Sharla's Log

[Sharla]

Ok so I haven't posted here for a while and I'm about to get back into it since I should have the internet connected at home! Yes that''s pretty monumental for me since it actually meant getting a home phone aswell!

One day I might even have to get a TV that I can hook up to a VCR or one of those modern DVD player thingies!

So to update - i didn't do the marathon - I became stupidly busy the final couple of weeks before i had to leave for my trip to the UK since uni did pay for it and I had to prepare a lot plus finish off a heap of experiments i had growing - which unfortunately you really can't pause with plants growing!

I ran a 20 km training run earlier in the week of the marathon and it just didn't feel right so i decided I had lost some condition in those insane 2 weeks and wasn't quite fit enough. I could have finished but I would have been so sore the run would have put me back in conditioning and probably reaggrivated old knee and back issues wheras when fitter and well prepared I still like to think I can do it.

Instead of running the marathon I spent the weekend learning a few things from Scrap and got to see Donny in action training plus met Mrs Scrap and Adam GB and saw the Plonks fight his pro debut. One day everyone will be talking about him and I'll be able to say I saw his debut bout and I trained with Donny (also bound to be a big thing) and Scrap for a weekend!

It was a really worthwhile weekend and I learnt a lot. I then enjoyed the rest of my trip visiting labs etc and learnt the true meaning of relaxing whilst seeing Scotland with Bilbo (evolution is a banned conversation ).

Now I'm back and have just recovered from a cold I caught on the plane back I am getting organized to have a structured training program again. Fingers crossed I might be starting a new job soon and I have my PhD to finish over the next few months too so I'm budgeting 2 hrs of exercise a day plus transport cycling since we're coming into summer and the days are brighter for longer and the weather good for it.

So basically that's 2 hrs exercise plus 1 hr 40 mins cycling a day except on weekends which will have Saturdays off and not much cycling.

I've decided this is a good time to have a kind of reset which I think I'll do every year for about 1 or 2 months. I'm planning one hour of stretching first thing every morning with wobble board work throw in. I'll do 5 mins of wobble board balancing blindfolded, 15 mins of stretching X 3.

I am going wobble board nuts. The reason being I don't believe my hips stabilize me very well and I think that's the main source of any aches and pains I tend to get. I'm doing it blindfolded because I find that pracitcally impossible right now so need to develop it and i can understand that I am too right eye dominant.

In the evenings I am doing three nights a week cardio (half running including intervals - speed work, half swimming - mixed intensity) and three nights a week resistance work. Again with the resistance work I'm going wobble board nuts incorporating it wherever possible eg ander my toes while doing pushups with push up bars, under my feet for dumbbell squats etc.

I'm throwing in some ideas I got from Scrap provided I get organized with equipment which I won't describe. He can put those up when he's ready. I'll also be doing some shadow work and perhaps simple judo moves these nights at home. The things i'm relatively confident I can practice unsupervised although I will get my bro to spot me sometimes when possible.

I seem to have had great luck with people lately and it turns out that my flatmate used to be an elite swimmer. While i've known this for a while I've always had my own trainings at nights and never been to the pool with her until recently.

Damn it she KILLED me! But in a good way - stretched everything out and worked muscles I didn't know how to use without someone elite like her to make me do it correctly.I didn't even realise how tired she was making me until afterwards. It was such different exercise it really crept up on me!

I'll be using what she taught me and trying to get her to check my form every few weeks since she found things which I think also combat key weaknesses I have holding me back from enjoying other more high impact things as much as I'd like - such as running, judo and boxing etc.

I'll describe the sessions a little more as I do them.

I haven't worked out if and when I'll be getting back into the clubs yet. I suspect I'm better off leaving it until i have my PhD mostly wrapped up since juggling everything has been a bit too challenging for me at times.

Organization has never been my strong suit so to deal with this I've had my flatmate's help reorganizing my room. I mean a COMPLETE do over! So far it's working well - things are easier to find, get out and put away and trip me over less. Howwever, managing my time is the real challene as always.

I've bought an A3 size whiteboard which is my version of a poor man's personal organizer except I've decided it's better because I can layout everything on it ans see it all at once rather than just looking at one part of my life at once. I'm hoping that i'll be less likely to forget things in areas of my life I'm not thinking of in the moment. I've split the board up into parts - career/uni, Sport & Health, Domestic Chores and Finances.

I kinda wish I'd bought a bigger board but perhaps the limited space makes me keep things simple and I have managed to fit everything on there. It's magnetic so I can use fridge magnets to pin up specific stretching routines on a slip of paper too. I have 4 different coloured pens I use for heading like goals, To Do lists, Rosters etc for each section which make it clearer to read and less likely to just be a mass of black and white scribbles when I look at it. Fingers Crossed it works!!!

So I start my program officially tomorrow - just going to the pool tonight for a half social swim with my little sis and have done a bit of stretching today. I've been doing some cardio, resistance work and stretching over the past couple of weeks but not really had a structure to keep track of so now I'm organized hopefully I can make more use of my annual 1 or 2 month "reset" phase!

[pikey dave]

Sharla thank you for your kind words,if you need help with any thing give me a call, no strings no cost' Dave from the Cove Boxing Club.

[Sharla]

Thanks Dave! I attempted - big emphasis on attempted since I didn't really mange - to keep up with the program Scrap was posting of your training and it damn near killed me!

The dedication, hard work, brains and balls required to keep up with all that and what Scrap has you learning (i won't say teach since i think he likes to encourage people to work things out for themselves a bit and he doesn't strike me as a babysitting coach) really justifies respect.

I'll take you up on your offer of advice when I've worked out what Qs are important for me and I'll consider it a privelidge!

[wesrman]

Dont worry about being nosey, i dont mind.

A wrist roller is a thick bar (or pipe in my case) with a rope attached to it and you roll it up and down using your wrists. A couple of these links have a demonstration (the best i could find, although they arent great imo), but i prefer to do it one way and then turn the roller around and do it the other way too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxN-AemiW4k

Wrist Roller Forearm Exercise

Wrist roller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hopefully that helps.

[Sharla]

Interesting thanks Wes.

Have you noticed an improvement in something(s) in your training since starting the exercise?

I'm trying to picture how it might improve boxing function and I'm sure it would since rolling up and down does both directions evenly plus it sounds like a compound exercise according to the Wiki link.

Also wondering what these kinds of exercises mean for people prone to carpel tunnel syndrome - would it be overworking those muscles or preventing the problem?

[wesrman]

I love the wrist roller, but ive also done lots of palms up and palms down wrist curls, behind back wrist curls, leverage bar curls and twists etc. I have weak wrists so i have to work extra hard to strengthen them.

Forearm Training

Bodybuilding.com - Forearms Articles!

Im sure a strong forearm would help a boxer greatly by reducing the amout of injuries to the wrist.

If you're prone to carpal tunnel you will have to be cautious, but id image that it could help if you dont over do it. Im not a doctor though so this is only speculation.

If you are going to train your forearms, use high reps (15-100 per set), use a variety of exercises to make sure you dont cause an imbalance and make sure you use a full range of motion and never cheat. You dont want to injure your wrist (this is especially true for a boxer).

Bruce Lee trained his forearms all the time and used all kinds of equipment and exercises includingthe wrist roller, and he had the best forearms ever imo.

[Sharla]

Thanks Wes I hadn't thought about forearm training but I guess I'll have to look into it. There's always something activity or diet wise I haven't included in my training yet which I should - one day I'll catch up!

I don't think I'm prone to Carpel tunnel but i had noticed odd stiffness in my wrists occasionally so i think i might want to look into prevention just to be on the safe side.

Ok to update my log:

My training plan has changed yet again! Basically because of my uni workload over the next few months meaning I won't finish my days in time for night trainings. Also my membership for the aquatic centre expired and while I'm not sure of whether or not I got the job i was going for yet i don't want to fork out the money to update it.

They do have some casual positions coming up for work over summer at the pool which might be my solution since hopefully I'll be able to work hours which won't interfere too much with my uni work and I'll get free membership. I think i'll be absolutely stuffed at the end of every day but i'll manage especially since it's so close to my house.

Another thing I've noticed I have to be strict with is my stretching time. It's the first thing I do so if I have to do some other exercise afterwards I'll run out of time to do it if I stretch too long. However my 1 hr stretch sessions have turned into 1 hr 30 or 1 hr 40 min sessions. It just seems there's always another spot to stretch. I think ultimately I'll never finish a session feeling one hundred percent loose and stretched - at least not for a few more months anyway.

I've also discovered I have a fobia of doing weights without a cardio warm up so doing them from home means I need to run first. This week I haven't done any resistance training because after my stretching and run i run out of time. I have been cycling to and fron uni 5 days too so I guess that maybe counts as something (but not really).

I could get hold of my mums' windtrainer and start cycling as part of my warm ups again. I also have an idea or two of Scrap's I'll put into practice once I have the equipment sussed. I need to think about the best way to do that and keep my eye out for the right stuff at a reasonable price though so that could be a few weeks.

I'm still nutting it out but I plan to allow 3 hours to workout in the mornings - 1 hour stretch, 1 hour cardio, 1 hour resistance, ab work and skill and balance stuff.

Aims for the next few months:

• Improve hip stability and balance (I always feel my hips tilt too far forewards)
• Reduce all my flexibility limitations
• Strengthen my weakest links - i think my lower ab & hip muscles involved with balance mainly to begin with
• All that will hopefully help me build a base which will make it easier for my body to tolerate long distance running because I want to get back into that again and if when my PhD hell is over with I'll look into club activities like boxing and judo again and make some decisions.

The reason i think my lower abs might be weak is when being shown how to do a proper dolphin kick the other week I found i wanted to do a sit up in the water and I found it impossible to bend at my hips to kick my legs.

While sorting out papers stacked up in my room I found something I had printed out from a website Donny recommended. One of those things I fully intended to get to but didn't - now I think he was really onto something.

It is an ab exercises which also gently stretches the iliopsoas and does not allow you to bend the wring way called an "assisted heel slide" so I'm going to look into doing that and see if I can get it working correctly.

The other thing i've resolved to do before but will be more serious about now is to drink more water! I have now found things on the web which link lower back pain to dehydration since the iliopsoas will contract in response to dehydration!

In a way it's not unlikely for me since I'm a coffee addict and brought up on a farm with bore water never drank a lot of it. Plus before hurting my knee when i thought i was unbreakable I relied a bit too much on dehydration to make weight for fights sometimes.

I might not have known a few extra aches and pains could really be related to that which is scary because while everyone tells you to drink water no one ever teaches you to recognize the symptoms of dehydration other than feeling thirsty which can be misinterpreted as other cravings sometimes - like food in my case.

So I think i'd give myself maybe 6/10 for this last week - a bit crap - need to get my arse into gear and keep on track. I think my organization skills are developing though so hopefully it will get easier after a while. I'll be getting up at about 4:15 am to allow me 3 hours exercise before uni (leave at 8 am to get there at 9) so that will be the biggest challenge this week.

I might need to impose a weekend curfew on myself which sucks but I'm a daylight person and prefer to go out during the day than at night anyway.