Toned? You bet I am!
most people use the word toned in the same way as 'buff'.
i'm not talking about that of course!
you know the feeling when you get out of the car after driving for 4+ hours and your back aches and you feel tight all the way down the back of your legs/hammies to the soles of your feet?
well thats how i've felt over the last week (since lamington).
you know youre in trouble when you start your run and the hammie starts to seize up in the first km doing 5.30min/kms.
and in even more trouble when the muscles just start 'firing' of their own accord even laying in bed!
my muscles are waaaaaaaaaay too narky - the muscle tone is too damn high.
after 6 years of med school, 11 as a doctor and more importantly tens of thousands of dollars in physio and massage fees over the years i think i finally know the secret to reducing muscle tone.
1. muscles need exercise - sounds counter-intuitive but when youre injured the worst thing to do is do nothing as your tone just 'goes nuts'. regular gentle exercise seems to keep the tone down. of course if you have an inflammed itb thats impossible!
2. massage - and lots of it. via the massage dude, tennis ball and muscle mate. with 'neural' things eg my current sciatic symptoms start at the top (back) and work down (glute/piriformis then hammies then calves).
3. stretch LESS - when things are really narky stretching can do more harm that good. you'll know this if you try and strecth and its much harder than usual for things to let go. try again 10mins later and if things are even tighter then stop!!
obviously massage can help let go of a lot of tension and allow you to stretch again gently. then when the muscles are more relaxed go nuts!! have done more piriformis stretches this week and added in a glute stretch.
4. drugs eg.valium - but lets not go there.
in view of this i set a PW for my 14km run this week - 77mins.
took about 7km for the hammie to warm up then 2km later it just felt tired.
broke rule number 1 and had 3 days off (fri-sun).
was supposed to have a gentle ride on at least 1 day but that didnt happen due to work adn laziness.
went to coot-tha today and did a jen_runs run in 1.45.
the sciatic nerve stuff felt much better but my right meniscus is aching more than usual so i may do an 'extreme' taper before bright 4 peaks and simply not run for the next 10 days.
just some gentle bike work and lots of time sitting on the muscle mate.
and everything will settle :)
ps 2p i tied your 'shower challenge' and the montane gear passed with flying colours :)
i'm not talking about that of course!
you know the feeling when you get out of the car after driving for 4+ hours and your back aches and you feel tight all the way down the back of your legs/hammies to the soles of your feet?
well thats how i've felt over the last week (since lamington).
you know youre in trouble when you start your run and the hammie starts to seize up in the first km doing 5.30min/kms.
and in even more trouble when the muscles just start 'firing' of their own accord even laying in bed!
my muscles are waaaaaaaaaay too narky - the muscle tone is too damn high.
after 6 years of med school, 11 as a doctor and more importantly tens of thousands of dollars in physio and massage fees over the years i think i finally know the secret to reducing muscle tone.
1. muscles need exercise - sounds counter-intuitive but when youre injured the worst thing to do is do nothing as your tone just 'goes nuts'. regular gentle exercise seems to keep the tone down. of course if you have an inflammed itb thats impossible!
2. massage - and lots of it. via the massage dude, tennis ball and muscle mate. with 'neural' things eg my current sciatic symptoms start at the top (back) and work down (glute/piriformis then hammies then calves).
3. stretch LESS - when things are really narky stretching can do more harm that good. you'll know this if you try and strecth and its much harder than usual for things to let go. try again 10mins later and if things are even tighter then stop!!
obviously massage can help let go of a lot of tension and allow you to stretch again gently. then when the muscles are more relaxed go nuts!! have done more piriformis stretches this week and added in a glute stretch.
4. drugs eg.valium - but lets not go there.
in view of this i set a PW for my 14km run this week - 77mins.
took about 7km for the hammie to warm up then 2km later it just felt tired.
broke rule number 1 and had 3 days off (fri-sun).
was supposed to have a gentle ride on at least 1 day but that didnt happen due to work adn laziness.
went to coot-tha today and did a jen_runs run in 1.45.
the sciatic nerve stuff felt much better but my right meniscus is aching more than usual so i may do an 'extreme' taper before bright 4 peaks and simply not run for the next 10 days.
just some gentle bike work and lots of time sitting on the muscle mate.
and everything will settle :)
ps 2p i tied your 'shower challenge' and the montane gear passed with flying colours :)
posted by undercover brother at 4:44 PM
5 Comments:
No running for ten days. That's what I call extreme resting. Hope it works though.
standing in the shower with gear on is just odd. I reckon when it rains we should nude up.
Tim has a point - unfortunately nature doesn't have an inbuilt hot water system (well as far as rain is concerned).
You sayin I'm fat ;)
Timely reminder to keep exercising. I needed that, cheers. Will get back to it as soon as I get rid of this effing cough!
A jen_runs run - I've never had a run named after me before. Kewl!
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