Strength and Performance Gym session 1

Over at S&P for a first session yesterday, it was going to be a short one, with a few exercises to workout various imbalances in the way I move and train in order to see what needs to be worked on, what doesn't, and how my movement patterns can be adjusted to make me more efficient. (in terms of movement, that is).

The warm up consisted of a lot of specific foam rollering on large and small muscle groups, stretches, holds, and movements, like reverse split squats etc. All good stuff for getting the body ready for action- going straight into a decent training session really isn't going to cut it in a gym like this.
Serious preparation for serious work done by motivated people.

We went through a number of movements, including Bear crawls, squats (unweighted and goblet), press-ups, pull ups, kettlebell swings, plank and a moving plank. Nothing too bad or strenuous, but it showed up a fair few chinks in my armour. Most of which I knew about anyway, but wasn't sure how to correct them.

My squatting isn't anywhere as near as it could be- collapsing on the way down- mainly caused by stiff hip flexors, press-ups cause impingement issues with my shoulder- that has been bugging me for a year. I think that we can sort this out in a couple of weeks, because it seems that my lower traps just aren't engaging- and my rhomboids also seem a bit lazy when put under strain.
The problem I've been having is the bigger muscles- like the deltoid- just take up the strain because my body knows they can, and this is impinging the joint and making the movement pattern sub-optimal for the rest of the body.
My general cross-core is not all that strong- rec abs, transverse abs, and serratus ant. and my glutes don't really fire under strain either. This is all probably down to tigh hip flexors again- as they are over firing, the reciprocal inhibition means that glutes and general abdominal muscles don't fire.

As a final FY, I did 3 lengths on the prowler- a steel sled which can be weighted. It really didn't need to be. After the third time I was so close to passing out from lack of blood to the head it really wasn't funny. Thinking back to how bad I felt at the end of 4 hill reps on Monday. This was worse, and in a fraction of the time. I suspect this may be a bit of a kickstart for attacking races, which will be excellent.
Interestingly, the tight hip flexor thing was what lost me a lot of places on the race yesterday (race report here) and so I think there will be a lot of work done on those in the coming few months.

Sean and Zoran were excellent at looking at my form, listening to what I was saying about what I felt, and then changing things so as to avoid excessive pain (not pain from tiredness, but bad pain- which stops you training). The screening was thorough, and everything they said resonated with what I have been feeling and how I believe I need to train.
I mentioned a little earlier about how I knew there were bits that I need to train to get rid of imbalances and niggles. I have been trying to do that on my own for a fair while, and not having much success. Within 40 mins, we knew what was wrong and how it needed to be worked on.

Sean pointed out that from my goals, none of them included flexibility... the reason for that is because as I train, and ans I become able to attain the goals, flexibility should be a byproduct of everything I do- its not something that I am aiming for specifically, but something that should happen through correct training.


This weekend is Scrambling in Wales, Monday is back to S&P
Can't wait.

weights

So I was invited to go over to a friends house to train with him- he has some free weights, and I need to get my lifting technique better- so I said yes.

My long term overuse shoulder injury appeared to have died down, and I've been climbing a couple of times without any issue- so hey- it should be fine.

We followed his general routine, which was fine, I just wanted to get into the groove again- knowing that after a fair old time out, I was going to be pretty rubbish at it.
We started with Bench press, went on to tricep curls, bicep curls, military presses, press ups and sit ups.
You may have noticed that there are quite a few variations of presses there, and that is part of my downfall.
It seems to have aggravated a bit of tendinitis in the right shoulder, which really hurts at the moment. There is a more technical description of what I have done over on Globaltherapies.blogspot.com.

So the key for today is DON'T go straight into something that you're not used to.
Its intelligent advice, and advice that I give out to people all the time. I wish I followed it, then I wouldnt be back at square one with rehab bands, ibuprofen gel and concern every time I lift my arm above shoulder height.

on the up side, I can spend more time running.
Lantern Pike on Sunday- thats a short fast blast in the park- and I'll be writing up the race report on the Global Therapies site later on.