Thank goodness that’s over

I had my last session with my PT last evening. I’m glad to be done.

Clearly he didn’t really know what to do with a relatively healthy person. In his defense, I didn’t go in with a lot of specific complaints. I had a few annoyances and more questions and we discussed those. I figured that every profession I had ever been around complained that no one would come and see them until they had a problem, there was no prevention going on. I figured the same was true of PTs. So I figured I could go in with a few little issues, he could do some diagnostics and just have a ball trying to tune me up. Make me the poster child for “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Nope, I was wrong.  The first day I was there I gave him a run down of what I do. Clearly I had lost him. He didn’t know what a kettlebell was or understand the difference between Strongman, Powerlifting and Body Building. He assumed I press overhead to get some kind of shoulder definition. Hardly, I press overhead for the sake of pressing overhead. I’m short, I have heavy crap and high shelves. Pressing overhead is a fact of life when you’re 5′ 8″. Even yesterday, he just couldn’t see any reason in the world why a person should be strong from more than a quarter squat position. Well, if everything I ever pick up is more than two feet off the ground, that would be super.

I have to admit that learning the PT way of things has given me pause to think. I don’t think the specifics of it are right. I do think you need to squat all the way, I do think you need to press overhead, I do think you need to be able to do pull ups (yes, he was against those too). However, there may be something to working more partial ranges of motion than I have. Having gone through the powerlifter and strongman stages that most of us do, I came to shun partial ranges of motion as “pumper crap” but maybe there is something there. I mean,  walk outs are a great way to prepare for a full squat. You just have to make sure you don’t slip into the quarter squat habit either.

All in all, my experience gets a thumbs down. I blew $100. I learned some things and I think I’ll get me some stretching an mobility DVDs over time and see what else I can learn for myself.

Speaking of which, Chris, your DVD arrived. Thanks. I haven’t tried it yet, it’ll be a weekend project.

Slacker

Well, I haven’t been working out, at all. I’m not very good at getting in and doing my thing unless I’m going all the way. It just seems like such a waste of effort to go to the gym, go half speed for 30 minutes and go home. I’d rather jog with the dog or something. So that is what I have been doing when I have done anything. I have kept my diet pretty strong, my weight hasn’t really moved since Monday, up or down. I figure that is a-ok.

I’m thinking about going hard tonight at the gym. I feel good, I feel tuned and rested and wouldn’t mind putting in some effort. I know, I have no patience. I figure I have a week of few commitments from now until next Friday. A few hard workouts could be a lot of fun: One in the weightroom, one on the rower and one with kettlebell. Sounds like a treat.