8 Days, A Week Off

Need your Beatles fix?  Here you go

The Beatles - Eight Days a Week

Time Off

I did essentially zero, nada, zilch exercise from a Saturday heavy day until Monday of the following week, so 8 days off, Sunday to Sunday, inclusive.  I did a bit of restorative lifting on the Tuesday in there - some getups and windmills.  Let's talk about those getups:

My diagnosis of a "rib dysfunction" has really been hitting home every time I try to do a getup with my left arm down, right arm up.  I am, frankly, not confident that I'll ever be able to do a decent weighted getup on that side again.  I intend to keep trying, but I've decided to go back to bodyweight only and very light kettlebells, probably 8 kg and under, for the time being - those are the only ones that don't hurt.

The mission for me will be to find form with little or no weight that I can carry over to heavier loads - not an easy task but one I intend to pursue.  Nonetheless, even the above-mentioned Tuesday of 12 kg getups left me sore in exactly the wrong way at that spot on my mid-back, right side, so I need to be cautious.  This is the sort of injury that, if it gets worse, could threaten much of the rest of my lifting and no single exercise is worth that.

Why no lifting for 8 days?  Simply a very busy "rest of life" - I work part-time at the middle school where my wife is the full-time music and drama teacher.  Between last Thursday and Friday, we put on our production of "Alice in Wonderland" 5 times.  I play the piano, play the high hat with my left foot for a couple of numbers at the same time, and did all the arranging for my "orchestra" of a single violinist, an extraordinary young man who we are delighted to have, and the only person in the entire school capable of such a music responsibility.

If you've ever been associated with a show, you know that production week is crazy - extra rehearsals, last minute changes to music and a thousand other things.  The choice to stop lifting, especially after having had a great heavy day the Saturday before, looks like the right one - glad I did it and I'd do it again.



The Stick Windmill and Your Thoracic Spine

I've been playing around lately with the windmill with a stick instead of a weight - you hold the stick low across your shoulders, much as you would a barbell for a powerlifting back squat.  I will post a short video tutorial on this movement, for which I cannot claim credit, btw, within the next few days - stay tuned..


Onward and Upward!