Vicious_Unicycle gets even

[Vicious_Unicycle]

Today I started my quest to strengthen the muscles in my left side to match that of their counterparts on the right in hopes of reducing pain and discomfort. See Level 1 Rebels post for quest details.

 

  First I went for a walk. It's not part of the quest, but I've been doing that daily for a while anyway. I think I didn't drink enough water beforehand, because my heart was beating a lot faster than it usually does during walks. After that I tried to do 5 one-handed wall pushups. I'm 90% positive that I wasn't doing them right though, because although it felt difficult, it was also awkward and didn't feel like it was challenging my muscles properly. Next I tried side planks. I've done these before, but I think I didn't wait long enough after the pushups, because my arm gave up before my core did. The last thing I tried was to improvise what this article calls a "crooked row" using a towel wrapped around a doorknob, but I couldn't get to a low enough angle to be able to actually work the muscles in my back.

 

  It's obvious that I need a new battle plan. Convict Conditioning looks promising (Thanks to Sloth-Like for the suggestion!). I really like that the progressions make wimpy exercises more than simply an afterthought. I'll have to look into it more.

[Vicious_Unicycle]

  I checked out this list of convict conditioning progressions. I think that the push up and pull up will help me the most out of all of those. I still don't understand how wall push ups or vertical pulls are supposed to work, so I decided to try skipping to the next step of each progression to see if those worked better. I had to do some improvising though:

 

No idea what this used to be, but now it's a horizontal pull up bar.

 

  I did in fact feel more of a workout, but unfortunately the majority of it was on my right side. I only did ten of each. I could have done more, but since my right side was working much harder than my left, every push/pull up I did was actually moving me further away from my goal. I figured I should cut my losses. Fortunately side planks were much more successful today.

 

  Finally, I found this thing online that's really making me rethink my approach to this challenge: http://bretcontreras.com/how-to-fix-glute-imbalances/

 

  Essentially, I've been getting way ahead of myself. I shouldn't be focusing on getting my left side stronger yet. First I have to focus on this whole "mind-muscle connection" thing. The reason my right side always handles more weight than my left is because my brain and my left side muscles aren't exactly on speaking terms right now.

[Vicious_Unicycle]

  I managed to get a free one-day pass to a gym today. It was kind of short notice, so I didn't really keep track of everything I did. I stayed away from free weights though. Yeah yeah, I know the general consensus on this site is that machines are the devil, but at least they have instructions on them. I have no idea what it was called, but there was this one thing I used that I really liked. It was basically just a bunch of cables and pulleys connected to weights, but you could rearrange the pulleys in all sorts of configurations so you could do all kinds of workouts with it. But the reason I liked it was that there was one set of weights for each arm, which removed the option of naturally shifting all of the weight to my right, allowing me to actually get an even workout for once! Even the stuff where there was only one set of weights for both arms to share did a better job of working out my left side than bodyweight exercises ever have.

[Vicious_Unicycle]

  Decided to skip working out today. Push ups might benefit me in the long run, but in the short run they're making me anxious and depressed. The whole reason I started going on walks in the first place was because of the mental health benefits of exercise.

 

  Anyway, I checked out this thing. I've never seriously considered doing yoga. I'm not into all that spiritual stuff. But the physical aspects seem to be worth looking into more.

[Vicious_Unicycle]

I've been reading up on posture, back pain, and core strength. I'm thinking that I should probably talk to my doctor before I continue trying to figure out what to do. The end of this article sums it up pretty well:

 

   "The ideal core strengthening program is one that is individualized to fit into your lifestyle and works well with your personality. Rather than trying to knock out 10 or more ab-killers once or twice in hopes of getting a strong core, it is better to work with your doctor or therapist to create a program you can and will do daily. According to Eaton, creating a core strengthening program isn't as simple as following a few exercises from a book or website. "Not every exercise is right for every person," she says. "People with back or neck problems who have never exercised will need a very different program from athletes with an injury looking to get back in the game."

 

I have a doctors appointment coming up soon. In the meantime I might give these things a shot. The whole thing seems rather silly to me, but on the off chance that there really is a problem with my back, I should probably avoid exercises that could potentially make things worse.

[Vicious_Unicycle]

I've been trying those breathing exercises. I don't think the whole visualization thing is working for me. I just don't get what all that imagining is supposed to accomplish. I mean seriously, lying tied up on the ground and hissing while pretending you're a candle? Who comes up with this stuff?

 

Anyway, now I get why searching on the internet hasn't been effective for treating my back pain.

 

  "Another category of scoliosis is non-structural, or functional, scoliosis. This occurs when there is a problem with another part of the body that is causing a curve in the spine. For example, a discrepancy in leg length can cause the spine to curve to one side. Muscle spasms and inflammation may also cause this problem. When a scoliosis is classified as non-structural, treatment is aimed at the underlying problem, not the spine itself."

 

I remember thinking to myself last month that it felt like there was a tug of war going on with my spine and the right side was winning. Now I don't know if there's actually a curve in my spine, but the muscles in my right side are a lot tighter and twitchier than the left, which does make me twist and/or bend to the right frequently.

[Vicious_Unicycle]

Today I walked about 17,300 steps, which is roughly 4x farther than I usually do. At some point I decided to quit trying to stand up straight and just let my body bend to the right. Lo and behold, all the little aches and pains in my back vanished! You wouldn't think trying to have good posture would cause back pain, but that seems to be what happened. Unfortunately, this wasn't a perfect solution; I started to feel a lot of strain on my left hip joint.

 

I stretched out when I got home. I have no idea what possessed me to do this, but I also did 10 push ups. And for some reason, I didn't hate doing them.