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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2023 15:07:18 GMT
I have a long history with workout logs and tracking in general. Going back, sometimes I track a lot, and sometimes I get tired of tracking and stop altogether.
I’m going to start a log here. TBH I think it is because I miss the days where forums were active. Pretty sure social medial killed them. Can’t find many fitness related ones that are interesting to me at all.
This place seems to have a shared history and sometimes I don’t get the references m8s (I saw the Transformetrics forum when it was active, but that dude was too weird for me and I never stuck around), but there is great info here.
I lifted “You Mean Stretching” from the old Penn & Teller show “Bullshit” episode on yoga. Now I’ve done a good bit of yoga, and at the time was taking classes. Even so, I knew they were right. Every time a guru on that show referenced prana, lord vishnu, made some ridiculous claim, or even the word yoga, they replied with “you mean stretching?”
Anyway here is my recently started log. Lots of stretching in it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2023 15:10:07 GMT
2/21/23 1h 45m tennis. Very very tired, but played well. Great rallies. Tweaked left calf/hamstring. Later at home 30m stretch w/grip work.
2/22/23 Pushed harder today. I’m slowly getting back to full intensity with the weights, but I have to be super careful with forearm pain. * pulldowns * row * flye * db bench * 30m solo tennis
2/23/23 2h doubles tennis. Not gonna lie, I was awful. Ugh. Bands later: * stretch * curl * triceps extension * laterals
2/24/23 30m stretch in the basement w/splits & pancakes. Feeling very beat up and unmotivated for tennis.
2/25/23 30m basement stretch again. * wallsit * static lying leg curl * toe raise * grip * theraband
2/26/23 Sunday tennis at the Fieldhouse. 2h hard rallying. Got very sweaty and exhausted. Stretched for 20m later anyway.
2/27/23 Weighed 188.4 today vs 192.4 yesterday. That's fluid loss from tennis, even though I thought I drank enough.
Today I stretched and recovered from yesterday. Actually had 2 sessions totaling 45m. I included neck, grip, abs, and wrist curls.
2/28/23 90m morning tennis. Hard work. Stretched.
3/1/23 Whole body 20m session. Great focus. * leg press * leg curl * seated calf * pulldown * flye * press * dip * curl * 30/30 tennis * stretch
3/2/23 25m stretch w/laterals, curls, triceps ext, grip.
3/3/23 Doubles tennis at Hanscom. Stretched w/band rows, laterals.
3/4/23 3k walk/jog at Swanson. Trail wet, so laps of the field w/slow, focused pushups on the picnic table between laps. Stretched later.
3/5/23 2h hard rallying. Very tired, sore calf. Stretch, w/grippers.
3/6/23 Stupidly tried to play tennis and hurt my right calf. I think it just got aggravated and compounded over the last four days of activity.
3/7/23 20m basement stretch w/band row, theraband, grippers.
3/8/23 This was an hour w/20m each stretching, lifting and tennis. Good focus on the machines & the flexibility (used equipment to stretch). * stretch * leg press * leg curl * pulldown * flye * press * row * ab machine * stretch * wall tennis
Right calf tender, but not as bad as Monday.
3/9/23 30m basement session w/stretch, pushups, band curls, triceps extension, grip, and split work (3 x 1m).
3/10/23 One hour at the gym. Still feeling the right calf. I think the 3k in thin running shoes on top of a lot of hard tennis did it. Frustrating, and I know I should take time off it. * stretch * kb goblet squat * wall sit * glute/ham * pulldown (hammer) * db bench press * standing cable curls * machine dips * wall tennis
Hadn’t gone to the far end of the gym for a long time. Different options. Good session. I liked the feel on the cable curls. 20m stretch later at home.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2023 18:07:25 GMT
3/11/23 Weather is nasty, which was perfect for a recovery kind of day.
I skipped dynamic warm-up because I think adding in leg swings the last few days has not helped my calf heal at all. I’ll hold off on those until the pain is gone.
In general I avoided moves that strenuously hit the calf. That meant no hartzells or direct calf stretching. I then to overdo those anyway. I’m supposed to play tennis tomorrow and I hope the calf holds up.
35m in the basement. * flossing * thoracic opening * vinyasa lite * grippers * theraband * band accentuated press * small band finger extension * pancake easy
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Michael
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Post by Michael on Mar 11, 2023 18:51:55 GMT
Glad to see You posting Your workouts! You're doing what You like and that's good. You play a lot of tennis and that can be hard on the body without doing exercise. So You have to watch the amount of exercise and volume You do. I'm more of a routine guy and I watch how much I train because of my physical jobs. Seems like You play tennis every other day? Maybe the stretching You're doing is causing the calf tweaks. Three things I did that helped with ankle/calf problems were calf raises, tibialis raises, and a foam roller. Also adding in one legged exercises help to. I know they are not exactly one legged but I do reverse lunges, bulgarian split squats, and one legged squats from time to time.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2023 19:09:43 GMT
Glad to see You posting Your workouts! You're doing what You like and that's good. You play a lot of tennis and that can be hard on the body without doing exercise. So You have to watch the amount of exercise and volume You do. I'm more of a routine guy and I watch how much I train because of my physical jobs. Seems like You play tennis every other day? Maybe the stretching You're doing is causing the calf tweaks. Three things I did that helped with ankle/calf problems were calf raises, tibialis raises, and a foam roller. Also adding in one legged exercises help to. I know they are not exactly one legged but I do reverse lunges, bulgarian split squats, and one legged squats from time to time. Thanks for reading Michael. I make it a point to read your log when I am on here because it's interesting and long term. I like how you just get on with it. Motivating. Good point about the calf stretching. I do tend to over do that, Long story short, my achilles and PF issues are kept at bay BARELY with consistent rehab/prehab/voodoo and luck. But direct calf stretching & strength work helps. For the achilles especially, slow accentuated seated calf work that hits the soleus works. But yeah probably overdid that for too many days. The tibialis is a good suggestion. I always *mean* to work them but never do it consistently. TBH *somethiing* is always tweaked.
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Michael
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Post by Michael on Mar 12, 2023 14:14:57 GMT
Thanks Yogalete! Oh I meant to use unilateral leg work instead of one legged. It helps with ankle mobility without doing mobility work. Someone once told me that You can be flexible or You can be strong but You can't be both. I don't totally agree with that statement and think there can be a good balance of both.
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Post by mr potatohead on Mar 12, 2023 17:42:41 GMT
Thanks Yogalete! Oh I meant to use unilateral leg work instead of one legged. It helps with ankle mobility without doing mobility work. Someone once told me that You can be flexible or You can be strong but You can't be both.
I don't totally agree with that statement and think there can be a good balance of both."Strong" and "flexible" are relative terms, so it would be difficult to make a case for the different ways of viewing it without some qualifying data.
Otherwise, it's just speculation.
I can also say that when someone tells me I "can't" do something, I'm going to think about how I can or might be able to. ...... (of course, I'm assuming that it is a good thing to do, not a bad thing)
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Michael
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Post by Michael on Mar 12, 2023 18:57:58 GMT
Thanks Yogalete! Oh I meant to use unilateral leg work instead of one legged. It helps with ankle mobility without doing mobility work. Someone once told me that You can be flexible or You can be strong but You can't be both.
I don't totally agree with that statement and think there can be a good balance of both."Strong" and "flexible" are relative terms, so it would be difficult to make a case for the different ways of viewing it without some qualifying data.
Otherwise, it's just speculation.
I can also say that when someone tells me I "can't" do something, I'm going to think about how I can or might be able to. ...... (of course, I'm assuming that it is a good thing to do, not a bad thing)Typical Mikey, you know everything.
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Post by mr potatohead on Mar 12, 2023 19:07:28 GMT
Thanks m8!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2023 20:13:45 GMT
3/12/23 2h 15m morning tennis. Some twinges with the calf, but not too bad. Still feel like I should be smart and really let it rest and heal. Just an easy afternoon stretch today. pretty tired.
Tennis was good, excellent quality with the Sunday group. Played round robin doubles then a set of singles.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2023 20:36:05 GMT
It's funny you mention the strength vs flexible thing. It's not really an issue for me, because at 66, my days of PR's in lifting are pretty much behind me. I don't even track weights or reps these days, or do things like chins or rep out on pushups because of injuries but I still strength train. I'm a one (set) and done guy, heavily HIT influenced. Mostly machines or bands, good slow reps and turnarounds, sets are between 45 sec and 2m depending on the movement. I actually enjoy training like that. Really basic movements done hard, but I am 100% focused on the muscle not the weight on the bar or reps.
I say it is funny you mention it because I recently reread Jujimufu's "Legendary Flexibility" book (the best book on flexibility I have ever read) and he gets into that.
First, a blanket statement like “static stretching before training is bad” makes the assump- tion that when you do static stretching you are always relaxing. Not true. Relaxed static stretching before training isn’t bad because it’s static or stretching, it’s the “relaxed” part that is the culprit! Any prolonged period of relaxation that may come before IMMEDIATE and EXPLOSIVE exertion can cool you down and knock you out of a training prime........
Second, a blanket statement like “static stretching before training is bad” makes the as- sumption that when you do static stretching, every muscle group in your body is being stretched. It also makes the assumption that when you train, every muscle group in your body is being stressed. I mean, just look at this 135 lb (61 kg) pistol squat:
(I removed the picture)
To warm up to max out on this pistol squat, I spent the first 30 minutes doing nothing but a gauntlet of thoracic extension stretches on a PVC pipe, relaxed abs stretches, relaxed wrist stretches, and relaxed ankle stretches. I also do a relaxed static stretch just with that one hamstring (the left one in the picture above) before the set. Why? I need to clear the ground with that leg. If I can’t stretch that leg enough in front of me, then that heel will touch the ground, so the hamstring has to be loose enough to stretch out of the way. So after all that, I did some bodyweight pistol squats to get the pattern firing. Then I grabbed the barbell for the first time and I started working my way up in weight for 15 minutes until I was doing it with 135 lbs (61 kgs), all the while supplementing with more of those relaxed stretches as needed. If something felt “tight” in an area that needed to relax... I used my build up sets of the actual exercise itself, the pistol squat, as feedback for what needed stretched more. In my own case, my wrists suck, so I kept having to add more wrist stretch- es between sets. Deep and relaxed static wrist stretches to be precise. And then marvel of marvel, I accomplished this stupid feat of strength... with the help of tactical relaxed static stretches during the warm up!
I'm not planning any 135lb pistols, but the point stands. I'm pretty flexible, and I have the idea in the back of my mind (probably from rereading Jujimufu) that a goal might be full front splits before my 67th birthday next Jan. I've done them before and have sort of lost them, and *may* work towards that. Not sure yet. Anyway, stretching does not seem to impact my little 20 -30m HIT sessions. Stretching just feels good, and I do it for that reason.
Thanks for reading guys!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2023 20:44:08 GMT
Speaking of Jujimufu, he had a couple of excellent articles about workout logs on his site. It looks like he took then down, but I saved them somewhere, I'll post something on that at some point.
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Michael
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Post by Michael on Mar 12, 2023 21:58:06 GMT
Much respect playing that much tennis at 66. My other post about the stretching wasn't to discourage You, if it works for You keep on doing it. I always did worse/got injured when playing sports or doing my physical jobs if I did stretching before hand.
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Post by mr potatohead on Mar 13, 2023 15:49:50 GMT
It's funny you mention the strength vs flexible thing. It's not really an issue for me, because at 66, my days of PR's in lifting are pretty much behind me. I don't even track weights or reps these days, or do things like chins or rep out on pushups because of injuries but I still strength train. I'm a one (set) and done guy, heavily HIT influenced. Mostly machines or bands, good slow reps and turnarounds, sets are between 45 sec and 2m depending on the movement. I actually enjoy training like that. Really basic movements done hard, but I am 100% focused on the muscle not the weight on the bar or reps. I say it is funny you mention it because I recently reread Jujimufu's "Legendary Flexibility" book (the best book on flexibility I have ever read) and he gets into that. (I removed the picture)
I'm not planning any 135lb pistols, but the point stands. I'm pretty flexible, and I have the idea in the back of my mind (probably from rereading Jujimufu) that a goal might be full front splits before my 67th birthday next Jan. I've done them before and have sort of lost them, and *may* work towards that. Not sure yet. Anyway, stretching does not seem to impact my little 20 -30m HIT sessions. Stretching just feels good, and I do it for that reason. Thanks for reading guys! Your post contains some qualifying statements, as I noted in my post were needed. Age, injury history, one's personal interpretation of what "stretching" is, etc, etc, .... we need to evaluate many more qualifying factors than just "the choice you have is to be either, flexible or strong, but not both" to understand what we're talking about, and for it to contain any valuable information to us as exercisers. Thanks for posting your circumstances and the Jujimufu info, yogalete, m8! I thought that the old codger notion that;........had died many years ago, but apparently not.It is nothing but BS. Lots of exercise studies to show that. HERE's an article with lots of referenced documentation. Resistance exercise can actually INCREASE flexibility AS strength increases. Don't listen to the "gym-bros" or "mom and pop" when they talk fear about becoming muscle-bound and inflexible. It's nonsense.
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Post by mr potatohead on Mar 13, 2023 16:30:05 GMT
Stretching builds muscle and flexibility. For your further investigation, HERE is Jason Gallant, "Natural Gallant Bodybuilding" youtube channel search results video list for the search: "Natural Gallant Bodybuilding Stretching Flexibility Exercises".
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