Rest week

It's a rest week, thank God.

Brad and I started our summer training the first week of April, and have been going full tilt ever since. Admittedly, we limited our workout to only weights in April, since we were both still recovering from whooping cough (delish, you should try it sometime), and then added sprinting in May.

The schedule...
We lift on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and those sessions are so brutal that my heart rate usually stays in the aerobic range the entire time! (I'll post some photos of our workouts in the near future...)

We sprint with our coach on Sundays, and then have to sprint 3 more times over the week, usually Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for me, though sometimes I'll lift AND sprint on Wednesdays so that I can take Monday or Tuesday OFF. Doesn't always happen...but needs to.

Ouchies...
So after 12 weeks of going hard, little things start to happen. Like my hip flexor, just sore, but bothersome as it can't quite recover fully between workouts. Or being unable to lift the same weights each week, body being worn out.

Or, even better, spraining my pec muscle from running, like I did last Sunday. Overworked it in the upper body workout on Saturday, then as I sprinted Sunday, one of my arm swings left me with an "OW!!!" feeling and I had to shut it down. Spent the rest of the workout laying on my stomach with a softball under my boob trying to rub out the muscle. Also an OUCH activity.

Rest week
So, now that we're in the midsts of the hard stuff, we are taking a "rest week" to allow recovery before we delve back in. This doesn't mean that we get to sit on the couch for the week, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it's been easier. Lifting has been limited to body weight plyos (though I bailed on our Wednesday plyo session due to the pec sprain), and sprinting limited to drills and stretching.

SOOOOOOOO nice, right?

Sort of...

Today, our 'workout' consisted of two excruciating hours of rolling out the knots.

Knots in our muscles.

On a softball.

Then on a lacrosse ball.

With full body weight.

OW!

It's necessary to loosen the muscles and allow them to heal between workouts, to come back stronger, but if you haven't been stretching and foam rolling, it's excruciating and you don't realize how tight you are until you try it.

Who am I kidding - no matter HOW much you stretch and foam roll, it's excruciating. But well worth it.

Homework:
Until you have tried this, you can't understand, so your homework tonight is to take a softball (it hurts less than a lacrosse ball since it's bigger, but use what you have), and place it under your RIGHT butt cheek, about 5-6 inches down from the level of your hip. A nice fleshy part.

Now, cross your RIGHT ankle over your LEFT knee, and, holding yourself off the floor with your hands, proceed to roll the ball around until you find a tender spot. Now, let yourself sink down until the ball is digging and pressing into the sore spot, and LEAVE it there for about a minute. Then roll around again, sink again, and repeat. It'll take about 8-10 minutes, finding as many knots as you can, until this part is done.

When done with that, you will move upward, to the part of your butt that is just behind your hip. This takes a bit of twisting to the side, and hurts even more. Take your time, don't want to rush it and miss the benefits...

Now, proceed to do the LEFT butt cheek (both parts), then move down to your IT band (down the side of your leg), trying not to cry. (I tend laugh, but that's just how my body likes to release the pent up screams, heh.)

Personally, I think the worst part is the calves. Using the smaller ball (it digs in deeper), raised up on a book (or yoga block), you'll cross your legs and lift your butt off the floor so all your weight is pressing your calf into the ball. Then roll downward slowly, pausing on the knots, knee to ankle. Then reposition an inch to either side. Repeat until you've covered the whole calf....this took me 20 minutes. Literally. Oh, the sides really hurt too...

Anyway, there are options for shins, quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, adductors, shoulders, pecs, and more.....all of which we did this morning.

So go forth and enjoy! Let me know how it goes...

We'll be back working out hard next week, so I'll try to get some pictures. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the slower pace and try to get extra sleep. My body loves me right now. Other than the pec, it doesn't love me, but 98% of my body does. And that's enough.