Topic: Doing it right

[Mathew C]

   A long time ago I made a commitment to take a long break from training technique to let my body grow, mature, and for the first while heal; the plan was aptly named Six Hundred Days, and I'm proud to say that I have been loyal to my commitment, with at most one exception (depending on if you count a gatevault about 4 months in that I landed before realizing what I'd done).

   Day 600 is January 20, 2009, so now I'm making another, wiser, and more reasonable commitment: to start over and do it right. I'm going to start small, progress slowly, and never forget that I'm on my own time, that there's no rush, and that there is no shame in doing small things until you can't get it wrong (no matter how many of my competitive athletic peers get to see me drilling 5 foot precisions).

[Mathew C]

Some things you should know

First, my basic stats

• Height   -   6' 1" or 6' 2"
• Age   -   15 (turning 16 in April)
• Weight   -   ~170 lbs

Injuries

• Long-term tendinitis in the tendon connecting my right elbow to the tricep (though it is very slowly getting better
• Minor right knee injury (got bored this past Tuesday while waiting at school, and ended up doing about an hour or two of plyometrics and running... wearing year-old-feiyues... on a hardwood basketball court... do the math  )

Also...
Just to keep in mind for anyone who plans to follow my log - even though I haven't done technique training in ages, that doesn't mean I'm out of shape. To give you an idea, some of my current stats:

• Vertical leap   -   29"
• Broad jump   -   10'
• Box jump   -   ~40"

[Mathew C]

Thursday, January 15, 2009
   My knee's feeling better. Using the scale wherein 100% is how an injury feels as soon as you cool down from whatever you were doing when it occurred, I'd say I'm at about 35-40%. Also, my calves are still sore from yesterday's idea to do 100 ledge calve raises (up to full flexion then just as far down) and 100 ledge shin raises (same idea) for time. I need to stretch.

[Mathew C]

Friday, January (Day 596)
   I've been on my feet a bit too much today. Right now my knees still feel around 40% (though they've been better than that today). I'm going to do some serious RICE, after I do some elbow rehab. Speaking of which...
   It's official. My number one goal for winter 2009 is to completely obliterate the tendinitis in my right tricep tendon. I've been talking with Chris Salvato, and I've got a pretty good idea of my plan, which you'll see posted a bit below, and then maybe some refined versions of it as the days approach number Six Hundred, and as I talk to more people.

Tricep rehab v.1
1/4 pronated curls x 5
1/4 supinated curls x 5
1/2 pronated curls x 5
1/2 supinated curls x 5
3/4 pronated curls x 5
3/4 supinated curls x 5
Full pronated curls x 5
Full supinated curls x 5
1 rotational
Full supinated curls x 25
1 rotational
Full supinated curls x 25
1 rotational
Full supinated curls x 5
Full pronated curls x 5
3/4 supinated curls x 5
3/4 pronated curls x 5
1/2 supinated curls x 5
1/2 pronated curls x 5
1/4 supinated curls x 5
1/4 pronated curls x 5
Feeling GREAT
Now for some RICE (for my elbow, and for now for my knees)

Notes

• To increase the blood flow and warm up more effectively, I often either gripped the weights as tightly as possible or flexed my core
• Curls = 10 lbs
• A rotational is my own term for beginning with the elbow fully bent, then slowly straightening it while simultaneously rotating the elbow back and forth through its rotational range of motion; once the entire length of the arm is straight, I begin to slowly move back to the starting position while continuing to rotate. The whole process takes ~20 seconds, and for rotations I twist one way then the other 10-15 times during each half of the exercise
  

[Mathew C]

I've decided on some goals. My decisions were based on the fact that I have regular but minimal time to train, that until it warms up I can't train outside (within 2 minutes any warm-up would be undone), and that I'm pretty stuck until I fix up my tricep tendon. So...

Goals (in order of priority)

• Show the tendinitis who's boss
• Fix the strength imbalance between my upper back and my pectorals (the latter are weak)
• Improve my grip strength until I can do a three-finger 30 second hang, using any three fingers

I'll set a more definitive goal for the second item once I get a chance to do an experimental workout and see where I stand.

[Mathew C]

So, I did that experimental workout. Turns out, the only ledge available to me when I can train in so sharp, my training would be much more limited by my pain tolerance than by my grip; also, butterfly machines do not isolate the pectorals, but make heavy use of biceps and triceps as support muscles. Both are no-go's. So, new goals addressing my biggest weak spot - my core.

Goals

• Show the tendinitis who's boss
• Go a full day with perfect posture (straight back)
• Become comfortable enough with a 5-minute static lying leg raise that I can start mixing it up with scissor kicks, semi-crunches, etc.
• Get to the final benchmark of Mathew's Titanium Ankles - Flat Footed Overpronator Edition (15 one-footed toes-only ledge calve raises, and 15 one-footed ledge shin raises wearing shoes with moderately elevated heels http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/nike-reax-running-shoes--silver-light-blue)
  

[Mathew C]

Well, it's Day Six Hundred... tomorrow, I start training. Tomorrow, I go back to school. Tomorrow... my ariakes arrive (the most parkour-suitable shoes I own are a pair of year old feiyues). As a final pre-training post, here are my concrete goals and plans:

Goals

MAIN GOAL
What: Get rid of the tendinitis in my tricep
How: By running daily to regularly get blood flowing through the area, doing low-resistance, full ROM exercises every other day, and being smart enough to listen to my body and break that schedule at necessary times.
When: I'd like to be rid of my injury by April 6 - my sixteenth birthday.

Secondary goal #1
What: Improve my posture until I go a full day with perfect posture (the only exception being during the mandatory sports periods on Tuesday and Friday).
How: Whenever I catch myself using bad posture, I will correct it, and write the time down on my hand; at the end of each day, I will post those times in my training log.
When: The only obstacle here is habit and some muscular endurance, so by the end of January.

Secondary goal #2
What: Balance the goal above by improving the stabilizing abilities of my frontal core
How: Use a greasing-the-groove-esque method, I plan to do a daily static lying leg lift, not for my max time, but just adding 5 seconds a day, and later 10, until I can comfortably do a 5 minute hold.
When: By the end of february

Maintenance goal
What: Maintain knee and ankle conditioning while I focus on my tendonitis and posture
How: 4 rounds of 25 full ROM ledge calve raises, alternating with 25 partial pistols (using 18" ledge), every other day (switching off with tricep exercises).
When: I'll keep doing this until I reach my goal of fixing my tendinitis

Programming

Daily
1) Run for 10 minutes (treadmill - 1 min. at 3 mph, 1 min. at 4 mph... 4 min. at 6 mph... 1 min. at 3 mph)
2) Static lying leg hold
3) All day, trying for good posture

Alternating - A day
1) 25 partial pistols and 25 ledge calve raises, 4 rounds

Alternating - B day
2) Tricep exercises

[DickTraceur]

Well man, I gotta say I'm pretty impressed by the discipline you have to let your body heal and mature. That's super neato. Hope you hit your goals soon.

Are you thinking of eventually doing any freeweight exercises or anything like that?

[Charles Moreland]

I am in love with the setup of this log. And that basically means I'm going to watch you like a hawk!   

[Mathew C]

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
   Today would have been a lower body maintenance day with partial squats, running, and calve raises; it would have, except I didn't have access to a treadmill or anywhere to run until late (or, believe it or not, a ledge suitable for partial squats). I don't like to interrupt my daily 4 hours of homework with a workout, nor could I work out very late (it gets too dark to run outside, and the treadmill is downstairs, where my dad sleeps), so when we (my brother, my mom and I) stopped at the library so he could get some books, I stayed outside and did some very slowly progressive precisions for about 15 minutes, figuring I would simultaneously wake up my muscle memory, warm up, and break in my ariakes. It was really great - I did a triple-take when a 40-some woman walked by and said "are you having fun training parkour?"  Turns out she has a son a bit older than me who sometimes trains with the team practicing at the Rosslyn metro station; we talked for a bit about parkour, some of its philosophy (she brought up how it's in some ways about re-learning how to move  ), etc. Now that I've given that account, time for my brief, 'official' log entry:

~40 precision jumps (mostly under 4 feet; a few 6-7 feet, and a few more 1-2 foot onto a rail)
~25 42" box jumps
~15 30" box jumps
~40 second static lying leg hold
Also, note: I need to find a better way to keep my posture in check. Writing times on your hand in pen hurts. I'll start using my pocket planner thing. Sorry, no posture times for today.

I am in love with the setup of this log. And that basically means I'm going to watch you like a hawk!  

You're not a bad hawk to have.

[Mathew C]

This is hard to write, especially on a site where that whole 'who cares, you'll never meet these people in person' thing doesn't work (I go to school within 10 minutes of Primal Fitness) but for the sake of honesty, here comes my training log for Thursday.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
   I woke up at around 6:45 AM, and went back to sleep. I woke up and stayed up at around 4 PM. I did not run today. I did not do tricep exercises today. I did not stretch today, or do ab stabilizer work. I couldn't get to sleep last night at all, so I stayed up thinking, surfing the apk forums (a difficult thing to do with nobody to talk to), watched some youtube parkour videos, and did some schoolwork. Aside from making a record of this and thus making it unlikely to happen again soon, one thing came out of this - I realized who my inspirations are in terms of parkour. When I'm thinking about conditioning and training my body, to be and to last, my role model is definitely Blane, for his patience and discipline. When I move, really move, my role model is Tyson, for his aggressive and fast style, which I think is truer to parkour than what I've seen any other traceur do (after all, we don't spell it P-A-R-C-O-U-R-S because along the line, some people decided that C doesn't suggest aggressiveness like a K does, and silent a S just isn't efficient).
   In a little less than 3 hours, I have gym, and for now that means an hour in the weight room. Having rested all Wednesday, I have no excuse not to do tricep exercises today, add a decent amount to my static lying leg hold, and spend the rest of the class running.

[Mathew C]

Friday, January 23, 2009
   Weight room today:
Exercises

• Treadmill - warm-up, .275 miles, 5 minutes
• Treadmill - main, 1 mile, 10 minutes
• Treadmill - cool-down, .275 miles, 5 minutes
• 25 calve raises
• 25 18-inch partial pistols
• Took advantage of the opportunity to help along the posture goal, and spent some time working on my deadlift form (all light weights, didn't even get to 2/3 of my BW)
• 44 second leg hold

Outside of the weight room, I spent some time talking to Ken PkChiro, and learned why extreme inflammation is undesirable, why it makes sense to warm up the joint and then ice it (a process which at one time seemed contradictory), and more. Also, after that conversation, Ive decided to try and reduce the sugar in my diet to what I get from milk or fruit to reduce the inflammation. So far, I'm not doing too badly - when I went to McDonald's (I wasn't the one driving), I got chicken selects and 3 Milk Jugs.

Notes

• Caught myself using bad posture 9 times
• Running 20 minutes a day, and doing pistols and calve raises every other day sounds like a good way to wreck my knees, especially considering I'm starting out. I will keep the maintenance goals for my knees and ankles - I will just do so by sticking with running, the godfather of leg conditioning

[Mathew C]

Well man, I gotta say I'm pretty impressed by the discipline you have to let your body heal and mature. That's super neato. Hope you hit your goals soon.

Are you thinking of eventually doing any freeweight exercises or anything like that?

Sorry, for some reason I never even saw this question. Yes, I plan to start SS in the fall, after a summer of running, conditioning, drop training, and balance work

[Mathew C]

Sunday, January 24, 2009
Exercises

• Treadmill - warm-up, 5 minutes, .275 miles
• Treadmill - main, 10 minutes, 1 mile
• 10 minutes doing low-resistance curls and french presses with resistance band (20 of each palms down, 20 palms facing each other, 20 palms up)
• Leg holds 30 seconds + 45 seconds + 30 seconds (total 2 minutes)

Notes

• Wearing the new Ariakes yesterday gave me the start of a blister on my left Achilles tendon; it's nothing my skin won't adapt to, so no worries, but for today I ran barefoot (forefoot only of course)
• Grease-the-groove programming generally is only effective (and often only safe) at low volumes, which doesn't mean leg holds for multiple minutes. I might start doing holds every other day after a while, alternating with elbow exercise days

[Mathew C]

   Let me take a moment to talk about the greatest obstacle in the way of my number one goal - PE/Intramurals. We all know what P.E. is; Intramurals is effectively the same thing, but the teams are based on the house system in place at my school. Intramurals is every Tuesday from 1:25 to 2:50 (in theory - it actually starts around 1:45 and ends at 2:30), and P.E. is every Friday morning from 8:00 to 9:35 (again, in theory - it actually goes from 8:10 to 9:05).
   Tomorrow in Intramurals we begin Basketball, and we'll continue that for about 4 weeks. I'm not too worried - I have intramurals with other 9th and 10th grade kids, I'm around 6' 2", and of the other 6 people in my house with the same Intramurals period, 4 are on the JV Basketball team. Basically, I can be lazy, just play one-handed defense, and generally avoid my right tricep. In P.E. this Friday is the last day in the weight room before we start Badmiton (should be interesting), so I get to learn how to play left-handed.
   So, how to deal with the obstacle of 2 mandatory sports periods. Basically, my plan is to play left-handed, 'forget' my gym clothes when necessary, give the ball to someone else, etc. And afterwards - RICE. That will be easy for Intramurals, which takes place in the alst two periods of the day, but Friday morning PE presents more of a challenge. I might have to start forgoing showers (I don't sweat anyway, unless we're doing weight room), changing quickly and then sitting in the commons from 9:10 to 9:30 icing.
   Also, instead of having a plan as simple as "every other day", I'm going to start a weekly programming... er... program, because it just makes sense for my tricep, and because I listened to my body and it told me it's not ready for running 20 minutes daily. Rough draft:
Monday Brief ankle conditioning (to make sure overpronation- / flat arch-related problems stay at bay)
Tuesday Intramurals - RICE
Wednesday Running (LSD)
Thursday Running (start slow, slowly progressive, end fast enough that I'm almost out of breath) then elbow exercises
Friday P.E. then RICE
Saturday Rest
Sunday Running (like on Thursday) then elbow exercises

I'm still trying to find a way to fit in frontal core work (leg lifts). Although... I'm not sure I'll need to 'balance out' anything. my posture is steadily getting better without any significant increase in strength or muscular endurance (that I've noticed anyway), and my frontal core is strong enough that I can already do an L-sit pull-up... suggestions anyone?

[Mathew C]

Monday, January 26, 2009
   Brief ankle conditioning session
Exercises

• 15 one-foot ledge calve raises per leg
• 50 ledge calve raises
• 25 foot eversions
• 50 shin raises
• Only caught myself using bad posture 7 times

Goals

• Get rid of tendinitis
• Maintain knee and ankle conditioning
• Go one day with perfect posture
• Improve frontal core endurance to balance lower back improvements - aiming for 5 minute leg hold (?)

Injuries

• Tendinitis at the base of the right tricep

Notes

• I'd like to eventually get to 25 one-foot ledge calve raises
• My calves are enormous after a workout 
• Still seeking suggestions on frontal core work to balance my postural work - ditch it or no? Or maybe switch to a different exercise? Right now I'm thinking ditch it

[Mathew C]

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
   Snow day
Exercises

• Learning how to shovel snow without using the right tricep
• Caught myself using bad posture 7 times

Goals

• Get rid of tendinitis
• Maintain knee and ankle conditioning
• Go one day with perfect posture
• Improve frontal core endurance to balance lower back improvements - aiming for 5 minute leg hold (?)

Injuries

• Tendinitis at the base of the right tricep

Notes

• Considering going by a less rigid running plan. The entire purpose was that I get very warmed up regularly, and LSD running doens't seem like the best way to do it, I mean, if I'm not warmed up after 10 minutes I won't be after 10 more, and if I am warmed up after 10 minutes why should I run for 10 more? I'm thinking I'll switch to more high intensity for a shorter period (maybe a gradual buildup 10 mph, then a plateau for a few minutes)
• In my quest to reduce my sugar intake and therefore inflammation, I learned that one bag of sour gummy worms contained 77 grams of sugar  Thought you all should know

[Mathew C]

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
   Another snow day

Exercises

• Ran in the snow
• Curls - 5 lbs x 30, 10 lbs x 20, 15 lbs x 10
• Incline push ups - 30 with my hands on the control panel area of a treadmill (like 3 inches below my sternum height), and 20 on a metal fence  (about 6 inches higher than the previous)
• Caught myself with bad posture 8 times 

Goals

• Get rid of tendinitis
• Maintain knee and ankle conditioning
• Go one day with perfect posture
• Improve frontal core endurance to balance lower back improvements - aiming for 5 minute leg hold

Injuries

• Tendinitis at the base of the right tricep

Notes

• Incline push ups feel good
• Still seeking advice on dropping the frontal core work - at this point, it's effectively dropped.
  

[Mathew C]

Thursday, January 29, 2009
   Rest day... mostly

Exercises

• Only had to correct my posture 5 times
• Calve raises x 50
• Foot inversions x 25
• Foot eversions x 25
• Shin raises x 50

Goals

• Get rid of tendinitis
• Maintain knee and ankle conditioning
• Go one day with perfect posture
• Improve frontal core endurance to match lower back improvements

Injuries

• Tendinitis at the base of the right tricep

Notes

• Apparently nobody has any thoughts regarding that last goal... I'll take the opportunity to do frontal core work when the opportunity presents itself, but otherwise, this is the last day I'm going to be posting that goal
• Incline push-ups feel niiice on tendinitis

[Mathew C]

Friday, January 30, 2009
   Mixing it up with circuit warmups
Exercises
4 rounds, followed by 20 minutes of RICE

• 25 sit-ups
• 25 ledge calve raises
• 25 ledge shin raises
• 100 arm circles
• 25 squats
• 10 Incline push-ups
• Caught myself using bad posture 3 times

Goals

• Get rid of tendinitis
• Maintain knee and ankle conditioning
• Go one day with perfect posture

Injuries

• Tendinitis at the base of the right tricep

Notes

• Circuit warmup got my heart pumping better than I expected. I'll start using this method more often
• After 4 sets of 25 sit-ups really going for form, the burn was wonderful, and with the blood flowing I finally had a complete, indisputable 'six pack' - aesthetics, I know, but seeing it made me feel so powerful, the morale boost was huge. Maybe aesthetics do have a place in parkour: consciously utilizing the placebo effect