Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Urgan]

Not so much burned out as tired out. Need a recharge! I pretty much need to not have too much responsibility right now, because my life is basically pillows until such time as I can get a decent night's sleep and a day without headaches at the same time. Not conducive to Winning It.

[shaar]

11 hours ago, Sam Ashen said:

 I really have the impression a lot of my friends here are burning out.

 

[Sam Ashen]

^^I never imagined it possible - but I think I just got crushed in the goofy department.

[Urgan]

33 minutes ago, Sam Ashen said:

^^I never imagined it possible - but I think I just got crushed in the goofy department.

 

Never try to out-goof somebody with access to Adventure Time gifs. 

[shaar]

39 minutes ago, Sam Ashen said:

^^I never imagined it possible - but I think I just got crushed in the goofy department.

 

5 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Never try to out-goof somebody with access to Adventure Time gifs. 

 

Gosh this show, IT IS MY JAM

 

 

YEAH

 

 

 

I'm hoping Battle Logging will maybe un-burn ME out, at least.  Experimental we are!!

[Urgan]

5-2-2016

Yup...yup.

 

Lifting

Mind the knees; mind the back

Rest day~

 

Ukemi

Roll 5x per side

Aikido night! I was on the way when I got a call from Mike that his granddad's health is deteriorating rapidly in the hospital. So...yeah. Slight change of plans. So far as I am aware, he is still alive as of posting this, but it looks like he might have congestive heart failure.

 

May I say, I have no idea how cats tumble around on this floor, it is HARD even with two yoga mats present. How do they do it without hurting all the time?? The boys had quite the little sparring match this afternoon.

 

Food

Protein: 1/20 - 116g

 

Sleep

Lights out: 12:05AM -- 7/10

Wake up: 9:00AM~ -- 8/10

So, I didn’t sleep terribly well (radically different pillow, having had a looong nap late in the afternoon, drinking all the water because Thirsty--there are good reasons I didn’t fall asleep until well after 1:30) and woke up randomly in the night, if not to use the bathroom, but I don’t feel too bad waking up in the morning.

 

I found this reference video…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or03pT-D8cQ

HMM. Trying yet another pillow borrowed from my old room at my parents’ house plus a pillow in the gap between my torso and the mattress, and one between my legs. PLAYING FOR ALL THE BEANS, NAO.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Neck mobility: 1/28

Stretch and mobilize: 1/28

So far, so good. No headache, a little traps stiffness close to the spine, my head feels okay and my shoulders feel better--not having my full bodyweight smashing into my delts no doubt has something to do with it. I don’t think improvement will be instant, given I have some tremendous knots lingering on the tops of my shoulders, for example, and they dictate a lot of how I feel. That said, this beats how it has been the last two days at least. Still not the optimal arrangement, as the waking up at random and persistent neck tension showed up in the afternoon. Still have some options to try~

 

My left ankle has been talking to me the way it has this past little while of squatting improperly, apparently it’s jealous of my neck getting all the attention. It, anterior shoulder/neck, and some quad issues needed addressing.

In other news, I let delivery people into my neighbor’s house to set up their new bed. They have a full-grown Akita named Bruce and Bruce is, as I told the delivery guys, their primary security system by way of explaining his staring them down. They were pretty nervous about him the whole time, but he was a good boy. It required some serious ear and chin scratches (did I mention I’ve never had to supervise this particular dog by myself with strangers taking a large thing--the old mattress--out of their house? Did not think to ask for tips about this in advance, lol...), but all went according to plan. I was able to play Final Fantasy I for maybe two hours at most without any issue, then I had some serious lunch of chicken donburi (67g protein ftw) and the cleaning began. I cycled dishes, changed the cat box, cleaned the humidifier in preparation to put it up, hopefully at this point it’s humid enough in the house that I don’t have to worry about dry skin anymore. I changed and washed our sheets (fluffy pillow is fluffy now…), and cleaned out the fridge of old food. Some more clothes got put up in the closet, man wouldn’t it be hilarious to have a last-minute cold snap after I have just gone to all the trouble of piling my winter stuff haphazardly on the top shelf.

[shaar]

Cats are made of rubber bands, I think.

 

12 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Some more clothes got put up in the closet, man wouldn’t it be hilarious to have a last-minute cold snap after I have just gone to all the trouble of piling my winter stuff haphazardly on the top shelf.

 

NEVER FAILS.  Never.......

[Urgan]

5 minutes ago, shaarawy said:

Cats are made of rubber bands, I think.

 

Rubber bands and bouncy balls. 

 

5 minutes ago, shaarawy said:

NEVER FAILS.  Never.......

 

GO AWAY WINTER, IT'S TANK TOP TIME. 

[miss_marissa]

Re: burnout

 

You mean to say we can't all do ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME and be successful sane adults?

Won't stop us from trying lol

[Mistr]

16 hours ago, Urgan said:

Not so much burned out as tired out. Need a recharge! I pretty much need to not have too much responsibility right now, because my life is basically pillows until such time as I can get a decent night's sleep and a day without headaches at the same time. Not conducive to Winning It.

 

You have been doing a LOT considering how much you've been struggling with tension and poor sleep. I'm glad to hear that the experiments are showing some promising directions.

 

4 hours ago, Urgan said:

May I say, I have no idea how cats tumble around on this floor, it is HARD even with two yoga mats present. How do they do it without hurting all the time?? The boys had quite the little sparring match this afternoon.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Neck mobility: 1/28

Stretch and mobilize: 1/28

So far, so good. No headache, a little traps stiffness close to the spine, my head feels okay and my shoulders feel better--not having my full bodyweight smashing into my delts no doubt has something to do with it. I don’t think improvement will be instant, given I have some tremendous knots lingering on the tops of my shoulders, for example, and they dictate a lot of how I feel. That said, this beats how it has been the last two days at least. Still not the optimal arrangement, as the waking up at random and persistent neck tension showed up in the afternoon. Still have some options to try~

 

My left ankle has been talking to me the way it has this past little while of squatting improperly, apparently it’s jealous of my neck getting all the attention. It, anterior shoulder/neck, and some quad issues needed addressing.

Some more clothes got put up in the closet, man wouldn’t it be hilarious to have a last-minute cold snap after I have just gone to all the trouble of piling my winter stuff haphazardly on the top shelf.

 

Keep in mind that the cats weigh less than 20 lbs and are falling from about a foot above the floor. Force = mass x acceleration. Not much mass, not changing speed very fast. In my experience, yoga mats don't provide nearly enough padding. I think they are designed to keep you from slipping, not for cushioning. A thick rug with a pad under it works better. This time of year you might try rolling on grass. The ground is generally soft in the spring. It will get harder as the season gets drier, at the same time as your rolls improve. Make sure you wear clothes that won't show grass stains.

 

Good discovery on your squats. Just how wide a stance is too wide? I find I can't get below 90º unless I'm in a wider than shoulder-width stance with my toes turned out a little.

 

I am putting my winter clothes in the attic tonight regardless. The boxes have been in the living room for a week and I'm sick of looking at them.

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Mistr said:

You have been doing a LOT considering how much you've been struggling with tension and poor sleep. I'm glad to hear that the experiments are showing some promising directions.

 

Progress is a winding road that looks a lot like a switchback more days than we'd like. I THINK I have a pillow that will be okay for a couple days just to see if I can tread water or preferably improve on my situation. Everything is better sans scalp tension.

 

1 hour ago, Mistr said:

Keep in mind that the cats weigh less than 20 lbs and are falling from about a foot above the floor. Force = mass x acceleration. Not much mass, not changing speed very fast. In my experience, yoga mats don't provide nearly enough padding. I think they are designed to keep you from slipping, not for cushioning. A thick rug with a pad under it works better. This time of year you might try rolling on grass. The ground is generally soft in the spring. It will get harder as the season gets drier, at the same time as your rolls improve. Make sure you wear clothes that won't show grass stains.

 

You and your physics, lol. Yes, it's reasonable that they don't have as far to travel, but they're so LOUD when they smack their little bony hips against the hardwood floor it just makes me wince a little for them, lol. Also they are dumb, but otherwise totally with you. I do have a thick 100% wool rug that is like 3/4" thick, I've been scared to roll on it because of the relatively narrow zone between wall and bed footboard that is exposed for me to play with--though it is a room-filling rug at like, 9'x12' in size....I have discovered today that I can do forward and back rolls on a tiny gym mat the length of an average human without hitting the guy next to me even once. So there's that. 

 

1 hour ago, Mistr said:

Good discovery on your squats. Just how wide a stance is too wide? I find I can't get below 90º unless I'm in a wider than shoulder-width stance with my toes turned out a little.

 

A proper squat width for barbell squats is more or less hip width. When you look down your heels should be lined up with your hip socket (there's a bit of wiggle room, but you'll feel it medially and in your adductors if they're having to do all the work to pull you out of the hole), toes and knees in alignment and pointed at a 30 degree angle. The trick to getting yourself low is to think about sitting your hips back as if there were a box or chair behind you and letting your back angle go more horizontal than you might be familiar with, like this:

 

 

It's a little fiddly at first, but it works! With BW squats the exact back angle will change because you aren't confronting the keep-the-heavy-iron-over-the-midfoot problem. Hamstring flexibility is a big deal, so if you lack that this will be tough stuff.

 

1 hour ago, Mistr said:

I am putting my winter clothes in the attic tonight regardless. The boxes have been in the living room for a week and I'm sick of looking at them.

 

I hear you, there comes a time where they just have to go! 

[ixaera]

I wish I could give you all the fancy pillows I bought fixing my neck issue, because they're just rotting in the closet and might actually work for somebody??

[Urgan]

29 minutes ago, ixaera said:

I wish I could give you all the fancy pillows I bought fixing my neck issue, because they're just rotting in the closet and might actually work for somebody??

 

I know how you feel, that's sort of what I was (still am, a little bit) afraid of would happen to me. Buy all the pillows, fix none of the problem.

[ixaera]

3 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

I know how you feel, that's sort of what I was (still am, a little bit) afraid of would happen to me. Buy all the pillows, fix none of the problem.

 

I assume you've already investigated your setup at home for things like neck angle? I'm about 85% sure one major player for my issue was my chair was too low relative to my monitor, on top of also having my monitor off center. It seemed to help a lot when I fixed those two things. Sure, I'm still tight in the neck, but nothing like a few years ago.

 

A short person issue is that we're told you don't want your feet to dangle, it's bad ergonomics, but then sometimes you can't adjust the monitor enough to accommodate excessive chin tilt. Centering the view is important, too.

 

(Just thoughts, you've probably already gone over all that. And I know fancy pillows do actually help a lot of people.)

[Urgan]

My setup consists of a laptop, a tv stand, and a couch with a chaise, lol. At least I can say dangling is the one thing I never do. I'm taking care to sit up straight and try not to adopt bizarre positions. I am concerned the very slight difference in my sitting height on the couch and the height of the tv are not entirely a match made in heaven, however some days I am totally fine looking at the tv and some days I have a "time limit"...it'll go days at a stretch with tv being super easy to look at and some where slight to severe discomfort results, so it's not like a direct correlation that tv always causes trouble. Which leads me to believe it's not a primary cause of a problem, but possibly it exacerbates existing ones? 

[ixaera]

Totally makes sense. In my case, it took a while to notice the big cricks always seemed to happen after an extended Skyrim session lol

[Urgan]

18 minutes ago, ixaera said:

Totally makes sense. In my case, it took a while to notice the big cricks always seemed to happen after an extended Skyrim session lol

 

Slumping and sleep are probably 9/10ths of my problem, I have a lot of anterior shoulder and neck tension and I suspect curling inward toward my chest is the cause of a great portion of my pain. Experimenting with hugging a pillow like I once did. 

[lucky fire dragon]

Hi there, been a while... sorry... but I did find you

 

Love the log format and crossing all my fingers for comfy, happy, healing cushions

 

[Urgan]

36 minutes ago, lucky fire dragon said:

Hi there, been a while... sorry... but I did find you

 

Love the log format and crossing all my fingers for comfy, happy, healing cushions

 

 

That's what Zero week is about, lol. Some people have ulcerated tumors in their stomach, some people have worries of crippling debt or kids who are acting out, some people have to protect the country from threats various and sundry....I still can't quite get comfy. 

[Urgan]

 

5-3-2016

It's a "showed up, did the thing" kind of day

 

Lifting

Mind the knees; mind the back

Squat - 45 1x5

            65 1x3

            95 1x2

            115 1x1

            135 6x3 - belted

BP -    45 1x3 - belted

          50 1x3 - belted

          60 1x1 - belted

          68 6x3 - belted

OHP -  NA

DL -    160 2x3 - belted

PC -   NA

Exact same session as Saturday, except with less knee tightness--I think I’m spot on with my diagnosis~

 

I get very restless at the bottom of a deload such as this. I CAN DO BETTER. #dotheprogram

 

Ukemi

Roll 5x per side

I’m actually getting kind of good at these, or not bad enough to decide I kinda like backwards rolls. Gasp. Did a bunch focusing on rolling backwards from sitting with zero momentum, nailed most of them. Forward rolls went without incident.

 

Food

Protein: 2/20 - 131g

I made room for the tuna.

 

Sleep

Lights out: 11:30PM -- 8/10

Wake up: 9:30AM -- 6/10

Look, getting to bed early bit by bit! So...all the experimenting happened. Turns out my newest pillow + the one I washed to keep my shoulders from collapsing in is the best combo of the pillows I have. I’m going to work with this a bit, it seems like it might be a smidge low, but it could just just be my upper traps are so tight that lying down straight tugs on them.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Neck mobility: 2/28

Stretch and mobilize: 2/28

Legit I am going to war with this part of my upper traps that strings between neck and delt. For real I have been scared to even touch it, but now I am sorta sure my pillow is passable enough, so I’m getting at this to try to see if I can make a real difference that isn’t just going to be undone in the night. I wonder if there is an existence where one doesn’t have to fuss over one’s neck every single morning ever. This is really taxing for my thumbs and wrists, which is fine except it feels a lot like getting rid of that pink stuff in the Cat in the Hat...

 

 

It’s just really hard to tackle that super painful area that is hard to reach in the first place when it’s just going immediately back to being the same condition within 24 hours, you know?

 

My arms, neck, and feet got the ROM treatment, I rolled quads, calves, hamstrings, ankles, and feet. Ever get the feeling that in resolving tension in one place, you’re just piling it on elsewhere?? A more lasting solution needs to present itself soon-ish...

[lucky fire dragon]

I'm probably asking things you have been asked  a million times already, but aren't there any active shoulder and neck stretches you could do instead? Like yoga for neck and shoulders... ?

 

And does it help to have a heated cherry pip cushion or hot water bottle around your neck before massaging?

[Urgan]

1 minute ago, lucky fire dragon said:

I'm probably asking things you have been asked  a million times already, but aren't there any active shoulder and neck stretches you could do instead? Like yoga for neck and shoulders... ?

 

It's a chicken and egg problem, for sure. I've been detailing my adventures in trying to prevent neck tension, but I really didn't talk much about what I did to treat it yesterday. Here goes: I manually massaged the top of my shoulders and broke the tension out of that region (as well as upper back) and used ROM stretches (I can make my neck pop a bit and easily can get my back to pop in a cascade, lol--feels good~) to see where there is still tension remaining. Knots everywhere. Then I got on the wall and rolled the lacrosse ball all around like Baloo from the Jungle Book. This morning I think the area is vaguely less knotted up maybe? I've considered yoga...might do to help prevent knot build-up when this pillow thing gets stabilized a bit. Once the knots set in, not sure how much help static/dynamic stretching is for that. The last day or two my scalp has been exposed to decreasing tension--I can live with a bit of shoulder tension, but it has to stay low to avoid creeping up and making life hell. I've gotten worse over the past few weeks, but perhaps now I will soon be able to say I'm getting better. 

 

13 minutes ago, lucky fire dragon said:

And does it help to have a heated cherry pip cushion or hot water bottle around your neck before massaging?

 

Hmm, never tried applying heat to it...chemical heat in the form of tiger balm I did once, but that was of limited help. I doubt applying heat would hurt...hmm. 

[raptron]

Wider squat form is actually totally okay for weighted squats, but it just will depend on your body's personal anatomy. Hope the different width helps out your knee issues though! 

[Urgan]

1 minute ago, raptron said:

Wider squat form is actually totally okay for weighted squats, but it just will depend on your body's personal anatomy. Hope the different width helps out your knee issues though! 

 

There is some wiggle room, the critical cue being not overloading your inner leg so much it's pinching and whining, lol. In my case returning to hip width squats from more like shoulder width fixed me right up. Last night I did the painful thing and rolled my ankles, calves, and feet while watching some Fallout. They feel about a billion times better now. 

[Urgan]

Forgot to drop the dinner recipe from last night. Smoky Black Beans and Rice!