PaulG's in the Assassins Now You Guys!

[PaulG]

Clever challenge titles are my perennial nemesis. Why fight it, right?

 

 

Let's get to it.

 

Goals:
1) Strength: Do 3x9 pistol squats to a 15-inch 12-inch elevation OR perform shoulder rehab 3x per week, each week. Since I injured my shoulder last challenge, I’ve been in a process of slowly recovering via DIY rehab exercises. It’s meant that for the last month, I haven’t been able to perform much upper body work, so a lot of my goals (handstand pushups, a kipping muscle-up) have been on hold. It’s given me extra time, though, to focus on my pistol squats. I’ve been working slowly with pistols because of my left knee, which was often painful when I was sedentary and still flares up every once in a while. I set a double goal for this to make sure I don’t just lose focus with the shoulder rehab; but I want something shiny to chase too. I’ll get credit if I make either one of these goals.
 

2) Mobility: Stretch every day, with a max of 6 days off. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? I had this goal last challenge and took a total of 7 days off, but still saw big returns. My hamstrings especially improved, and they’ve always been resistant to stretching throughout my life. So I’m going to try and keep the streak going this challenge.
 

3) Diet: End my diet break and resume my cut. The background for this goal: since the shoulder injury I’ve been on a diet break to give myself a chance to recover faster. Eventually, though, I will need to resume the cut. I have had a sort of lifetime goal of 175 lbs at 10% bodyfat since I was in my early twenties and just starting out with parkour and strength training, when I weighed like 160 lbs. When I took stock of my body’s state earlier this year and decided to get back in shape (and hopefully back to parkour), I was a little shocked to find that I finally seem to be within shooting distance of that life goal: my lean body mass is right around 157 lbs. My overarching plan is to complete one more bulking cycle, push my muscle mass a couple pounds closer to 160, then a final cut or two that gets me to 10%. First, though, I have to set myself up for a good bulk by cutting to 12% bodyfat. As long as I start sometime before the challenge ends, I’m happy.

My diet strategy: I use IIFYM and track calories using MyFitnessPal, hitting daily calorie and protein goals. I’ve found that bulking and cutting cycles (8 weeks of bulking, followed by ideally 2 weeks of cutting) works best for me, so that’s the strategy I always try to use.
 

4) Reduce working on weekends to one day per month (2 days allowed this challenge). As much fun as it would be to make my life goal cooking or food-related, I think I need this one more. When quarantine started, I started working from home, which hadn’t been something my employer offered before. Mostly it’s been amazing — I love getting back my commute time, and it’s reduced the stress of my job significantly — but I’ve run into a problem in the last couple of weeks. When things slow down or get a little boring, I’ve been losing focus easily and drifting to some little chore or other around the house, or to chatting with coworkers about their work problems; and before you know it, the day’s 75% over and I haven’t gotten a lot of work done. It’s led to my having to work over the weekend several times. Especially frustrating because when this first started, I was so productive that I’d finish my day’s work in just a couple hours.

 

This is particularly important right now because I am up for a promotion imminently,. I applied for the next job up the ladder, and as we move into the interview process my productivity will, I'm very sure, be watched closely by the hiring managers. Aside from this issue, I am pretty sure I'm the frontrunner in my department for this job, and there's only one opening on offer right now. It would suck to lose it in the final couple weeks. So I am extra-motivated to implement a plan for this goal. The hiring process is taking longer than usual as my company wraps their brains around interviewing and hiring during covid, but I still expect to move into interviews fairly soon, and I'm pretty sure I'll know whether I've got it before the challenge is over.

 

BONUS GOAL: at least once for each of this challenge’s 5 weeks, cook with an ingredient I’ve never cooked before: BEANS.

I don’t yet know 100% what my system should be, but I think I need to structure my breaks a little more, especially in the morning. I’ll need to give some thought to this… maybe tomorrow, at work.

 

 

Current Stats:

Height: 6’ 0”
Weight: 181.0 lbs
Age: 31
Waist Measurement: 29 5/8 inches
Bodyfat: 14.4%

 

Current Progress Photos:

 

 

The more photos you take, the tougher it gets to keep a derpy look off your face...

 

Workout Log Legend

Since my training is primarily bodyweight, I use a notation that allows me to log a lot of variables. I log weight (if used), sets, reps, my Form quality, and my rate of perceived exertion.

Form:

a: high-quality form maintained throughout the set. No issues or very minor issues.

b: Average/above-average form. No major issues, but maybe some smaller details need ironing out. (For example, didn't hit my chest to bar quite where I wanted in a pull-up, or didn't focus on scapular retraction as much as I could have in a row.)

c : Below average form. I did the exercise, but didn't do it right. Some possible major issues, though not severe safety issues.In chest-to-bar pullups, chest didn't hit the bar.

d: Poor form, major problems. This is probably a signal I should be ending the set early. If I didn't, I probably deserve chastisement.

RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion):

I shamelessly stole Waldo's system for grading his RPEs, which he outlined in a blog post on StrengthUnbound.com (which sadly, no longer exists). Since it’s tough to find a good explanation on this anymore, here’s mine.

 

My rating is based on Borg’s Rating of Perceived Exertion system, which is used sometimes in the sports training world. The idea is to track how close to failure I get in each set of an exercise. The original system is a 1-10 scale, but I took a page from the book of an old-hat member (Waldo) and chucked that out the window. The idea is that strength workout sets should nearly always go close to failure, if not to failure itself, so I have no interest in the first 6 numbers on the scale.

 

E: Easy work. Two or more reps left in the tank. This covers pretty much any number from 1-7. My goal is to only see this letter when I’m doing rehab/prehab exercises, or remedial work to build up joint strength, balance or form, like pistol prep work. Otherwise, I should be pushing harder.

 

X: Held one rep in the tank. Rep speed slowed noticeably, slight grind, but not at failure. This is where I try to keep most of my work, especially early in the workout.

 

Y: Hit failure or very close when I’m working out calm, may have stopped right before physically crapping out, but couldn’t have performed another rep without really amping myself up. Final rep was grinding and slow.

 

Z: Hit true failure and needed to pump myself up to do it — jumping, making noises, etc. Very slow, grinding final rep.

/: denotes left/right reps in a set of a single-limb exercise. For example, 5/3 reps on a pistol squat means 5 reps on my left leg, 3 reps on my right.

(): used for my eccentric exercises where I need to note both reps and time under tension. For example, a set of pull-up negatives shown as 3(6s) is 3 reps of 6 seconds each.

 

There are other techniques that deserve extra notation, of course, but these are the ones I'm using in my current workout.

[@mu]

In!

Wow those abs are seriously shaping up!

[WhiteGhost]

Here for this

[Mad Hatter]

Here!

[KB Girl]

You look a little less grumpy in the last one, so that's something?

Seriously though, amazing progress! 

 

12 hours ago, PaulG said:

Or a cooking goal!

Yes. 

[PaulG]

16 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Here!

 Woo!

 

16 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Here for this

YISS

 

17 hours ago, @mu said:

In!

Wow those abs are seriously shaping up!

☺️ Thanks! I feel puny because of the lack of upper body work, but luckily it doesn't seem to be showing as much as it feels (yet). The difference in the last three photos, I think, is mainly lighting and flexing getting easier over time. Not much else has changed.

 

4 hours ago, KB Girl said:

You look a little less grumpy in the last one, so that's something?

Seriously though, amazing progress! 

 

Yes. 

 

Haha, I always find it surprisingly difficult to not look grumpy in these photos. The first couple photos I flex, but don't smile. The next couple I focus on smiling, but that just gives me crazy eyes.

 

Definitely leaning toward something cooking-related right now. But with covid on the upswing again, long trips to grocery stores for big cooking projects seems like a bad idea. Maybe something more based on cooking dishes where I don't necessarily have a recipe to start with? Like improv-style cooking?

 

--

 

Food quickly went off the rails over last week. I had intended to make it a Week of Noodles; I tracked down a pack of high-quality fresh ramen noodles (Sun Noodle brand) during my weekly trip to my favorite local grocery, and I planned to make everything from dan dan noodles to Wuhan hot dry noodles, a Thai dish of rice noodles with beef shank stewed in lushui, some creamy tom yam ramen... I dunno, other noodle soups... whatever. It hurts to talk about, because I sabotaged my own ambitions. At the Kroger a few days later, I finally (FINALLY) saw short ribs for sale. I looked at my shopping list, considered my plans for the week... and immediately made a hard left from my meal plan, grabbed a pack, and then grabbed a gigantic ribeye steak, just because. A couple days later, instead of following my meal plan I went out for sushi with a friend. From then on, it was all in shambles.

 

I finally got back on track and made some tikka masala the other night, with a side of Brussels sprouts cooked along the lines of aloo gobhi. In a burst of depraved Italian fusion instinct, I added some of my pancetta to the sprouts, rendering out some pork fat to sear the sprouts in. The pork wasn’t needed, but when is cured pork needed? Even when I didn’t invite pork to the party, I'm always glad it showed up. It was completely delicious.

 

For this week, I’m reasserting the Week of Noodles, complete with meal plan. Plan is to split my cooking between the noodles currently sitting in my fridge, and all my beef impulse buys.

 

Meal Plan:

 

Monday:
Qingjiao Rousi (stir fried pork slivers with some Fresno chiles, nothing fancy)

 
Tuesday:
Dan Dan Noodles (w/ leftover pork loin probably)
 
Wednesday:
Eat a Big Ol’ F#$%-Off Steak, + Brussels Sprouts Maybe (gonna wing this one... to sauce or not to sauce?)
 
Thursday:
Burger (maybe pub-style, maybe smashed... we'll see)
 
Friday:
More Steak

 

Saturday:
Kuaytiew Neua Tuun (those Thai noodles with that stewed beef)
 
Sunday:
Wuhan Hot Dry Noodles (noodles -- served hot, and also dry)

[WhiteGhost]

All the noodles!  I think I may try to make some of those after this challenge is over when I am back to eating carbs.  

[KB Girl]

What a way to derail a meal plan ❤️ 

[PaulG]

8 hours ago, KB Girl said:

What a way to derail a meal plan ❤️ 

The best way!

 

17 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

All the noodles!  I think I may try to make some of those after this challenge is over when I am back to eating carbs.  

 

DO IT!!! Out of all the noodles I’ll be eating this week, the ones on that list are my favorites.

 

Made the qingjiao rousi, giving me an opportunity to work on my pork-slivering knife skills. I tested out the technique demonstrated by Wang Gang in his fish-fragrant pork video; the technique looks difficult but isn’t as bad as it looks, as long as the knife is sharp. Slices came out more even than I expected.

 

Ooh, also, I just found that Wang Gang has his own video on qingjiao rousi, in case anyone wants to watch someone put the dish together really freaking fast.

 

Additional note: just cuz the recipe says 100g of chiles, doesn’t mean you need to put three whole Fresnos in there for you alone to eat. Yeesh.

 

[PaulG]

Workout Log 6/16/20

- Going in: some DOMS in my hamstrings, especially the left. Probably from some pre-bedtime mobility work I did last night, doing 1-Leg good mornings and playing around with rotating my hips to make my nonworking leg trace a circle around me. The idea was to give my hamstrings some load at the end of their ROM. Feels like it worked.

Warmup

15in. Pistol Eccentrics: 3(9s)/3(9s)^a-x, 3(9s)/3(9s)^b-x, 4(9s)/4(9s)^b-y

Counter One Arm Pushups: 9^a-e, 9^b-x, 10^a-x

Hamstring Curls: 5/5^a-e, 6/6^a-x

High IR (2lbs): 10/10^b-6, 10/10^b-5

Ext Rotation (2lbs): 12/12^a-5, 12/12^a-4

Sidelying Can (2lbs): 13/13^b-6, 13/13^a-6
- Sticking to the same or less reps as last time, since my shoulder was kind of tender the last two days, especially around the pec minor. The exercises actually felt pretty good after the first five or so reps of high IRs.
- Cut the LYTP scapular stabilization work as I started to run low on time -- had to work a little late.

Wall Leg Raise Holds: 18s/18s^a-x, 18s/18s^a-x

Compression Work: 3x10s^a-x

Cooldown

 

- Did some final bits of flexibility work after compression, and found that I can actually longsit in a pike position at the end of my workout! Though I can feel the front of my hips struggling to keep myself upright. But it feels like a big step forward.

[ZachPSU]

Keep up the good work, quarantine's been good to your body recomp!

[dancezwithkittehz]

I need to follow you purely for food ideas haha. YUMM.  Also jealous that you can get Sun Noodles where you are. I got them in a Blue Apron box once back when I was still doing those and SO GOOD. I should probably just learn to make decent ramen noodles and deal or continue with my love of Shin ramen packets in their cheap but still delicious glory haha.

[PaulG]

13 hours ago, ZachPSU said:

Keep up the good work, quarantine's been good to your body recomp!

Thanks! Quarantine has sucked but in some ways it worked out well, given that I already had the workout equipment and I don’t have to rely on other people to make a half-decent program.

 

7 hours ago, dancezwithkittehz said:

I need to follow you purely for food ideas haha. YUMM.  Also jealous that you can get Sun Noodles where you are. I got them in a Blue Apron box once back when I was still doing those and SO GOOD. I should probably just learn to make decent ramen noodles and deal or continue with my love of Shin ramen packets in their cheap but still delicious glory haha.

Serious Eats has a few ramen noodle recipes but they are no joke. I’d try them, but I’m afraid I might break my pasta machine.

 

You live in the LA area, right? I know Sun Noodle has a factory in California, I‘ll bet you could find them if you go to the right Chinese/Japanese-focused market. I’m near Seattle, so a lot further away from the factory, but I can still find them fresh occasionally, or more often frozen.

 

Speaking of Sun Noodles...

 

 

SO GOOD. Single recipe, with the meat doubled (cuz I got protein goals to meet). Technically this is not the usual noodle for dan dan noodles, I think it’s supposed to be a non-alkaline noodle, but whatevs, still tasty.

 

I also looked at my meal plan today and realized I’m not actually making enough noodle dishes to use up the whole package... so I cut up a little leftover pork loin, grabbed some chicken stock out of the freezer, and made a super-quick noodle soup on my lunch break. I think that’s going to become a habit.

[dancezwithkittehz]

2 minutes ago, PaulG said:

 

You live in the LA area, right? I know Sun Noodle has a factory in California, I‘ll bet you could find them if you go to the right Chinese/Japanese-focused market. I’m near Seattle, so a lot further away from the factory, but I can still find them fresh occasionally, or more often frozen.

 

I'm close! LA is an hour-ish away. I live up in Ventura and we are much more suburbia small beach town haha. In normal times I would make a trip down there but not so much with COVID sadly! Someday!

[dancezwithkittehz]

6 minutes ago, PaulG said:

Serious Eats has a few ramen noodle recipes but they are no joke. I’d try them, but I’m afraid I might break my pasta machine.

 

 Also Serious Eats is THE BEST. Especially anything from Kenji!

[PaulG]

4 hours ago, dancezwithkittehz said:

 

I'm close! LA is an hour-ish away. I live up in Ventura and we are much more suburbia small beach town haha. In normal times I would make a trip down there but not so much with COVID sadly! Someday!

 

That's too bad. I think you might have more hope than you think... factories like that will usually sell to any small outlet that's supplying even a small community of expats, so sometimes your local small-town asian mart in the back of a gas station can have some really surprising, hard-to-find stuff if you're willing to look. Of course, you know Ventura better than I do... but when I got curious, I literally just googled my own town and started finding grocery stores I'd never heard of before.

 

Of course, I've also become the guy who plans weekend trips to six different stores to see if he can track down bitter oranges... which still elude me btw, no matter how many Latin groceries I trek out to. Damn Pacific Northwest. I don't even remember why I wanted them anymore.

 

4 hours ago, dancezwithkittehz said:

 

 Also Serious Eats is THE BEST. Especially anything from Kenji!

Kenji is awesome. Aside from him being an amazing writer and recipe developer, my favorite thing about him is how following him and SE introduces you to a whole new world of people in food who put out a whole different caliber of stuff. Kenji's recipes are great, but he and SE also introduced me to Leela Punyaratabandhu, whose work pushed my Thai food from "making the occasional curry with crappy Trader Joe's bottled sauce" to real stuff that actually tasted like something. SE introduced me to Stella Parks, who IMO is one of the best writers about baking, full stop. There are just countless examples of amazing people whose work is high quality and out in the world largely for free, but Kenji really taps you into it.

 

Maybe my next challenge should be a food media detox, lol.

 

--

 

Brief update: my final challenge goal, the life challenge, was really set up to put me on good footing for this promotion interview. But guess what? It's happening... tomorrow.

 

I am sweating bullets. Just to make sure my in-tray is squeaky clean, I worked two hours late today. Not really in keeping with the spirit of the challenge goal, but I'm much more down to the wire than I thought I was. I don't really know how I should implement a plan for the goal, but my first priority is going to be getting through this dang interview. Work-life balance comes after.

 

I guess I should start with getting some sleep. Fingers crossed.

[WhiteGhost]

Fingers crossed!  All the good vibes heading your way for a positive interview outcome

[Mad Hatter]

6 hours ago, PaulG said:

Of course, I've also become the guy who plans weekend trips to six different stores to see if he can track down bitter oranges... which still elude me btw, no matter how many Latin groceries I trek out to. Damn Pacific Northwest. I don't even remember why I wanted them anymore.

Have you tried middle Eastern shops?

 

GOOD LUCK ON THE INTERVIEW! You've got this!!!

[PaulG]

Before I give an update for today, a word on flexibility.

 

A couple of folks have recently asked what I’m doing about my hamstrings. Things have changed a little since the last challenge, and I’ve settled on some exercises that I’ve found pretty effective so far. So, I may as well lay out my mobility plan, both in case anyone’s interested and so I can keep better track of what worked later on.

 

The Problem Areas

I have a hamstring problem. They’ve always been inflexible and difficult to work with. I have many none-too-pleasant memories of going to gymnastics classes as a child, and being the only kid there who couldn’t touch his toes. And when I got into parkour as an adult, I was quickly told by all my coaches that my hamstrings and hip flexors were so tight that they were affecting my running gait; and that with limited hip flexion and extension, I was leaving a lot of jumping power on the table, too.

 

Problem is, stretching has never been particularly effective for them. They’ve always gained ROM very slowly, and they’ve backslid easily if I’m not stretching constantly. On top of that, they’ve also been very prone to cramping, and I’ve strained my hamstrings several times while running over the years. To round things off, my quads are also tight and are definitely overactive, they have no issues pushing lots of weight in squats. So although the common wisdom holds that if a muscle is tight, it must be overactive; with my hamstrings I know that’s not the case.

So let’s lay out the plan, starting the the list of problems I’ve found that inform it.

• My hamstrings are tight, but based on how they perform, they also seem to be very weak.
• My quads are extremely tight, strong, and overactive.
• My glutes don’t appear to be weak (my butt is neither small nor flabby. Just sayin). This doesn’t rule out other glute dysfunctions such as firing problems.
• My left hip makes an audible and tactile clunk when my left leg passes from 90 degree flexion (like a leg raise) to about the 60 degree point. It goes away quickly if I abduct and externally rotate the hip, even if the abduction is only 10-20 degrees (so it doesn’t happen when I squat).

 

Brief sidebar on the hip clunk, spoilered because this is getting way too long:

Spoiler

 

After I found the hip clunk, I did an evening’s worth of reading on potential causes. Ultimately the most interesting source I found was this article from a DC on a couple different causes of the clunk, and the tendency for the femur to glide anteriorly in the socket. After I read this (and a bunch of other material that at least partially confirmed it), I ran a test to see where specifically the clunk was, and it is deep in the hip; seems to be the psoas major snapping over the lesser trochanter of the femur.

 

The article is extremely interesting, but the TL;DR is that hip clunk and a femur that tends to move anteriorly in the hip capsule (which matches my problem) may actually have a partial root in hamstrings that are too tight. So of all my lower body issues — all of which I’ll need to address at some point — addressing the hamstrings right now looks like the biggest bang for my buck.

 

 

Some medical professionals have posited the idea that some muscles may become tight, not due to a lack of length, but because they are extremely weak; that the inability to move them into new ranges of motion is actually neurological, the nervous system trying to avoid injury by sending pain and tightness signals in order to prevent the muscle being moved into a dangerous range of motion. It follows that the way to address that is to gain strength in those ranges of motion, so that the nervous system eventually stops sending those signals.

 

So ultimately the goal of my plan is to address mainly my hamstrings’ tightness and weakness at the same time.

 

The Plan

 

After all the research, and with the help of a bunch of folks here (thanks all!), here is the daily plan step by step.

We start with the first two parts of the three-part nerve flossing plan from Cirque Physio (she has videos!):

 

1. Myofascial release for the hamstrings, 3-4 reps in 6-8 parts of the hamstring, each leg. I hit more parts of the hamstring than her video shows because the size of my legs vs my ball (which is actually a jam jar covered in rubber bands, quarantine DIY!) means I have to hit my lateral and medial hamstrings separately.

 

2. Supine nerve flosses, 10 reps each leg. I put a pillow under my back to force my lumbar spine into mild extension.

 

3. After that, I drift from CP program and do the lateral hamstring active stretching exercise from Upright Health, since some testing has shown my lateral hamstrings have particular difficulty firing and they’re implicated in hip issues. I find it important to really concentrate on contracting the hamstrings as I move my hips, and pushing forward to load them.

 

4. The final step from Cirque Physio: partial one-leg, (almost) straight-leg romanian deadlifts. (She calls them the “bend and snap.”) 10-12 reps each side. After all the other flexibility work my hamstrings are a lot more stretchy, and the light strength work is meant to address their weakness and start giving them some new functional, non-painful ROM.

 

5. Sometimes I’ll follow up the RDLs with a little passive hamstring stretching if I have the time.

 

6. Finally, the one non-hamstring part of my routine right now: a lunge stretch for the quads and hip flexors, with my lower leg against a wall. (I think Kelly Starrett calls this a “couch stretch.”) I modify it because my hip extension is pretty poor, so the knee of the non-stretching leg is also on the floor. I try to make the stretch active as well by pulling my shin away from the wall, which causes some epic hamstring cramps.

 

And that's it! That's my nightly routine, all in one place, and this is the plan that's carried my hamstring mobility forward so well in the last couple weeks.

[PaulG]

Horrifyingly long post on my current flexibility routine for hamstrings is above.

 

Workout Log 6/18/20

Warmup

15in. Pistols: 4/4^c-e, 4/4^b-e, 4/4^b-e

Counter One Arm Pushups (Left Only): 10^b-x, 10^b-x, 9^c-y

- My wrist is starting to dislike these, I'm starting to hear a little pop on each rep. I'm going to back off on these a little and experiment with finding a form that doesn't cause issues.

High IR (2lbs): 12/12^a-5, 12/12^a-4
Ext Rotation (2lbs): 14/14^a-4, 14/14^a-4
Sidelying Can (2lbs): 14/14^b-5, 14/14^b-6
L: 20/20
Y: 8/8
T: 12/12
P: 20s

Wall Leg Raise Holds: 20s/20s

Compression Work: 4x10s

Cooldown

 

Notes:

- Back to concentric pistol reps! It feels good. And even though I didn't get very close to failure, I can feel myself starting to reach the edge. Balance is starting to feel a lot stronger too.

 

- My PT exercises I'm doing with a numerical RPE system from 1-10, 10 being equal to a z rep using my usual notation. My goal is to stay in the 4-6 range with all my PT, which is why I'm using different notation -- my usual notation doesn't really place any value on anything below 8, but that's waaayyy too hardcore for PT, I need to be focusing on keeping myself well away from failure in order to keep from reaggravating the injury.

 

- My shoulder still has points of soreness throughout the day, but the pain points are starting to give way to light post-exercise type DOMS. It's also starting to feel more functional throughout the day. And the reps on these exercises are starting to go up, all of which are (hopefully) good early signs that the PT is having the desired effect, and I'm on my way to a real workout again.

 

Interview was today. I think I did okay; it was hard to get to sleep the night before. It sounds like I'll probably hear back within the next two weeks or so. Just have to keep my focus at work, it was easy today to drift into worrying over who the potential competitors might be.

[PaulG]

21 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Fingers crossed!  All the good vibes heading your way for a positive interview outcome

 

16 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Have you tried middle Eastern shops?

 

GOOD LUCK ON THE INTERVIEW! You've got this!!!

 

Thank you both!

 

I have not tried middle eastern shops! That's an interesting idea, I didn't know middle eastern food used a lot of bitter oranges... some of my coworkers know those shops better than I do, I think I'll check in with them on recommendations for places to go.

 

Oops. Accidentally made yet another post. Lol. Workout log is above.

[@mu]

28 minutes ago, PaulG said:

I have a hamstring problem.

 

maybe you could join Hamstrings Anonymous sorry that was bad.

 

Sounds like you have done a lot of research and have a thorough plan! I don't have a hamstring problem and I don't have enough flex/physio skills to be of much help. I have noticed though since I started doing flexibility on a more regular basis, that it really hits my butt! but not like squats, more to sides, like the medial glutes

 

I'm glad to hear the shoulder is less grumpy!!

[Mad Hatter]

Sounds like a solid approach! And it's working amazingly well, your progress last challenge was insane. I'm not sure you even have a hamstring problem, but a "haven't figured out how to train them" problem.

[WhiteGhost]

2 hours ago, PaulG said:

Ultimately the most interesting source I found was this article from a DC

I read through that but really didn't understand much of it  

 

2 hours ago, PaulG said:

Interview was today. I think I did okay; it was hard to get to sleep the night before. It sounds like I'll probably hear back within the next two weeks or so.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you 

[raptron]

 I saw you around other challenges last time around but didn't realize you had put your own up! Welcome back to the forums. 😁Good luck with the interview for the promotion! 🍀