Hello hello!
So you might remember on my blog post last week about making a new change to my workouts. I honestly thought it was going to be a small addition, but it pretty much wiped me out.
This new exercise, I guess we'll call them bar grabs, is where I jump up and grab hold of a bar 8 feet in the air, and then let go. Do 10 of these 3 times... easy.
It turned out to be totally brutal. Doing 1 is ridiculously easy, but after 6 or 7 I'm having to seriously psych myself into finishing the 10. I did them on Tuesday and Thursday... and then my calves were sore for 4 days.
I actually ended up taking Friday, Saturday and Sunday as rest days... usually I just take one day, because I tend to struggle to sleep on days I don't exercise, but that wasn't an issue at all.
It really does highlight just how much work I have to do to get anywhere close to where I was previously.
On my rest days I still very much kept with the ninja theme and spent time working on this new website International Xcellence Games League for a new league I'm helping start up. It's an international league where people all over the world will compete for leaderboard superiority by doing similar obstacle courses. I'm super excited to be involved.
Also, I don't think it's obviously, but how amazing is my cover photo. I totally had to pull over to take it...
We're just here, in the forest, living our best lives above a sea of fog.
Apologies for the terrible photo quality, but this is our little lamb Alexis encountering snow for the very first time... she kept looking up at the sky and the back at her mum and then back up at the sky... it was all very cute.
I had to take this photo through the window of the house because as soon as they see us they murrrp at us and run to the fence.
ENDURANCE
This week really was a week of recovery for me. I didn't run on Monday because I was super sore from our hike the day before. I didn't do as many exercises on Tuesday because I was still sore and tired from the weekend.
I did do 3 hill sprints on Wednesday... and they were super sluggish. I really did try to rally, but just couldn't quite get it going.
I think as I've gotten older and suffered so many different types of overuse injuries, I've taken a more cautious stance on training.
In the past I'd push myself and get frustrated that I wasn't performing as well as I'd like. Now I'm trying to respect the recovery process and trust that when I'm ready, I'll be strong and energetic again. It's definitely a lot slower, but hopefully I'll avoid the setbacks of injury.
On Sunday I mucked out the sheep stall... it's a full workout in itself and used to destroy me for a day or two. It still takes ages, but I can shrug it off now, so glad I'm getting country strong.
UPPER BODY
As mentioned at the top of this post, I added in the bar grabs to my upper body workouts... but, I really was still pretty sore and tired from the weekend so I didn't do as many other exercises as usual.
On Tuesday I did this list of exercises 3 times:
- 10 bar grabs
- 6 pushups
- 6 pull ups
On Thursday I did this list of exercises 3 times:
- 10 bar grabs
- 6 pushups
- 6 tricep dips
- 6 pull ups
Surprisingly, it was my calves that were on fire after my workout on Thursday.
Source
I'm hoping in the coming weeks the bar grab becomes considerably easier.... so that it's not a thing I really need to ever talk about again.
GRIP STRENGTH
Before I never talk about it again, I just want to talk about it again.
A bar grab isn't really an exercise you'd see at the gym, but it really does help with your forearm strength and grip strength...
Source
It was also really helpful back when I was suffering tendonitis in my forearms around the time I was last competing in ninja competitions. I used to do a training session and my forearms would feel like they were absolutely on fire for the next few hours - by doing a series of exercises, including the bar grab, I was able to manage it. I wasn't able to get rid of it until I stopped competing and training so hard.
I'm hoping that if I start doing the management exercises before throwing myself into hardcore training I can avoid a relapse of my forearm tendonitis issues.... which I assume are just waiting under the surface strike.
INJURIES
My wrist definitely is progressing nicely.
It's not 100%, and push ups are still a little awkward, but it mostly doesn't affect me.
My hip flexor injury is still a big giant flumuxation.
I had an ultrasound this week over my groin and hip area... and they were able to rule out a few things; tumors, hernias, etc.... but now don't know what's causing my hip flexor strain-like pain.
It's a hassle, and I can feel it when I run or stand for a while, but it doesn't affect mobility at all, so I'm just not going to worry about it.
I've been really terrible at doing my rehab exercises at nighttime. I didn't do them once the whole week, which is not good. When I'm tired I'm less inclined to invest the energy into being good, and that's something I really need to be a lot better with.
DIET
I'm not really changing my diet at this point, but I have started taking a bunch of new vitamins to help improve my bone mass and overall recovery.
I'm not 100% convinced that vitamins work, except for Glucosamine, the arthritis in my big toe always flares up when I'm not taking it.
Here's what I've started taking:
- Garden of Life Vegetarian Glucosamine Supplement
- Garden of Life Vegan Joints and Mobility Support
- Garden of Life Vegan Omega 3
- Garden of Life Vegan Multivitamin for Men
Hopefully we'll see some improvements when I next take my measurements.
CHANGES
I'm not introducing anything new this week. Instead I'm looking to consolidate the bar grab exercises in with all the others that I was doing.
If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below… or you can reply to this tweet:
Thanks so much for reading!
Posted from my blog with Exxp : https://lifebe.com.au/training/training-for-ninja-warrior-week-3/