Training for X

Passive recovery today. One thing to note, audio might sound little different. I had to pack up my gear tonight. Actually going to be headed out tomorrow to go West. Lining up a week long trip to go cross country skiiing, some hiking. Not high intensity activity, but good movement. Purposely going to be out of the gym. Do a little bit of deloading, and get in Nature and soak it up. Excited to be in the mountains. Other thing today that was really interesting, that I wasn't expecting, I had an opportunity to get my first vaccine dose of the Pfizer shot. So definitely going to pay attention to how I feel. I don't anticipate any weird effects. I haven't had anything with other shots I've done in years prior. Who knows, I'll take it day by day and check in tomorrow.

39th training session. Overall felt great. RPE 7. Today was a lot of whole body movements. Doing a lot of jumping. For example, did hex bar jumps. You're just holding a hex bar, driving straight up, going for height. Land it, reset your feet, then do that again. Did a lot of other movements that are simple, but very good for jumping higher. For example, did max height jumps. Take a 2 or 3 step approach. You really drive, use a penultimate step, try to get up quick and hang. Overall felt great today to get back to some of that movement. I don't really have to taper back that much. Curious to see how my body recovers. Throughout this week it's held up pretty well. Only troublesome spot is probably that left hip or lower back. I'll pay attention to that. Going into next week, I'm not going to be training in the gym. That should be a nice deloading week, get some recovery, and then check in and see how I feel on Monday and go from there.

Got in the pool today for 25 minutes over my lunchbreak. Similar to Tuesday, tread water for 5 minutes, then swam a few laps up and down. Put on the acquajogger belt, ran a few laps back and forth, then finished with a front crawl. I do notice, when I do the front crawl. My shoulders are good, my legs are good, the strength isn't an issue. My technique must be lacking a little, because after doing 1 or 2 laps I feel winded. And I know that I don't have the endurance of a swimmer or the capacity to breathe like that, but it would be nice to go like at least 2 laps without having to stop. Maybe that's a good challenge for 2021. Swim 3 consecutive laps on a front crawl. Anyway, for tomorrow's workout, expecting a pretty good intensity again. My hip has continued to give me a little pain. I actually went in for a check-in with the chiropractor yesterday and they pointed out my TFL area is something that can use some work. I'm sure a lot of muscles can use work. I'm going to be taking a lacrosse ball, doing some gentle stretching on the TFL, then hopefully see if I can loosen that up a little bit. So as I continue to jump and do more weights in the gym, things don't get super tight on me.

38th training session in the gym. RPE 7 or even an 8. Second circuit is where I started to feel it. Did a lot of jumping movements today. Felt really good overall. Only had one movement that was bothersome with my hip. More about the depth of the squat that I was doing with the weight. Adjusted it to where I was going a little higher and it was fine. Some of the movements I did today. Kettlebell elevated squats on 12 or 14" boxes. Then I did that where I added a jumping movement to it. That was really interesting. I haven't done that before. It was a wide leg jump and you have to counter the movement going down and explode back up. Did a few other things, where, what got me at the very end was doing a single arm push up. I can't do it completely, especially on my left hand side, it's a little weaker than my right. Took a wide leg stance, go down, and push back up. Tendency is your hips don't come with you if you're not strong enough, so you kind of pop your butt up in the air and it doesn't look very good. I was able to rep those out pretty well on my 1st set, but after going through on the 3rd time that really pushed up the intensity of finishing out my workout. Overall great day today. Feeling good. We'll see how I recover tomorrow. 

Got in the pool for 20 minutes over lunch. Really nice, able to warmup with treading water for 5 minutes. Then took the kickboard and did 2 laps of flutterkicks up and down. Felt pretty warm. Took the aquajogger belt and actually did some light running and a few sprint sessions in the water. When I say sprint, I'm talking 10-15 seconds. That felt great. Finished with doing a breaststroke for a few laps. Overall can tell being in the water the resistance is really nice. It's challenging, but doesn't have any pain associated with it when it comes to my hips, back, or my shoulders. Feels good to continue to be in the water. Looking at tomorrow, get back in the gym, anticipating this week will be more intensity, especially with the impact. Curious to see how my body is prepared for that. So far, so good. I'll check in tomorrow. 

37th training session in the gym. Overall RPE 5 or 6. Did some movements with weights. Power cleans from the blocks. Another thing I really enjoyed was getting back to doing some light jumping. Hurdle hops. Set of 6 going on my right leg, then go right back around and do it with my left leg. First circuit, did that 4 times through. Then second circuit finished with some good movements that were more upper body focused. Really want to work on my thoracic spine strength and mobility. For example, did a movement where you go underneath the bar and you're pulling your chest up to it. Then just doing pull-ups and things like that. Overall a good day. I can still tell with my left hip, especially in that left side where it wraps around, having some persistent pain. So I don't want to push that any further. After it was warmed up it felt pretty good. I'll continue to pay attention to it throughout the week and see how it goes.

36th training session in the gym. Rate of perceived effort a 7, maybe even an 8. What bumped up the intensity was doing single leg step ups with a weighted barbell. The type of barbell is a safety barbell. It has padding, and wraps around your shoulders. So there's a little more movement to it, and you hold it with your hands. The movement that I did with my legs, was one leg at a time stepping up onto the box and then the opposite leg you're driving your knee up to parallel, to where your knee would be at least waist height. Doing that motion really enforces the idea that your body has to move as a unit, and stay stable in your core. I did 3 cycles through on it and on the 3rd set I could tell I was fatiguing a little bit, but I was keeping my form really well. That's why you have a trainer to spot and to see. Tonight as I'm recording this, I can tell I pushed as far as I'd want to go, especially with how I've been progressing back into movements. Another nice thing about today's workout, I actually did jumping. Just double-legged bunny hops over hurdles. Emphasis was being on explosive. Then did some light pulls from the rack. Really feels like a precursor to a good month for March. It's a lot like I was doing in December. Really want to make sure as I ramp this up I match it with the right recovery. Feeling good right now. Definitely going to sleep well tonight. Then check back in on Monday. 

Did some light active recovery at home today. Looking forward to getting back into the pool. Might have the opportunity to use their training pool. Instead of it being actual lap swim, I could get to where I'd be in a shallow depth area where it's 3 feet progressing to 5, then I could do some movements with my hips. And some things that maybe I'd do on dryland in the water, and challenge myself a little that way. Looking at yesterday, I did get into the chiropractor as a checkup. Everything continues to feel better. Always pair it, so far, where I get the adjustment and therapy and ice my back. I did the psoas muscle again. I'll call it a psoas muscle release. It went better, especially on my right side it wasn't as intense or painful. I wasn't gasping. The area on the my left front hip, there's a muscle that's wrapping around. I'm sure this stuff is all connected, so not sure what to call it. That muscle was tender on the psoas exercise when we were pushing down on it and moving my leg. It's encouraging to see the progress despite some of the pain and setbacks that I've had in the last month, month and a half. Really looking forward tomorrow to take a little extra time to warm up, jump around a bit, see how I do.

35th training session in the gym. Definitely a leg day, no doubt about it. Started with some movements on the agility ladder, then progressed that by taking bands that went around my ankles that acted as resistance. Really hard to stay coordinated in your movements when you have that jerking motion on your legs as you're running through. I got used to it. Third time through I was sweating. Wouldn't be surprised if I'm feeling it a little bit tomorrow in my legs. Did another movement that was just a simple deadlift with a hex bar on an elevated surface. I wasn't going all the way down to the ground. Just paying attention to how my back felt. That movement, you really have to stay activated and strong, felt like my legs were really getting good work. That was nice. Then probably my favorite movement was doing a kettlebell walk overhead. Took a bar, and then had bands tied to kettlebells where I had to balance as I walked. Definitely a shoulder stability movement. I did some marching over tiny little hurdles as I was doing that. Overall felt like I hit a lot of good areas today. Probably more stimulating in the fact of being coordinated in what I was doing, then actually pushing heavy weights or things like that. Feels nice to get back to some more movement on the turf. Think on Friday, when I get back in the gym, I'll do some light plyometrics and see how things feel.

Did a little light recovery at home today. Took 15 minutes to work on mobility with my hips and lower back. Really just took my time with the foam roller, worked a few different angles, stretched out. Not a lot to talk about there. Looking at tomorrow, get back in the gym for my 35th training session and I'm starting to turn the corner a little bit. With my back, I certainly feel it, and I know that for every area that opens up it leads to another one that's tight. I'm battling with some of those imbalances, but overall I can tell I'm getting back to better movement. I think tomorrow we're going to do some drills on the agility ladder, add some resistance to the movements, and just start trying to challenge the intensity of my workout where I'm not doing all out explosive movements. But I'm definitely doing something where I'm not just maintaining. Excited to get back at it and I'll check in tomorrow.