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lifting_heavy_things2013-02-11 04:17 pm
rydra_wong) wrote in lifting_heavy_things2013-02-11 04:17 pm
What I'm up to
Since I asked for advice, I thought I'd post a write-up of what my current workout-with-Lisfranc-injury has evolved into, in case anyone's curious, or in case bits and pieces of it are of any use to people -- maybe other people figuring out how to keep lifting heavy things while injured.
Obviously, this is customized around my particular injury and my strength focus (maximizing my strength and fitness for rock climbing). In fact, it's largely driven by my determination to use the enforced time off from climbing to BUILD SUPERHUMAN FINGER AND ARM STRENGTH AND RETURN TO CRUSH ALL MY CLIMBER FRIENDS, MUA-HA-HA-HA.
But it might still be of interest to people who are considering how to build their own plans around their particular idiosyncrasies and goals. Personally, I'm always fascinated by other people's strength goals and routines.
Ground rules: I'm still not allowed to put any weight on my left foot, I'm not allowed to swim yet, and the gym is outside the range I can travel on crutches.
Equipment: I have a fingerboard and rock rings in a doorway (along with a cheap TRX knockoff I got a while back, which I'm totally failing to use right now). Plus assorted heavy things and a yoga mat.
Basically, I'm doing different workouts on alternate days, with one complete rest day a week. The rest day moves around depending on need and my schedule -- everything here is pretty loose.
Every day: 15-20 minutes of yoga (seated and reclining poses), and about five minutes of additional shoulder warm-ups and stretches (details available on request if anyone's interested -- this is derived from my pre-climbing warm-up).
Day 1:
About 5 rounds of a set of pull-ups followed by a fixed duration elbow plank.
(I do the plank with my right foot on the floor -- fairly centrally so I'm not asymmetrical -- and the injured foot wrapped on top of it.)
It's "about 5" because when it starts to feel like I can do more, I try adding on a 6th round; then when 6 rounds feels comfortably do-able, I try dropping down to 5 rounds but with another pull-up added to each set and 10 more seconds on each plank.
I'm going for this number of rounds because I'm trying to increase the volume of pull-ups I get done in a day, and I can only do a fairly small number in each set.
Then [ETA: after warming up my hands and fingers with a rice bucket -- awesome tool for anyone who's doing physical activities that are hand-intensive] I do a fingerboard session: this is a climber thang, but basically means spending 40 minutes hanging by my fingers in different ways off this beautiful object in a doorway, with timed breaks and a lot of sweating and whimpering. This takes a lot of coffee, a very carefully composed playlist, and is the most intense thing I do.
With all of the exercises in the routine, I keep a log in a file in Scrivener, recording what I did and how hard/easy it felt; this helps me decide when to consider increasing reps/sets or increasing intensity in other ways. It also lets me know when I'm over-doing things, if my performance actually starts to decrease (this is how I discovered that fingerboarding on alternate days is most effective for me right now).
Day 2:
This is the day of antagonist work, mostly.
Push-ups -- currently about three sets mixed up with the other things I do. I'm trying to focus on perfect form; I've found that with push-ups, I have to keep my elbows tucked into my sides and my arms externally rotated, or my shoulders start pinching really quickly.
(Same thing as the plank re: doing them one-legged and keeping the injured foot tucked safely off the ground.)
Otherwise, it's a catch-all day for "all the other assorted shit I do", since it doesn't have anything as intense as the pull-ups and fingerboarding.
Alternating sets of overhead presses and scaptions, with a relatively light weight, sitting in a chair -- this is mostly about counter-balancing all the "pull" work in climbing, and avoiding muscular imbalances. Then three sets of external rotations, with an even lighter weight and more reps.
Er, if you're wondering why I sometimes alternate sets of things and order them the way I do -- there is no logic. Or if there's any, it tends to be to do with which weights are closest to each other and what stops me from getting bored.
In many ways, I am presenting this as an example of "how you can throw together a surprisingly effective workout plan despite not really knowing exactly what you're doing".
Then I do a bunch of weird eccentric exercises to prehab/rehab my elbows (again, this is relatively climber-specific, but I'm happy to share the details if anyone else has got cranky elbow tendons).
I also do left leg exercises, to try to stop my left leg from atrophying completely: these involve leg extensions and squat-type movements while lying on my back, then side hip abductions, all with an ankle weight (I decided I probably didn't need to do leg curls because my leg already gets cramped from holding my foot up when I'm on crutches). These tend to bore me, and hopefully I get to stop them once I can officially start progressive weight-bearing on my left foot (soon! soon!).
Then if I still have time and psyche, I try some L-sits, and, because I'm feeling brave and determined lately, I try the very very start of the progressions towards a back lever and front lever. Baby steps for now, but they're very relevant to body tension and core strength in climbing.
This is mostly experimental for now: I don't have a stern goal for how many or how long with the levers and L-sits, I'm just testing them out to see how they feel and get the hang of them.
(Note: if any of this sounds scary and impressive, I'd like to mention that I recently found the entry in my DW (October 21st, 2008) where I recorded proudly that I had managed to do two or three whole knee push-ups, for the first time in my life. None of this is because I'm naturally strong, athletic or co-ordinated.)
I'm aiming to do all of this for about six weeks in total, after which I'll probably have a an easy rest week, then shake it all up, rearrange it, add in new things, and start on a new six-week plan (by that point, I may -- fingers crossed -- be walking without a brace and doing physio for the foot). I'm already plotting ...
If you've got any questions, please ask -- it's fun for me to be self-indulgent and chat about what I'm doing.
Obviously, this is customized around my particular injury and my strength focus (maximizing my strength and fitness for rock climbing). In fact, it's largely driven by my determination to use the enforced time off from climbing to BUILD SUPERHUMAN FINGER AND ARM STRENGTH AND RETURN TO CRUSH ALL MY CLIMBER FRIENDS, MUA-HA-HA-HA.
But it might still be of interest to people who are considering how to build their own plans around their particular idiosyncrasies and goals. Personally, I'm always fascinated by other people's strength goals and routines.
Ground rules: I'm still not allowed to put any weight on my left foot, I'm not allowed to swim yet, and the gym is outside the range I can travel on crutches.
Equipment: I have a fingerboard and rock rings in a doorway (along with a cheap TRX knockoff I got a while back, which I'm totally failing to use right now). Plus assorted heavy things and a yoga mat.
Basically, I'm doing different workouts on alternate days, with one complete rest day a week. The rest day moves around depending on need and my schedule -- everything here is pretty loose.
Every day: 15-20 minutes of yoga (seated and reclining poses), and about five minutes of additional shoulder warm-ups and stretches (details available on request if anyone's interested -- this is derived from my pre-climbing warm-up).
Day 1:
About 5 rounds of a set of pull-ups followed by a fixed duration elbow plank.
(I do the plank with my right foot on the floor -- fairly centrally so I'm not asymmetrical -- and the injured foot wrapped on top of it.)
It's "about 5" because when it starts to feel like I can do more, I try adding on a 6th round; then when 6 rounds feels comfortably do-able, I try dropping down to 5 rounds but with another pull-up added to each set and 10 more seconds on each plank.
I'm going for this number of rounds because I'm trying to increase the volume of pull-ups I get done in a day, and I can only do a fairly small number in each set.
Then [ETA: after warming up my hands and fingers with a rice bucket -- awesome tool for anyone who's doing physical activities that are hand-intensive] I do a fingerboard session: this is a climber thang, but basically means spending 40 minutes hanging by my fingers in different ways off this beautiful object in a doorway, with timed breaks and a lot of sweating and whimpering. This takes a lot of coffee, a very carefully composed playlist, and is the most intense thing I do.
With all of the exercises in the routine, I keep a log in a file in Scrivener, recording what I did and how hard/easy it felt; this helps me decide when to consider increasing reps/sets or increasing intensity in other ways. It also lets me know when I'm over-doing things, if my performance actually starts to decrease (this is how I discovered that fingerboarding on alternate days is most effective for me right now).
Day 2:
This is the day of antagonist work, mostly.
Push-ups -- currently about three sets mixed up with the other things I do. I'm trying to focus on perfect form; I've found that with push-ups, I have to keep my elbows tucked into my sides and my arms externally rotated, or my shoulders start pinching really quickly.
(Same thing as the plank re: doing them one-legged and keeping the injured foot tucked safely off the ground.)
Otherwise, it's a catch-all day for "all the other assorted shit I do", since it doesn't have anything as intense as the pull-ups and fingerboarding.
Alternating sets of overhead presses and scaptions, with a relatively light weight, sitting in a chair -- this is mostly about counter-balancing all the "pull" work in climbing, and avoiding muscular imbalances. Then three sets of external rotations, with an even lighter weight and more reps.
Er, if you're wondering why I sometimes alternate sets of things and order them the way I do -- there is no logic. Or if there's any, it tends to be to do with which weights are closest to each other and what stops me from getting bored.
In many ways, I am presenting this as an example of "how you can throw together a surprisingly effective workout plan despite not really knowing exactly what you're doing".
Then I do a bunch of weird eccentric exercises to prehab/rehab my elbows (again, this is relatively climber-specific, but I'm happy to share the details if anyone else has got cranky elbow tendons).
I also do left leg exercises, to try to stop my left leg from atrophying completely: these involve leg extensions and squat-type movements while lying on my back, then side hip abductions, all with an ankle weight (I decided I probably didn't need to do leg curls because my leg already gets cramped from holding my foot up when I'm on crutches). These tend to bore me, and hopefully I get to stop them once I can officially start progressive weight-bearing on my left foot (soon! soon!).
Then if I still have time and psyche, I try some L-sits, and, because I'm feeling brave and determined lately, I try the very very start of the progressions towards a back lever and front lever. Baby steps for now, but they're very relevant to body tension and core strength in climbing.
This is mostly experimental for now: I don't have a stern goal for how many or how long with the levers and L-sits, I'm just testing them out to see how they feel and get the hang of them.
(Note: if any of this sounds scary and impressive, I'd like to mention that I recently found the entry in my DW (October 21st, 2008) where I recorded proudly that I had managed to do two or three whole knee push-ups, for the first time in my life. None of this is because I'm naturally strong, athletic or co-ordinated.)
I'm aiming to do all of this for about six weeks in total, after which I'll probably have a an easy rest week, then shake it all up, rearrange it, add in new things, and start on a new six-week plan (by that point, I may -- fingers crossed -- be walking without a brace and doing physio for the foot). I'm already plotting ...
If you've got any questions, please ask -- it's fun for me to be self-indulgent and chat about what I'm doing.
no subject
One of the cool things is that it provides resistance in multiple directions, if that makes any sense -- so it's not just the back-and-forth, back-and-forth of a wrist curl or whatever. Does feel more balanced, and like it's working out lots of little under-used muscles that get neglected by most of what I do.