Saturday's Shenanigans

What do you get when you put this:

In a bag, carry it up the stairs:

Put it in here: ( You know where this is going)

Sadly remove the down jacket, the Lulu shorts, put on the designated "warm" shorts and...

In we go...

But its too cold! I think the tap water was cold enough. Water shoes are mandatory.

This expression pretty much says it all: HOLY COW!

I guess taking an ice bath means that either I really did some work that required it, or we just have so much snow I figured why not. A little bit of both I guess. Working back to some lunges, squats, etc with the TRX coupled with some hard(er) rides and a few miles on the TM meant when i got up in the middle of the night to go use the bathroom I could barely walk! oops.

But maybe not oops. Now is the time to be sore I guess, even tho I wince thinking about increasing the strength sessions in the future.

So another exciting day in Minnesota.

Even the PT needs a PT

Who needs rotation when they swim bike and run? I do! And what happens when i dont rotate? I overuse things! Yup here comes a PT post:)

Below is an OLD picture of me, as a high school senior, serving a tennis ball.

Weight into the back leg, then spinal rotation Right, then forward motion ( Weight shift) into the front ( Left) leg and spinal rotation left ...along with a whole lot of funky shoulder ( gleno humeral) things that go on. That is the best and simplest way to show you the service motion and the fact that serving or any sort of proper ( notice i said proper, not good) tennis stroke...backhand, forehand and even volleys all depend on rotating your thorax/rib cage over a moving pelvis ( ie your lower body/legs)

Alas, this is somewhat easy to do when you have had the motor program and hand eye coordination hardwired since the age of 8.

Now fast forward to some random running ( court drills, time miles) that was short and fully anaerobic, and now fast forward even further to today. OR more specifically 2 years ago when i started training longer and harder and let go of the rotation that innately comes from moving to and setting up to smash a tennis ball. Or in some cases, just make contact:)

Believe it or not your thorax (ribs) must rotate over your pelvis when you run. And most importantly your pelvis must rotate over your femurs, hips as you run. The picture above shows this ever so slightly, but you can see as I weightshift Right my Left shoulder rotates forward just a bit and my Right adductor works to keep my pelvis and hips from falling out to the side ( Right) it truly is too hard to try to show this in a stagnant picture and even a video is hard unless you have slow motion. My point in even trying to show this is that I DO NOT ROTATE WELL to my left ! I have struggled in the last 2 years as my body wants my pelvis and my thorax ( think rib cage) to sit to the right. Likely due to dominance and a sport that wired me heavily to the right but when i get OFF...its like the car is sitting sideways on the chassis!

Here are some terms that may ( not ) interest you:

Sagittal plane motion would include forward and backward motions, like sit-ups, back extensions or biceps curls. The sagittal plane cuts through the center of the body, so the motion is front to back or back to front, including straight forward running. Squats involve flexion (forward motion) and extension (backwards on the way up), so would fit into the sagittal plane.

Frontal plane motion would include leaning from left to right as in sidebends and lateral raises, or perhaps you might picture jumping jacks for a good image of movement along the frontal plane.

Transverse plane motion is the hardest to picture because the plane is horizontal as it divides the top from the bottom, so it’s hard to get our heads around it being a rotating action. The main thing to remember is rotation. An example of a transverse plane exercise would be floor to overhead diagonals with a medicine ball, and a transverse activity might be swinging a golf club.

Most traditional strengthening, and running and biking are in the sagital and frontal planes.

Unless you are using pulleys or a free motion machine likely you arent working the transverse plane. And granted you can modify some of this and some of TRX in the all 4's can include some transverse plane movement engaging the core/obliques. I am thinking specifically of the side planks with the touch or dip. Also what i call the " helicopter" exercise where you are all fours and you swing, controlled, your legs /hips to the side while maintaining a neutral pushup hand position.

And all 4's means prone, hand on the ground, your hips and legs extended with feet in the straps, so technically you are not on all 4's.

So while some of you may pound yourself silly with traditional weights and strengthening i spend my strengthening hours doing things like this:

It kinda cracks me up, when I think about it. Today after swimming my friend Steve and I Walked up the stairs backwards. Shifting into our L hips, rounding our lower backs ( to engage the abs) and while the ladies tried to get down to their aqua class we looked like freaks who had too much chlorine for breakfast. But it works. And if i hadnt gone to PT School and worked for many years with my own issues and other athletes using a heavily weighted straight plane motion of thought, I may have found this avenue sooner. It's sad in someways, that when i go to Bikram yoga I have to modify poses so that i can END shifted LEFT and have to really use caution doing anything where my pelvis ( think "zipper") points Right. I have to keep that zipper pointed LEFT. Because for me, that zipper LEFT means neutral. Yup. Whacked out body.

TRX....The lastest and greatest...?? I already brought this up above but...

Now if only they could modify that so it had some sort of pulley. So as you did some of the standing exercises you could also work on rotation and weightshift.

TRX is fine, but its alot like pilates. Straight frontal and sagital plane work. Nothing into the transverse plane and no rotation with weightshift. That is a shame, bc it could help me alot more. As it is I am an accident waiting to happen if i do too many R one-legged standing poses.

And I love TRX, I think for most bodies it is great. No motive to rip on it, just food for thought.

***Now, for those of you that are seasoned TRX users it has been brought to my attention that the following exercises will get you some of the transverse plane movement. If you are just starting out or read the inserts you may not see these and i am working on clarifying what they are with those that are TRX veterans. I also highly recommend that before you start your own HEP ( home program) you consult a TRX trainer or take a class so you dont hurt yourself!

Here are some examples of transverse/rotational ex in TRX; X-ing balance lunge 1 arm row 1 leg row 1 leg chest press Kneeling Oblique Roll out Woodchop Twist to arms OVH 1 Arm Power Row or Neo Row or Twisting/Squat/Row TRX Knee Tuck Obliques TRX Scorpion

If you are feeling stuck in an injury or like doing the same old same old stuff at the gym ( and you know what i mean...the squats, the bench, the leg press ) isnt doing it for you then think about seeing a PT that does Postural Restoration. You wont get a hotpack and a massage, actually you wont get any modality at all. You may have to drink the kool-aid for a bit till you are a believer but trust me, you will believe once you can run or swim or walk like you used to.

Day 3

Happy times!

If my selective memory serves me right day 3 was a pivotal day when we were here in October.

Rich always tells me that 72 hours is when inflammation peaks, and his body is proving to be a good case study. I am going to keep it short ( since I didnt last post!) and say we are hanging out at Mayo, the surgery was succesful in that they were able to do the procedure they had hoped, and now we wait until his GI tract calms down and he can take in nutrition and have normal body functions. ( I wont be more detailed than that!)

It sucks to see my honey in such agony, and when they put the NG tube back in we both groaned. And then he started throwing up ( double groan, bc you arent supposed to throw up with an NG tube, that is the point) and triple groan bc they have to reposition it and that hurts. Imagine a giant straw in your nose and down your throat. Ouch.

We got part way thru The Big Lebowski and he couldnt finish it. That tell's ya something bc the DUDE is Rich's favorite. Oh well, there is always tommorrow.

On my front ( yes I know i said this would be short..but..) Post Tucson I feel the effects of a less than comfortable couch here at Mayo, some fatigue still from the 10 days of training ( that i would not change in a second), I had an MRI of my left GH joint ( shoulder) and I am stressed out about Rich. Oh and I am leaving for Texas in how many days? To be honest I will be so happy to race Texas 70.3 or Lonestar or whatever it is called bc Greta hasnt even been outside yet. As for the MRI my Orthopod was not impressed and that is good. I know i still have something going on in there but thankfully nothing APPARENT that a surgeon wants to play around with. This is good news for swimming and means i just need to lay off the Atomic Pushups for a bit. OR forever. TRX is one strength wko i kinda liked so i hope i dont have to return to my stabilization and cuff exercises for good, but for now to get me to the start line of some races I would rather swim than do pushups!

Hope you are having good spring weather. We had 30 this AM and high of 53 so not really getting the 80's some of you are. Enjoy it!

Coach Troy and TRX!

No, not THAT coach Troy. Troy is my TRX instructor, drill master, etc...

All the buzz is about TRX so since it is offered at my YWCA I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. There is a class offered but i knew i wanted to have some 1:1's just to even figure out the "ropes" before I took a class...I am not going to go on and on about how great this is ( it is) and how sore I am ( I could barely roll over in bed for 2 days, much less flip turn after my first session) but I have found it refreshing and fun and scary and hard all at the same time.

So session 1. I keep thinking "yea I have a pretty strong core. I do alot of Core work...I know core" Coach Troy says : "You are pretty strong. Runners have strong legs. Um. Your core...( dot dot dot....) sentence never finishes....Great. Bubble burst.

I am sore for about 4 days. I mean serious sore. Like I was afraid I had Beth's rib issue all from some stupid ropes. ( Coach Troy said " I was corrected by the women not to call them Stirrups." Good idea, Troy.

Session 2, 1 week later. Serious fear. My forearm was sore as well. Great now i have golfers elbow ( medial epicondlyitis) from being in the flexed wrist position supporting my weight. But that is ok if i tape it... all is fine. We focus on glutes and lower body more today. I am relieved that my core is just sorta on fire. My glutes are sore for another 2 days.

Now its a week later ( these are spread by 1 week) and its a Monday. Usually i swim mondays but today i had off so i was bursting to actually have more arm/back/Lat strength. It was perfect since it was the start of the class and I wasnt going to have to whine and feel all wimpy when i couldnt do a push up. At 3:00 i get home and have a message..."Coach Troy is sick..."

WHAT??? Poor guy, but um I am NOT going two weeks btwn TRX sessions bc I can only imagine the hurt locker i would be back in. ADAPTATION IS A KILLER ( or insert your own word to describe it!)

So I get in with Troy for a 1:1 today. And today's comic relief started with me doing some sort of spinal twist where you had to basically hold the handles with one hand and rotate backwards/sidebend rotate etc...while holding on with a straight arm.

Coach Troy: " So you havent spent much time working your "Guns" have you?"

Me : "um, no."

Then we go to a supine "sit up" for lack of better term where my legs are straight I am supine and my heels are in the handles. I have a heavy medicine ball over my head and i have to sit up "vertebrae by vertebrae and reach forward with the med ball and then lie back down in the same manner." This is pilates-esque so i did it last time with no med ball and did fine. Today tho after 45 seconds if i wasnt turning like a top. I would come up slowly and my feet would drift left. I would slowly lie back down and my feet would come center a bit but every time i would come up my feet ( suspended in the straps, but you have to dig your heels) would drift left and by the time i had finished 1 minute i had rotated my entire body about 15 degrees to the left.

Now I am not a TRX know it all, if you are, then speak up but gotta guess that my right core, glute etc...is working a bit more than the left, eh? Troy couldnt stop laughing and the more i tried to dig my left side into the handle and squeeze my glute the more i got frustrated with my counter clockwise demise.

Anyways...I feel really lucky to have tried this and coach Troy is fantastic. I am thinking about getting one for home, but it is really nice to have someone tell me what to do and to also not do this at home. IF you have one at home, do you use it over the door or do you risk pulling the ceiling down? Plus Troy is offering a class outside this summer. That sounds awesome.