Daedala (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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lifting_heavy_things2012-12-20 12:39 pm
daedala) wrote in lifting_heavy_things2012-12-20 12:39 pm
Hi toes! It's been so long!
So, I am very excited, because I was able to touch my toes in my workout yesterday. Standing up, legs straight but not locked, fingertips on the tops of my minimalist shoes. I haven't done this in at least 20 years, maybe more like 25 -- not since I was a kid. It's bothered me that I couldn't do it for that long, too. I've tried a lot of things that were supposed to help.
Almost a year of yoga with an instructor didn't help at all. Years of Pilates, home stretching/yoga, etc. -- none of it helped. I also tried Rolfing (the full series), partly for other issues, but also hoping it would help with that. That seemed to help a little, but not enough to reach my toes.
What did help was finally getting a personal trainer to learn barbell lifts. (I'd previously worked at home, on my own, with dumbbells.) I told him my goals were range of motion, good form, and independence. The flexibility issues were so intractable that I didn't even mention toe touching or anything like that -- I just wanted to be able to do the lifts, and I thought the active/weightbearing mobility work that was popular in the weightlifting community would help.
And, lo, I can touch my toes. In seven sessions (three weeks). I was complaining about not being able to do that and I bent down to demonstrate and proved myself wrong. I do mobility work before each workout (~ 3x week...I'm going to do it every day now). I don't know, to be honest, whether it's the mobility work, the lifting, or the combination that did it, and maybe having the tissue in better shape with the Rolfing beforehand -- it's possible that the bodywork was necessary, but not sufficient.
The program the trainer made for me is actually not what I asked for (the first session, where we did squat/bench/deadlift/overhead press, left me with DOMS so bad we had to seriously modify the next one, and I didn't realize he'd set me up with a four-day split, which...probably is not ideal for someone as close to beginner as me). But it works, and even if I seriously doubt it's the split that's working, I'm not going to argue with touching my toes.
Another nice thing is that first day, I found out that I definitely qualify as "decent" according to this T-nation article. T-nation is vastly annoying, but often has really good information, and I've long considered that article a good set of goals for me. While I have trouble with full pushups and pullups, my deadlift, bench, and overhead press were all good. (The squat has range-of-motion issues, but I'm pretty sure that I could handle the weight.) The pushups and pullups are probably more "how to move" issues than "not strong enough" issues.
I have no idea if this would apply to anyone else, but I know there are others who can't touch toes, and maybe this information will help!
Almost a year of yoga with an instructor didn't help at all. Years of Pilates, home stretching/yoga, etc. -- none of it helped. I also tried Rolfing (the full series), partly for other issues, but also hoping it would help with that. That seemed to help a little, but not enough to reach my toes.
What did help was finally getting a personal trainer to learn barbell lifts. (I'd previously worked at home, on my own, with dumbbells.) I told him my goals were range of motion, good form, and independence. The flexibility issues were so intractable that I didn't even mention toe touching or anything like that -- I just wanted to be able to do the lifts, and I thought the active/weightbearing mobility work that was popular in the weightlifting community would help.
And, lo, I can touch my toes. In seven sessions (three weeks). I was complaining about not being able to do that and I bent down to demonstrate and proved myself wrong. I do mobility work before each workout (~ 3x week...I'm going to do it every day now). I don't know, to be honest, whether it's the mobility work, the lifting, or the combination that did it, and maybe having the tissue in better shape with the Rolfing beforehand -- it's possible that the bodywork was necessary, but not sufficient.
The program the trainer made for me is actually not what I asked for (the first session, where we did squat/bench/deadlift/overhead press, left me with DOMS so bad we had to seriously modify the next one, and I didn't realize he'd set me up with a four-day split, which...probably is not ideal for someone as close to beginner as me). But it works, and even if I seriously doubt it's the split that's working, I'm not going to argue with touching my toes.
Another nice thing is that first day, I found out that I definitely qualify as "decent" according to this T-nation article. T-nation is vastly annoying, but often has really good information, and I've long considered that article a good set of goals for me. While I have trouble with full pushups and pullups, my deadlift, bench, and overhead press were all good. (The squat has range-of-motion issues, but I'm pretty sure that I could handle the weight.) The pushups and pullups are probably more "how to move" issues than "not strong enough" issues.
I have no idea if this would apply to anyone else, but I know there are others who can't touch toes, and maybe this information will help!
no subject
The mobility work beforehand includes:
Marching with knees high (~20 steps)
Marching with feet kicking high up in back, enough to hit with my hands (~20 steps)
Marching, with twisting the calf so that I can slap each foot in front (~20 steps)
Walking lunges, twisting to the side at the bottom (~20 steps)
Sideways lunges, getting into a wide/low squat position with hands on knees and then moving side-to-side (~5 on each side)
Jumping jacks into that wide/low squat position (~10)
I was going to write up the squat and deadlift days, but found I couldn't remember part of that. If anyone is interested I can do that tomorrow.
no subject
no subject
Squat day -- I'm using an empty safety squat bar, then adding very little weight, because I have a hard time with depth. The safety bar means that I can work on hip mobility without worrying about my problems with shoulder mobility....
20 bodyweight box squats
Empty safety bar (6)
3 sets of 3 with increasing weights
3x Bodyweight circuit of:
Bridge pull-ins with stability ball
Reverse (step-back) lunges (12 total, 6 each side)
Squat jumps (6)
Pallof press (12 each side)
Deadlift day:
Warm up with Romanian (stiff-legged) deadlifts
3 sets of 3 regular deadlifts
3x bodyweight circuit of:
Bridges with feet elevated (20)
Bulgarian split squats (12 each side)
Scissor jumps (6 each side)
Cable woodchops (12 each side) (The trainer originally put back extensions there, but my low back was too tired by then, so we switched)
no subject
I've done four day splits with repeating two of the days each week which means I could lift six out of seven days. I enjoyed that. But I think you're right that it's not great for beginners -- it was fun, but I wasn't able to improve my squat as much as I did when I was squatting three or more times a week instead of once or twice.
I usually go to the strength standards chart that Gubernatrix made up -- even if the squat and deadlift standards are higher and mean I'm not doing as well. ::g:: But even on the T-Nation chart I'm doing better on the upper body lifts than the lower body ones.
I wonder why OHP is a flat weight and not a percentage of BW on T-Nation like all of the other lifts though.
no subject