Rumble Roller time

It has been MAD busy lately in my world, so sorry for such a long drought without a post!

I've been killing it with my workouts the past week which has resulted in some sore glutes lately- but only sore, not painful.  I've been icing and the whole nine yards to try to keep them happy and they have been staying sore and not painful.

Until yesterday when I thought a spin class would be fine- silly Colleen.  After about 5 minutes into the warmup my left hamstring/glute area was starting to tell me to STOP!  And I listened.  I know, a round of applause is clearly in order.  Honestly, thought it was very difficult for me to stop and not just push through it.

I walked and did some light running upstairs around the indoor jogging ring while Adrian finished with his personal training session.  When I got home I iced several times like a good girl even though icing your glutes/hamstrings is not a super pleasant experience in case you've never done it.

It's a bummer to be resting a second day in a row- especially when both days I actually had the time and the desire to workout....but it's important that I keep listening to my body.   Well there is one thing my body was very happy (and miserable) to receive today from my wonderful sister:

Probably not a comfy pillow....

YES- she got me the RUMBLE ROLLER!!

Exciting!

O yeah, very exciting.  I even test drove it in her living room with her roommates quite amused perhaps by my pain noises and expressions.  This is not your grandmother's foam roller people- it's hard core. And that means that if you have a knot- it will go after that sucker till it's last dying breath.  So of course, I rolled my glutes, hams, and IT band (holy ouchy!) while I barely concealed the sweet agony.

In case you are wondering why I am in Philly tonight- it's because I get to take the lovely (sarcasm people) drive up to Wayne, NJ tomorrow to present a client experience workshop.  I have to be there at 9:00am and it is northwest of NYC so every minute closer I could get tonight the less I have to drive tomorrow morning.  I'm spending the night Wednesday night then presenting the workshop again on Thursday before having to drive all the way back home Thursday night.

It's going to be a long and exhausting rest of the week....wish me luck!


What is your most frequently used recovery method or tool?  For me, I value stretching, foam rolling, and icing when I can talk myself into that last one.  I'm not as consistent with icing as I could be.

Some new things

I am officially a "barefoot" convert.

That's right- I'm talking about barefoot running.



While I can't picture myself ever doing the above- running totally barefoot on pavement- I love running in barefoot inspired, minimalistic shoes.  Aka my Merrell Dash Gloves.  It's kinda wild how much different I feel when running in these shoes, and mind blowing how different my feet naturally feel when they are out of my clunky shoes that I've been told for a year are "perfect" for me.  

At this point I am only transitioned up to 6 minutes per running session.  I wish it was more but I HAVE to be patient if I want transition correctly and stay injury free.  Well...at least with my legs.  My stupid tennis elbow is a whole other story since it just won't seem to quit and just go away.  I am waiting to connect with my doctor because I had an MRI done but we keep missing each other.  What she did say is that she's happy with what she saw.  There are no tears or serious damage but she said she could tell where my pain was from how it lit up.  Not sure what that exactly means, so hopefully we can touch base with each other on Monday. 

At the gym Thursday night, a fellow foam roller enthusiast that I see all the time was rolling on this:

WOW!

And....he let me try it.  Holy foam roller, batman!!  I have been wanting to try one but hesitant to thunk down the extra money for it.  And then.....Wowsers.  That thing doesn't mess around.  It hunts out your knots and bumps like a master. I rolled my glutes for 15 seconds and afterwards it felt like I had been rolling for 5 minutes!  Ok, maybe not that drastic but it felt too good to forget.  The sucky thing.....it's like $80.  Almost as painful as rolling on it.  But I can't help but to think....if it will help it'll be worth it.

Do you run barefoot or in minimalist shoes?
Do you foam roll?

O foam roller

Want a fast way to make a kitten act like an idiot?



exhibit A

O such an innocent little thing, the foam roller- it is like a medieval torture device and my best friend rolled into one.  It hurts so good and I needed it badly on Tuesday after my work meeting.  The meeting went pretty well but I was in heels all day and my legs were complaining about it by the end.

I gotta say...I've been enjoying physical therapy.  Everything they say makes so much sense and I am not only seeing but feeling the difference in how my legs, abs, and back feel.   My what was feeling like constant lower back pain has improved so much- it's only occasional now and I have some methods to help it.



Like this

 It's also intriguing how lately people feel the need to give me lots of advice on how to magically help me with my flared tennis elbow.  Over the past 1+ year of dealing with this tennis elbow I assure you I have read everything I can.  Just because you read something on the internet doens't mean you are an expert on recovery of an injury.  yeargghh!!  /end rant

So yeah...I guess you figured out my tennis elbow is flaring again.  SIGH.  After a long discussion with my physical therapist to try to see if there was a trigger that casued it to come back, she identified a possible issue being moving from my full body strength training to a more machine based workout I've been doing with Upinder.  Hmmm....so lifting heavy is supposed to be the "cure all" for tennis elbow, huh?  Yeargh, yeah no. Well, I haven't been lifting heavy as a friend told me I MUST do because supposedly it is the only way to fix my injury (BULL CRAP).  But, I have been lifting on mostly machines which I've never focused on before and don't really like.  Initially it was feeling better and not causing any pain but Barb thinks moving away from full body movements could have further inhibited my progress in healing.  She's suggesting seeing the sports med doc again and getting MRIs of both elbows.  We will see....


Have you ever struggled with a sports injury?  What injury was it and how did you deal with it?