Feeling a little...ranty.

I'm a little sandy today. Just a touch. 2 things I can't stand:
1 - don't get upset when a girl beats you at something. Us women-folk can work just as hard, if not harder, as most men. There's this thing called progress and when a female finally realizes her potential, awesome things can happen!
2 - I am injured. I am still training to the best of physical ability. I am working my ass off. I can't kick 100% on my left leg? Ok, I guess I'll give 110% on my punches, right knee and right kick. I can't run? No big deal, I can row, hop on the air dyne or jump rope. I can still just about make myself throw up, with half a leg. I'm still hitting PR's on kettlebell work. You're healthy and uninjured? Why are you sandbagging shit? Are you afraid of sweat? Hard work? Progress? Why are you willing to give less than your best?

That's all for today.

Finally!

I've been having a craptastic last 2 weeks with kettlebell training. Something has gone wrong in almost every set. My forearms or grip wore out, I rested too long and didn't get close to the reps I set as a goal, my traps or shoulders hurt, just something was always sore or not right. And then FINALLY yesterday happened. I was still ever so slightly sore from last week, but not overly so. But, I warmed up exactly how I wanted and felt decent. Not great, not good, not bad, but decent. "Decent" days are the days I perform best. Too much rest - I burn out too quick, not enough rest - I just suck. So, I finally hit my mark on my 10:00 set on the 16kg. 80 reps! That's AKA Rank 1 if I don't cut any weight, if I do cut a few pounds, that's 4 reps over Rank 1. So very happy! Now, just to figure out my breathing on my right arm so I'm not sprinting 12 reps the last minute. After my set, and laying on the floor for a minute or 5, I even got in some heavy jerks on the 20kg. The 24, however, was not happening yesterday.

And then, more spectacularness! I had my 5x5 push-ups/pull-ups, and I was able to get all 5 pull-ups in a row, no bands needed! Each round!

AND THEN, I went down to Thai class and could kick a little bit harder on my left leg, though it's still pretty weak, it's at least something! And killed everything else! Hands were heavy and right kick felt great.

My knee is a little stiff this morning, but not painful. It mostly feels tired now, like just that leg ran a marathon.

Anyway, I'm glad I got over the last plateau and have been making awesome progress the last few weeks. I've gotten a ton of range of motion back and have been steadily adding in crazier and harder PT work - like single leg squats off of a box and single leg split squat jumps.

Let's hope this week keeps on rockin'.

The world is smaller than my dreams...

Monday and Tuesday of this week sucked. I mentally couldn't get into my kettlebell work, and it suffered big time. I was supposed to do my 10 minute set on the 16 Monday, and my traps were fried, so I did some volume work, but just couldn't focus. I'm pretty sure I also didn't warm up enough, so that affected things as well. Tuesday I tried to do my heavy sets with the 20, and again couldn't get into it mentally, and kept dropping the bell in my sets. I barely got two 1 minute sets in before stopping. Worst thing is, I did a fantastic body weight workout Tuesday before kickboxing, and was feeling amazing, and then crapped out on the kettlebell work. Not happy.

That was amazing contrast compared to last week, when I was hitting 9-10 reps a minute on my sprint sets. I hit 42 reps in 5 minutes on one hand in another session. I felt amazing last week, and killed all my workouts. So maybe the start of this week was just recovery from last week?

Yesterday I took it easy. My traps, lats and rotator cuffs were pretty shot, and my knee wasn't feeling spectacular either. I ended up doing a 5 rounder of 5 pike push-ups and some side-to-side presses and a little ab work.

I also got more needling done. It's gotten progressively "better", or easier to handle. I also had most pain-free week since my knee injury - it didn't start bothering me until Tuesday! Yay! I hit a plateau 2 weeks ago, and have been on a roll the last 2 weeks. I had assisted box steps on a 12" box last week, and progressed to a higher box and no assistance by the beginning of this week. Which is exciting to me. This week I get to start on teeny tiny box jumps on the 12" box, with controlled "falling" off of the box, and single leg squats off of the box too (not to be confused with pistols).

All in all, I'm feeling much better today. Ready to get back to the kettlebell, and check back in mentally.

Suck it up, buttercup

Last week saw a bit of a plateau for my knee. Got some more needling, soft tissue work and new rehab exercises, and I can see a bit more progress. I can also pinpoint exactly where it hurts, but I can't decide if that's a good thing or not.

In the mean time, I've been stepping up my training, and have been trying my best to kill myself on every workout. Gotta push the pace to hit rank 1 in February.

I'm also excited because I get to add in some bag work next week! Yay!!! So starting next week, I'm adding in some low impact cardio on Friday's and bag work on Wednesday's in addition to the regular workouts. And farmer walks...and GHD's...I'm so excited!

Isn't It Ironic...

Everything, except my legs obviously, feels the strongest they've been. Ever. And I'm injured. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say it's because my cardio workouts are virtually non-existent, thus lifting is all I've got right now.

My knee is feeling surprisingly good lately. Must be the squats and lunges working all the cobwebs out.

In regards to kettlebells, I'm finally getting back up there. I was able to push some heavy jerks over the weekend, and today did some heavy LC as well.

Saturday's KB work: 3:00/3:00 jerks on 12kg, 10/10 jerks on 16kg, 5/5 jerks on 20kg

Today: 2:30/2:30 LC on 16kg (pushed 8 reps a minute, need to get the reps up there so I can make rank 1 in February), then 1:00/1:00 LC on the 20kg at 6 reps each hand

Not too shabby, though I'm sure I'll be feeling it tomorrow.

2 Months Post-Injury...

And I can finally squat parallel! And lunge relatively pain free! All with no weights, but one step at a time. Which, again, is so freakin' hard when your mentality just wants to push hard all the time.

How am I getting better? Trigger point dry needling (and following what Mark says). Basically an acupuncture needle is used to get a fast twitch response from your muscles releasing knots or "gunk". It's truly a life saver and I'd be a long way from where I am right now if it weren't for it. I've had a lot of areas needled for various things; shoulders, traps, lats, rotator cuffs from Muay Thai or "touch up" work from kettlebells; the areas next to the spine and lower lat from kettlebells; calves from running or training; quads and IT band for various reasons; and now I can add glute and abductor/adductor to the list. It isn't exactly fun while getting it done, as seen below by my facial expression, but the results are amazing.

So, more of the same for workouts, but I now get to add in weighted single leg deadlifts and body weight squats and lunges.

Kettlebell work is progressing slowly. I tore my hand Monday doing pull-ups, but that was after a blistering snatch sprint set on Friday and and long cycle on Monday. Friday was 6 rounds of 1min each hand followed by a 1min rest on the 12kg. I got 20 each hand on the first set, then 24 each hand the next five rounds with the exception of my very last round with my right hand. I felt my palm shift and decided 6 reps wasn't worth a bloody mess. Monday I got 3mins each hand on LC on the 16kg, just kept a steady 6reps per minute. Wasn't great, but it's mostly my grip and rack at this point. Legs seem to be holding up fine.

So...all in all, I'm feeling better. I long to kick or knee something, but being this much closer to fully functional makes me happy.

Training from last week through today

Doug has started new programming for me, so it's been a strange transition and has had some tweaking going on based on schedule, etc.

Monday & Thursday are chest and back days,
Tuesday & Friday are arms and legs.
Wednesday & Saturday are shoulders and abs.
PT/Rehab work daily.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, still have to get in my kettlebell work, since we are officially going to San Francisco in February!!! Time to get my rank 1 on the 16kg so I can start to work towards the 24kg in November!

I'm now on an A week and B week schedule. Some days are the same each week based on my schedule and my knee's limitations.

So far this week:

• Monday: 10x6 - DB press/DB 1-arm rows, push-ups/pull-ups (I STILL hurt from this, STILL), and 1:00 each arm long cycle sprint sets (x5) on the 16kg
• Tuesday: 10x6 - RDL's/skull crushers
• Wednesday: 2:00 each hand 16KG LC set, 2:00 each hand 14KG Jerks, 10x6 shoulder press/plate raises, then PT in the evening
• Today: 10x6 incline press/BB rows

On the PT, I have much better range of motion of this week. I get to work on properly loading my left knee/glute this week. My needling session last night was AWFUL. I still have sore spots today, but am so close to having the exact same range of motion as my right side!!! YAY! I am happy with the progress I'm making, but still frustrated it's going to be a long process. 8-10 more weeks until I'm close to 100%. That's a hard pill to swallow. But, with how much I do, need to make sure everything is properly prepared to use again. It's absolutely killing me that I can't kick anything. Or squat. Or lunge. Or jump...the list goes on. Just have to remind myself to be patient.