Recovery

Last time I posted was February 7th. I was going to take a rest day the next day. I did not. I did, however, take a rest day the following day. I was smoked. I also decided to skip the judo class and relax. Thank goodness for rest days!


Even though I want to see results, I have come to the age where I understand my limitations. I'm not talking about simply being scared or too lazy to give it my all. I'm talking about reality. And the reality is, I'm middle aged. It never occurred to me that one day I would say, "I'm old, I have to rest," but now I am. For a while, that bothered me, like I was using my age as an excuse. Now I understand that my age has brought me just a small modicum of wisdom, and I am proud to announce my age and that I am freaking going to rest!!!


The saying, "Age is just a number" is synonymous to, "Money doesn't matter." Okay? Money doesn't matter unless you need it desperately to eat, bathe, sleep somewhere safe. Basic life necessities. So people who think that age is not a factor are either really young or delusional. 


I have a brother who is 50 years old and is uber-athletic. This guy has the body of a 25-year-old athlete. He can do anything physical well. But he is not typical. He has always been athletic. He has never been a big drinker, never smoked, and eats clean. Because he started taking care of himself at a young age, he can do what he does now at age 50. The answer is to START YOUNG. Start taking care of yourself when you are young. We are not indestructible and we don't last forever. 


I guess it goes back to the age and recovery thing. I want to stress that recovery and rest are great. Just because you push yourself to 100% every day does not mean you will see results. In order to see results you must allow the body and mind to recover. Even lifters and athletes don't always go all out in their training. Leaving it all at the gym simply means that you have nothing left for everything else in your life.


It is good to go to failure every once in a while. But every day?? If you drove your car like a race car everyday, how long do you think it would be before it broke down? Not long. The same goes with our bodies. Our bodies can be pushed, but they need rest, too. Over time, they break down. They become a little weaker. They need more maintenance. Some things lose elasticity and strength. We have to meet those needs in order to preserve our bodies and maintain our strength and flexibility.


I rest a lot more now. Sometimes it is active recovery, like a 1-mile jog (and I do mean a slow jog) instead of a workout. Sometimes, instead of working out, I hang out with my family and watch movies. It is okay to not work out all the time. My body will not forget how to do a dead lift. It will actually thank me for allowing it to simply be. Once I wrapped that concept around my brain, my ego let it be, too.

Sometimes We Say, "Uncle"

Lately I've been following Old Country Strong's CC, a strength cycle. It's tough but fun! Because of my schedule, I have been following it a little loosely, but I definitely see major value in it. 
In addition to their programming, I am still getting together with my friend to do workouts. She is my trainer/training partner, so we try to incorporate things into our workouts, including OCS' protocol. Yesterday we did one of OCS' workouts, entitled, "Slobberknocker." I have no idea what that means, but I did feel like whatever a slobberknocker might be afterward.
As I was sprawled out on the ground gasping for air after the workout, my friend leaned over me, her head surrounded by the sharp, ugly halo of fluorescent light, she asked me to pick two movements. Dazed by the workout and the vision of her standing over me, I mumbled, "Kettlebells and sit-ups." She nodded, and next thing you know, we were doing a Tabata. A Tabata. Sit-ups, dead lifts, Russian pumps, and kettlebell swings. Really?? 
Why didn't I tell her to screw off????? I don't know. Maybe I felt it would be a great challenge. Maybe I was too confused to say, no. Maybe she locked the doors and I had no choice.
But I did it. It was sloppy and ugly, but I did it, and my numbers were the same as if I had not done a workout already. I was pretty proud of myself.
This morning I went in for the workout, thinking tomorrow I will sleep in and not work out tomorrow. I worked out this morning. Nothing horrendous, and I didn't go balls out, but it was enough to say it was a workout. I guess I was wrong.
Brigitte looked at me and said, "So, you coming in tomorrow?" 
I immediately nodded and replied, "Sure!"
What???? What is wrong with me? I am always trying to tell people to rest, not go to failure. Wouldn't this much working out mean going to failure?
I am considering going to judo tonight because I haven't been in months. Then an OCS workout in the early morning?
When do I say, "Uncle"?
I will let you know after tomorrow.

Listening to the Body

When we make the real resolution to find the eye of the tiger, we tend to go all out. Eating right (whatever that may be for you), working out hard, going all out. These are all symptoms of having the Eye. However, before we go overboard with the Eye, we need to be able to understand and listen to our bodies and minds. The Eye, unleashed and unchecked, can destroy you. 

80%

BGame taking it easy

I know, because the Eye messed me up some months ago when I was doing some strength work. Some months ago I was doing sets of dead lifts at 135#. 5x5. Nothing crazy. I was doing some other movements, too. We would do that before our met con work at about 80% or whatever we felt was good. During my last set, the bar was feeling heavy and I was struggling, for some odd reason. 135? I thought. That is not too heavy!! Against the advice of my friend, who normally tells me to find the Eye, I decided to finish out the pulls. Noooot good. I felt my back seize up on the right side as I went to pull the bar and it all went to hell.


I was laid up for a good five weeks. After that, I still had to be very careful, and I was even scared to try lifting. All because I did not have the patience to listen to what my body was saying and what my workout partner was telling me. It was all the ego bolstered by the Eye that day. 


That is when I realized that I needed to find the delicate balance between going all out at a good clip and doing what was best for my body, without listening to a worried or scared mind. Of course we want to work out hard and see results; when we see that is the important part. Results, strength, balance, agility, or weight loss do not happen overnight. Those things need to happen over time, so that they are a part of the body and soul, not a temporary high that comes on fast but dissipates just as quickly. Good things come to those who wait, something not encouraged in our society. We are a culture of now now now. Except now now now will get you nowhere nowhere nowhere faster than you think.

This week I was weak in the body and the mind. Knowing that, I was more careful and deliberate in my workouts. I assessed whether or not it was just mental. Then I pushed myself physically to the point where I felt I worked hard but still felt good. When I woke up sore and exhausted one day, I took the day off. It was great. Once I understood that I was not simply wimping out or losing out on something, I was able to enjoy the rest and come back the day after my rest day. There was no guilt. I felt great. Most importantly, my body felt much better, and I might even have saved myself from an injury had I gone in to the gym.

Next time you are about to work out and you are not feeling it. Check out what it is. Is it all in your head? Is it in your body? If it is in your head, can you overcome it? If it's in your body, do you really need to work out? Listen to your body. Allow yourself some time to recover. If you don't go balls out, that is perfectly fine. Just because you go balls out one day does not mean you will wake up the next with all your goals realized. Practice some patience and you will be rewarded.

*thanks to BGame for allowing the photos*

Why Do I Work Out?

Most people don't like working out hard. Hard as in sweating, grunting, eyes squeezed shut, feeling sore the next day. That is okay. It is not for everybody. But it is agreed that working out is necessary, right? Even if you don't like it, it is good for you.

Other than helping you maintain or lose weight, how is it good for you? Well, I guess it depends on what you believe is good for you. For me, working out is good for me because: 1) it makes me stronger; and 2) it makes me faster. Those reasons alone have made training more enjoyable, with results I have been able to see and be happy with.

I have to carry groceries and a 3 1/2-year-old up and down two steep and treacherous flights of stairs daily. Before I worked out for functionality, I did it for aesthetics. I looked pretty good; I was thin. I was curling 15# dumbbells. I was doing isolation exercises that made me look a lot stronger than I was. There is no way I could have carried my kiddo and all her things around the way I do now. I would have been out of breath walking up the stairs. It isn't easy going up and down the stairs with 50 pounds of stuff on you, but at least it is doable and I don't have to be hospitalized afterward. I love that I can go buy stuff and not have to leave it in the car when I get home.

When I lift heavier and heavier, I feel like a badass at that moment. I swear to God. Even though I know I am not lifting as much as many others in the world, I feel like I am Awesome when I put more weight on!! Lifting or pulling something you have never been able to before is Empowering. I help friends move furniture into their homes. I can carry heavy boxes of things to and fro. It doesn't matter where they go; it matters that I can carry them.

Speed is paramount in my life, too. I need to be faster to catch my crazy kid who is forever running off. She is fast. I mean, really fast. And when she bolts, it is up to me to catch her. If I didn't have any speed, she would be in even more peril than she is normally. Being fast and agile is important for reflexes. You can catch stuff before it falls and shatters on the ground. You can stop your friend from tumbling in a drunken stupor off the bar stool at the honky tonk club. Agility may keep me from falling down randomly, but since I am so clumsy, I will need the speed to help me tuck and roll or catch my fall.

Besides, strength and speed will help with the aliens. You can fight them, pick them up and throw them in to each other, or tackle them and do a ground-and-pound. When and if your ammo runs out and they overwhelm you with their numbers, you will need that speed to outrun them and dodge their hissing balls of acid flame. Remember that, if nothing else. Plus, you will look good doing it.

My friend doing a 70# Turkish Get-Up. She is the one I will be behind when the aliens attack. In order to help her with them, I aspire to do what she does.

So...why do you work out?

Why work out?

It used to be that I worked out in order to maintain my weight and look better. Certainly, those are legitimate reasons. Most people work out for aesthetics. If you ask all the women at the gym, about 98% of them would say they go to the gym to look good.

Nothing has changed for me. I work out to maintain my weight and keep some semblance of form to my body. But in recent years, I have found liberation in getting stronger, faster, and more physically fit. I don't just work out in order to lose or maintain weight. I work out to get stronger and more fit. Although my weight has a lot to do with what I do at the gym, the motivation comes from the achievements I make with speed or strength. It makes my workouts a lot more fun.

About seven or eight months ago my husband stopped doing CrossFit because he wanted to make his fitness and workouts a little more functional. While CrossFit is made up of functional movements, he wanted to do things that transferred into what he enjoyed and what would help him. He went back to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has been thrilled. Now he works with what works with his BJJ. Although he often comes home injured, bruised and torn, he is always beaming. It caused me to think about what my workouts meant to me.

To preface this even more, years ago, I used to "runch" with an old friend of mine once a week. We called it runch because we would 7-10 miles, then go do lunch. One day, when we were jogging, we were talking about going faster, going slower, doing interval work. My friend and I looked at each other and simultaneously, said, "We need to run better and faster in case we are chased by animals or aliens." Great minds think alike. I almost forgot that when I worked out at the gym. With my husband's BJJ, I remembered why working out and getting stronger and faster is important to me. It is for when the aliens come; I want to be prepared.

I don't know if the aliens will care if I am fat or skinny. All I know is, I want to be able to outrun them and, when I am out of breath, have the strength and endurance left to fight them. So that is why I work out now. To be prepared. I am working on strength, endurance and speed. I've been working out with a friend who is a freaking powerhouse, and I signed up for judo. Just in case.