflammatory properties.

 

20 hours ago, Nymeria said:

 

Cheese, beans, quinoa, and enchilada sauce, using this recipe.  I'll put some guacamole on top when I serve them, which ends up being so yummy!  

 

if you like that recipe you might also like this one which is basically the same thing but without the peppers and ends up being just huge quantities of goo. so good. http://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/slow-cooker-enchilada-quinoa/

 

 

[Mizbrek]

When you play the game of thrones...you win, because effort is what's important!!

 

 

(also SOLID image choices)

[Elastigirl]

23 hours ago, Nymeria said:

Stuffed peppers are in the crock pot, so the cooking is going great!  I also did my HIIT today by visiting Darebee and doing one of their workouts.  My biggest problem with Darebee, though, is that I get really bored with repeating the same moves over and over for like the 20th time.  I instead just kind of freestyled it and subbed in moves when I was otherwise bored with something in the program.  Like, if they wanted jumping jacks, I sometimes did high knees or ice skaters or grapevines, or jumping rope.  Oh well.  It gets the job done.  Soon I'll be heading out to swim with the kids, which mostly involves treading a lot of water for my part.  But heck, it's still a workout.  

 

I'm so glad I have another few days to get my act together with the protein tracking.  Tracking at all is a very hard habit for me to get into, and I just keep forgetting to do so.  

Ok, I'm a swimming wimp, but I was treading water last time we were at the lake and it was really hard. I mean it's easy for 30 seconds, but after that it's a workout. I obviously need to spend more time in the water though.

[Nymeria]

3 hours ago, karinajean said:

hey hi! I'm interested in hearing more about your research, because i've been having crazy hip pain all year this year. I chalk it up to being super imbalanced from driving a bunch, but regular chiropractic and acupuncture is just sort of keeping it from being awful, not making it go away.

 

I used this test, and I failed it horribly:

 

This page also has more information on weak glutes and weak posterior chain.

And this one

And yet one more, with mobilityWOD links to help fix it.

 

For my part, I first noticed that I can't do a proper squat at all.  I just assumed that I had poor ankle mobility and that AtG squats just "don't work" if you carry a lot of weight in your hips and rear.  If I try to do a proper squat, I fall backward, or I have to lean forward much more than you normally should.  I'm still not sure whether I have a disadvantageous body type for squatting, whether the pelvic tilt causes me to lean forward too much, or whether years of squatting in an overly quad dominant manner have just reinforced the problem.  

 

I also seem to have some chronic IT band tightness, and then started having a lot of weird hip tightness and hip pain.  I was initially very worried, since my mom has osteoarthritis and has already had both hips and one knee replaced.  But after digging into some of this, I'm seeing pretty decent improvements.  I'm mostly doing the deep squats, hip flexor lunge type stretches, calf stretches, glute bridges (focusing on proper form and not letting my back do the work), and hamstring curls.  I'm also being much more mindful of my posture in a lot of yoga poses.  For hollow body holds, most standing poses, planks, push ups, etc., I'm letting my back arch a bit and my pelvis tilt, rather than maintaining alignment.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Mizbrek said:

When you play the game of thrones...you win, because effort is what's important!!

 

 

(also SOLID image choices)

Thanks.  

 

1 hour ago, Elastigirl said:

Ok, I'm a swimming wimp, but I was treading water last time we were at the lake and it was really hard. I mean it's easy for 30 seconds, but after that it's a workout. I obviously need to spend more time in the water though.

 

Treading water is no joke.  I just do it in a pool, and after a few minutes, I need a break.  It's an easy way for me to play with the kids and keep track of them while also somewhat exercising.  

[NeverThatBored]

8 hours ago, Nymeria said:

Treading water is no joke.  I just do it in a pool, and after a few minutes, I need a break.  It's an easy way for me to play with the kids and keep track of them while also somewhat exercising.  

 

This is very interesting to me, because I'm taking swimming lessons right now and one thing I just CANNOT figure out is treading water. 

[Nymeria]

Day 1!!!   Let's get this party started

 

Today should be an awesome first day, since it's also a parkour class day!  So, I'll end up getting the HIIT/cardio and pull ups for free.  I'll just have to remember to do some stretching and deep squat work after class.  Also, even though I didn't get around to tracking protein at all last week , I'm on top of things today.  For breakfast, I had 31 grams, and I'll be sure to drink a protein shake after class.  

[Nymeria]

Oh crap!  I guess the challenge started on Saturday and not Sunday.  Anyway....

 

So far, so good!  Parkour class was great, and it was wonderful to chip off some of the rust after missing a few weeks.  We worked a lot on rail flows, monkey mounting and vaulting sequences, pop monkeys onto the 4' boxes.  

This isn't the most thrilling video, but I recorded a small flow at the end of class.  I really debated posting it, but a lot of you were bugging me for parkour videos, so....*shrug*

 

 

I definitely got my cardio work, so I'm 1/3 on the week with that.  I also did pull ups at the parkour gym.  And I tracked protein as well as drinking a protein shake, so that's all good, too.  

 

 After parkour, my knees were full of nope, so the deep squats didn't happen.  I also won't be batch cooking until later in the week, since the fridge is full of healthy leftovers.