5/30/15 Saturday May 30, 2015 (pull-ups, push-ups, involuntary jogging)

An interesting day.  Certainly trying to pay attention to how my body is feeling.  Woke up, felt pretty good really, but after a bit noticed the same discomfort in the L low back, actually mainly the erector and a bit into the lat up the L side.  No pain, as usual.  Did some lacrosse ball release, that felt good.  At some point mid morning that all went away and I noticed general fatigue in my L shoulder, no pain at all, but is making me wonder a bit if there is something "from the top down" with this L shoulder that may be an issue in all of this stuff.  That L shoulder is the same one that grabbed a bit during my FMS test with Kevin on Wed, which I found odd at the time as it has not bothered me noticeably at all. It is the shoulder however the "pops" once in a while in the sense of stretching it on the foam roller, doing Indian Clubs, etc.  It is less stable than my R due to the falls on it from several years ago.  I know for sure it has created some asymmetries.  KB work has brought tremendously more stability and strength, but this is interesting indeed.  By mid afternoon, this feeling had also dissipated.  Very interesting.

Have had my kids all weekend and we did a bunch of activities all morning and then went to the lake in the afternoon.  We did some bike riding practice and they wanted me to jog along as they rode their bikes.  In the back of my mind I didn't want to do it, due to this low back shit, but I had been moving around playing with them, and hell most of the time lately the issues seem mostly to do with putting external load on my body (KBs).  I wanted them to have fun so I played along.  Probably ended up running a mile or so, which of course I have done plenty of running in my time but its' not something that is in my training any more at all.  I don't really miss it though it does feel good to run.  I was trying to pay attention to anything coming up and didn't notice anything at all with my back.  I did notice my R knee and calve feeling very tight, which is something very familiar to me from the running days, that's an old pattern.  Fortunately I don't think I did this long enough to really make a big impact on the body one way or another, so that's good.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.  Did some mobility work this evening on my feet and including a lacrosse ball to stretch my plantar and that felt good.

Ended the time with the kids at the lake by getting in some pull-ups and push-ups.  Honestly - felt great.  Hanging from the rings to stretch the lats and shoulders has been key, and these movements have been feeling good to me lately.  These pull-ups were extremely strong, best in quite some time, that's a reflection of doing less lifting lately as I am probably a bit more fresh in some ways.  I think the body-weight work is really what I need to be doing right now.

Hanging from rings

6 pull-ups (rings)
5 Push-ups

5 pull-ups
5 Push-ups

4 pull-ups
5 Push-ups

4 pull-ups
5 Push-ups

3 pull-ups
5 Push-ups

Total pull-ups - 21, up from 20 last week.  Very strong.

Hanging from rings

Mobility work and stretching this evening.  Going for a long brisk walk tomorrow evening after I drop the kids off to Jill.  Haven't been able to get one in since Tuesday this week due to the kids' schedule and I am looking forward to it.

5/29/15 Friday May 29, 2015 (48kg DL, 20kg FL PR, 24kg 2H SW)

6:00am - FMS and other warm up drills (belly breathing, form roll, wall drops 15/15, scales 3/3) - 45 minutes

6:45am - Kettlebell warm up

1/2K halos - 8kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
1/2K halos - 12kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)

16kg Roll to press (TGU start) - shoulder cam shafts, each arm
Arm bar 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

Indian Clubs, 5 minutes

7:00am- Training session - 48kg DL, 20kg FL PR, 24kg 2H SW

4x:
48kg DL, 8
20kg Floor PR, 8/8
(32 DLs, 32/32 presses)

24kg 2H SW, 20, x 5
(100 SW)

7:30am - Complete

Notes -  Writing this on Saturday evening.  The odyssey continues:)  Felt good on Friday morning.  Slept on the floor, as my mom was up visiting and I let her sleep in my bed.  That was fine, didn't bother me.  Didn't notice any issues during the KB lifting work, particularly DLs and the floor presses - these are good movements I believe and work well with my current situation.  Now on the other hand, I am not sure about swings right now.  I tightened up a few hours after this session, again mainly in the L lower back, erector, glute medius area.  I noticed it at work when sitting in the afternoon.  Sitting serious blows.  The condition isn't painful, it's more of a discomfort and just knowing things are not quite right.  For the vast majority of my KB training, I have left training sessions without soreness, really feeling like the training is giving me something, not taking something away.  Tightening up like this really sucks I have to say.  Did quite a bit of mobility and soft tissue work in the evening, along with some Pain Free drills to try and open up my hips, which helped a lot.  I wish I could pinpoint exactly what's going on.  I continue to come back to this idea of - keep going by trial and error, things that feel good, do them, things that don't - don't do them right now.  Body is still not liking load, that seems to be really clear.  More notes on today on that post.

5/28/15 Thursday May 28, 2015 (KB warmup, IC practice)

6:30am - FMS drills (belly breathing, soft tissue work, t-spine, 1/2 kneeling), rehab correctives (wall drops, scales) - 45 minutes

7:15am - Kettlebell warm up

1/2K halos - 8kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
1/2K halos - 12kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)

16kg Roll to press (TGU start) - shoulder cam shafts, each arm
Arm bar 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

7:30am - Indian Club practice

7:40am - Complete

Notes -   Feeling good today.  Glutes really got fired up yesterday by the SL DLs, in a great way, I am very encouraged all around.  Low back best it has felt in weeks.  Moving forward.

5/27/15 Wednesday May 27, 2015 (training with Kevin)

6:15am - training with Kevin

It has been some time since Kevin and I trained.  We used this day to do an FMS screen and really do a reset on how I am moving, addressing the current issues and sorting out a way forward with some rehabilitation exercises for a couple of weeks. The FMS screen showed nearly a 1 (a barely passing 2) on the leg raise, left leg worse than right.  Not surprised.  Big time I need to get the hamstrings and glutes working correctly again, the hamstrings have been crazy tight.  I also strangely had some pain for the test where you put your arms behind your back, on the L shoulder, when getting into position for that test.  I was surprised but this is my old injury (feel on that arm twice years ago) and that shoulder lacks some stability at times.  Kevin recommended that I get it checked out and I will (do an SFMA at Kinetics locally).  Not worried about that, but it's a good idea to have an SFMA done.  I passed the other FMS tests so really we are going to hone in on the leg raise.  Kevin gave me a rehabilitation menu to work through, and we practiced the moves.  With KB work, we are going to do 2H deadlifts, double SL DLs (practiced these with 16kgs and it was amazingly difficult, in a good way, and felt very good afterwards - this will be a huge movement to get back to and really I think is going to help get my glutes firing and help with stability), 2H SW, and floor presses.  Light KBs for two weeks, just focus on the warmup and rehab corrective work for now.  I think this feels really right at the moment and it was a very good session that I believe will help lay groundwork for me to build from, get back to moving well, and not be overly focused on lifting heavy, heavy, heavy all the time.  It's time to deload and use the next few weeks to help drive my overall health and training forward for the summer.  That's the plan.

5/26/15 Tuesday May 26, 2015 (KB warmup, IC practice, long walk in the evening)

6:50am - FMS drills (belly breathing, soft tissue work, t-spine, 1/2 kneeling) - 30 minutes

7:20am - Kettlebell warm up

1/2K halos - 8kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
1/2K halos - 12kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)

16kg Roll to press (TGU start) - shoulder cam shafts, each arm
Arm bar 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

7:35am - Complete

8:45am - Indian Club Practice

9:00am - Complete

8 - 9pm - Long brisk walk at Greenlake including some hanging from pull-up rings

Notes -   Felt pretty decent today actually, was a lot tighter frankly on my R trap, shoulder, lat than in my low back so stuff is moving around at least I guess that is good, sheesh.  Best part of the day was a nice brisk walk at Greenlake in the evening for an hour.  Felt great.  The brisk walking is outstanding for my back, glutes, overall gait, hips etc.  This is good stuff and I will do my absolute best to keep getting in a lot of walking the next several weeks as I keep working through this.  Training with Kevin tomorrow, hoping to keep moving forward and figure a few more things out.

5/25/15 Monday May 25, 2015 (16kg BU CL / BUP, 20kg PR + pullups, rack walks)

6:45am - FMS drills (belly breathing, soft tissue work, t-spine, 1/2 kneeling) - 45 minutes, mixed with Pain Free exercises

7:30am - Kettlebell warm up

1/2K halos - 8kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)
1/2K halos - 12kg, 4X each side / each leg (total 16X)

16kg Roll to press (TGU start) - shoulder cam shafts, each arm
Arm bar 16kg, 1+1, x 2

Crooked Arm bar 16kg with 3 presses and rotations, 1/1

7:45am - Drive to Greenlake

8:00am- Training session - 16kg BU CL / BUP, 20kg PR, rack walks

16kg BUP, 2/2, x 2

5x:
20kg PR ladder, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1
Pull-ups on rings, 3
16kg BU CL + walk or 20kg rack walk

30/30 total presses

8:30am - Complete

Notes -  Well, when a 20kg kettlebell crushes you and brings you to your knees, you had goddamn better pay attention and get your shit together.  And today was that day for me.  As per my notes from the weekend, did a ton of walking, and mixed with pull-ups from rings, which I think are doing good things for stretching out my lats and gravity helping as well, got some good improvements in how my back was feeling.  So much so I thought, in thinking about today's training, that I could go light on presses with "just" a 20kg, mix the presses with pull-ups (something I have not done before but have ready much about this from Pavel, it seemed like a good combo), and some lighter BU CL with walking or rack walks.

Fucking dumb but I think I realize why.  I felt ok during the training session but at the end immediately started tightening up again in that same area, L erector, low back, glute medius.  I thought back to my training over the past months, how this may have started with windmill practice in early April mixed with DB Jerks, and started just realizing - my body is rejecting load right now.  Period.  Particularly it seems, load in a grinding fashion or more particularly, overhead load.  The movement of loading up one side, which fires up the obliques, in a rack position, or an overhead press position, etc. I think is just not the right thing for me to be doing right now and I am going to have to listen and figure this shit out.

Here is some shit that is working right now.
Walking - very good, feels great.  Bodyweight squats - feel very good.  Farmer carries (doubles only) - still think these are good, because the weight is in m HANDS and not distributed in a manner that is putting stress on the low back or overly firing one oblique over the other (which a one-sided carry does do).  It's distributed all over.  As I said above it seems that once the weight gets to the rack or overhead, right now, the body is saying NO.  NOT right now.  Please let me heal up.....

Pull-ups - feel great, I think it is due to gravity taking stress out of the equation as it relates to the low back, and I can focus on the pull with the lats, and my grip providing a lot of strength and control on the rings. Indian Clubs - a great re discovery.  Mobility work - all kinds, feels good.  Halos, arm bars - feel very good.

Plenty of stuff is NOT working right now as per above which is the stuff I love to do.  There's a time and a season and it would appear that if I want to get back to pushing around some heavier weight and progressing in my practice with KBs, I need to focus on some things that clearly must have been missing lately, and that's not necessarily training stuff.

Writing this evening, feeling better for sure, but I spent a lot of the day in discomfort.  I can't be having this.  I was with my kids all day, on Memorial Day, and damn it if I didn't just grit my teeth and try to make a good day for them.  A nice breakfast, took them out to Remlinger Farms for a full day at the farm, and then came back and cooked a BBQ and had my neighbors and their kids over to boot.  All while feeling shitty, pissed at myself a bit, and just a bit bewildered.  I need to be at 100% for my kids, I need to be moving well, and I need to pick myself up here and get my shit together.  I've been all over the place mentally and emotionally lately too, and it's really hitting me square in the face that I have some stuff to figure out so I can move forward in a positive direction.  No doubt plenty of this goes back to the divorce, final on December 1, now 6+ months later, I think all of the hard pushing I have been doing professionally, with training, and otherwise is catching up to me and I have to face reality here for a bit and seriously think about what the fuck has happened here and how best to take this and go forward.  

5/23/15 Saturday May 23, 2015 (pull-ups, push-up holds, lots of walking and mobility)

Writing this on Monday evening the 25th, Memorial Day, got behind in logging for a few days.

Morning - several sets of Indian Clubs Movement #1 and a few other basic stretching moves, for about 10 minutes or so.

Went to Greenlake by myself in the mid afternoon, a rarity, as I decided to do other things with the kids all morning and early afternoon.  Back was feeling not all that great.  Did a lot of thinking about this, trying to figure out what the hell is going on with me.  It's like 1 step forward, 2 back these days. In any event, I did an absolute ton of brisk walking, probably all told something like 75 minutes.  Working in quite a bit of mobility, body weight squats, lots of stretching the lats, shoulders.

Hanging from rings

6 pull-ups (rings)
Push-up hold (1 - 1 1/2 minutes)

5 pull-ups
Push-up hold (1 - 1 1/2 minutes)

4 pull-ups
Push-up hold (1 - 1 1/2 minutes)

3 pull-ups
Push-up hold (1 - 1 1/2 minutes)

2 pull-ups
Push-up hold (1 - 1 1/2 minutes)

Total pull-ups - 20,  same as last week.

Hanging from rings

Honestly, and this is important in hindsight now as I write this Monday evening, I felt great after all of this.  Felt good all evening, and basically all day Sunday.  On Sunday, I again went for probably 90 minutes of walking, did some Indian Club work, and hung from the rings Sunday was the best I have felt in quite some time.  As my next log on Monday will show, I fucked all of that up again in a sense but I think finally have recognized the pattern and am crying uncle now finally.