WHAT IS A CHICK PEA?
BY MARK CLEM
I thought I was 210 lbs but on the Witch Doctor's (WD) scale, I'm 219. Once WD saw the weight, he whipped out my new diet for life.
I have no idea what a yam, sweet potato, lentil or chick pea look like, and I have no idea what quinoa is but I now know what they taste like … different!!! My kids eat this stuff all the time. Where have I been?
The good news is I can eat three meals a day plus snack two hours after each meal. The bad news is … well you can figure that one out.
Come hell or high water I am going to get under 200 lbs by the end of 10 weeks and lose another 15 lbs by the end of July.
During the second session there was a mix of exercises and continued assessment. WD punched me and bent me like a pretzel as standard prep to allow me to get through the session. WD introduces each exercise and makes it look so easy, then I try it and I am sure the gym gods breakout in laughter.
WD looks around the gym and creates some slight modification so I can do the exercise and have it hurt just as much as the standard way. I started swearing uncontrollably after five modified push ups.
I thought my upper leg muscles, front and back, were in good shape after the bike trip from hell last summer, all the tennis I play and all the basketball games I referee. Not so. WD says my upper leg muscles are a "train wreck."
Next week he will focus on lower leg muscles, I can hardly wait. More swearing occurs during leg lunges that I lost count once and had to start over.
As I am leaving WD tells me my thighs, which I can't feel, will hurt the next day — and really hurt the following day, which is when I am next back. That's if I can work the pedals on the car.
GETTING THE BALL ROLLING
BY MARK YOUNG
When Mark showed up for his first official workout, he was already down 1.5 pounds! Cutting out the OJ and the increased meal frequency has already started to work its magic. Obviously he was fired up now so we got right down to business.
Here’s how the day played out:
Global Warm Up: 5 minute light walk on treadmill to increase body temperature.
Foam Rolling: Foam rolling (otherwise known as self myofascial release) is becoming increasingly popular in the fitness world and is used primarily to break down restricted tissues in the body and allow for proper movement. Some might compare this to a deep tissue massage without the expense of paying $60 per hour.
In Mark’s case, we’ve found that he has a very rounded upper spine leading to a forward slouched position called kyphosis. Essentially, this makes his posture look a little bit like Quasimodo and puts his shoulders at risk for injury (hence the previous 3 shoulder sugeries). By foam rolling his upper spine we can regain some of the normal position and put his shoulders in a safer position for exercise and pain prevention.
We also foam rolled the sides and fronts of Mark’s legs with our softest roller which left him screaming and calling out for an epidural. Interestingly, when these muscles are not restricted this movement should be totally pain free, but when they are restricted, knee pain is usually present (note the previous 9 knee surgeries). In other words, knee pain doesn’t always come from the knees themselves and I think this is definitely the case for Mark.
Dynamic Mobility Work: Without going into too much detail, dynamic mobility work is rapidly replacing static stretching as the number one choice for warm ups in the well read fitness community. In essence, the joints are taken smoothly and rhythmically through various positions to increase joint temperature, make muscles more flexible, and reduce injury risk.
They do this without the loss in strength that is common with static stretching. Mark’s drills were specifically chosen to address his tightest muscle groups…which were pretty much all of them.
Movement Prep: There is no doubt that you’ve seen Mark’s comments about being punched and twisted. So I feel some clarification is needed here so you don’t think I’m totally nuts (since I am only marginally nuts and that just isn’t fair).
Essentially, when Mark first walked in the door he could barely put his arms over his head. However, what I’ve discovered is that in that case the deltoid (shoulder muscle) is often tight and pulls the head of the humerus (upper arm bone) up into the shoulder socket preventing motion.
By banging lightly on the shoulder muscle for about a minute with the meaty part of the hand, you can release this tension and restore motion. If it helps, think of “The Thumper” back massager and you should get the idea of what that feels like. After only 60 seconds, Mark could easily reach overhead with little pain.
Mark’s left glute also proved to be weak in a series of muscle tests and since weak glutes are often related to lower back pain (remember that back pain reduction is one of Mark’s goals) we decided to address this issue. After trying an exercise to strengthen the muscle is still proved to be week so we tried two other little “tricks” to get it firing again.
So, in Mark’s words, we “twisted the leg like a pretzel” to stretch his piriformis and “tugged on his leg” to allow for some traction on his lower spine and the muscle tested strong. As it turned out, the nerve was restricted somewhere between the spine and the glute and with a couple of minutes we’ve got Mark back in full working order and ready to train.
With repeated stretching and proper exercise programming these alterations should become permanent and Mark will be able to keep everything firing at top speed with little effort.
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