[DaemonCorax]

I missed the last challenge up popped in to say hello briefly. I am going to be out of town (and away from my bikes, trails and gym) 12/9 to 12/18, so this challenge may be a bit abbreviated.

 

Our desert wandering protagonist has had to make some transformations to continue this story. As Elastigirl astutely pointed out, I'm right at the end of my first trimester of my second pregnancy. Tomorrow is the start of week 14. The middle part of pregnancy is "the good part." I hate all of it, but not equally. I lost ground during the first trimester (my poor lats got eaten by my metabolism AGAIN), but I think less than last time. I knew it was coming, so I was able to keep morning workouts more consistent, even if it was just climbing a little on Wednesdays. The middle part is my chance to regain lost ground (that I will lose again when recovering from c-section #2), but that doesn't mean its easy. It's a slog.

 

Our protagonist is on a quest. She has to leave the desert for more arable, temperate lands that can sustain life. She is carrying a heavy load. Her trusty steed cannot manage everything, so she is traveling much of the way on foot. It remains to be seen what this load is in our story (although back here in the real world we all know what this is an analogy for). It slows her down and makes her question her choices on the surface, even though deep down she knows this was the best, almost only, option. She trudges on knowing that the biggest trial will come in the spring, but will hopefully followed by rest.

 

My doc has told me not to lift heavy after week 20 or so because the latent abdominal scarring and rectus abdominus tear may not like it.

 

Spoiler

(long long story. the muscle looks like someone took a steak knife to the middle of it and then it healed and scarred over. This is not diastisis rectii, which is tricky to treat as well, but a good old-fashioned tear in the middle of a major muscle from resuscitating my first son during labor.)

 

We shall see. It remains that while climbing and Pilates are great, nothing triggers the neurological part of proper core engagement for me like a good lift. I'm going to play with lifting lighter and doing modified lifts that hit the core more (think front squats instead of back squats). I also have a great hiking buddy for high altitude hikes. I like getting my backcountry nordic skiis out for myself in the winter, but having a buddy for high altitude outings is great motivation for actually DOING THEM, so I will be rocking the snowshoes a bit more this year too. Either way, it's time outside breathing thin air in beautiful places.

 

I  know training this time has to be different (see above) and the demands on both me and my partner are different because we have our first kid to amuse and look after. But at the same time an argument has been made that the training I did during pregnancy last time definitely made first kid a more durable human and may have even saved his life when things got distressing during birth, so while all this moving around definitely makes ME happy, there's also a little voice in my head that says that if I don't do it, I won't be doing right by kid 2 and giving them the best chance out of the gate to live up here and be strong and healthy. Yay mom guilt. Always finding a way to spin things dark.

 

I will try to find some new artwork for our protagonist and she makes her way over the mountains, down to the river delta, to a small fishing town on the coast. I will also try to put together some points.

 

Today's workout:

• 6 routes up to 5.10
• No barbells were available at first!
• Mini barbell (not sure what else to call these things. Not a curl bar) row 50 7x3
• Mini barbell OHP 40 5x3, next 2 reps lower back felt loosey goosey. Alignment icky after yoga/Pilates between sets
• Pilates bridges and single leg work
• Goblet squats 35 lb dumbbell 7x3
• Deadlifts (finally! a barbell!) 135 x5, 155 x5, 175 x2, third rep hips not stable, stopped.

So clearly laying off the weight plus all the hormones has resulted in me having a really hard time getting my core to talk to me properly. This was a good check in.  Just. need. to be. consistent.

[DaemonCorax]

A little eye candy from this weekend. My hiking buddy and I (part of my Colorado family really) did 7 mi in the snow - including some post-holing. Should NOT have left the snowshoes in the car. - on Friday. Our reward was a high-altitude lake around 11k.

 

As we leave the desert for the trek overland, the mountains must be crossed and will figure prominently in the next few months.

 

 

[Salinger]

Beautiful DC. 

Hope all is well ❤️ xx

[KB Girl]

4 hours ago, DaemonCorax said:

the training I did during pregnancy last time definitely made first kid a more durable human and may have even saved his life when things got distressing during birth, so while all this moving around definitely makes ME happy, there's also a little voice in my head that says that if I don't do it, I won't be doing right by kid 2 and giving them the best chance out of the gate to live up here and be strong and healthy. Yay mom guilt. Always finding a way to spin things dark.

This may be a dark thought, but it is also a powerful one. You did that and that's pretty darn awesome! But yea, let that guilt go as much as possible  kid 2 will benefit greatly from your experience as parents, so he/she already has that going for him/her. (and yes you will feel guilty about that towards kid 1 at some point, heh). Besides, all these health benefits will come with just moving, it won't care so much about how much you're lifting exactly. 

[Elastigirl]

So gorgeous! 

Here to cheer you on!

[DaemonCorax]

Since leaving the village on the outskirts of the desert, our protagonist has had some things to shake off. Getting into the rhythm, getting used to the colder woods, that all took some time. Her hunter traits stood her in good stead and she moved forward, neither trudging nor running, slow and steady, for the path was long. Climbing higher above all reasonable civilization, the air dried to a crisp thin whisper that starved the trees into shrunken stout shadows of their lower elevation cousins. And then the talus. This was not entirely unexpected, but she had hoped to find a path that allowed for a more steady pace. Talus hopping was something she had gotten quite good at over the years, when she was fast an light. Now, with her heavy cargo, traveling a way no horse would go in their right might, she was forced to move statically, deliberately, lest too much momentum entice the rocks under her feet to begin to roll.

 

 

So hello 2nd trimester! Yay! But! A not entirely unexpected surprise has cropped up in the past couple days. My abs/core have been getting very tired at the end of the day whether I work out or not. In the past couple days, this has focused itself on pain around my belly button similar to what I experience in the third trimester last time. Here it is! Stretching burning pain a whole three months early. I know I have to keep my core strong AND I know that crunching and "things like crunching" are more likely to exacerbate the dread diastasis recti. I know the middle of my body needs to stretch, too. But right now it feels like my non-stretchy scar tissue and my only-slightly-more-stretchy side abdominal muscles are ganging up on the poor connective tissue around my belly button and up and down the middle of my body. Ow. A lot of ow. SO today I taped. The use of KT tape in pregnancy was something I had done a little bit last time. In the intervening 4 years there is more information, more drawings of proper tape application, and some small peer review studies about its effectiveness (mostly postpartum). It's helping. I'm a bit scared and disappointed I've had to resort to this so early, bit grateful that I'm enough of a PT nerd to know to do it.

Today's workout was just meeting my friend at the gym to climb. I intentionally didn't lift and I need to think about my lifting program carefully. I REALLY want to get my shoulders stronger but I need to think about stressing my middle. I climb 7 ish routes, most of them 5.10s. I warmed up on autobelay by climbing up and down some 5.7's though while I was waiting for my friend to show up. Today felt better than Monday actually.

Tomorrow is a bike trainer day. I'm going to do some work on my rings at are more focused on shoulders and less on planks I think.

The tape will probably wear out in three days. At that point I'll give it a day/night off and see how things are feeling before re-applying.

 

For the curious:

https://kinesiologysportstape.com/en-us/pages/pregnancy-taping - figures!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8584338/ - peer review study!

 

 

[Elastigirl]

Frustrating, but I'm glad you know some ways to help at least.

[KB Girl]

4 hours ago, DaemonCorax said:

I know I have to keep my core strong AND I know that crunching and "things like crunching" are more likely to exacerbate the dread diastasis recti.

Are they though? Not that I'd recommend doing crunches, but diastasis recti that won't go away after pregnancy is most likely caused by the connective tissue being overstretched. Like an elastic band it can lose its ability to go back to its original shape and that's what causes most issues with DI. Thinking of it like overstretching really changes the criteria for what you can and can't do. For example you can do a crunch without overstretching (if you really wanted to) and you can do a deadlift where you're overstretching and you can do a deadlift without overstretching. 

Best advice I've gotten (as a trainer working with pregnant women) is to cue people to keep their ribs low (this will keep you from overstretching simply from 'bad' positioning) and to exhale during lifting, which will keep you from increasing intra abdominal pressure too much. 

 

4 hours ago, DaemonCorax said:

I'm a bit scared and disappointed I've had to resort to this so early, bit grateful that I'm enough of a PT nerd to know to do it.

2nd pregnancy I had the same feels.. so mm.. I feel you. 

[DaemonCorax]

@KB Girl This is exactly the type of advice I need. Right now I'm just doing a mental analysis of my spine position during lifts and other exercises and trying to think about it in terms of what my core does in that particular position. Like if I'm doing something with a neutral spine, and my core is working really hard to keep it that way, we're probably ok. Rolling up like a hedgehog though, probably not a great idea.

What do you make of the common assumption that crunching contracts the rectus abdominus in a way that peels open that midline? That's the one I've heard a bunch. How does that square with the fact that cat/cow is a commonly suggested pregnancy yoga exercise? I don't ascribe to the whole "let your abs get soft during pregnancy" nonsense either. I'm just trying to debug in situ and its feeling tricky.

 

This morning I'm working standing at my desk. Lots of opportunity for TVA breathing exercises and neutral spine (and dancing from one foot to the other). Later I'm going to go down to the basement where my trusty commuter bike is set up on the trainer. I've been watching ~45 min documentaries while riding, and then using the rings and climbing holds in the ceiling for core and shoulder work.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how did you feel about second pregnancy vs. first?

 

Tape update: it seems to be helping for sure. No burning belly button pain yesterday.  And I feel like the awareness of the tape is a good posture cue for me. But it's winter so it's itchy.

[KB Girl]

2 hours ago, DaemonCorax said:

@KB Girl This is exactly the type of advice I need. Right now I'm just doing a mental analysis of my spine position during lifts and other exercises and trying to think about it in terms of what my core does in that particular position. Like if I'm doing something with a neutral spine, and my core is working really hard to keep it that way, we're probably ok. Rolling up like a hedgehog though, probably not a great idea.

That's a good idea! Flexion of the back is something to avoid of course, but with deadlifts I've found that a lot of good lifters tend to overextend their back right at the end of the lift. Assuming you're already a decent lifter, over-extension is the one to watch out for during a pregnancy. Especially on things like pull-ups and overhead lifts over-extension happens very easily. It's that over-extension that might stretch the rectus abdominus too much. And then if someone tends to stand like that too, then it's just a little bit much. Watching pelvic positioning when standing helps with that.

 

2 hours ago, DaemonCorax said:

What do you make of the common assumption that crunching contracts the rectus abdominus in a way that peels open that midline? That's the one I've heard a bunch. How does that square with the fact that cat/cow is a commonly suggested pregnancy yoga exercise? I don't ascribe to the whole "let your abs get soft during pregnancy" nonsense either. I'm just trying to debug in situ and its feeling tricky.

 

Well, it could.. when the other core muscles play their role properly it is unlikely though. At the end of the pregnancy this might be a bit more likely. 

For me the reason not to do crunches would be that... well your core muscles are meant to prevent movement, not initiate movement so much? so I'd pick exercises like the pallof press or dead bugs or even planks over crunches. All anti-rotation movements are great. 

Cat/cow.. I think the intention there might be to maintain pelvic mobility? but then it'd be much better to just do pelvic tilts in various positions and avoid the back extension you'd get from the cat part. 

Letting your abs get soft sounds like a recipe for back pain and disaster. 

 

2 hours ago, DaemonCorax said:

If you don't mind me asking, how did you feel about second pregnancy vs. first?

 

My first was not fun at all, I could barely walk by the end of it. That's what prompted me to go full nerd on training during pregnancy, I ended up reading a lot and doing two online courses. I wasn't enthusiastic about a second pregnancy at all (except for the end result ofc) and then 9 weeks in I got hit with the beginning of pelvic girdle pain already- which sucked a lot and scared me a little. Luckily it did turn out that with good training it stayed a lot more manageable throughout, so I was in much better shape even at the end of it. And the recovery was easier too- or would've been if I hadn't torn a butt muscle about 4 months post partum x) 

You just know a lot more the second time, which is a good thing, but you also don't have the blessing of naivety going in anymore, which is a loss. 

[DaemonCorax]

Well that was demoralizing:

 

I'm lying on the floor playing around with core exercises after riding my bike in the trainer.

(1) I need to put some boards under the front wheel chock to make that comfier.

(2) Dead bugs are a no go right now. I BARELY have a belly, but on trying to look at my my belly (and yes, curling me neck to do so) resulted in the doming along the midline that shows things are not super healthy right now.  So I reverted to single leg work and heel slides, and then tried the dead bug again. If I move my legs only and not my arms I can still hold on to my posture and keep my core in line. Move too much and my spine can stay steady, but the middle hurts and raises up. Baby steps. I'm still taped. I'm going to try to do a few minutes of this every day and see how it turns out. It's pretty clear and immediate when things feel WORSE, so hopefully I can make some steps in the right direction while I'm still pregnant.

 

The internet is helping me out with capturing this. I'm trying very hard to believe the first part.:

 

 

[DaemonCorax]

So this weekend wasn't super intense, but Friday MFH and I had a couple hours for the climbing gym. And I climbed a 5.11 for the first time in ages!

 

So with respect to climbing: (1) pulling overhangs where I need high feet and to fold up like a hedgehog = not great. (2) hard routes at a more constant angle that requires a lot of core stabilization are great.

 

Saturday I went out Christmas shopping (lots of walking outdoors) without the PT tape on my belly and let things get tired. There was finally some pulling in the scarred region, and I was able to keep more core activated enough to not let it pull on my belly button. While I have to cycle days on/of with the tape because of skin irritation (it's winter), the tape seems to be also helping  my abs cue to keep my posture good and protect my midline. I'm ok with pulling on the scar because its not an acute pain, and the more the scars can break up the better the rest of me will do.

 

Sunday was a rest day.

 

Today I went to the gym in the morning with a friend and kept myself on 10+ routes, which I hadn't been trying much in the morning. I'm going to try to keep pushing myself. It went pretty well. Afterwards I went upstairs and did some lat pull downs and core work including dead bugs. The machine for the lat pull downs is weird, so I actually am doing them on the floor on my knees, but it does let me train back and shoulders while avoiding the overstretching mentioned as a risk for pull-ups. I remember from last pregnancy that at a certain point trying to do a pull up just resulted in unhappy abs beneath my sternum. But I know I'm going to have trouble keeping shoulder muscle, so a lot of the stuff I'm going to work on in the gym will focus on shoulders.

 

This afternoon I MIGHT pick up the small one by bike, depending on the wind.

 

I don't have plans yet for tomorrow, but Wednesday is another morning trip to the gym.

[DaemonCorax]

After a total fight with the talus field, our protagonist is finding more sure footing. The trail is steep, but at least is a trail. She has been this way before. Her legs aren't the longest, but she's steady. She moves onward with her cargo. She misses her horse. Maybe the next village will have a goat she can buy to pack the load, but probably not. It gets heavier the thinner the air gets.

 

Today I was on-site and I drove to work, but made myself go for a walk. There's a little coffee shop (on of far too many, but there's always a few that stand out) that I really like the atmosphere of a little ways downtown from my work. I mapped it and was surprised to find that through a combination of walking paths and sidewalks, it was only 1.1 mi there. So I walked myself over there and got a coffee and pastry at lunchtime, and walked back. It was nice to move around and be on the multi-use path but I missed my bike the way I imagine other people get homesick.

 

About the bike situation:

I've ridden bikes seriously for 20 years. Un-seriously, I've ridden them my whole life. It is a place where I feel at home. However, this pregnancy has me more tired in the afternoon than I remember being before, and because of kid-logistics, MFH and I now work staggered hours, so I can't just ask him to scoop me up on the way home, because I work the earlier schedule. (Although I suppose we could switch some days....). Anway. Also in the past few years I've had trouble in the afternoon in general - if my scars tighten up during the day AND I have to take my laptop home, the afternoon commute and the 2.25 mi hill it involves is just demoralizing. My body hurts. I move slower. And my happy place isn't so happy.

To that end, this spring I adopted a third hand bike from my husband that actually used to belong to a mutual friend of ours. It's been every kind of bike (It's a Surly, they're good at this), but right now it's pretending to be a drop-bar 29er with some 15 year-old disc brakes and a touring-style bar end shifter. It's kind of stealth though: the gear range covers the same spread as my other bikes, and I set up the fit to be comfy for 8 hour epics later on. Right now, it's the pregnant lady bike. It's faster and more efficient than my mountain bike. It had drop-ish bars than feel like home. And it's a more relaxed fit than my road bikes. I am very grateful for it. I think I spent about $200 on rebuilding it to suit me, so it's been a total win. After this kiddo, I hope to take better care of my core (work was excruciating this summer) and make better friends with my road bikes again.

 

I'll find a picture of this contraption in a little bit for y'all

[DaemonCorax]

As promised: A picture of the contraption. Two actually. One from an long loop of easy trails from my house this summer, and one in its usual habitat, towing the small ones trailer home from pre-school. He doesn't always feel like riding his own bike in the afternoon, so I hang it off the back.
 

[Salinger]

Wow amazing, lucky little one xx

[DaemonCorax]

This morning was another gym morning with my good friend. Definitely fell of an 11- that I just couldn't figure out. That's ok. I'm trying to make myself stay on 10+ and 11-'s right now and not dip into 10- land. Pushing myself is good, and I think this is a pretty un-risky way to do it.

 

After an hour of climbing we went up to the fitness/weight room. I did:

Front squat 45x5 65 5x5

OHP 45 5x3

I selected these exercises specifically because they require core engagement and stability throughout the lift.

I also spent some time doing dead bugs, but just the leg part. I rested my fingers on my belly (t-shirt) to really stay clued in to what my abs were doing during this. I did some bird dogs too, and other mat work between sets. I also made a point of not listing heavy so I could pay ALL the attention to how things were feeling.

 

I'm currently just partially taped up. It's shocking how much less pain I have than a week and a half ago. I have to remind myself that in week 10 I got really sick with a stomach flu and didn't workout much, so it gave my abs time to get jerked around by the scar tissue. It's a bit emotional to see so much improvement in pain and mobility in just a week and a half of taping and serious core attention, when I know that if I slip up just a tiny bit things are going to get bad again.

 

I was looking for a warm fuzzy mantra-y thing from this internet, and all I could choose was from the movie Onward. We've watched this movie a bunch at home (although when I was seriously going through it about not having another kid, somehow blue big-eared magical brothers with a loving relationship were a bit much for me ><). Barley and his van are great. "Put it in O for onward." (If you have kids and haven't seen this, it's cute. You should. There's definitely some moments of cheesiness with supporting cast, but the brothers are great.)

 

 

 

 

 

[DaemonCorax]

7 minutes ago, Salinger said:

Wow amazing, lucky little one xx

 Aww thanks. That trailer is wonderful. I bought it from a friend and have definitely thoroughly put it through some tests: dirt roads, regular commuting, easy singletrack, strapping skis to it, you name it. My husband uses the cargo bike a lot more than I do, as this is a more relaxing setup for me to ride. During the beginning of the pandemic we took a LOT of riding naps around the neighborhood.

[Salinger]

1 minute ago, DaemonCorax said:

 Aww thanks. That trailer is wonderful. I bought it from a friend and have definitely thoroughly put it through some tests: dirt roads, regular commuting, easy singletrack, strapping skis to it, you name it. My husband uses the cargo bike a lot more than I do, as this is a more relaxing setup for me to ride.

 

I bet they will look back and really appreciate all the adventures ❤️ 

 

Hope you are doing ok DC xx

[DaemonCorax]

Today is my last day before we get on a plane bound for the east coast. It's going to be a whirlwind trip seeing all the grandparents: so not relaxing and no workouts. Staying in NC the first three days will be nice, but the whole trip just feels like a flail. I'm trying to think positively about it, but the stress involved in getting Christmas presents mailed early (because we won't be back until the 18th) and my end-of-year work list is just....ugh.

 

On the other hand the university has given us the week between Christmas and NY off, and MFH's shop is closed, so THAT we will be an actual break. I hope we have snow and can take the small one cross country skiing!

 

Today I'm going to try to build a big chunk of walking into my midday errands. We'll see.

[Elastigirl]

Hopefully you will be able to have some time to just enjoy being with family

[Rurik Harrgath]

On 12/7/2022 at 12:01 PM, DaemonCorax said:

 

 

 

Holy carp, that was epic!  Totally reminds me of Jack Black's character in Brutal Legend now that I'm thinking about it, and I really really really need to get back to work on my own heavy metal battle vest haha 

 

[DaemonCorax]

Well the trip was exhausting. We got home Sunday evening. Even my kid seems to have a travel hangover. I spent yesterday getting my feet under me. Between Christmas, trying to resume working out, and a few end-of-the-year work things I've been procrastinating on, I feel pretty unfocused.

 

This morning I got to the gym for 5 autobelay routes and some gorilla rows with KBs.

Then just now I rigged this up. Because I really can't sit still and finish the reports I MUST finish, so I'm trying something new.