Be strong, get strong battle log

[@mu]

On 1/18/2018 at 11:24 AM, LouCarJo said:

Yes, there is research on it.  Example here https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/breakingmuscle.com/amp/fitness/introductory-guide-to-velocity-based-training. Apparently my (slow) speed doesn’t quite fit in to predictions, though the research does talk about variations among people, of course.  Eg I did the last rep of my 3 squats at 67kg at 0.2m/s, which is slower than would be predicted, and I seem generally to slow down at weights way off my max but have no trouble lifting them - I just move slow!  It’s all just data, but interesting to geek out on!

 

Ha thanks, very interesting, thanks for sharing!

 

On 1/18/2018 at 11:43 AM, LouCarJo said:

My shoulders didn’t like me still from Monday so I didn’t want to push it and used the thickest band so really it was just groving the pattern.

 

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

Based on what you said about training volume and general mood lately, I wonder if you're not simply overtraining.

 

+1, that's a possibility indeed. Remember the soreness rule, if you still feel DOMs while working out.

 

[LouCarJo]

I did have a proper deload over Christmas.  However, I’ve been sensible to an extent this week and I have not done any aerial at all this.  Having got dizzy and then dropped my hot lunch (chilli thing in a Tupperware box) all over myself before I got to eat it today (and burnt my leg a little in the process, not to mention the mess I made and had to clear up), I think I may well cancel tomorrow’s planned pole too.  Not happy about it but I basically spent yesterday in bed (with laptop intermittently) and not really feeling refreshed today.  Meant to be buying iron today and have forgotten so far - may see if I can do so on my way back to the train tonight - I’ve had this tiredness before and it’s been linked to that.  Never this bad from exercise before though - usually a day of rest is enough.  Thankfully I’ve managed to get my brain to engage somewhat today, though have had enough now.  Apparently the task I’ve been given three days to do (alongside other stuff), others have been known to demand two clear weeks to do!  So I’m not too worried about having not got much done yesterday as I’m still going to hit the completely arbitrary deadline.  Bit down about everything now but it’s the end of a day in the office - hopefully the morning will make things look better.

[Mad Hatter]

25 minutes ago, LouCarJo said:

Meant to be buying iron today and have forgotten so far - may see if I can do so on my way back to the train tonight - I’ve had this tiredness before and it’s been linked to that.

Definitely worth a try. Have you changed your diet recently that may have caused the drop in iron?

 

Hope you get some good rest over the weekend.  

 

[Mad Hatter]

I googled the symptoms for iron deficiency and thought this was hilarious

• Unusual cravings for non-nutritive substances, such as ice, dirt or starch

Have you had any problems with dirt cravings lately?  

[LouCarJo]

15 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I googled the symptoms for iron deficiency and thought this was hilarious

• Unusual cravings for non-nutritive substances, such as ice, dirt or starch

Have you had any problems with dirt cravings lately?  

I’m not convinced iron’s the problem this time but I figured there’s no harm taking the supplement which is around a third of the DRI and I’ve used before.  No cravings for dirt! 

[LouCarJo]

Having taken last week easy, I braved the gym on Monday.  I wasn’t having a super strengthy day but just one of those things.  Reasonably happy with:

 

A. 3x3 jump squats 

 

B. Back squats

3,3,3,2,1 with 66.5,67.5,69,69,72.5kg (again including 14kg chains that didn’t touch the floor much at all)

This is a PB, albeit kind of difficult to judge given the use of chains.  Also not full depth, though I’m not worried about that as each time I up the weight I lose the depth but then when I go back to it and the max becomes just a stepping stone to an even higher max, the depth then sorts itself out on the lower weight.  I did get a weird hip twisty thing going on though, which was less good.

 

That took forever so just then time for:

 

C. 4 sets of 4 supinated grip pulldowns with 66.5kg / 5 glute ham raises alternated with 5 back extensions

 

D. 3 sets of 4 TRX rows.  These I did with my feet elevated - not quite able to pull myself all the way up from there but feet on the ground has become too easy.  Feels like a sudden big improvement on this one.

 

Aerial again tonight.  I need to remember to be sensible and not to overdo it ;-).  I’m not going to lift next week and think I may forego the deadlifts this week too - and just concentrate on aerial (pole in particular).  I’ve had a busy few days at work which isn’t helping - need to take time in the day tomorrow to breathe a bit.

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Solid workout.


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[Mad Hatter]

Nice! How you'll feel better after a few easy days.  

[LouCarJo]

TUESDAY, 23 JANUARY

Stretchy class including some headstand practice.  I can’t pike up into them without putting loads of pressure on my neck.  I wonder if it’s because I’m trying to use the neck to get the flexibility I’m lacking elsewhere.  In any case I abandoned the attempts for the easier version of knees up to arms first.

 

Hoop - I almost fell out, the end.  I can’t be bothered to write up why I have moans about this class.

 

WEDNESDAY, 24 JANUARY

Intermediate pole.  Quite daunting, I’m by far the worst in the class.  There were two teaching though so I got plenty of help.  I need more of a hip thrust on the invert so the pole goes higher up my leg to start with so I can then catch it easier behind the knee.  I was mainly just practising this as I couldn’t easily do anything else and got too flustered with other people around.  It was one of those days where I got some work in but didn’t feel I set the world on fire doing so.

[Mad Hatter]

6 minutes ago, LouCarJo said:

Stretchy class including some headstand practice.  I can’t pike up into them without putting loads of pressure on my neck.  I wonder if it’s because I’m trying to use the neck to get the flexibility I’m lacking elsewhere.  In any case I abandoned the attempts for the easier version of knees up to arms first.

Maybe. Though it might just be the mechanics, in the pike you have to lean a lot further forward than in the tuck version. It could be that your head gets out of alignment when you do. In that case you could try and change your head placement a little to account for that, i.e. start with the head further forward. Or maybe you just need to push harder with the arms to reduce the pressure on the neck. Can you tuck up without bringing your knees up the arms first and straddle up? Those are both easier progressions.

 

6 minutes ago, LouCarJo said:

It was one of those days where I got some work in but didn’t feel I set the world on fire doing so.

As long as you're doing the work!  

 

Sorry about the crappy hoop teacher... 

[LouCarJo]

5 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Maybe. Though it might just be the mechanics, in the pike you have to lean a lot further forward than in the tuck version. It could be that your head gets out of alignment when you do. In that case you could try and change your head placement a little to account for that, i.e. start with the head further forward. Or maybe you just need to push harder with the arms to reduce the pressure on the neck. Can you tuck up without bringing your knees up the arms first and straddle up? Those are both easier progressions.

 

As long as you're doing the work!  

 

Sorry about the crappy hoop teacher... 

I’ll try those things next time I do headstands.  Not too bothered as the easier version is still giving me a decent enough challenge.

 

Good hoop teacher tonight so I’m all happy again :-)

[Mad Hatter]

Yay for good hoop teacher!  What did you guys do?

[LouCarJo]

THURSDAY, 24 JANUARY

No haggis but next best thing: aerial!  First a 121 pole session, which was a bit of an indulgence but I enjoyed it so much so definitely worth it.  Loads of invert practice, and progressing it by starting to take hands off.  I’m still a bit overwhelmed by it so don’t remember well what I did or lessons to take from it etc, but it was good for my confidence and she reassured me that I definitely do belong in the intermediate classes and praised my strength and said it’s allowing me to pick stuff up quickly.  One thing I do remember because I liked it was the half star into a kind of climb into a dismount.  I like feeling strong enough in my arms to pull myself back up.  That dead hang pull up will be mine soon!

 

Then a hoop class with the same (good) teacher.  I told her about almost falling out on Tuesday and how I’m not feeling it with hoop at the moment.  But amazingly, good teacher and I’m then treated as an intermediate student in the mixed ability class, given harder things to try, but then able to do it all.  Not that I did everything perfectly as I can’t seem to think during routines, but I was pretty pleased with it.

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

I watched your video with Slothgirl. She got all excited for you.

Good teachers are worth their money; I’m glad your class went well.


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[@mu]

15 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

I can’t pike up into them without putting loads of pressure on my neck.

 

Interesting. When I started doing straddle and pike bent arm press, I also felt that and I would be a bit sore in my neck afterwards (higher trapezius / lower neck). Which was a bit worrying at first.  It might be indeed an alignment issue or compensating muscle weakness by relying on bone structure (?), or simply getting too tensed in my neck because the move is hard. But it has started to go away. I try to relax consciously in my neck / get it long (I have a turtle tendency) . But it's difficult to think about everything while doing it!

 

9 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

No haggis but next best thing: aerial!

 

 

9 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

 Not that I did everything perfectly as I can’t seem to think during routines, but I was pretty pleased with it.

 

Yeah for the video!

[Mad Hatter]

Hell yeah video!  

 

You look awesome!

[LouCarJo]

On 26/01/2018 at 12:26 AM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I watched your video with Slothgirl. She got all excited for you.

Good teachers are worth their money; I’m glad your class went well.


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Ha, glad she enjoyed it!

[LouCarJo]

On 26/01/2018 at 6:01 AM, @mu said:

 

Interesting. When I started doing straddle and pike bent arm press, I also felt that and I would be a bit sore in my neck afterwards (higher trapezius / lower neck). Which was a bit worrying at first.  It might be indeed an alignment issue or compensating muscle weakness by relying on bone structure (?), or simply getting too tensed in my neck because the move is hard. But it has started to go away. I try to relax consciously in my neck / get it long (I have a turtle tendency) . But it's difficult to think about everything while doing it!

I could do with filming myself or getting someone to watch to try to figure out what I’m doing.

[LouCarJo]

On 26/01/2018 at 7:38 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Hell yeah video!  

 

You look awesome!

Oh and it was the super big hoop hung high so I was happy.

[LouCarJo]

SATURDAY, 27 JANUARY

Double pole class.  Brace climbs, which I couldn’t do.  Koala hold things.  Gemini bridges and Scorpios then from both of them sliding down the pole and going into handstands.  I found the hands on the floor much easier than taking a hand off and putting it on the pole, probably because I’m quite comfortable in handstands so felt as though I was going to be safer.  Beginners class included thigh holds and grounded planks.  I’ve got blisters on both hands now though so both classes were quite painful.  I felt comfortable in the classes though - had a nice partner, which really makes a difference.

[@mu]

You did 2 classes in a row? tough!

 

On 1/27/2018 at 12:07 PM, LouCarJo said:

I could do with filming myself or getting someone to watch to try to figure out what I’m doing.

 

I take videos, but it's still not really clear maybe rounding the back / some tension, maybe I need to get my chin down a bit.

 

Where are you in Spirals? I got my hands on Season 5 but watching episodes 1 & 2, I realised I have seen it before, I just can't recall the end it's coming back to me bits by bits but I'm still not sure I saw it in full. Still very enjoyable though.

 

[LouCarJo]

22 hours ago, @mu said:

You did 2 classes in a row? tough!

 

 

I take videos, but it's still not really clear maybe rounding the back / some tension, maybe I need to get my chin down a bit.

 

Where are you in Spirals? I got my hands on Season 5 but watching episodes 1 & 2, I realised I have seen it before, I just can't recall the end it's coming back to me bits by bits but I'm still not sure I saw it in full. Still very enjoyable though.

 

Yes, I tend to do 2 classes in a row as it’s a 10 mile drive and the traffic is always at least some degree of terrible.  Saturdays have the benefit of intermediate followed by beginners pole, which works quite well. My hands were sore by the end though!

 

I watched episode 1 of series 5 of Spiral last night.  I’m hoping series 6 might be available to buy by the time I’m finished with it!  Their budget for filming clearly went up again for series 5!

[Sloth the Enduring]

I wish Americans sense of distance was more like yours. 10 miles is a starter distance around here.

[LouCarJo]

11 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I wish Americans sense of distance was more like yours. 10 miles is a starter distance around here.

It regularly takes me 40 minutes to go those 10 miles though, and that’s despite some of the roads on the route having a speed limit of 70mph.  Traffic is bad generally and there has been one set of roadworks after another making it worse.  

[Mad Hatter]

1 hour ago, LouCarJo said:

It regularly takes me 40 minutes to go those 10 miles though,

That's insane.