Posted by alexandra_k on July 29, 2021, at 4:48:29
gym stuffs is fun.
keeps me sane.
while i progress things through the high court... court of appeal... we will see when they set a hearing date... un... supreme court... etc...
i have been working very hard on my core development. because i realised, at some point in time, that it was my lack of abdominal strength that was limiting my improvement. in a 'weakest link' kind or sort of a situation.
i had some time off of training. then, what little training i did was olympic lifting front squats. so, some front squat training, but also, some dropping into the front squat from clean or hang clean position training... which meant i slammed my lumbar spine joints, rather... and tweaked my back. repeatedly. that is to say, sometimes i managed to do the exercise in a safe manner (for my back) that used my leg strength to 'get up' to stand up the squat. but othertimes i slammed my lumbar spine joints, rather. which, to be honest... meant i was laid up for a couple days. with severe pain from my lower back.
so... after a few bouts of 'sometimes i can successfully train my leg strenth, but othertimes i sort of mis-time the situation, or something, which slams my back, such that i have significant trouble walking and i'm basically laid up for a few days silently screaming in agony'...
i joined les mills.
because... they do these 'core' classes. whatever they want to call them... and they are all about abs abs abs abs abs (which is my weakest link and what i need to train). but that is (to be fair) cutting them a bit short because they do various other things... but the point (from my perspective) is that they force me to focus on something that i'm literally blind to if left to my own devices. that is to say my lack of abdominal strength.
there was quite a lot of academic work that was done on hemi-neglect. that is to say patients who (because of neurological insult) neglected to (could or would not attend to) sensory stimulus presented in a region. they focused on visual stimulus. but i'm sure it isn't so much of a reach to imagine that athletes or regular people at the gym have a tendancy to ignore their weaknesses. not intentionally... but a sort of a blind spot to the brain. i think that is plausible. that's the value of independent input. group fitness that forces you to work both sides. a trainer who won't let you work your strong side until your weak has been exhausted.
there is a joke about 'why hire a personal trainer when all they do is count your reps'. but the point of the joke is that if you are doing it right... the blood flow to your brain... is such that.. you don't have the capacity to count your reps. because the blood flow has been diverted to muscles. and to cerebellum (if you are required to produce rythmnical movement) and there's nothing left (blood-flow wise) to fuel the frontal lobes such that they can count to even 5x5. that's the joke. 'what do you mean 5x5? what do you think I am?? a mathemetician??'
that is to say: i can count my squats... or... i can DO my squats. doing that many squats necesssitates someone else counting. because i'm busy doing.
or... if the weight was heavy enough then the division of labor would be required.
i have been developing my ability or capacity to lay my spine flat. it's a lot of work for me. and for me to not allow myself arm or leg movement that cannot be performed around a... properly integrated spine. i feel a lot like i can't do very much. like i must be losing strenth in my arms or legs that i'm not lifting heavy weights with them, anymore. but... before... my capacity lift was ALWAYS limited by my lack of core strenth. and it was always the case that spinal pain or incapacity limited my lifing more.
it took me a year of flailing about in core classes for me to develop teh capacity for muscular activation.
it's taken me another year... still working on activation... but also working on developing strength.
i have had to be humble, indeed. previously (when not laid up in a bout of pain) i could plank with a 20kg plate on my back for 30 or even 60 seconds. but now i've discovered a lumbospinal rotation sort of a position... that FEELS RIGHT... with a sort of a glute activation that I CAN FEEL PREVENTS ALL POSSIBLE PAIN IN MY BACK INSOFAR AS IT IS MAINTAINED.. well... it's a game changer. in what the aim is, or what i am aiming to do.
the Harry Selcow Pullup Programme... What he said to me... was to plank, plank, plank, plank, plank, plank,plank... Then... All you need to do it... Pull your elbows down. towards you armpit. if you can plank, plank, plank, plank, plank, plank, then... that will be easy for you. well.... that's not quite what he said... but plank was certainly what he said to me. and he said various other things to various other athletes whose weak point was obviously or clearly very different to me.
and it's the core work, indeed. squashing the torso tube which will make it longer. re-establishing the height of the spinal column. yes because of compression fracture injury. but also... i think that was my weakness (physically) all along...
i feel very sad, indeed, that i didn't get the exposure to horse-riding that i wanted. i wanted the individual, classical training. from grooming and handling to lunging... putting the gear on... walking... developing the core strength. to carry the weight in my legs... to half post to the trot... to do dressage. that was what i loved, really. the control... then maybe jumping. eventing. i liked that, really. but the dressage... yeah...
i didn't understand when i was younger that it was my lack of core strength and my lack of leg development.
i didn't get to learn to ride. my mother got me into this thing where i went out to this place in cambridge every week... this place where i think everybody in the sport wanted to see shut down... where the horses were not groomed properly. where they were brought in and tacked up before the ride (no opportunity to learn those skills). where there was a hard trek in to (and then out of) the arena... so the horses were fairly exhausted before they got there... and they knew it was up a very very signifcantly steep hill back home... where they were scared into galloping and jumping... where we ride in file and i needed to hold onto the saddle pommel to not fall of...
the whole experience was abusive for both rider and horse.
and my mother made it clear to me that that was the only experience i could have. i could have that experience or none at all.
it was intentionally abusive designed to put me off of the sport.
was all that it was.
and i always wondered why i could't ride like other people could. and it was the lack of core strength and lack of leg strength.
and they would chastise me that i wan't getting any better. while not imputing any quality instruction at all.
and so on.
f*ck*ng psychopaths.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1116136
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20210526/msgs/1116136.html