Injuries in the Gym - Assisted Pull Up Machine - Ahhhhh

From time to time I am reminded that although I am mentally enthusiastic about weight training that I need to be a bit more cautious in order to avoid  injuries which can derail my fitness program.  My current injury occured about a week ago when I got a bit cocky about my strength on the Assisted Pull Up machine.  That is not me in the picture, and it is not even close to what I would wear to a gym :-0 but that is an example of the machine that I hurt myself on.

I did one chin up - narrow hold not wide and said to my trainer - too light!  So he made an adjustment and all of a sudden I was straining through 10 reps.  Thankfully I was sensible enough to do the next two sets at a more friendly weight - but I was to find out later that it was already too late.  When you try to lift weights that are too much for you you lose your form.  If you are on the 'hyper mobile' end of the scale you can also mess up your joints and then muscles can tighten to a frightening degree to try to support the now dodgey joint - anyway, that is what happened to me!

Here is a link to an article in the Huffington Post on how to use these machines (I might forward it to my trainer)  My Massage Therapist (magic hands Margaret) - thinks I may have let my 'traps' rise up … as well as having put to much strain on my 'lats' and now my right lower back and 'glute' are in open rebellion.

Fix Your Form - How to Use the Assisted Pull Up Machine

So far I have had one Osteo visit, two massages with another booked, a stretching and foam roller session for an hour with my trainer, and I have booked an acupuncture treatment as well.  I've had to cancel my training session for today and am hopeful that I can attend on Thursday.  Walking is still ok, so I have a 2 hour bush walk planned for later in the week too.  I am getting by with Ibuprofen and heat packs.

So it is a slow start to my fitness year.  Needing to peel back a few Summer Holiday kgs, and get back in shape may take a little longer than initially projected.  But as I am oft reminded - results are 70% about the diet - so I can do that.  It has been 1 year since I signed up with Vision and they have been great overall.  I can't see myself giving up on them anytime soon.  Whether I can justify another year of having two gym memberships in another matter.

Tired but trim

I sit here at the computer, allegedly waiting till it has been two hours since breakfast, to go exercise and burn off some fat.  Heaven forbid I would burn the carbs I had at breakfast by mistake.  I am tired but trim ... My clothes fit better but I feel like I have been hit by a bus after a chiropractic adjustment yesterday, then a massage then half an hour cardio with my PT.  I guess that until my body gets strong I just need to push through.

I lashed out on Friday, out to dinner with a girlfriend in Canberra and had a delicious Degustation Menu with matching wines.  The food itself was not outside what I am encouraged to eat - the star was protein with veges being the support and no white carbs in evidence, and we skipped the optional Cheese course It is the wine that apparently I should be regretting.

I can highly recommend http://www.sagerestaurant.net.au if you are ever in Canberra

Actually after over a month with no alcohol I thought that I would enjoy it more - savour it more, appreciate what I have been missing, but I was underwhelmed actually, even though they were nice wines.  I actually think I would have enjoyed and savoured the delicious food more so if I hadn't have been drinking with it.  All good stuff to have discovered.

Anyway I shall get off my butt and go walk 5kms up hill and down dale in hopefully around the 40min mark.  Afterall - I am dressed for it!

Low Carb Lethargy

I have been laying off the blogging as I was tending to do it last thing at night and then finding myself to be really exhausted in the morning.  And what I have found is that it hasn't helped and that I am still exhausted and what should have been obvious earlier is that I am feeling exhausted because I am eating hardly any carbs, while exercising more and still looking after 3 kids etc.

Actually there is plenty of noise on the Internet about it.  I just hadn't looked before.  Distracted as I was my concerns about high protein diets and the effects on your liver and bones :-/.  Actually the stuff I have found on the net talks about 40% carbs, 40% protein and 30% fat.  What I am doing is 34% carbs, 51% protein and 15% fat.  No wonder I am exhausted!  I am going to have to have a word with my PT.

In other news I am still loving my newly found waist and my FitBit tells me that I have taken over 14,000 steps today (10.5kms).

I gave my motivation a kick along by treating my self to a little bit of a spree at Adidas - even buying running shorts - not previously an item that has ever been found in my wardrobe.  (What?  You should see the stuff that is turning up daily from my husband's online shopping for all of the 'stuff' he needs to compete in his 'little' triathlon next weekend.)

Here I sit with my aching feet on a nice warm wheat bag, having already been self-massaged with fabulous Elemis sp@ home muscle ease active Body Oil.  And with my loving DH outa town for the week, actually getting my post written quite early!

Bully for me.

What do Rock Climbing and Ikea have in common?

Ok, that is a trick question.  On Sunday I went rock climbing with my family and my sister and her partner.  It has been 6 years since my last climbing session and before that probably 10 years earlier, but then I used to climb in a gym every week and go climbing, abseiling and canyoning in National Parks on the weekends.  I didn't know if any of those skills were still with me.  My kids took to the walls with no hesitation.  Quite surprisingly even my 10 year old had no reservations and my 4yo daughter was up and down the walls like a mountain goat!  My 7 yo boy was enjoying the challenge of trying the harder climbs.  My husband on the other hand stuck by his opinion that he is too heavy to climb - despite his obvious muscular power which in my mind should have made it possible.  And me?

While my upper body strength is not what it used to be I still had the skills to let me scramble to the tops of the wall without thinking too much about it.  Yay.  Having trained with Paul, just the day before my lats were screaming by the time I reached the top each time, but they recovered in time for me to do it a few times before retiring to lunch.  Belaying the children took some toll on me as well, so I felt I had achieved some kind of acceptable level of activity for a Sunday.

Was I content with that?  Oh no, I had to go home and put together a large Ikea flat pack for my daughters toy storage.  My husband has an allergy to Ikea, and my interested children only maintained their interest for a few minutes at a time.  By the time I had completed putting it together my hamstrings were on fire.

I must have had a premonition about the state of my body by Monday morning, so off I went this morning to see Margaret of the magic hands, so that I could push through to another training session with Paul.  The upside:  I jumped on the scales this morning and I have lost 5kgs since I embarked on this adventure nearly 3 weeks ago. Woo hoo. Paul is happy with me as he has been cranking up my weights quite a bit during that time as well.  I am feeling more clear headed and together than I have for a long time - what a great investment in my lifestyle.

So the answer to the original questions is that they both happen on Sundays.

The magic touch

I have a fabulous massage therapist.  I only found her about 6 months ago.  My Chiropractor referred me to her.  I have known my chiropractor for about 15years and he is very skilled and has never given me a bum steer. He used to be the chiro for the Australian Swim Team and he probably knows me better than most of the members of my family.  Anyway, he was right on the money with Margaret.  She is all kinds of qualified, with degrees and diplomas in all kinds of sport, massage and personal training and related subjects.

When I say to people that I've had a massage, I am sure they picture an aromatherapy experience and me coming out feeling blissfully relaxed and like I could just go straight to sleep (after I wash the oil slick off me).  Actually Margaret is not one bit like that.  She is much more like a really expert motor mechanic, working on an engine that she knows really well and wants to tune to within an inch of its life to get the best performance out of it.

She got to know my issues quite well initially, and now I walk in and she asks me what hurts and then she usually goes no where near the offending area at first, but works with the muscle group that are related to that spot.  If my feet are giving me hell (see Troublesome feet below) she does my calves and ITB.  If my neck is sore she massages my MTJ (jaw).

What I love about her is that she is so hard working.  She is ambitious for her business and herself.  She teaches, she does corporate work, she goes to markets, she networks, she volunteers at charity events and she is a single mature mum of 2 kids.  Other professionals, like George, and physiotherapists, and personal trainers love to work with her and are always trying to get her involved in their business.

She is my secret weapon on my fight for fitness. It takes a village :-)