Why not post about my keister?

[vicarz]

As it’s now warm and sometimes even uncomfortably so, I’ve started making cold/room temp brew coffee. I leave it out 36-48 hours, and have experimented with same-as-regular mix vs. double the water. I’m not sure I’m getting the same caffeine from my cold brew - particularly when it’s made with less coffee overall. I tend to think it’s a tad bitter - but it’s so smooth and not-bitter to start with that I forget to put sugar in it. Really driving the point home was a desperate run to starbucks last week where I got an iced coffee like normal people drink...holy god that swill was bad. I think it was so burnt I sort of enjoyed the pain in my nose like from straight liquor.

I’m excited about my ass! This past week in the gym I did 280 for a good deep ass to grass squat for 5 reps, which per my internet masters compute to a 1-time lift of 315. My old max was 315, but I think when I did that weight I was doing it “to parallel,” though looking back I’m not sure I was fully parallel. This may mean that despite my glute injury I have compensated and worked so much I’m stronger now - even with a physical defect.

More exciting mybutt news though was last night, when I was doing my roller work while watching mythbusters. Did I mention Kari in a skeleton bathing suit, or that she only weighed...maybe she’s short but 127 in a full racecar suit seems mighty tiny. I digress - so I have this stupid way-deep stabbing pain in my right butt that I can’t seem to really replicate except when I do heavy deep squats or deadlifts. Last night for the first time I may have found the problem - in a different place. I have no problems high on the hip, but rolling last night I found a tense and sensitive area on the right outside part of the glute. I've been doing all this roller work to increase external rotation, and try to access the muscle tissue deep in the glute (yeah baby) where I feel the pain (yeah baby). I am SO HOPING that is the location of the soft tissue damage - not where I feel it, but it would totally make sense that if I have an unhealed tear in the upper muscle, that the piriformus is kicking in to compensate! It's tiny so the load could make it and me scream in pain as it exceeds it's ability. That could mean with roller, stretching, and focused strength work I could finally recover from this debilitating (and stupid) injury! I could return and pass the 315 squat, the 405 DL, and get back to setting new goals and personal bests.

To me this stuff is interesting. I live with no illusions that others would or should.

Comments

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

The details about the roller work make my stomach lurch. Maybe my sister-in-law is right when she suggests I'm afraid of pain.

How much time do you spend in a week on your body, including stuff like rolling in front the TV (not including stuff like plucking your eyebrows)?

[vicar.livejournal.com]

That's funny - I'm not sure. The gym is about 1.5 hours 4 times a week so 6 hours, but I also watch what I eat, study some on the internet, and travel to get to the gym in the first place. I might roll 30 more minutes a day.

I'm not into pain, though in some areas it is reinforcing. Here I associate it with success and strength. I don't think anyone starts with a pain tolerance, but we all take some pain for things we enjoy.

Rollers don't usually hurt - I kind of push really hard though, and use spikey ones and even hard ones on occasion. I'm taking pain to avoid pain later.

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

Every roller I've used has been damn fucking painful.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

The areas on which I roll didn't used to hurt - I used it to loosen up my back which was no pain and 100% gift. Now I find if I roll a tight area it hurts at first, but then over time gets easier and hurts less. Like many things when you get used to it then it no longer hurts - also you may appreciate the benefits for a long time afterwards. The thing is addictive. There could just be something wrong with me...

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

I certainly have an addictive personality but the addiction has to, like, kinda easy? Or like REALLY POWERFULLY addictive, like smoking. I kept smoking even though it sucked at first because, hey, nicotine (and the adrenaline rush of sneaking around, etc). Rolling my IT band is some of the worst pain I've experienced in my life and I can't stick with it long enough to a) get used to the pain, b) start loving the pain (maybe if I could combine it with sex somehow...?) or c) see any of the benefits. It's also "good" for me. I like getting addicted to/obsessed with things that are unequivocally "bad." (thankfully there are some exceptions to this or else I wouldn't be my privileged self)

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Find a way to measure progress - until I roll the internal and external leg, I have no external rotation at all so I can see results fast. Roll the thing for your back - nobody I know reports that hurting, but it's like a free massage.

Not much useful starts off getting you high or effortless at first.

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

Explain more in detail rolling for the back.

Can I start calling you something like Captain Obvious? I don't want to use Captain Obvious because that was what once upon a time what friends and I called this socially inept but brilliant dude we all knew. Maybe something about you being a lawyer and thinking you know everything. SMILEY FACE

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

FUCKING TYPOS

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I don't fix all mine (edit)

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Why yes you can totally keep mocking me freely! I encourage it (both sarcastically and fo'reels). Oh my reflexive confidence in what I know is only tempered by frequently being flagrantly wrong. I probably can't be captain obvious because a) that's a current ad campaign, b) I'm not brilliant, just socially inept!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQiwoJ-IESQ
Starts with back and then goes to things that might hurt like it band.

I do my back a bit more:
1. Roll middle back - just lay on the damn thing in the lumbar region, fold your arms in front of you like you're cold or grumpy, and just roll on the thing from the top of your butt to the bottom of your shoulders.
2. Same thing, but tilt slightly to the side to roll out the muscles on each side (I usually do like 5 up and down on one side, then the other).
3. Fun - same as 1 but hold a knee up to your chest (lazily unless you're really flexible). The balance to get back is weird and might require letting the leg go or kicking, but for some reason when I do this I can get my back to crack and it's awesome.

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This is a great help.

Sounds like I need to invest in a roller.