Happy, Merry & All That

Well, it's officially the holiday season now. Why? Because I have completed the three things necessary for me to get in the holiday spirit. They are: 1) listen to at least part of Elvis' Blue Christmas CD; 2) watch Bad Santa; 3) make at least one sugar- and butter-laden holiday treat. DONE.

I am now able to use the exercise bike and am working diligently to eradicate the last vestiges of the limp. Then I can think about reincorporating squats, and running intervals for cardio, in my workouts.

Normally this time of year I am not terribly motivated, and this year is no exception. It has been cold and rainy as usual, and with a sore leg on top of it, I have to really chastise myself to get out the door to the gym. Usually any sort of motivational phrase that includes the term "lard ass" works nicely.

Happy Holidays to all.

In the home stretch

Now at the 4-week mark, I am in the home stretch on this injury. Kevin rated muscle function at 4+ (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being normal) on Friday. I am still limping slightly...but apparently that's all in my head. When the injury is off the radar, I don't limp, but when I think about it, I do. It's as if, even though I know it's better, there are still some trust issues.

That's just going to take time to work itself out. I have been used to babying my right calf for the past month, and there's also some fear involved, since the injury was so painful. I have always been strong and was always able to keep going despite sprains, strains, etc. but this was a whole new ballgame.

Dave, the IT guy at work who is one of my friends and who played college football at Virginia Tech, has had this same injury and has eerily predicted everything I have gone through, leading me to dub him "Dr. Dave." He gave me a few pointers on eradicating the limp, and predicted I would be over it by New Year's if I followed his advice.

Kevin (my physical therapist) upped the ante today by saying, "you can't do any of your power lifts till you are walking normally." The reason for that is I could actually make the limp worse that way.

Thankful

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, I got the news from my physical therapist that I am now running about 1 week ahead of schedule on recovery. I walking almost normally now and am able to generate a decent amount of power with the injured muscle. So now I get to do some resistance work to continue building the muscle back up, and some light stretching. I am very happy about that and will probably get to add dead lifts back to my workout routine soon.

I went to karate class on Saturday (exempted from running or jumping, of course), and we learned a very cool technique for quickly bringing someone down by exerting pressure on the right point of their hand while twisting the wrist. It's amazing how little effort it takes. I have been practicing it on every victim I can find, ever since. :-)

not as bad as it looked

Positive news from today's physical therapy...Kevin revised his assessment of the injury down to a 20% tear (versus to 20-50% as he'd said initially). He was very happy with the mobility and level of strengh I am getting now at nearly two weeks. The muscle had basically shut down right after the injury, and that's what worried him and led him to estimate more of a tear. I am making good progress, but I am still looking at another 3 - 4 weeks to heal. Yay, I get a gold star for actually doing what I was advised to do. ;-)

Of course, I then had to ask whether I could quit wearing the Ace bandage, start using my exercise bike yet, etc. etc. Kevin just gave me a wry little smile and said, "you know, you've made such great progress so quickly, I want you to just keep doing what you are doing." He knows me pretty well after about 8 years of repairing various injuries, so I can tell he's trying to keep me from overdoing it. And he's right...I probably would, if he gave me any wiggle room.

Meanwhile, Cory has me using the weight machines and then picking up my feet off the ground to engage the core and further take weight off my injured leg. That made things challenging and interesting enough that I didn't miss my power lifts too much...yet.

hobbling along

I am happy to report that I am walking in a more normal fashion, though still more slowly than I'd like.

I came down with a cold early last week and by Friday, I had laryngitis. That was pretty much it for me - I thought, "OK, I can't walk, I can barely breathe, and now I can't talk either." So I crashed on Friday night, cancelled all my plans for the weekend, and hibernated. That was definitely the best thing for the cold, and all that rest helped my leg heal too. There's a lot less swelling and bruising than there was a week ago, and I'm sure that has a lot to do with easier walking. And it really doesn't hurt...that much. Of course, I am doing (mostly) what I was instructed to do, with resting, ice, etc. so that helps too. We'll see what Kevin says later this week when I go for physical therapy.

prognosis

This just in from my physical therapist: I have torn 20-50% of my soleus muscle, which is the larger calf muscle that's a bit deeper on the calf (as opposed to the gastroc, which is more external). That is pretty much what I thought had happened, and although this means at least 4 - 6 weeks of no power lifts, no running, etc. it's not nearly as bad as an achilles tendon rupture or a detachment of the muscle from the tendon, either of which would require surgery. I am very blessed that this injury wasn't worse; it easily could have been.

The treatment is physical therapy twice a week for at least a month, plus I am supposed to keep it elevated as much as possible, ice it 3 times a day, and do some mild stretching. My PT is using a laser to reduce swelling and move blood into the area, and short wave to speed healing. When he was diagnosing the injury, he asked me to quantify the level of pain in various parts of my calf. When he got to where the tear is (a couple of inches above the achilles), there is a lot of bruising from blood leaking from the tears, I said it was a 6 (on a scale of 1 to 10) and he said, "I would hate to see what your level 10 is". :-)

I can still work out - I did a nice back workout last night on the machines and some free weights - but my power lifts are out because of the strain they would put on the calf. And I got a "get out of jail free" card exempting me from cardio for a couple of weeks, which I can't say I mind. I will be able to use the stationary bike after a couple of weeks, most likely. The biggest challenge for me will be not getting frustrated at my impaired level of movement and reduced speed.

ouch

I had great plans for last weekend. I was going to do a killer back workout after karate practice. And then, in karate class, I injured my right calf. I haven't had it looked at yet, so I'm not sure exactly what the extent of the injury is. But here's what happened:

The sempai (higher belt) teaching the class had us doing some wind sprints after warm-up, which involved some hopping (not sure why that was supposed to help our skills, but whatever). I was a couple of hops away when it felt as though someone had kicked me really hard in the back of the leg, so much so that I actually looked behind me and said, "what the..." This was accompanied by extreme pain and the inability to walk normally on my right leg.

I had to sit out the rest of the class and then elevated and iced the calf as soon as I got home. So, I spent all weekend on the couch with the ice pack, hobbling around the house when I needed to or when I got bored. But, no back workout or anything else that could be construed as useful.

From what I understand, if it was an achilles tendon tear, I wouldn't be able to walk or put weight on it, so it's more likely a severe sprain of the calf muscle, or a tear...something like that.

So - most likely I will not be power lifting for a few weeks while this is resolved. It's a nice opportunity to mix my workouts up a bit, I just won't have any updated stats for a while.

ichi-ni-san-shi*

Karate class was good on Saturday. We had a different instructor this time, who did a great job of explaining what each block, punch etc. would be used for in actual combat, as she is a black belt who has been in lots of tournaments. I always like hearing the practical application of things. We also started putting together some kick-punch-block combinations, which was pretty cool. I was very glad we didn't do as many push-ups as usual, because I had implemented the 5-set heavy lift combination on bench press the day before and was a little sore as a result. At least my shoulder was still behaving after all that.

The week before, the other instructor had us doing wind sprints, which I hadn't done since I was on the volleyball team in high school. I was able to run faster than I thought I could, so I was happy about that.

*Japanese for one-two-three-four

Some thoughts on form

When you are lifting to potentially compete, form is important, as the proper execution of lifts is the difference between having your lift count towards competition or not. Power lifting is more of an explosive movement, the idea being that when you are lifting that much weight, you want to get it moving quickly or you will waste energy. So without further ado - here are some notes on proper power lifting form.

Bench press - Power lifters actually arch their backs, putting their shoulder blades against the bench, to engage the lats (back) muscles. They also go up on their toes to engage the quadriceps (leg) muscles. When you arch your back, you'll have less distance to go when bringing the bar down. In power lifting competition, you have to have the bar touch your chest right at the sternum for the lift to count. Note that if you have the bar touch above the sternum, you will use too much of your shoulder muscles, and could end up with a nice little rotator cuff injury like the one I'm dealing with esp. if you are lifting heavy. NOTE: the first time you try the five sets, you might want to go down in weight 20 pounds or so from your maximum, if you have been building up or pyramiding on your sets previously. Also note that when doing the 5 sets, you will rest 2 - 3 minutes between each set.

Squat - Load up the bar on the rack (low enough that you have to crouch a bit to get under), step up under it with a wide (slightly more than shoulder width) stance and position yourself under the bar. Take all the time you need doing this, because once you lift the weight you will want to step back quickly and get into the squat. Make sure your back is arched and bend at the knees, balancing over the middle of your foot or even slightly toward your heels. Engage your core muscles by sucking in your gut. Stop when your thighs are slightly below parallel to the floor (that is a power lifting requirement). Drive up through your heels on the way back.

Dead lift - For powerlifting form, you will load the bar on the floor and lift it from there. Make sure you are standing close to the bar, bend at the knees, and grip the bar at shoulder width. I use an over/under grip so that one hand is gripping the bar palm up and the other is palm down - I simply change up the hands for each set. When ready, lift the bar, arching your back slightly to engage the deltoids, sucking in your gut to engage the core, straightening your arms and bringing the weight up to your hips. When you have completed this movement, bend over and clank the weight on the floor before moving on to the next repetition. Deadlifting is a great workout because you use so many major muscle groups to pull it off.

Flexibility is very important for each of these lifts, and it's easy to lose flexibility as you gain strength. Stretching prior to lifting, as well as between sets and post-workout, is key.

Just rolling along

Last week was fairly uneventful from a workout standpoint. I am staying at the same levels for bench and dead lift while my shoulder continues to heal. My PT originally said it would take 2 weeks but as he realized that a couple of muscles in my rotator cuff were also affected, he adjusted the timeline. It is now looking like I will be done with treatment in early November.

I am continuing to experiment with the reduction in processed carbs. I don't like the taste of the sugar-free syrups in my latte (and who knows what carcinogens are in those anyway) so have switched to using honey as a sweetener instead. Cory was right that the change would help me drop fat faster, and I'm simultaneously glad that he found a solution and annoyed that he was right...again.

For those who have asked, here is a typical workout program in brief:

Leg day:
*Squats - warmup set of 6-8 reps at 1/2 max weight; then 5 sets of 5 reps each at max weight. When all 5 sets can be done with good form and without excessive fatigue, move up 5 - 10 pounds the following week.
Leg press - optional. I just like to do it and amaze people when they see me lifting all those plates! 3 sets of 4, moving up in weight as you go
Leg extension - using the weight machine to get the hamstrings (back of legs) to balance the quadriceps, which you are working with the squats and presses. 3 sets of 10 - 12, increasing weight each set.
Lunges - either weighted lunges on the Smith machine (barbell on a pulley system) or with walking lunges with dumbbell weights. 2 sets of 10 - 12
Calf raises - 3 sets of 10 - 12, increasing weight each set. Optional unless you have skinny calves. :-)

Back day:
*Dead lift - warmup set of 6 - 8 reps at 1/2 max weight; then 5 sets of 3 reps each at max weight. As with squats, move up when all 5 sets are done well and relatively easily.
Gravitron chin-ups - if you can do chin-ups with all your body weight, good for you. I can't, so I use the gravitron machine which offsets part of my weight. Go for 2 sets of 8.
One-arm seated pulley rows - optional, 2 sets of 10 - 12
Bicep curls with barbell - 3 sets of 10 - 12

Chest day:
*Bench press - warmup set with 1/2 max weight; then 5 sets of 3 reps each at max weight. You know the drill.
Incline press or incline fly - 3 sets of 8 - 10
Lat raises - 3 sets of 8 - 10
Gravitron dips - use the gravitron machine to offset some of your body weight and do dips. Make those tricepts burn!! 3 sets of 10-12.
Tricep extension with pulley -- 3 sets of 10-12.

*On each day's workout, you start with the power lift (the one you would do in competition) for that body part. You start with that lift at the beginning of the workout when you are rested, and then all subsequent exercises are building the supporting musculature to help you increase strength.
**Also note that I do a few ab / core exercises on each of these days. Usually some crunches (either on the floor or on a balance ball), some planks and stuff like that.

I will try to post some notes about correct form soon...it will help me to remember and will hopefully prevent any of you from getting hurt.

Badassitude

Last week when I did some recording for my Nancy (my voice coach)'s compilation CD, she said, "You know, I think this power lifting is contributing to your blues singing. They are both badass things to do." This then prompted me to coin the term 'badassitude.'

Adding to my repertoire of badass activities, I started karate class on Saturday. Vincent has been in a kids' karate class since the summer, and Heinz and I promised him that we would join the white belt class when he was ready to move up. Last week, the sensei pronounced him ready, so Saturday morning all three of us suited up in our gis and joined the class.

My past workouts served me well. I didn't get winded during the insane number of jumping jacks (Heinz and Vincent did) and I made it through all 80 pushups. That's easily more pushups than I have done in the last 3 months. And that was just the warmup! Karate is definitely going to round out my cardio work.

Later that afternoon I had to go do my back workout, as I had skipped it earlier in the week to allow more recovery time from physical therapy. It's sad when the treatment is worse than the injury! The combination of all those pushups + dead lifts + chin-ups + lat raises + one-arm pulley rows = a bit of soreness on Sunday. Not bad though, especially considering that Heinz said he was sore all over, especially in the abs. He hasn't been doing cruches and core exercises like I do after my power lifting. Being married to Mr. Super Metabolism all this time, I never thought I'd see the day when I would be in better shape than him. Now that I have seen it, I must say that I don't mind...and fortunately, neither does he.

the endorphins made me do it

I am still not quite sure how he managed to do this, but yesterday Cory convinced me to give up processed carbs (mainly my breakfast cereal and bread) AND my daily mocha for two weeks. In case you are worried that the world might not be safe, let me assure you that I still get to have coffee. Only now, it's going to be a latte with sugar-free syrup in it. My mocha was pretty much the only place I was allowing myself chocolate anymore, so the world still may still be at risk.

Even though the power lifting and running intervals is doing a nice job of reducing my body fat, these extreme measures are an attempt to speed things up. Cory has been right about a lot of this stuff so far, so I felt compelled to give it a shot. That, and he waited to spring it on me until the end of my workout, when I was having an endorphin rush. He's a tricky one; I would probably not have agreed to give up my mocha otherwise. Of course, I did draw the line at his suggestion that I add cottage cheese to my diet. I mean, there are sacrifices I am willing to make, and then there's insanity.

This morning was OK; I ordered and consumed my latte without so much as a whimper. Yet, I know darker days are ahead and am steeling myself for when the chocolate cravings get bad. Of course, there is still the pseudo-chocolate in my protein shakes, which taste better to me all the time as my memory of real chocolate fades.

Anyone out there want to suffer with me? Here's the plan for the next 2 weeks:

Breakfast: berry and soymilk smoothie OR oatmeal, OK to add protein shake
AM snack: latte with sugar-free syrup and some almonds
Lunch: 4 oz. of protein and veggies, no bread or pasta
PM snack: protein shake and fruit
Dinner: protein, veggies, OK to have whole wheat pasta up to 2x per week

Power Lifting to Power Ballads

Last week was very busy. I am still treating my shoulder injury, probably for another week or two, so am lifting less until it's completely healed. Then I'll gradually ramp up again after that. All the workouts last week were great, and I went up another 10 lbs on squat (still doing less than I can, but focusing more on form). Cory has me doing all the lifts exactly as I would do in competition so I get used to it.

For instance, on squat, one of the biggest barriers to lifting more is that having a narrow metal bar across your shoulders with a bunch of weight piled on each side means the bar digs into your back. It's not the most pleasant thing, and some people use a pad on the bar at the gym to alleviate that. However, since they are not allowed in competition, no pad for me! I always have a millisecond just when I lift the bar off the stand and the amount of weight really registers, and then I just get past it and go.

Friday I did my leg workout, then home to clean up and get ready for a gig that night (hence the posting title). I don't think anything on the set list would actually qualify as a power ballad, though...

Shoulder injury update

I went to see Kevin, my physical therapist, on Tuesday and the news is good. My ribs are all staying in place. The injury in my shoulder is a slight strain of the muscles and tendons at the 'head of the bicep' which is where the bicep muscle joins the shoulder. My rotator cuff muscles are a little irritated from compensating for the bicep, but are OK otherwise. Kevin thought another 1 - 2 weeks and it would be resolved.

So, I will have to take it easy lifting tomorrow, just to be safe, but I can fill in with other exercises (though, alas, ones that aren't as fun). This just underscores the need for me to work on my rotator cuff and shoulder muscles to make sure they are strong enough to take the weight of the lifts I am doing.

Yesterday was leg day and we kicked things up on squats. It will be nice "just" to run my intervals for cardio today.

Benching hiatus

As you can see from last week's stats (week of 9/17), I am on hiatus from benching, pending diagnosis of a shoulder injury. It could be that I have a couple of ribs popping out again, or some tendon problems, but I have had both before and it doesn't feel like those. More likely it's just that the shoulder muscles are a little stressed, and need conditioning.

I will leave the official diagnosis to Kevin, my wonderful physical therapist, on Tuesday. In the meantime, I have been doing shoulder exercises with light weights, lots of stretching, and using the heating pad when I get a chance to sit down for a few minutes (which means rarely). I dislike using the light weights and told Cory, "Barbie called...she wants her dumbbells back," last week when he handed me the five pounders for some deltoid work. ;-) I was a bit at loose ends on Friday without bench press or even incline presses since I was keeping my shoulder out of it, so I hope that this gets resolved soon.

Things not to say to your trainer

Yesterday was leg day and my day to work out with Cory, my trainer. He is also a competitive power lifter so he knows what he's talking about and how to get me ready. I push myself pretty hard, though, so I wonder how much worse I would get if I was thinking about how to win against other people

ANYWAY, he started me off with squats, doing light weight (for me...125 lbs) so I could focus on form. After a few sets, I said, "well, that wasn't tough."

"If you want a tough workout, I can do that," he replied.

"Sure...do your worst," I challenged. Silly me.

He then proceeded to put me through leg extensions, leg curls, lunges, and some hamstring exercise with the stability ball that I think was actually designed as torture during the Spanish Inquisition. Can't complain though...I asked for it. And I would probably not complain anway, since 1) I don't like to and 2) I can't argue with the results so far. I was tired, but it wasn't so bad (just don't tell Cory). It's good to balance all the quad work with hamstrings anyway. I am a little sore today but able to walk normally. Cardio tonight on the recumbent bike should help loosen things up again.

Darned shoulders

Saturday was bench press day. That's my least favorite of the workouts because the strength gains have been much slower and more difficult to achieve, as opposed to squats and dead lifts. I'm always determined, though. :-)

I sailed without incident through the warmup set with the bar, then a set with 95 lbs, then another with 110 pounds. No problem. Then I decided to go to 125 since I had lifted 120 the week before and managed six reps. A five-pound increase should be no big deal, right? HA. The first rep was no problem, but then I took the bar down for the second rep and found myself struggling just to keep the bar from crushing my windpipe. Kimo, my spotter, was apparently as confident as I had been that I could get a couple more reps, so he had looked away for just a second. He jumped to lift the bar off as soon as he heard my squeaked, "help." I was prepared to be peeved about this, but Kimo just grinned and said, "that happens to people all the time."

"Really?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes," he replied. "Congratulations--you have just finally experienced 'lifting to failure'."

And it certainly was a spectacular failure. It's really my shoulders, particularly the right one that I partially dislocated a few years ago, that are holding me back from making better progress on bench. Or should I say - it's the posterior, anterior and lateral deltoids that need work. I see lots of military presses and lat raises in my future as I work on that.

First post

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my journey with power lifting.

I did bodybuilding in my late teens and early 20's and found that I enjoy lifting weights and getting strong. What's new now, in my early 40's, is that I am much stronger. A recent body fat composition test revealed that I am carrying 20 more pounds of MUSCLE than I did in my 20's. No doubt the years of starvation dieting to try to be thin took their toll back then.

I made decent strength gains back then but nothing like I have now been able to get, though I didn't think there was anything unusual about how much I could lift until one of the trainers at the gym (Gold's in Redmond) took me aside and pointed it out. He said a) what I can lift is already more than many people can do; and 2) therefore I have the aptitude to be a competitive lifter, either as a power lifter or Olympic. I got my trainer on board with this, and we changed my workouts around a bit to gear things more toward competitive lifting. For now I am just concentrating on gaining strength and maintaining good form in the standard power lifting lifts: dead lift, squat and bench press.

I'll keep track of my progress here, and relate any amusing anecdotes I have from my experiences.