Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Urgan]

 

 

5-24-2016

Final Fantasy is my fix

 

Lifting

Mind the knees; mind the back

Squat - 45 1x5

            75 1x3

            95 1x2

           120 1x1

           142 6x3 - belted

BP -    45 1x5 - belted

           50 1x3 - belted

           60 1x1 - belted

           69 6x3 - belted

OHP - NA

DL -    160 1x3 - belted

          170 2x3 - belted

PC -   NA

A normal-ish session, nothing remarkable except that there wasn’t anything particularly sore, tight, or tense except that awkward muscle low in the hips/glutes that definitely noticed my squats. Feels good, though, like everything is functioning on all cylinders. Even my traps shut up when it has 142lbs sitting on it. Funny how that works. Deadlifts felt super easy.

 

Today’s theme was Close Encounters with Jackoffs during and after my gym session:

Exhibit A - Neon Orange Bass Pro logo baseball cap: anytime, anywhere. Can you imagine any neon-colored hat that isn’t tacky beyond belief?

Exhibit B - Old guy in white convertible Pontiac Solstice smoking a cigar with the top down. License plate reads CARISMA.

Exhibit C - Getting cut off by a blue Prius.

 

Ukemi

Roll 5x per side

BYE BYE BYE I’m going to try to be nice to my body and take it relatively easy.

 

Food

Protein: 21/20 - 119g*

Sushi and leftovers from last night’s dinner...winning at life.

 

*Edit: whoops, planned for 130, only got 119

 

Sleep

Lights out: 12:20AM -- 9/10

Wake up: 9:15AM -- 7/10

I fell asleep an hour before with the light on, lol. Forgot to put on moisturizer, itched hardcore. “Luckily” it was before I got properly settled, so I fixed it without much sleep lost. Unfortunately, I woke up with El Tenshun, so...back to the drawing board. Bah.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Days since last tension headache: 0

Stretch and mobilize: 21/28

Tension headache returned immediately upon waking up, soooo today was neck and upper back day. Yippee. It waxed and waned all day, highly dependent on how eye-intensive I am. Rolled my feet, hurts so good.

 

Managed to play a wee bit of FFI today and shopped at Etsy for fun Japanese-style ceramic bowls in spite of my head because that is how I roll.

[miss_marissa]

Was exhibit B also wearing a gold chain?

[sarakingdom]

21 hours ago, Mistr said:

Coconut milk is closer to the natural stuff. Different brands have different percent water and additives, but should not have added sugar.

 

Yeah, actual coconut milk is really low-carb, all fiber and fat, not really even any natural sugar.  There's also coconut-based fake-non-dairy-milk-substitute in the rice milk aisle, but that's not coconut milk.  (Had a friend who made that mistake and tried to cook with it once in a recipe that called for coconut milk.  It... did not work.)

[Urgan]

5-25-2016

Knee walk practice got me like

 

Lifting

Mind the knees; mind the back

Rest day! No elbow problems, no knee problems.

 

Ukemi

Roll 5x per side

Aikido night! I was sooooo sleepy just before leaving for the dojo. In fact, I napped for around an hour beforehand and woke up randomly in time. So I went. GPS saved me from slowdown on hwy 65, sending me on a detour down memory lane, in the most literal way possible lol. I haven’t gone up the mountain avoiding highways in a while, so seeing familiar things like the church we once went to, familiar intersections, and streets again was kind of a trip. And how close to the dojo these things are, being put into perspective, was neat. I haven’t traveled the area with a destination in mind in a couple years, so street names were kind of moot at the time. It’s the kind of place where you know where you are, how to get where you’re going, but couldn’t tell you the street names if your life depended on it. #backseatdriving #childhood #streetnamesareforotherpeople

 

Oh right, this was an aikido quest, not a nostalgia trip quest. Part of our warmup was weighted pushups--we partnered up and one of us did the pushups while the other pressed against their shoulder blades to make the pushup just a little bit more difficult. The first ten I managed to do as full pushups, so yay that.

 

We got an introduction to samurai knee walking or shikko, forward and backward. In a twist that will surprise no one, I am bad at forward and atrocious at backward. Throw that one on the pile of things for me to work on.

 

A natural progression to the infamous suwari waza series of techniques, yes? We did ikkyo and switched to different partners throughout the session. That was fun. Bringing the correct leg forward at the very beginning of the technique was honestly the hardest part, lol. For the non-aikidoka, this is what it looks like:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8FauLfseio

 

Post-session my knees are pink from mat/gi burns and I have a teeny blister on my foot from dragging it across the mat. All in a day’s work. Upon getting home I can feel all of me tightening up and limbs getting heavy. Tomorrow is gonna be hilarious.

 

Food

Protein: 22/20 - 144g

Grilled out~ On the menu tonight: Beer Glazed Chicken Leg Quarters. It ended up being a very subtle taste, but very, very good. 

 

Celebrating five whole days of not consuming large quantities of dairy (there was a little cream poured into the tomato soup, that kind of thing, but I have small amounts of cheese and whatnot in my food and no problems--FULL DISCLOSURE!). It has been hard, guys. I swear I don’t hate myself and don't like eating things that are literal poison.  

 

Sleep

Lights out: 11:00PM -- 6/10

Wake up: 8:55AM -- 7/10

I made the effort to turn the lights out earlier than I have been, and paid dearly for it. My head was not happy with my sure-fire sleeping position, for some bizarre reason my head decided to stuff up the way it does when I get chilled--in spite of being almost uncomfortably warm under the covers--and tonight just so happened to be the night for the snoring straight from Hell. Perhaps it had something to do with the ambient temperature being lower than normal. I dunno. At any rate, I tossed and turned 1.5-2 hours before figuring out that lying on my left side was the way to go lately. Woke up at 5AM, didn’t have to go to the bathroom at least. Considering I had around 6 cups of water, that’s kind of a big deal, at least.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Days since last tension headache: 1

Stretch and mobilize: 21/28

To be perfectly honest, today was the kind of day where my head danced on the line between headache and not most of the day, but it didn’t keep me from doing anything, darnit, and I was productive. I did yet MORE laundry, cycled dishes, cleaned the microwave, prepped the beer glaze for the chicken, and got to around 25% completion on FFI. So I’ll treat it like a non-headache day. If I don’t improve or stay stable tomorrow, I’m going to call for an SOS massage treatment.

 

18 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

Yeah, actual coconut milk is really low-carb, all fiber and fat, not really even any natural sugar.  There's also coconut-based fake-non-dairy-milk-substitute in the rice milk aisle, but that's not coconut milk.  (Had a friend who made that mistake and tried to cook with it once in a recipe that called for coconut milk.  It... did not work.)

 

Hmm....sounds like what I did. Maybe. 

[Urgan]

22 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

Was exhibit B also wearing a gold chain?

 

I did not see him NOT wearing the gold chain....?

[ixaera]

37 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Celebrating five whole days of not consuming large quantities of dairy (there was a little cream poured into the tomato soup, that kind of thing, but I have small amounts of cheese and whatnot in my food and no problems--FULL DISCLOSURE!). It has been hard, guys. I swear I don’t hate myself and don't like eating things that are literal poison.

 

Woop! Excellent work~

Dairy is one of my favorite things, so I relate. Well, I relate that it'd be very tough to give up and so I respect the work involved here, lol. I can't relate to it being poison, of course.

 

[Jack Ryan- Rebel Recruit]

Very  impressed. I have been evaluating doing battle logs. I really like how you have implemented it.. I am going to tag a long to learn from a master

 

I aslo hope to learn a bit about tension headaches...

[Urgan]

1 minute ago, Vizzini said:

Very  impressed. I have been evaluating doing battle logs. I really like how you have implemented it.. I am going to tag a long to learn from a master

 

Lol, well I can hardly be called a battle log master, but thanks anyway! I really like doing challenges, how it focuses your attention and enforces accountability, but after a certain point you kinda develop a pattern where it seems like the same challenge repackaged slightly. Also, I still want a yardstick against which to measure how much I prioritize certain things. So here we are! 

 

4 minutes ago, Vizzini said:

I aslo hope to learn a bit about tension headaches...

 

Sad to say, this is something I have a bit more experience with. Do you have issues with them as well, or is somebody in your life a sufferer?

[Jack Ryan- Rebel Recruit]

57 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Sad to say, this is something I have a bit more experience with. Do you have issues with them as well, or is somebody in your life a sufferer?

 

I think i do- headache at the base of the head almost neck vs up in the forehead...

[Urgan]

5 minutes ago, Vizzini said:

 

I think i do- headache at the base of the head almost neck vs up in the forehead...

 

A major calling card of tension headaches is they laugh in the face of painkillers. The only thing for it is to work out the tension at its source. There are three major contributors to tension headaches that I have found: muscle knots, short muscles from improper posture and movement patterns (awake AND asleep!), and as it turns out, diet. 

 

Full disclosure, my headaches are focused on tension from cervical vertebrae to scalp, running up temples/over my eyes. If the base of your neck is where the pain is and your forehead/eyes are not involved, I am suspicious of your shoulders and the lower half of your upper traps around and between your shoulder blades--that's where I'd start. However, it's just a starting point--everything from the neck down to mid-back is a potential culprit, front and back! They can seem random, they can camp you for days/weeks/etc, disappear and reappear seemingly at an evil whim. The more you can tell me about what you are experiencing and what you've tried, the better I can tailor my advice going forward. For now, intel dump!

 

You can do damage control for muscle knots by getting a massage and/or manage them by mobilizing the base of your head, neck (front, back, and sides), down into your shoulder blades. A tennis ball, golf ball, hard dog toy like a Kong ball, or lacrosse ball will be your best friend for this mission and is why I suggest giving this a try first--if it's your problem, you'll know within 5-10 minutes' work, so it is well worth your time to give it a try. The simplest method is to lie down on your mobilization tool of choice for 1-2 minutes then move it over a bit and repeat until you have found the problem area. Take great care to be thorough and approach the same area from multiple angles to maximize your results, luckily it doesn't take long to get some relief. The bad news is, this isn't the only problem and usually there's an underlying reason you're having this kind of trouble--posture/movement patterns and diet.

 

Poor posture causes shortened muscles in choice places because your body is trying to adapt to common postures to make it less energy-intensive for it to maintain. How you sit and lie down and on what you are sitting and lying on need to be examined closely if a simple massage session does not make lasting improvement in your situation. If you slouch, lean to one side, or prop up one arm, anything that gets your shoulders out of alignment, this is not helping things if nothing else! Bad posture can also be perpetuated and VERY hard to deal with if you happen to have poor muscle development in the relevant muscle groups. Becoming stronger with resistance training will be your ally in the posture front, it helps as much as trying to be mindful of poor decisions involving office chair arms or desk heights.   

 

The craziest and most unlikely-seeming thing of all is diet. This isn't as onerous as it sounds! In case you haven't caught up with my adventures, magnesium deficiency can and will be a major problem for normal, balanced muscles. Your body gives the order to contract muscles by sending in calcium to the tissues. Without magnesium, calcium's complement, basically the muscle gets jammed in the "contract" position, resulting in tightness and cramping. If you were/are like me and took tons of Vitamin D because everyone is deficient in that and did not take a multi or supplement with magnesium, this could be your problem. Vitamin D, among many other great functions it performs, tells your digestive tract to absorb more calcium from what you eat and drink, exacerbating the issue. A good solid multi that has some magnesium in it or a standalone mag supplement will make all the difference in the world (within an hour for me, but I was really, REALLY bad off at the time...YMMV). I take Magnesium Chloride and it works great. You can also get magnesium via epsom salt baths as well or even magnesium lotion--these are good in that they bypass the stomach and are absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Word of warning about going too hog-wild with magnesium--I'm sure it's obvious, but mag over-use will result in muscle weakness, no bueno. That's why I suggest getting your supplements in multi form, it's harder to accidentally abuse, lol. But for immediate relief purposes, you shouldn't be in any danger if this is indeed your problem! Oh and lots of people report dairy and gluten trigger migraines, so it would behoove you to eliminate those as possibilities as well. If you have an allergy, the pain should strike immediately after consuming the offending substance. 

 

Sorry about the wall o' text, but this represents over a year's worth of research re:migraines and hopefully some of it is helpful.  

[Sam Ashen]

5 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Sorry about the wall o' text

 

This is not a wall of text.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Urgan said:

A major calling card of tension headaches is they laugh in the face of painkillers. The only thing for it is to work out the tension at its source. There are three major contributors to tension headaches that I have found: muscle knots, short muscles from improper posture and movement patterns (awake AND asleep!), and as it turns out, diet. Full disclosure, my headaches are focused on tension from cervical vertebrae to scalp, running up temples/over my eyes. If the base of your neck is where the pain is and your forehead/eyes are not involved, I am suspicious of your shoulders and the lower half of your upper traps around and between your shoulder blades--that's where I'd start. However, it's just a starting point--everything from the neck down to mid-back is a potential culprit, front and back! They can seem random, they can camp you for days/weeks/etc, disappear and reappear seemingly at an evil whim. The more you can tell me about what you are experiencing and what you've tried, the better I can tailor my advice going forward. For now, intel dump! You can do damage control for muscle knots by getting a massage and/or manage them by mobilizing the base of your head, neck (front, back, and sides), down into your shoulder blades. A tennis ball, golf ball, hard dog toy like a Kong ball, or lacrosse ball will be your best friend for this mission and is why I suggest giving this a try first--if it's your problem, you'll know within 5-10 minutes' work, so it is well worth your time to give it a try. The simplest method is to lie down on your mobilization tool of choice for 1-2 minutes then move it over a bit and repeat until you have found the problem area. Take great care to be thorough and approach the same area from multiple angles to maximize your results, luckily it doesn't take long to get some relief. The bad news is, this isn't the only problem and usually there's an underlying reason you're having this kind of trouble--posture/movement patterns and diet. Poor posture causes shortened muscles in choice places because your body is trying to adapt to common postures to make it less energy-intensive for it to maintain. How you sit and lie down and on what you are sitting and lying on need to be examined closely if a simple massage session does not make lasting improvement in your situation. If you slouch, lean to one side, or prop up one arm, anything that gets your shoulders out of alignment, this is not helping things if nothing else! Bad posture can also be perpetuated and VERY hard to deal with if you happen to have poor muscle development in the relevant muscle groups. Becoming stronger with resistance training will be your ally in the posture front, it helps as much as trying to be mindful of poor decisions involving office chair arms or desk heights. The craziest and most unlikely-seeming thing of all is diet. This isn't as onerous as it sounds! In case you haven't caught up with my adventures, magnesium deficiency can and will be a major problem for normal, balanced muscles. Your body gives the order to contract muscles by sending in calcium to the tissues. Without magnesium, calcium's complement, basically the muscle gets jammed in the "contract" position, resulting in tightness and cramping. If you were/are like me and took tons of Vitamin D because everyone is deficient in that and did not take a multi or supplement with magnesium, this could be your problem. Vitamin D, among many other great functions it performs, tells your digestive tract to absorb more calcium from what you eat and drink, exacerbating the issue. A good solid multi that has some magnesium in it or a standalone mag supplement will make all the difference in the world (within an hour for me, but I was really, REALLY bad off at the time...YMMV). I take Magnesium Chloride and it works great. You can also get magnesium via epsom salt baths as well or even magnesium lotion--these are good in that they bypass the stomach and are absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Word of warning about going too hog-wild with magnesium--I'm sure it's obvious, but mag over-use will result in muscle weakness, no bueno. That's why I suggest getting your supplements in multi form, it's harder to accidentally abuse, lol. But for immediate relief purposes, you shouldn't be in any danger if this is indeed your problem! Oh and lots of people report dairy and gluten trigger migraines, so it would behoove you to eliminate those as possibilities as well. If you have an allergy, the pain should strike immediately after consuming the offending substance.

 

THIS is a wall of text.

[Urgan]

2 hours ago, Sam Ashen said:

 

This is not a wall of text.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

THIS is a wall of text.
 

 

 

 

 

 

I stand corrected. However, the point still stands that I hope it wasn't overwhelming...yet I wouldn't want to leave anything out that could be applicable.

[Urgan]

5-26-2016

Diet is on point, as always...

 

Lifting

Mind the knees; mind the back

Squat - 45 1x5

            75 1x3

            95 1x2

           120 1x1

           142 4x3 - belted

BP -    NA

OHP - 45 1x3 - belted

          58.5 1x3 - belted

DL -    160 1x3 - belted

          172.5 2x3 - belted

PC -   NA

Just two measly sets of OHP because the DOMS from aikido made that last rep ugly, ugly, UGLY. Quit while I was ahead. Rest of it felt pretty good.

 

Guy to the left of me deadlifts 365lbs for sets. Guy to the right of me speed hang cleans around 250~lbs (it was moving THAT fast and I didn't want to gawk). Yup. It was a good day.

 

Ukemi

Roll 5x per side

BYE FOR NOW Maybe soon I’ll get back to it. You know, I never really expected to get smacked upside the head the way yesterday’s session did--I mean, aikido is many things, but it’s not physically demanding in the force production sense--it’ll bruise you, it’ll jangle joints, it’ll apparently rub blisters on the top of your foot, but here I am with upper body DOMS. It was the push-ups, probably. Not a big fan of those. I think I managed to impress Sensei with my proper push-up form, brief as it was, lol.

 

Food

Protein: 23/20 - 116g

115.4lbs on 5/23, 114.4lbs on 5/24 and 113.4lbs on 5/26. LOL.

 

Maggy, our fat, lazy alpha cat, has been acting a bit funny lately--she silent meows and grunts and stuff, never the classic loud meow that is her trademark. Ordinarily she is quite the talker. Today she started “hiccuping” a bit, but has otherwise been normal, so we figure it’s a lodged hairball. She’s on observation until further notice. In the meantime, I applied a bit of petroleum jelly to her fur for her to self-administer via licking. Apparently the stuff will help the hairball dislodge, or at least that’s the plan. Poor kitty seemed a bit better, less hiccuping at least.

 

Memorial Day plans: two racks of ribs, green beans, baked beans, salad, and other assorted veggies. We thought the weather was going to be bad here the day of, but it’s cleared up at this point. Hopefully the forecast stays clear.

 

Today was a Moe’s nachos kind of night. Yum.

 

Sleep

Lights out: 11:22PM -- 7/10

Wake up: 8:55AM -- 8/10

PROGRESS AT LAST. I woke up a bunch, buuuut I fell asleep within an hour, no snoring, no having to get up.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Days since last tension headache: 2

Stretch and mobilize: 22/28

Lots and lots of neck stretches. The whole neck situation improved greatly over the course of the day. Optimism is up. I also managed some hip/glute rolling and hip openers. Predictably, it wasn’t in the best shape, so time well spent.

[Urgan]

 

5-27-2016

Om nom nom

 

Lifting

Mind the knees; mind the back

Rest day!

 

Ukemi

Roll 5x per side

Rest day. Depending on how tight I still am tomorrow, I might do some rolls.

 

Food

Protein: 24/20 - 123g

Made it at the last minute, dinner was super late because I didn’t start really eating anything until about 4:00-ish, lol. I had time sensitive errands to run, this sort of thing just happens sometimes. Made myself a smoothie. At home. With coconut milk. World did not implode. It was not a sugary beverage in the slightest.

 

Sleep

Lights out: 11:30PM -- 7/10

Wake up: 9:05AM -- 9/10

Had to get up to use the bathroom at 4. No fighting with headaches, no snoring, no cats barfing in the night, no excessive tossing and turning before OR after the interlude. Nothin’. Yass.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Days since last tension headache: 3

Stretch and mobilize: 23/28

We have officially backed all the way away from the migraine ledge, methinks. I did some hip openers and mild neck stretching! Short update today because I has a tired.

[Urgan]

 

5-28-2016

Sounds about right

 

Lifting

Mind the knees; mind the back

I didn’t lift today, because we had to take Maggy to the vet to get her checked out--our suspicions were confirmed, she’s having trouble passing...something. We have a course of action to deal with that and hopefully it’s all good by Monday (I saw her use the litter box at least once, so that’s a good thing). We got lunch, ran some errands, and came back home. By this point, I was wiped and crashed out on the couch until juuuuuust enough time to technically do a session, but not enough that I wouldn’t feel rushed and stressed. Said screw it and stayed home. I plan to hit the gym tomorrow. Funnily enough, I had all the gym-missing guilt thereafter in spite of this plan.

 

Ukemi

Roll 5x per side

Rest day...

 

Food

Protein: 25/20 - 117g

Chick-fil-a, a burrito, and the other half of the smoothie mix from yesterday made the bulk of calories for the day~ So smoothie. Yesterday I was out getting groceries and all I was thinking about was a cold, sugary drink at the end of the chore rainbow. But there really isn’t anything other than a green tea that is marginally okay. So I decided to search for the components of smoothie making on the fly and by some common miracle located unsweetened coconut milk. So I got some fruit and made the smoothie. It was pretty darn nonsugary. 32g for 22oz that came entirely from the fruit and juice. Not terrible, all things considered.

 

Sleep

Lights out: 1:30AM -- 8/10

Wake up: 8:55AM -- 9/10

I, err, fell asleep with the light on again, woke up and turned the light out late late late. Good news is, no sleep trouble.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Days since last tension headache: 4

Stretch and mobilize: 24/28

I did have experience a wee bit of headache today, but it wasn’t for a long stretch and didn’t bother me, so I’m not counting it. Late in the evening, I hit my upper back and hips/glutes with the lacrosse ball. My left hip flexor is sooooooo tight, it needs help.

[ixaera]

1 hour ago, Urgan said:

we had to take Maggy to the vet to get her checked out--our suspicions were confirmed, she’s having trouble passing...something. We have a course of action to deal with that and hopefully it’s all good by Monday (I saw her use the litter box at least once, so that’s a good thing).

 

Aw, poor kitty. Hope all is well.

It must be something in the air. Mine got a bladder infection and we found out she gets ridiculously sick on amoxicillin.

[Urgan]

5 hours ago, ixaera said:

 

Aw, poor kitty. Hope all is well.

It must be something in the air. Mine got a bladder infection and we found out she gets ridiculously sick on amoxicillin.

 

It's kind of strange that stuff like this happens. One day they're fine, the next they're all lethargic and miserable...

[Urgan]

 

5-29-2016

Accurate analysis of how my Saturday lifts feel

 

Lifting

Mind the knees; mind the back

Squat - 45 1x5

            80 1x3

            95 1x2

           135 1x1

           160 2x3 - belted

BP -    45 1x5 - belted

          55 1x3 - belted

          65 1x3 - belted

          77 2x3 - belted

OHP - NA

DL -    NA

PC -   NA

I am not proud of how hard that bench press was. It was ugly. Squats were better, they were heavy, but the bar moved pretty smoothly except for the set where I banged them on the rack two of three reps. Oops. Just the two lifts because I was under extreme time constraints to make it home in time to get ready to meet my parents for their 40th wedding anniversary lunch. Yes, we are a week apart, no it was not planned, lol.

 

Ukemi

Roll 5x per side

No rolling mostly because of time, partly because of paranoia. Next week I should be good to go. Note: Monday being Memorial Day, the dojo is closed.

 

Food

Protein: 26/20 - 126g

We went to Cheesecake Factory and I got roasted chicken, carrots, and mashed potatoes--no cheesecake. Somebody hand me a medal….oh wait, I ended up with a shake. Nevermind. Should be harmless enough so long as I wait a week or so for the next dairy-in-a-cup thing. TESTING 1, 2, 3.

 

I drank SO MUCH WATER, guys. Like, inhaled it. I am sure I got at least 8 cups of the stuff, bathroom trips galore. (futurenote: it got me down a lb to 113.4lbs from last weigh-in Saturday morning, lol. In spite of eating 2525 calories. This weight thing really is for the birds if you actually care about the number at all.)

 

Sleep

Lights out: 12:20AM -- 9/10

Wake up: 8:05 > 9:15 AM -- 9/10

Not a bad night for a weekend. Felt pretty good. Slept great. No complaints. I even woke up early and drifted in and out of sleep for an hour, lol. Laziness+5.

 

Mobility

No slouching

Days since last tension headache: 5

Stretch and mobilize: 25/28

I feel pretty darn good, TBPH. A bit sleepy and lazy, but otherwise good. I worked on left glute/hip flexor, did some calf and hip flexor stretches, and poked my left pec/delt area which has been complaining a bit lately like it thinks it wants to make a knot or something. How cute.

 

Oh, and Maggy is at about 80%~ I'd say. She's very active and more alert, but her meower is still AWOL. Waiting for her to start making noise like normal again...

[Urgan]

MAY WEEK 4 DEBRIEF

Ringing out the month of May with this debrief/roundup

 

Lifting

Still got solid knees and back, no problems making my lifts this week. I am enjoying not having sensitive knees due, as I now know, to tightness from poor squat form. Knees out, but feet not spaced TOO far out. That's the ticket.

 

Overall, I've made some good strides to get my lifts back into groundbreaking territory next month pain and tension-free. I feel optimistic there are PRs on the horizon...

 

Ukemi

No elbow problems anymore, my ukemi has taken a BYE to allow my right shoulder blade to fully recuperate. I only went to Aikido on Wednesday and it didn't aggravate anything--we covered knee walking and ikkyo from sitting, so pretty safe. It turned out to be a good thing I skipped Monday, as they covered some more ukemi during part of the session.

 

Wow what improvement was made here. At the beginning of May, I was still wobbly on back rolls and now they're my favorite.

 

Food

Avg Protein: 123g! 

 

Not a record-breaking average, but solid enough. Especially given I couldn't rely on dairy to make quota.

 

Such protein, much wow. I can't say it's been life-changing, but that may be largely due to irregular sleep. I did manage 26 of 30 days, that's pretty darn good consistency. I'll need to keep it up, eliminate sleep issues, and re-evaluate.

 

Sleep

Moisturizing is super important to quality sleep, it isn't the only thing, but it is a major contender. My energy stamina hasn't been all that awesome this week, I've noticed. A lot more couch time face-down than I'd like, little desire to play any games due to being tired/sleepy.

 

I can be regular with my sleep routine and I can eliminate itching, but doing both at the same time is apparently tricky. More research needed. At least I am getting interrupted less regularly and for shorter periods in the night.

 

Mobility

I'm noticing some left hip flexor and chest tightness issues cropping up. I covered a lot of calf and neck mobility, rolling and static stretching. I danced on the line of migraine-ville and backed away by the end, so we're making progress. Next week is massage day, so that'll address whatever's left.

 

Now that the chronic extreme tension is a thing of the past, motivation to mobilize is confined to what immediately presents itself as tight. That's okay, it's much more in perspective and less a dominating feature of my life. Finding a balance would be a good thing...

[ChrisWithaStick]

I realize I'm late to comment re the orange hat from Bass Pro - the one time neon/blaze orange would be fashionable as a hat is when it's keeping fellow hunters for mistaking your shaggy scalp for a deer's head, especially the new, nervous ones.  I'd call it the height of appropriate fashion at that point.  I have friends that hunt, and yeah, they're all about the super bright orange. 

 

Otherwise, yeah, not so much. 

[Urgan]

 

June 2016 Goals!

 

May provided a nice introduction to the battle log format, and inspired a few format tweaks I hope will make better sense of my goals. Once again, no actual grading, but I want to gauge what my actual priorities are and how they affect my life~ It's all about building that better mousetrap.

 

 

Lifting

In May I started a deload due to tension, poor form, and general volume demands. I am now back close to where I was when I started the deload. Once again, no PR goal, I just want to put in the work:

• Show up

• Happy knees = happy me

 

Aikido

Mostly rolling, but perhaps not entirely?? Every lifting session, barring injury, I will:

• Forward rolls

• Backward rolls

• Breakfalls

• Side breakfalls

• Knee Walking

Two good reps each side for each of the above, except the knee walking, obviously. Just do a few minutes’ worth forward and backward, I’m not going to be fussy about it. That’s a lot to do and could easily swing into overmuch if I am not careful. I reserve the right to modify this list on the fly based on how I feel~

 

Recovery

Here comes the change! Recovery encompasses three things: food, sleep, and mobilization. What will be logged here is:

• Protein: Hit 115g per day at least 20 days out of the month

• Recipes

  • Sub-quest: Biscuits

• Quality of sleep: how I felt over the course of the day, with a particular focus on when I woke up

• What parts appear to be tight and/or sore and what I did about it

In a recipe sub-quest, I also want to try some new biscuit recipes, just because I’ve been holding onto them for a while due to 1 - they aren’t the healthiest ever, and 2 - I am...not so well-versed at biscuit craftsmanship. So...gonna fix that. At a minimum, two biscuit recipes must be attempted. That seems fair enough, right?

 

Adulting

Okay, this is where we log the chores and whatnot. No goals, just do something. An empty spot here looks pathetic, right? Right.

 

 

 

Week Debriefs:

Week 1

Weeks 2 + 3

Week 4

[Urgan]

17 minutes ago, ChrisWithaStick said:

I realize I'm late to comment re the orange hat from Bass Pro - the one time neon/blaze orange would be fashionable as a hat is when it's keeping fellow hunters for mistaking your shaggy scalp for a deer's head, especially the new, nervous ones.  I'd call it the height of appropriate fashion at that point.  I have friends that hunt, and yeah, they're all about the super bright orange. 

 

Otherwise, yeah, not so much. 

 

It's not fashionable at that point, it's practical, lol. I am totally down with orange vests and whatnot. Unfortunately, this guy was occupying a gym rack, not a deer rack. 

[ixaera]

22 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Sub-quest: Biscuits

 

*ears perk up*

[Urgan]

5-30-2016

...yup.

 

Lifting

-

 

Aikido

-

 

Recovery

Protein: 0/20 - 100g

Biscuits: 0/2

 

Not enough protein to make it to quota this time, despite it being Memorial Day. Spicy food is my kryptonite, I just can’t eat it. I figure 100 is pretty noble in light of this. I felt like I got decent quality sleep, but my energy levels suggested otherwise. Then again, it was obscenely hot and humid much of the day. Go figure. Not much mobility work, mostly stretching my neck.

 

Adulting

We did the Memorial Day grill-out and I assisted in the seasoning and planning of various food items going onto the smoker. Mike did the lion’s share of the work there. Much cycling of dishes was done, though, along with changing the sheets and getting the old ones clean and put up. I also pruned the flowers, especially the ones we’d only just gotten in the ground a couple days ago, and watered them just in time for it to rain, lol. Of course. Mom and dad came over to help us demolish the food and yet somehow our fridge still ended up crammed full of food. HOW?

Maggy is appearing to use the box ordinarily, but her meow-er is still out of commission and we noticed she has a pronounced limp. Pity we only saw it well after any possibility of getting her to the vet then--tomorrow morning, it is.

 

13 hours ago, ixaera said:

 

*ears perk up*

 

Yup. This could get interesting. 

[Jack Ryan- Rebel Recruit]

On 5/26/2016 at 0:25 PM, Sam Ashen said:

 

This is not a wall of text.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

THIS is a wall of text.
 

 

 

 

 

 Thanks it is very helpful!