I have only recently learned the value of cycling intensity levels when it comes to my own training. I guess I noticed that injuries tend to happen when I was on an upswing in my practice. My last injury happened just after I set some personal records in the swing and started to increase the amount of weight I was using in the RKC 6. Just when I thought I was superman I pulled a muscle in my upper back that put me down for a couple of months. If I think back to the sessions just before the injury I believe my body was giving me signals that I was ignoring. There were some minor issues with my upper back and neck that would go away once I got warmed up. My left shoulder felt funny when I put it overhead for getups or snatches. These were just minor annoyances but it is possible I had pushed too hard for too many weeks and my body was giving me some friendly warnings to slow down.
I pushed myself particularly hard the past 4 weeks because the 2 months prior I was mostly doing rehab work. About a month ago I felt strong enough to start doing my typical routines and the past 4 weeks have been awesome! My numbers are getting better every session and it seems no matter what I eat I'm not gaining anything but muscle. The problem is that by the end of last week I realized I was getting those subtle signs again. Tight shoulder, stiffer than usual upper back and neck. And my lower back is talking to me very quietly but it is talking to me. My lower. back almost never hurts which I credit to kettlebell swingining. If my lower back is giving me a hard time I know I need to slow down.
I made a conscious decision to train at about 85% intensity this week no matter how I felt. Today was swing day and I feel strong! When I set up the bells to be close to me the weights feel very light and that is a good sign. Normally I would push as hard as I could on a day like this but I kept reminding myself of how the body felt last week. Last session I did 24 minutes of swings using almost exclusively the 24 kg bell for each round. It was an incredibly hard session that had me almost crying like a baby! I decided this week to do the same 24 minute drill but use the 18 kb bell instead of the 24. I am lucky I did because by the end of the 20th round I could feel some pain in my left front hip, a place that normally never bothers me. I dropped down to the 12 kg bell to finish the last few rounds and the pain in my hip went away. I am convinced that if I was using the 24 kg bell I may have had an unnecessary training injury.
Training - 1/1 Tues- Pull day
24 minutes kettlebell swings, 30 seconds on 30 seconds off
alternating rounds of 2H swing and 1H swing
2H swing - 18 kg bell for all but 3 rounds I used the 24 kg and 2 rounds with the 12 kg bell.
1H swing - alternated using the 16 and 18 kg bell with a few rounds with the 12 to back off.
post-workout stretches (only recently started doing this 3 days/week always after lifting)
2 10 breath wheel rollouts on the ball
2 10 breath hip rollouts on ball - just like when but ass on ball instead of back
2 10 breath seated twists
2 10 breath standing forward bends
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