R&r, Rest And Recovery

Yesterday was odd. I can’t tell you how much the stretching helped out. I’d say I went from 30 or 40% quality in back to 90-95%. Most of the pain left, most of the strength returned (not that I fully tested it). I gave the wife’s kettlebell a few experimental swngs and with pretty good success. There was still a little tenderness stopping the KB at the bottom of snatch but it wasn’t bad at all. It felt like I just had a little too much of a back workout or something.
I went to the gym last night, I spent some time on the back hyper laying upsode down so that I was leaned way back stretching out the abdominal region. I wasn’t doing reps or anything, I would lean back past straight, hang for a few seconds, sit up, rest a few and do it once more. I did some light hang cleans (95) lbs, some front squats (no discomfort at all), some back squats (my attempt at olympicstyle, with a little discomfort at the bottom). I did some bench and some abs.
I think I have whined before but I hate doing abs. Some of the sources I read said that a shortened psoas muscle comes from 1)sitting all day 2) sleeping with your legs pulled up to your stomach 3)strengthening your back but not your stomach. I thought, that is me, it couldn’t be more me. So for the next two weeks I’m gonna work on those things as much as I can. Tonight I will try to get a decent deadlift/squat workout in, with some abs though. So I won’t be baling on the workout but it’s important to me that I work these other things in.
btw, I found the book Dan recommended. I won’t lie, I’m a skeptic. I don’t normally go in for Holistic Medicine very much, but if it works, it works. I kinda flipped through and thought, I’l test it out and if it doesn’t work it goes on my bookshelf for a raining day. So I found the bit on Psoas. Being fat and inflexible, it took a little bit to find the muscle using their technique. To get into position was a little uncomfortable on the back. So I started to try and relax my psoas. I didn’t feel anything happen. I went to get back up and it didn’t hurt. I was surprised, it was subtle. Sure enough it temporarily made me alot more comfortable. It’s not a long term fix but it was like a little anesthetic massage. It didn’t take a whole lot of moving about for it to sore up a again but for the 30 seconds I invested, I was surprised. I see why Dan recommends it. I will spend more time with that book. If nothing else, when I become anurse it may be very helpful.
Last, I did a little bending last night. I have been bending timber ties daily. I occasional try to bend a 7″ 3/16 peice of CRS in two or three places in the same piece. Usually when I do the bends just frun together and a get a round piece of steel. I haven’t tried any of Luke and Dan’s steel in a while, but I will some time later this week. Last night I got greedy and went for some 6″ 1/4 CRS and got it. I believe that qualifies as a Blue nail bend. It took more than the permissable minute (I think). Iwas screwing aroudn with my little wraps try to get a good position, plus my crush down sucks. This puts me in a very happy place. The next few nails on the list are all nails that impress the hell out of me, 60D, Grade5, Grade8, Red Nail, Bastard. In that order. Each one is not just PR, it’s a goal. Those are pieces that seemed beyond the mortal man when I started this. Don’t get me wrong. I have a ways to go before I bend any of those, I’m not real consistent on the Blue yet but it is exciting to me. Blue nail was always a foregone conclusion, all the rest tell me I can take bending somewhere that seemed impossible a couple months weeks days ago.

I’m off to work my super joints book.