2aminphoenix’s BodyBlog

Don’t get me wrong, I love football, but the Superbowl is the only game I watched this season. I’ll blame it on the fact that there isn’t much I do half-assed, and my head and heart was into learning as much as I could about bodybuilding and nutrition since I decided to hold off on a massage therapy book I’ve been wanting to write.

I’m still trying to decide what is better- doing dead-lifts after squats, before or as a second workout in the same day?

Seeing the Giants win one over a team that was struggling to retain their undefeated streak was liberating. And for the Giants, I think they found the key earlier on in the season.

But to be honest, aside from watching Shaq give a poor horse its last race in what I think was the best superbowl commercial, I was more excited to see Brock Lesnar pummel Frank Mir in the UFC Octogon on Saturday!

Lesnar had the drive, motivation, raw power and intensity as a ground pounder that very few people possess. But unbelievably, Frank Mir took every shot Lesnar delivered, and the focus to find Lesnar’s weakness even though the blood was flowing.

Inexperience.

Even though Lesnar owned Mir, Lesnar missed some golden opportunities to throw elbows into Mir’s kidneys & ribs, instead of the back of Mir’s head- penalizing Lesnar one point. And after the second takedown by Lesnar, the "Vanilla Gorilla" was left standing over a bloody Mir wondering what to do next.

The next time Lesnar moved, it was Mir that used his relaxed intensity and his polished skill in Jujitsu to capitalize on the opening and put Lesnar’s leg in submission, forcing him to tap-out in the first round.

What a great weekend for contact sports!

A strange thing happened last night as I was doing laundry.

The last time I trained my calf muscles, it was 5 days ago. Yesterday, the soreness of my legs went away, and it was time to train again, but as I was walking back to finish the last load of laundry, my left calf muscle suddenly became a little stiff, and started hurting like I just developed a trigger point.

I didn’t trip, misstep, skip, hop, or do anything out of the ordinary with my stride..it just started hurting…now I’m feeling old.

This sucks.

Rather than crapping out and not training my legs, I set out and carefully did three sets of machine squats, 3 sets of hack squats and 4 sets of leg presses..lighter than usual. I could feel a little pressure during these exercises at the bottom, but no pain.

And of course, after the workout, my gastroc was as tight as a snare drum with only about 20% range of motion.

As a therapist, I learned a lot about injury massage and how to rehab this muscle group, and what better time to share this with you..and hoping you never have to experience this mild injury.

This is a fairly light injury, but the following rehab plan should be followed so you can eliminate spasm, restore biomechanics, flexibility, strength, and endurance.

HERES THE REHAB PLAN:

Care of an Acute Injury:

R - Rest (give your muscles plenty of rest)

I  - Ice (I slightly melted an empty water bottle over a stove, just enough to collapse one side so its curved inward so when you fill it with water and freeze it, it will make greater contact with your calf.

C - Compression
(It’s hard to slowly compress your calves with your palms by yourself, but have a therapist or a friend slowly grasp, lift, and apply gradual pressure)

E - Elevation

SELF PROTOCOL:

If you were my client, I would give you the following exercises to perform. Like I mentioned beforehand,   it may be difficult to perform these yourself, and this should NEVER be a replacement protocol to actual therapeutic rehab. In other words, see your doctor or therapist for treatment specific to your injury.

1 - Sitting in a chair or sofa, position your leg in a 45 degree angle and rest ankle on your opposite knee. Relax your gastroc as you slowly rotate your ankle and test it’s range of motion. Don’t push for pain. Stop if it hurts.

2 - Gradually apply compression to your gastroc. This simply means applying pressure, squeezing, and slowly and gently kneading the muscle and tendons.

This slow action helps warm the tissue before applying gliding strokes.

The ORIGIN of the GASTROCNEMIUS (gastroc) is the medial and lateral epicondyles of the femur

The INSERTION of the GASTROCNEMIUS is the calcaneus, via the Achilles tendon

3- Apply some lotion to your calf.

If you’re left calf muscle is the problem, use your right hand to slowly apply gliding strokes from your heel, moving upward to your knee.

Keep your calf muscle relaxed and work slowly and lightly at first.

Grab your wrist with your left hand to give your wrist more support as you glide.

4- Now slowly plantar and dorsi flex your foot as you apply the same gliding stokes, going deeper if you can.

5- Now apply lotion and use gliding strokes on your tibialis anterior. This is the apposing muscle that lifts your foot.

This process should take you about 10 minutes for gliding friction, and follow with rest, and elevation

Ice for no more than 5-8 minutes at a time.

To our recovery!

For the last few months, I’ve been searching for a hard-core, no frills gym that doesn’t require cumbersome contracts, and has effective workout equipment.

So far, I’ve been to a gym that was simply too far away, no shower, and was too expensive for what it offered. Sorry, but  the equipment was so old, you could still read the "Authentic Antique" seal of authenticity. If you want a trainer, it costs extra..and you’ll learn how to do hack squats by bouncing your hams off of your calf muscles (give me a freakin break).

"24 hours" I’ll call the other gym. Good machines, nice free-weights, and friendly people, but they were highly incompetent about their own facilities. They kind of have that classic "I don’t know nothin’ I just work here’ attitude. The selection of machines was ok. 24 bucks a month, but it comes with a costly $79 application fee. Oh, and I have one of those online banks because thats where my commission comes from…there’s only one way to pay your bill…direct debit through your credit card. Next!

With that said, I checked out Pure Fitness.

This was the only gym I was really impressed with. The equipment was top notch, and I get wood every time I think about working out on their Free Motion machines.

Pure Fitness was the only gym that really cared about what I wanted. What my goals were and listen to them, and wrote out a plan, told me which trainer would be best for me (included in the price below) took my measurements, and even took my bodyfat percentage (it’s 25). My rep was also very knowledgeable about the machines and anatomy.

Not only does Pure Fitness offer a wide variety of machines, free-weights, and big showers, sauna and other things, but they are very flexible, and incredibly generous.

The cons? Some locations aren’t 24 open hours. I won’t list the price because this is starting to sound like hype, I assure you it’s not..just my personal experience. At under 20 bucks a month, I couldn’t pull out my wallet fast enough. I signed up!

Till next time, rock on!

G
[reedit on 1/30]

Wednesday, I traveled 20 miles and signed up for a 7-day pass to that gym I mentioned in my last post.

This wont be a review, but suffice it to say that I was disappointed, so I won’t be going back. In fact, after weighing all the pros and cons between 24 hour fitness (which is 2 minutes away) and that other gym, there are more pro’s for 24 hour fitness..it makes more sense, and I’ll pay the "application" fee in protest for the 24 bucks a month..damnit.

If you’d like details let me know, but I wont post them here:)

I’ve stopped taking a whey shake before bed, and replaced it with a serving of cottage cheese, water, and a chicken breast.

Keep pushin’

G

No, I’m not sleepless because I’m excited about finding a decent hardcore gym, I’m sleepless (I think) because of my change in diet.

The last thing I do before bed is drink an O.N. chocolate whey shake. Anyone else have the problem of waking up at 2 in the morning and can’t get back to sleep?

It’s happened the last three nights..er..mornings, and I think I need to replace the shake with some cottage cheese or another alternative.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

—

DieHard Gym, Peoria, AZ

It’s a 20 minute drive, in a good area of Peoria, AZ, there’s no contract, no bs application/hidden startup fees, decent monthly rates, and it looks good so far. I’ve got a 1 week pass that I’ll put in use in the next few days and I’ll let you know how things go.

In the mean time, I AM excited about adding a couple of exercises to my new alternating schedule , like the Pec Deck, and leg press.

My Sunday will be spent writing out a new schedule now that I have a decent gym to work in:)

Have a kick-ass New Year!

Rock on

G

Now that my two week light weight scedule is over, it’s turn and burn time!

I sceduled 3 days out of the week to work out, but I worked out every day except Friday.

Last thursday was the big day for doing my last light workout for legs and I burnt them out good, even though I could have used some heavier weights for squats. For now, I’m stuck with using my complex gym (sucks) and my own freeweights until I find a hardcore gym close by, or buy heavier plates for my own set at home.

The best part of that light leg workout?

The contrast treatment.

If you happen to be new to hydrotherapy or taking a long muscle soak (hopefully you shower on a regular basis..if you don’t then don’t ask me to be your workout partner) a contrast treatment is a great way to help your muscles recover. It’s real simple to do, and it feels great.

Here’s all you have to remember..

3 minutes heat (hot water works best)
30 seconds ice water

Repeat this process 4-8 times. The hot water increases the size of your blood vessels, the cold water constricts them, producing a simulating effect for the circulation and metabolism, encourages blood to circulate faster than normal, helps remove toxins, and speeds tissue healing.

One word of caution: Don’t perform a contrast treatment to a body part that is swollen due to acute injury (other than what normally happens to muscle tissue after a good workout).

In my case last thursday night around 9:30pm and after my working my quads, hams and calfs, I relaxed in the hot tub for 3 minutes, then stood waist-high in the ice-cold pool water for 30 seconds. Then, it was back in the hot water for 3 minutes.

I repeated this process 4 more times.

I just bought two Rubermaid storage containers for about 4 bucks each at Frye’s Marketplace. Get the 19 QT Clear Impressions. They are great to use for your arms. Just fill one with ice water, the other with hot water.

I wont go into the pathology/details here, but try it for yourself and let me know how it worked for you.

Grant
(L.M.T., Freeweight Animal)