Tongue Tyed: May 17, 2006

May 17, 2006

Clerks II

Internet-only trailer for Clerks II...not sure when it starts...the site says July 21, 2006 but the trailer says August 18th...but I will probably see it either way...

posted by Ty @ 5/17/2006 | 0 comments

Being Trained

I still owe one of my readers a summary of what my trainer is having me do at the gym. I am probably too late, but Russell had asked me to give him some suggestions for training a female friend back when I wrote my first post about getting a trainer. Russell, I have not forgotten. Let me see if I can explain some of what we do. As there are a lot of different exercises, I will write about them in a series of different posts. I hope this isn't too boring for you all! It's a good way for me to process everything I am learning though. Who knows, maybe you will want to give one or two of these exercises a try!

First though, remember that my trainer is focusing on the muscles I use for volleyball. Shoulders, back, sides, chest and some legs (but my legs are in decent shape compared to my upper body). But I have been doing a lot of core workouts as well. Also, I am in no way a trainer, so please be careful and do some additional research before you try anything I mention because I don't want you to get hurt!! I am just passing on anecdotal experience here. Also, I have no idea what different muscles are called or for that matter, what many of the exercises are called, so I will do my best to describe them.

The very first thing my trainer(s) (each one of them did this again...and I am on my third) is a squat test. They had me squat over and over holding a wooden bar over my head with my hands just past shoulders' width apart and watched. They looked for a lot of things, but honestly, I can only tell you the problems they found with me. They found that I was leaning to the right at my hip flexor as I would squat, and that my feet pointed out (instead of straight ahead) and my knees went in. Apparently, other people do things like push the bar/their arms forward as they squat or turn their knees outward. The solution is to use a foam roller and roll out your muscles before every workout. This site shows most (and a couple more) of the stretches my trainer has me do. You roll out each muscle until you find a painful spot. Not childbirth painful or anything, just discomfort. Then you rest on that spot and wait a few seconds. You roll again, and rest again on the spot until it lessens. Then you move onto the next muscle. The first few times you do this, you might be a little sore. I expect that it is because you are realigning your musculature and skeletal structure by doing this. Over time though, it just feels good. Sort of like a massage. (A deep tissue massage on the tight spots!!) Here is a good description of why you should use a foam roller. It's a little salesman-like, but it's pretty much exactly what the trainers all told me, so read away. And by the way, I don't tilt to one side, or throw my feet out, or throw my knees in much at all anymore. It really works!

I'll post about Core exercises next time...

posted by Ty @ 5/17/2006 | 0 comments

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