My workout today was rally! Lol, did a rally class with my puppy. He's about 7 months old now. We've been doing this once a week. Today was the last session of the class and then you can sign up for another 6 weeks. Enjoying my vacation right now. I don't have any work for all of this week. Took some time off. Haven't been able to lock down on when or how I'll get out west to go out skiiing hopefully. Talked with my wife tonight and it sounds like maybe later in the week it might work for both of us or I might do a little solo adventure. We'll see about that. Tuning into how my body feels. Really, really tight in my left hip. I know I mentioned that last Friday. I'll do what I have been doing. Holding some pigeon poses. Just doing gentle stretches. Nothing hard. I think a lot of is a result of a lot of sitting for extended amounts of time. When I say extended it can be 1 to 3 hours. I do try to break it up with some movement. I just noticed if I'm sedentary, surprise surprise, right things get stiff. My back feels pretty stiff right now, too. Really want to pump up some of the playful exercise this week but not do it in a way where my body is punished.

Got in the gym for my 31st training session. Really enjoyed it this morning. The first circuit hit the ground running. Not literally, but for me things in the last month have been slow progressions. I felt like my trainer today pushed it just a little bit to see how I responded. Overall I don't feel a lot of soreness or tenderness in my back. If anything, my left hip is still a little uncomfortable. Really want to make sure that I continue to stretch and give it the recovery and rest that it needs. Getting back to the workout, in the gym this morning I did plank holds. But added more challenging stabilization to it. You'd lift one leg, or one arm, or alternate and hold for 30 seconds. Probably my favorite part was near the end. I did pull ups. Instead of doing a normal pull up, I lifted my legs tried to get it to an L sit. I could hold my legs that well going down and up without it getting a little suspect with my bodyweight rocking. So I lifted my knees up and was doing that. By the third set I hit the wall of like, 2 reps out really good, 3 rep up going up just stopped. Midway through, wasn't going up or going down. Called it on that. Did one other movement after that. Felt like a really nice finish. Next week not going to be in the gym at all. Going out, headed out West to play in the mountains and play a little. Hoping to get out and go cross country skiiing. Take some time to deload a little bit and take a well deserved rest. Hopefully mid February get back in the gym, as long as things keep progressing with my back and hips, and overall energy levels, hoping I can get back to jumping.

Went swimming for my lunch break today. Got there at a good time. 30 minutes in the water. Took 10 minutes as a nice thorough warmup. Actually, instead of doing just treading water, I was only using my legs, then only my shoulders. Really nice to be able to use my muscles in different ways in the water. I put on the acqujogger belt. Did 5 or 6 laps. Did some sidestrokes. The pool is such a no brainer. I don't think I've finished in a pool session feeling like I shouldn't be there. It's really nice to have that as an option. Looking at tomorrow. I'll get in the hoping. Hoping with my schedule. I think next week I'll be out all next week. Going to be doing some travelling. Then hopefully by the time that I come back into the gym and get back into training my back, and even my hip should have enough rest where things have maybe settled down a little bit. I'll be doing some stuff when I'm travelling, too. Trying to plan for a skiiing trip, or do some hiking. Things like that.

Got in the gym for my 30th training session. Felt really nice today. A lot of variety on the movements. Did a lot of rotational core strength. Paired that with doing shoulder movements. A lot of whole body exercises and a little bit of agility. Overall today when I finished paid attention to how I felt. I can tell my hips are still tight, especially on the left side. As far as the pain in my back, that's improving everyday, so it is still there. I don't want to push that too fast or add weight too soon. Tomorrow the plan is get in the pool. Give myself a good half an hour to loosen up. Really enjoyed having the props of wearing a belt and using a kickboard to focus on different movements while I'm in the in water. Then Friday get back in the gym. 

Went swimming over my lunch break for a good 35 minutes. Felt really nice to get in the pool. Last week it didn't work out on Tuesday or Thursday, so to have a full half an hour I was able to get 10 laps in. Brought my props with me. Had a kickboard, acquajogger belt, and did a variety of movements. With my back, paid attention to how it felt when I was working on the turns. And overall it's continued to improve week over week. Actually at the point where tomorrow getting back in the gym I'll probably do a little light plyometric. Think skipping over a hurdle, something like that to see how it feels. Feels good to moving again and getting a little more activity. Looking forward to a good week.

29th training session in the gym. Hard to believe January is already gone. Happened fast, but I'm not looking back. Was a good month to recover. Looking at February I'm excited to get back moving in the gym and hopefully jumping again. Right now today big emphasis on shoulders and core. Did a lot of movements that really challenged me. You have to be balanced, be on point. Did a bulgarian split squat using a TRX strap. Started out doing that with bodyweight. Handled that really well. So I did take a weight, 35lb plate, kept it close to the chest as I was squatting up and down. It's more the balance and stabilization that challenges me on that. Not so much the weight. By the time I got done, I called the rate of perceived effort a 6. Broke a nice sweat. Really looking forward to this week. With Wednesday and Friday I'll stay in routine and get to the gym. Tomorrow hopefully get to the pool over my lunch break. The only sensation that I have right now that's uncomfortable is in my left hip. It's almost a dull ache or stinging. Hoping I can continue to progress and not feel that pain. I've been doing a little extra gentle stretching at night. Restorative yoga. Hoping I'm using the right approach here. Excited to get in the water tomorrow and keep going.

28th training session in the gym. Pretty fun today. Able to move around a bit better. First circuit required some jumping. Not an all out jump or anything close to it. But just getting off the box so I was just doing a single leg step up box jump. You're just driving and the momentum carries you up. You land, repeat it, do it with the other leg. The exercise I really enjoyed today was the slosh pipe. I've never done it before. It's a PVC pipe filled up with water. Probably weighed like 50 lbs. You bear hug it to your chest. You're balancing it in the crack of your elbows and biceps and forearms. You walk with it. As you're walking, if it gets off balance, the tendency is to squeeze harder but it doesn't help you much. You really have to learn how to use your core. That one was a doozy. After I got done with all my movements today felt pretty good. I can tell my left hip, there's a slight sore feeling. Not a stinging sensation, but it is something I'm taking note of. Just kind of an uncomfortable feeling. I don't want to push it. This weekend I'm going to continue to rest up. Next week Monday get back in the gym. Kind of on schedule right now I think for February I'll be able to get back to some plyometric movements and see how it goes.

Did restorative yoga today. Instead of going to the pool, decided to stay at home, take my time. Yesterday actually got new flooring installed in the basement. So that was really nice. Great to put the mat on a flat floor now. Before it was just like this cold, gray cement. Now it's an actual finished floor. Something soothing, comforting, and inviting about that. With my routine I downloaded an app called down dog yoga. You punch in what you want. So I just put 5 minutes, restorative yoga, with emphasis on hip stretches, really enjoyed it. Nothing new in the sense I've done these sorts of things before. But having that guided format flows well. By the end of it you finish with shavasana. I don't know if that's how you say it. You're on your back, relaxing, letting go. That was really nice. I look at today as more passive recovery. With how I feel, I'm sore in the arm from a tetanus shot the other day. I can tell, I don't know if I'm dehydrated, but I didn't have a strong headache but a dull, achy feeling. I felt good taking it easy today and looking forward to getting good rest tonight. Tomorrow get in the gym. 

27th training session in the gym. Went really well with my trainer. Wanted to know how my back was feeling. Told him it continues to progress. Tried some movements today to test the waters. I did jump roping for 1 minute. Not a heavy jump rope. But lightly going up and down. Seeing how the impact felt and no issues there. Did another movement where it was just taking a 10 lb medball and throwing that into the ground with enough force it'd come back up, you catch it, and throw it down again. You're not leaving your feet. You're just extending up and down, up and down. That was probably the most aggressive movement, and I felt a little activation on my back. We'll see tomorrow how it feels. Overall it went really well. Call it a rate of perceived effort of around 5. Got into the chiropractor afterward. Did my last official treatment. So it was 6 treatments since the beginning of the new year. Really that's felt really good too. I did a therapy exercise that surprised me. It was a deadbug on the foamroller. On the one side, I could do it. It was really challenging. But on the other side, it was like uggh. I don't know how to do this. My body doesn't want to move like that. It was basically like imagine doing the deadbug, but you lift both your arms up. You can only be balanced with your feet, your hips, and your core. And you're marching where you're lifting one leg up and alternating. I think it was when my left leg was down, trying to lift my right leg up. That was really difficult. So I'm going to tune in on that, work those smaller movements. Then as I progress, hopefully next week be at a point where I'm back in the gym doing some light movement and light jumping.

Another day of passive recovery. Initially wanted to get in the pool tonight, but by the time I was going to get there it'd only be 10 minutes in the water. So, just decided to switch it, do a light massage on my back. Did what I did yesterday. With prone press ups, dead bug on the foam roller. When I'm talking dead bug, not sure if that's the right name for it, but you're on the foam roller, you're stabilizing, lift one leg up and raise the opposite arm at the same time. Then you're just putting that down. Alternate and do that ten times or so. Something that was interesting today is took my physical. Just an annual wellness check-in. I say annual, but it's probably been three years since I've done that. And part of it was getting my tetanus shot. See if I'm sore from that at all. Felt fine going into my arm and I haven't felt it yet. But who knows when I wake up. Then also was able to do a screening with my blood. Get some of the lipids. It was cool. I got the results tonight. Everything checked out fine from what I could tell. I did bring up the concern if I'm eating more of a plant-based diet, and not as heavy into meats or dairy, are there any deficiencies that I have to watch for. She wasn't a nutritionist, but probably wasn't her job. Just said pay attention to your fatigue. It can be common that people have iron deficiencies if they go from eating a lot of red meat and they don't eat any at all. At this point, feeling pretty good, going to get rested up and in the gym tomorrow morning.